GPS on phones...

hjb123

We are looking at get a new phone (well my Dad is anyway) and he is looking at either the JCB phone, Land Rover phone or the Samsung B2100 (new out), all of which are supposed to be indistructible and waterproof etc


We were just wondering about the GPS on phones, I believe the JCB phone has GPS...but does this work without any subscriptions (I realise about line rental, calls and texts etc but wasnt sure whether you paid extra for GPS services)

Thanks

Jon_01

GPS is free in its self. If you use google maps (for example) you'll pay for the data download of the maps info from google.

hjb123

right, thanks for that

yeah, we just couldnt decide whether the gps on the phone would be sufficient or whether you had to add services or pay any extra or whether you just pay once for your phone (or your monthly line rental)

so would the gps that comes on the phones be quite good or are they quite basic?

sorry quite knew to the gps on phones - my dad already has one of those handheld garmin gps systems but he thought it might be useful if a phone did that too, its just knowing how accurate they are on phones:D

debsy42

I have GPS on my iphone and it's great enough for my needs. I use google maps and it pinpoints my location and I can ask directions. Great for when I got stuck on the M1 last week and wanted an alternative route. The locater moves as you are travelling so it's really easy to see if you've gone the wrong direction. The only downside (and I don't know if it's just cos the iphone has a crap battery) is that it eats up the battery so might be worthwhile having a car charger as well.

Jon_01

I believe they claim to be accurate to about 3 meters. All depends on how many satellites you can get a fix on. The more the devise can find the better the fix.

hjb123

so if he uses google maps does it cost much?

sorry for all the questions:D dont want him to pay out and then not be happy with it:D

debsy42

I have a bolt-on with O2 for internet access so it doesn't cost me anything to use it. The app itself either came with the phone or was free. If he doesn't have internet access with the phone it will cost for the amount he's using and can be quite expensive if he's hammering it. I think the phone companies work the charge out by the amount of data used (and there it gets a bit technical for me lol)

Jon_01

hjb123 wrote: »

so if he uses google maps does it cost much?

sorry for all the questions:D dont want him to pay out and then not be happy with it:D

Depends on if he has an internet bundle on his acc (as stated above).

The amount of data will depend on the size of the map that has to be downloaded.

If you drive 5 miles to the next town, not a lot. If you drive from Bristol to North Scotland a HECK of a lot. . .

buglawton

See if Yahoo Go! is installable on the phone (as on any Nokia with Symbian). This offers very convenient mapping as-you-walk for free - apart from the above mentioned potential data fees as portions of maps are downloaded while you move.

Yahoo Go also offers a bundle of other easy to use apps e.g. email and speech recognition search for local businesses.

Stageshoot

Google Maps images are very highly compressed.

If you use them alot (I am on 3 and have mine on all the time I am in my car), for about each 100 miles drive it uses about 5mb of data (Thats google maps and uploading tracking data back to a web site)

Phone is a HTC Hero (Android Phone) , so there are always data packets going back and forward for other things like email facebook etc etc, but would say 90% of the traffic is google maps.

So depends how much you pay for data (3 give a so called unlimited bundle for £5 a month, although it really is about 3gb max). But to be honest I have never really come anywhere near that even using the phone as a wifi modem for my laptop.

so if you are paying 30p a Mb it can get expensive, but if you have any sort of data bundle it can be economical.

you can of course get proper sat nav programs for a lot of phones that have the map on a memory card so not accessing data all the while, not sure of the phones you listed but the iphone and hero can, although neither of them are what you would call indestrucible phones!

hjb123

ah right, thanks for all the help

personally I wouldnt go for the GPS but it was one of the features on the JCB phone that seemed to be drawing him to that phone but I think hes better off just getting the Samsung which I saw in the Orange shop the other day, free phone, £9.79 per month which includes 100 mins and 300 texts and no internet usage allowance as he would never use it