Good day all.
I have a used cell phone sitting about. Samsung J3 and works just fine. Has the built in GPS feature and was looking at possibly getting a few apps to turn it into a handheld GPS. Toms Hardware notes a few apps that cost between 15 and 30 dollars.

has anyone done this and how does it work? figure for trails around the lease I could use it no problem. I have mounted marine grade USB ports on my ATV to ensure being able to keep the phone and other items charged.

thanks!
D

 

From what little I've read about it, it sounds like a GPS is a better GPS than a phone is. Whether you use a phone or GPS, you should carry a compass too. You don't want to get lost if there's a solar flare interrupting the signals. One time a woman in a minivan followed her GPS right on to some railroad tracks and got stuck. She was barely able to get her kids out before a train turned her minivan into scrap metal.

 

a gps is a better option. i ride with someone that uses their phone as a gps and on a few occasion it has showed us on a completely different trail/area that my gps did. If we would have followed it we would have been noware close to where we were going.

 

Zrock can you tell me what app or software they were using?

as a back up I am looking at a garmin etrex 10 or 20 depending on the deal I can find.

thanks!
D

 

iv tryed a few with the last one being from backroad maps. They will work but they are not the most accurate when your out in nature.But it will also get you in and out The cell phone gps works much better in a populated area and i use mine quite a bit for that.

 

I think that says more about the woman's lack of intelligence than anything. Blindly following GPS when there is no road there is just dumb. I saw a story not long ago about a truck driver that ended up getting his truck stuck on a pedestrian bridge because GPS told him to go that way. He actually made it across another pedestrian bridge first. How either bridge didn't collapse from the weight is quite amazing. At some point you can't just blindly rely on technology, a little common sense goes a long way.

 

Space Weather Woman said basically the same thing in Popular Science magazine recently, but you have to remember that 50% of all people are below average intelligence. I like to think I'm in the upper 50% but who knows?

Dr. Tamitha Skov is a new kind of weather forecaster for our modern world. As we become more reliant on technology like our cell phones, GPS (GNSS), and other satellite services we find we are more susceptible to the effects of Space Weather. Just like terrestrial weather on Earth, Space Weather can be as mild as a rainstorm or as wild as a hurricane.

Let Tamitha show you in non-science jargon how this new kind of weather impacts your daily life. You will never look at the Sun or the Earth in the same way again. After all, Space Weather is just like the weather in your own backyard, it’s just a little further up.

Space Weather Woman ? Dr. Tamitha Skov ? Dr Tamitha Skov ? Heliospheric Physicist

 

I have been reaserching the same thing, it seems you need a phone with a dedicated GPS not a gps that runs off a cell tower. Check to see if your phone's gps will work when you do not have a cell signal. I have also read you need to download a map of the area you wish to travel before you get there and put it on a seperate sd xard for best performance. Otherwise the city maps try to overpower the off road patterns. This is based entirely on my reaserch and believw mw I am NO computor wiz!!