ModelCitizen wrote: > > > > > The only way a smart phone will destroy your experience of being outside > is if you let it, actually not even if you let it... if you make it so.I > couldn't agree more!
I have similar uses for my smartphone - except I don't have so many specialist apps. My phone has limited storage so I keep my apps to the minimum but do use internet for things like bird recognition (RSPB). I wouldn't be without the phone in the outdoors but it's not for the traditional reasons. I walk anything from 30 to 60 miles a week with my dog and use the GPS in the phone to track our distances. I have a couple of walking apps which show both the sublime and the ridiculous. One is called "My Tracks", whcih is a Google linked app and came pre-loaded on the phone. It does not have OS mapping but has a very simple road map style that has no terrain detail (well, no detail at all actually) but you can easily upload your walk to Google maps. However, it is not accurate - and you can see it zig-zagging all over the place as you traverse your route. My lady has the same on her phone and we did a test. Over a short distance we both used the app and then compared notes afterwards - mine stated I had done 4 miles whilst hers stated 2.5!!! Now the second app is rather different in pretty much every way to that. It is called MM Tracker and uses Memory Map .qct mapping. It has full functionality of that of a dedicated GPS and has the full OS map with all the required detail. It has proven to be (I'd hesitate to claim any GPS was 100% accurate) highly trustworthy, both in current location and distance travelled. When you compare the monthly charge of £8, the free Smartphone and the cost of the app (£5 or 6), it is a pretty useful tool. I would stress that I can map-read and use a compass and don't use the app for route finding, as such. Where it is useful when you are in the mountains, is when a top has lots of knobbly lumps and the actual summit is unclear - the GPS can show you which it is. Otherwise, I just use it to track our daily walk distance and for that it is brilliant. I do have other outdoor apps for weather (again, very helpful as a GUIDE and not to be taken seriously) and various one relating to British hills and mountains. Other than that, a couple of music ones - Shazam and Soundhound (which must be familiar here) and a brilliant one called "TuneIn Radio" which gives me pretty much any radio station available on the internet. I find the idea that a phone and the outdoors are incompatible with experiencing peace, solitude or wilderness. My phone is used as a backup and a backup only when I am in the mountains. I don't think about it as a phone but it's there if I wanted to use it in an emergency (notwithstanding the unreliable signal). Even the most careful and experienced mountain people step on a boulder and break an ankle. That said, responsible us of the phone is paramount when using it outdoors. I have seen many cases of idiots going ill-prepared and ill-equipped who call mountain rescue because they are tired or because they are lost, often when their mobile phone has no signal or because they are using road-style GPS, or even because they don't know how to use it. There is also an etiquette issue - I would not allow myself to get to a top and then call the missus and say "you'll never guess where I am!" at the top of my voice. I also would not want to listen to music in the outdoors, even though I have some uploaded to the phone. I prefer the sounds of the countryside to music and much prefer to hear the wind in the grass, the bleat of distant sheep and the odd raven or buzzard. If you want to ensure that the phone remains unobtrusive outdoors, there is a very simple method to ensure that remains so - don't give people your number! My mobile is known by my garage, doctor and dentist, none of whom phone me but just text messages). Other than that it's one mate and my missus and that's it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ StridingEdge's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=57498 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96877
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