GPS for your car. Who has them??

[944play]

I think the minimum buy in for a GPS enabled phone is about $2250 for 2 years.

My Boost i335 has a GPS - no turn-by-turn, though.

It was only $60 and no contract, though you do have to pay $20 every 90 days to keep it live. Data is unlimited and free, and I can tether to my laptop (but it is about 19kbps...).

 

[humann_brewing]

Special hops, I have Sprint and pay 69 bucks for unlimited everything. That includes data, and cell to cell minutes (to any carrier). The only minutes I get billed for are to landlines. That's 10 dollars less than my old sprint plan to my old non smartphone, that had limited voce and data. I didn't plan on going smartphone either, but when my old cell died, it turns out that there's really not many "normal cellphones" left out there. Everything's g-3 or g-4. even the loss leader cheapo phone the hand out free to.

And with the smartphone, besides having gps/nav software, you can run brewing apps, AND even surf HBT from the toilet if you are so inclined.

sprint doesn't have the droid do they? Do you mean you have a phone with the android OS on it?

 

[klyph]

They have several phones which run the Android OS.

http://now.sprint.com/android/

 

[Revvy]

sprint doesn't have the droid do they? Do you mean you have a phone with the android OS on it?

I don't get the distinction. Sprint has several droid phones. The moment, which I have, the Hero, the epic, and the Evo which just dropped June 6th. They call them droid phones.

 

[olllllo]

Droid is by Motorola which run s the Android OS
Other Phones run the Android OS but are not (should not) be called Droid.

 

[klyph]

People often confuse the Android operating system with the Motorola Droid model phone.

I have an old HTC G1 (the first Android phone), and people ask me if it's a "droid phone". I think the confusion stems from verizon/motorola marketing the droid phone, "droid does" and people not understanding the difference between the hardware and the software. The similarity of the name also contributes.

It would be like if someone made a popular computer called the window that ran windows. People would ask if you had a windows computer, and they might not be asking what you thought they were.

 

[olllllo]

My Boost i335 has a GPS - no turn-by-turn, though.

It was only $60 and no contract, though you do have to pay $20 every 90 days to keep it live. Data is unlimited and free, and I can tether to my laptop (but it is about 19kbps...).

That's kind of apples to some other fruit. I could throw in my Forerunner 305 into the mix.

 

[Revvy]

Seems to me that any phone running googles proprietary android software would be called a droid phone, just like most folks just call their pc's "windows machines." regardless of whether it's a dell, or an hp or whatever companie's machine

Seems like semantics to me.

 

[olllllo]

People often confuse the Android operating system with the Motorola Droid model phone.

I have an old HTC G1 (the first Android phone), and people ask me if it's a "droid phone". I think the confusion stems from verizon/motorola marketing the droid phone, "droid does" and people not understanding the difference between the hardware and the software. The similarity of the name also contributes.

It would be like if someone made a popular computer called the window that ran windows. People would ask if you had a windows computer, and they might not be asking what you thought they were.

Yea. And somehow Spielberg got a chunk of change out of the whole Droid deal. Who knew!

 

[olllllo]

Belay that. Verizon owns the DROID moniker, not motorola. Hence, the Droid HTC Incredible.

 

[Reelale]

My Boost i335 has a GPS - no turn-by-turn, though.

It was only $60 and no contract, though you do have to pay $20 every 90 days to keep it live. Data is unlimited and free, and I can tether to my laptop (but it is about 19kbps...).

Are minutes included also?

That's kind of apples to some other fruit. I could throw in my Forerunner 305 into the mix.

Is that a real phone or were you just making a funny? I'm seriously interested in a pay-as-you-go plan with the interwebz access. We just don't use enough minutes to justify another contract.

 

[klyph]

Seems to me that any phone running googles proprietary android software would be called a droid phone, just like most folks just call their pc's "windows machines." regardless of whether it's a dell, or an hp or whatever companie's machine

Seems like semantics to me.

Well, they're all "Android phones". The "Droid" brand name is licensed to Lucasfilm, and Motorola pays to use the name.

 

[olllllo]

Are minutes included also?





Is that a real phone or were you just making a funny? I'm seriously interested in a pay-as-you-go plan with the interwebz access. We just don't use enough minutes to justify another contract.

Joking. Yes, a little bit. I guess some people don't consider it navigation without turn-by-turn.

 

[Reelale]

Joking. Yes, a little bit. I guess some people don't consider it navigation without turn-by-turn.

But it is a real phone, with interwebz access? I don't need turn-by-turn, I can figure which way is north.

 

[olllllo]

The Forerunner 305 is a GPS enabled runner's wristwatch.

 

[Reelale]

Oh, never mind then. I never run where I need a GPS

 

[Schlenkerla]

Whoa, like i said I'm a droid newb, you gotta link to the Jabra doohickey, sounds like the perfect thing for my new car.

I love this thing.

http://www.jabra.com/Sites/Jabra/na-us/Headsets/Pages/JabraCRUISER.aspx

 

[944play]

That's kind of apples to some other fruit.

Yeah, I know, it's the very incarnation of compromise. I have an iPod Touch for the appley things. Speaking of other fruit, word is there are iDEN Blackberries that work on Boost....

Are minutes included also?

No, and text messages are a dime per, but since I use close to zero talk time it ends up being about $15/month. There's also a $50/month unlimited option. This is my only phone.

But it is a real phone, with interwebz access? I don't need turn-by-turn, I can figure which way is north.

It (i335) is a real phone with 1.5" 128x128 screen. Not a practical in-car nav, I just had to assert that they make, in the most generous sense, GPS-enabled phones for poor people.

 

[Beernik]

One big drawback of smartphone gps: when you drive out of your network, you lose your gps. You don't have that problem with a garmin.

 

[ChshreCat]

I've never driven out of my network for more than a minute or so, but I have AT&T.

 

[Beernik]

I also have AT&T. They cover 1/4 of utah really well and 1/4 not at all. The other 1/2, sometimes you can call and sometimes only enough signal to text. And you can never be sure in that area where you will be able to stream data to the gps.

Since I average at least one 250 - 350 mile roundtrip drive a week, I'm usually in a no coverage area for part of the drive.

The feature I really like about the garmin is the ETA. That and it instantly recalculated my route if I venture off the path it calculated.

 

[klyph]

One big drawback of smartphone gps: when you drive out of your network, you lose your gps. You don't have that problem with a garmin.

Not true, you lose your google maps overlay, but if you are running an app with onboard maps, you can still get a GPS fix. And in areas where you'll be using google maps turn by turn, you're extremely likely to have some cell signal.

 

[olllllo]

One thing that bugs the **** out of my about my garmin is the inability for it to reset the clock to whatever timezone I am in.

I mean those are geographically determined!!! It knows where I am!!! Figure it out Garmin!

 

[Beernik]

Not true, you lose your google maps overlay, but if you are running an app with onboard maps, you can still get a GPS fix. And in areas where you'll be using google maps turn by turn, you're extremely likely to have some cell signal.

Sometimes on the iPhone.

Sometimes I have enough signal to track my position but not update my map and I drive off the screen. When I pan, I get a grey screen and a dot that shows my position.

Sometimes it freaks and just shows my position where I lost the data signal, like 50 miles away, even though I can still make some phone calls.

Some of my drives, however, I've got nothing, no signal of any kind for 90 minutes.

 

[ChshreCat]

Sometimes on the iPhone.

Sometimes I have enough signal to track my position but not update my map and I drive off the screen. When I pan, I get a grey screen and a dot that shows my position.

Sometimes it freaks and just shows my position where I lost the data signal, like 50 miles away, even though I can still make some phone calls.

Some of my drives, however, I've got nothing, no signal of any kind for 90 minutes.

You're holding it wrong. Steve Jobs said so.

 

[beerjunky828]

I don't think that I am going to be doing too much long distance traveling. So for now, a Droid phone seems like the best option. I know that a data plan + phone will cost more than a GPS system over time. But I would use the phone a lot more.