stang67 wrote:greenheadgrimreaper wrote:GPS'es are far and above more accurate, more reliable, more interactive, more applicable to outdoor activities than cell phones.
Respectfully, I don't find this to be the case at all, comparing an iPhone and a Garmin 60cs. Have handheld consumer units come that far in 5 years? I used to be quite "up on the times" with handhelds and was blown away when I saw what cell phones could do about 3 years ago. With Google maps showing ownership parcel boundaries on phones, the comparison is even more lopsided. Is there any way to get this data on a Garmin? Display resolution, time to acquire are other areas where my iphone is making my Garmin collect dust.
Now battery life is another issue entirely.
Yes they have, not in casual user terms, and not in terms of useless tools on the unit like calculators, wherigo, etc. But in terms of freeware/software development then yes, applications for handheld units are far more advanced in terms of map applications and especially data collection in gis applications. Also, the newer units, in terms of accuracy and signal gathering, are far better from 5 years ago. Technology in 5 years has increased at an increasing rate ( I know you know that, just saying), and GPS units are no exception. I know most folks will not use units for data collection, but if you were to look at a gps user's device and then at their waypoints, 95% or more of said waypoints are marked for spots that they already know how to get to. So that brings the question of why do most folks have a gps? Well for one, people like to know where they are at, and we are only a 50 years removed from crapping in a dirt hole, so we like electronics.
I would say I have over $100 worth of map/gps apps on my phone, not including the dozens of free apps, and I am not saying I don't use my phone when I am outdoors because I do- I did today. I kept hearing birds quacking in another area and used my phone's far superior imagery to get a fix on where they were at. But the hole they were in was one I already knew about and how to get to, I just needed to know if they were in that one or one of the half a dozen in the same proximity. If we are just riding in the boat, then I have my phone out using the imagery to look at spots we want to check or spots that I have been curious about, but I always have the tracking on my gps on so if we need to navigate back in there in the morning, I have a trail to backtrack on that I know is accurate when a couple feet could mean a minefield of cypress knees. But even so, most spots are preloaded from my computer, usually, and are almost always on my gps and in my mind from past visits. So how can one really justify needing an expensive GPS? Data applications and mapping. The raster imagery is the only strong point that a phone has over handheld units for now. But I am saying that will- and is- changing. In fact, I have a few spots that are tricky in the dark at 3 AM overlaid with birdseye imagery on my unit. That's really helpful when slipping in under a tom gobbler in the dark through a creek run infested swamp. If you know how, you can load almost any map onto a unit, in multiple layers. And knowing how will continually become easier and easier to do in the form of more user friendly software.
I said in an earlier post I loaded a landowners property onto my unit and marked his boundary for him. With WAAS capable units like mine enabled and a little time to soak you can get 5-6 foot accuracy and sometimes 3 foot, which is plenty enough to put up posted signs. Far more accurate than smartphones. One thing about smartphones is they are created to do everything, but that comes at a cost because they are a jack of all trades, master of none. The gps receivers in phones are smaller and weaker than stand alone units. There are some phones though that have attempted to address this. But that really doesn't matter to most gps users because they are using the gps to get to a spot they already know. For most users to gather a gps signal, a phone more than meets their needs, but I don't think it has been stressed enough how applicable GPS units can be to outdoorsmen and "data" gathering, and then transferring that data to a mapping program. So what I am saying is from blm.gov to gpsfiledepot.com, the mapping applications to stand alone units are far and above more numerous than on smartphones with greater accuracy.
Most all counties have or are building an online database for parcel and boundary maps. Here is a website with parcel maps for most counties:
http://tscmaps.com/ . You can load any of them to a unit with pinpoint accuracy that a phone simply will not give you when you want to know if that big buck you shot has fallen on yours or T Logan Russell's side of the property line.
Again, as of now, the smartphones have a superior advantage over standalone units and that is it, in terms of raster imagery. The standalone units have a far more superior edge in ruggedness, you don't get charged for service to get the feature of knowing where you are at, battery capability (in terms of staying in the field on camping/hiking trips) and mapping applications. As an aside, I am admitting to being biased because there are those of us in geomatics and land surveying and cartography who just flat out like to fool with this stuff. But there is a reason professionals from GIS to Geomatics to foresters are using standalone units and not cell phones in terms of the absolute advantage of applications and data gathering. I am not saying that in the future smartphones won't meet those negatives, but I am also not saying that handhelds won't either. What we will end up is what the surveying/geomatics/engineering community already has in a more affordable unit, and owning a unit like it will be just like my uncle owning a Garmin Montana and having nothing marked but his house and shed: it will be because we like gadgets.
Also, if you want to look at something other than a case for your phone check out liquipel, I hear it is legit. When I upgrade in March I am going to try it and see.
But in terms of striking out for a few days, or all day or making maps and layering them, and fiddling with the stuff, units are better. But if most folks don't think collecting "data" applies to them, then they are wrong. In terms of the outdoors a fellow can go and mark rubs, scrapes, trails, etc and then go back and plug the information in with notes, dates, etc and begin to really see the movements of deer in his hunting area. I have been doing the same thing with water levels and the movement of ducks in a swamp here near my home for a few years, and it has paid off since I have had a chance to put a few years worth of data onto a mapping program. That data, along with memory, has helped me put a pretty good thumb of where, when and what birds are going to do based on the watershed's river levels at my hunting grounds all the way to south of Carthage, which is almost 50 miles away. That, in a nutshell, is gis. A year and half's worth of the data was from a phone, but saving and transferring the GPX files was a pain in the ass, which goes back to units having an edge, for now and for the most part, over smartphones in applying the "data".
What's really fun, to me, is using USGS topo maps. I think the art and science of orienteering is dying, and that is sad because it is fun and engaging. Knowing how to fold a map, take it out and "thumb" it while listening to that gobbler going the other way and using the mao to decipher where he is headed adds an element to the outdoors that a cell phone and GPS won't give you. Plus it gives you the literal "big picture". I have topo maps of duck and especially turkey hunting grounds that read like an old friend with marks and information on them and on the back of them saying what I marked and why. Now, how do you get that ridge where he is roosted in terms of location, pinpointed onto a topo map? Orienteering. Map and compass, and GPS. GPS definitely makes it easier and I do that alot- mark spots, then transfer them to my topo, and when you get those spots onto a paper map you can really see what a critter is doing. But orienteering will teach you how to unfold a properly folded map and look at the UTM lines and read the GPS coordinates from the map in order to plug into your GPS. Is it crucial to know? Not right now. I hope the power never goes out because a few days of camping makes you appreciate Oreos and air conditioning, but if it did, it might be something valuable to know. But really, I don't "do" much else. I pick on a guitar once a month, I will go to a concert every now and then, maybe have a beer once in awhile every night after supper. But for the most part the outdoors is what I, like a lot of folks on here, "do" in life. And using a map and a compass is another element of the outdoors to learn about. I have never really understood how folks can go on a dove hunt once every few years, casually bass fish then deer hunt in the winter and say, " I don't 'do' that." The best thing about the outdoors is you can truly consume (and piss away) an entire lifetime learning and doing (and failing) and it doesn't take much money, contrary to our beliefs.
So what I am saying is GPSes have made my topo maps much more crowded with marked spots. And phones suck and GPS units don't. Except at ruining topo maps.
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