Hiring Satnav from Ebay for USA Holiday

tingtong

We are currently in Santa Monica and the Co Pilot USA app works fine. Well worth the £3. One useful thing on it, the Live traffic will update over wifi so if you plan your route just before leaving your hotel (assuming you have wifi) it will show any traffic jams etc.

For example, it is showing bad traffic by LAX this morning, which is no surprise really.

lynzpower

One concern is that I will be out of signal area- some of it will be ""back rds" as opposed to interstates. Sometimes my mobile loses reception in the Uk.... ??

M4RKM

GPS uses a line of sight with the sky. It has nothing to do with whether your phone has a cell signal or not. I doubt that a back road will be out of sight of the sky, but a multistory / underground car park would be, and that's the only time I know I lose my GPS signal. I drive a lot for work, so use a GPS device daily.

This graphic displays the earth with all 18 satellites rotating around etc, so you can see why you can't really lose a signal of GPS. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ConstellationGPS.gif

As the maps are on the device, (no connection to the internet needed) and the device is using satellites in the sky (again, no internet connection needed), you can actually have the mobile on silent, as no Cell connection is ever needed.

M

lynzpower

Mark thats brilliant. I know this sounds like a daft question. But if i downloaded it now, how could I test it actually worked before I get there in June?

M4RKM

not really, on the basis of that you're not in the USA, so the gps will pick you up wherever in London you are, and that ain't on the map.
The UK version is something like £20, and just to test something would be kinda pointless IMO.

Think of it this way. If it doesn't work (and we know it does, because of other people saying it's good), then come back, blame me entirely, but you also know that a walmart will have a sat nav for around the same cost as you were going to splash out on renting one. (then sell it back in the UK, making a few quid loss!)

Joking aside, I'm sure you'll be fine with the iPhone as your sat nav. Also, if you think you want to use some data, calls and texts while abroad, have a read of my guide to using an iPhone in the USA - https://www.m4rkm.com/iphone - Can you tell i'm a geek?

lynzpower

Thanks Mark, Ive decided I will definately give it a try. I suppose the tightwad in me didnt want to spend 3 quid just in case!

I dont suppose there is any way to import locations from googlemaps into the app? I have saved a number of locations to googlemaps. If I bought a sat nav there I can find a way of downloading the locations to it with a USB? Is there any way I could do the same with the app ?

thanks for your help, Im a geek in my own way too! but a luddite really in the world of tech

M4RKM

I don't think there would be from google maps, but what you could try, is creating a contact in your addressbook on the phone, and the app may access that for you to be able to navigate to it.

If that works, then you can sit at your computer and put all your contact in a group, and synchronise your phone again, and they'll appear on your phone, plus in the sat nav app.

I am just guessing there btw.

M

lynzpower

Hi Mark, Im goin to go ahead and download it today and have a little play around, thanks for all your help x

stoneman

I have the iPhone co pilot for US and it works a treat. Don't know how they do it for under £3

gordikin

I find Navfree UK (iphone 3) quite good... You could give that a whirl, I am sure there is a US version.