> I don't argue with people about the value of a GPS vs using your
 > phone anymore, it's a religion and religious arguments never seem to
 > come to any good.

Right-o.

 > I have a Garmin GPS & a Rand-McNally road atlas, my phone can do it
 > too if all else fails but it is the phone. The GPS was around $100 (3
 > years ago), the atlas was $6 or $7.

A perfectly fine solution unless you're wanting backcountry details like
USDA Forestry Service or BLM roads, or topographic maps. I looked and
looked, and only found some very expensive GPSs marketed to forest
workers and the like.

Few of the common units allow a fellow to input latitude/longitude for
destination. I've found a number of great places to camp hereabouts from
other folk who have provided co�rdinates only. For example,
43.770373,-120.967342 is a spot where my son and I camp every spring. If
you can plug that into your city-slicker GPS and have it show you nearby
Sand Springs Road/NF-23 then you got a good one.

<https://maps.google.com/?ll=43.770373,-120.967342&spn=0.001631,0.003138&t=h&z=18>
will open the spot in Google Maps.

Admittedly, there probably aren't many folk here who care much about
things like this. So what I'm saying it that Rob is right: for
general-purpose street address-driven navigation, Garmin and Magellan
and the others make fine units.

--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
Bend, Ore.

On 10/30/2012 12:18 PM, Rob wrote:
> At 10/30/2012 11:46 AM, Loren Busch wrote:
>> RE: GPS in Smart Phones
>
> I don't argue with people about the value of a GPS vs using your
> phone anymore, it's a religion and religious arguments never seem to
> come to any good.
>
> I have a Garmin GPS & a Rand-McNally road atlas, my phone can do it
> too if all else fails but it is the phone. The GPS was around $100 (3
> years ago), the atlas was $6 or $7.
>
> Toss the atlas in the back of your Vanagon and it will be there when
> you need it.
>
>
>
>
>
> Rob
>
> vwrobb@gmail.com
> Still in western Washington State, USA