This is so cool - no maps!

Having grown up taking cross country trips and needing the Atlas with maps of all the states to be able to plan, go and actually reach your destination I found my preparations for this weekend's jaunt to New Orleans rather funny.

I was using Google maps to route myself - just in case I was in an area my smart phone didn't get service - cause we'd be in backwards Louisiana ya know, when I suddenly realized what I was doing and how different things had gotten in the last few years.

I really haven't had to prepare at all for trips since I got my smartphone. This is the sum extent of trip preparation I ever do and I only do this when I'm headed thru long strips of rural areas.

On the road I can get gas prices, see the next gas stations, find food - actually get to choose my food instead of just having to eat what was at the next exit, I can find lodging, check pricing on them and make my reservations all while on the road. And so much more.

I remember one trip where we were headed to Fla. and we looked for a room all the way to Tallahassee. Unfortunately we weren't headed to Tallahassee, but that's the way we were told to go if we wanted a room. There were no other hotels the direction we needed to travel.

Those of you who have been resisting smartphones are still living in the 20th century and don't even realize how much easier your life can be.

GET A SMARTPHONE AND GET ON FACEBOOK!

With FB we'll post pics of where we are, what we've done and chat with the kids and friends. Of course we could just call everyone and text pictures, but with FB it's easier because we get them all in one place and they can interact with each other as well as us.

Usually on a roadtrip, my "planned" route is made 15 minutes before heading out the door. And my iphone is a backup in case I need to change things up. Printing sup regs for a rally? Naw, just save it to the iphone. No stupid papers to carry, just pop the phone out when I need to get something figured.

Of course, what a lot of this does is enforce my nature of being a procrastinator. Oh well

carguy123 wrote: GET A SMARTPHONE

No.

I wouldn't use it for anything other than what I use my current phone for. And I'm not paying another 30 bucks a month for a data plan.

Besides, my current phone is indestructable.

Our iPhones have been a great asset on recent trips. Directions, Yelp for finding places with good reviews, and FB to keep friends and family posted on our experiences.

Agree 100%

Nice, but waaaaaaaaay too pricey for those data plans. Pass.

One trip's convenience and not having to eat at the Waffle House - AGAIN. Or not getting raped on gas prices is worth the price.

This IS the twenty first century you know.

You say pricey, but all I hear is "Get a horse!" You are that far out of date!

I get hours of my life back every day by having a smartphone. That's worth a LOT.

.. never could refold a map correctly n e way

carguy123 wrote: Or not getting raped on gas prices is worth the price. I get hours of my life back every day by having a smartphone. That's worth a LOT.

a) I doubt it

b) how many do you lose because you're fiddling with your phone?

I don't own a cel phone, let alone a smart phone, and I can go anywhere without getting lost.

My son can't find his way around the city he's lived near all his life without the aid of electronics, because he's never had to. He is the same as most young people I know. Lost without their phones.

I have a smartphone but I still like having an actual map with me. I navigate by having a layout of the area I'm in in my head and I can't get that by listening to a GPS tell me where to go. (Also, I hate following instructions! Especially from a robot!) For me, nothing beats having the top down schematic handy, even if I have to print it off from Google, which I frequently do. The screen on my phone is too small to give me the whole picture.

Also, it's still legal to pick up the map and look at it while navigating a busy highway at 140 km/h and eating pizza with the other hand. Not so much for a smartphone.

I have a smart phone, but only because it was a freebie from a friend of my sisters, and I have no data plan. It had lots of pictures of naked and unwholesome men in the storage, though, so I guess I get that as a consolation prize?

And no, $35->$75 per MONTH is not worth it for that trip I take every six months or so.

I started to rely on my iPhone 100% for navigation, but it usually has problems amongst skyscrapers, in remote areas and of course, when you have a split second to make a decision. (For example, it tells you to take exit #100, but the exit splits into two roads immediately and the phone "updating" or "rerouting" or something.) So I usually plan my trip online, work out the kinks, and have a paper backup of the directions just in case.

I heart my smart phone. It lets me keep up with scores of the soccer games at work.

I infinitely prefer my smartphone to a GPS. GPS and a smartphone are 2 different things and operate differently.

With the smartphone you have a map that you can move around, zoom in or (and here's the cool part) do searches on.

Can't find the street, store, restaurant, whatever? Just search and it will even give you a picture of the front of the building.

Maps and smartphones both have issues with that split second decision. That's why I printed some google maps. Google gives you pictures of the tricky intersections along with arrows.

My only issue is that my wife says my phone is smarter than me. (or is it I?) see what I mean.

I have a hard time getting a phone or GPS to tell me anything besides the quickest way from point A to point B.

Where's the fun in that?

And i LIKE Waffle House, dammit!

Grizz wrote:

carguy123 wrote: GET A SMARTPHONE

No. I wouldn't use it for anything other than what I use my current phone for. And I'm not paying another 30 bucks a month for a data plan. Besides, my current phone is indestructable.

That used to be my thinking until my wife got me a smartphone as a gift. I didn't text, I don't play with apps, heck I barely even call people...what do I need a smartphone for.

Spend 6 months with one and you will change your mind completely...

I love paper maps, have a GPS, and have travelled with people who have smart phones. I like paper maps for the same reason I still buy a paper newspaper- I can see the whole thing, and sometimes I see something that isn't highlighted which interests me.

And its not a big problem if you drop the paper in the toilet.

JThw8 wrote: Spend 6 months with one and you will change your mind completely...

Had a loaded up Blackberry with a free data plan provided for me from work for two years.

No thanks.

Having the smartphone has been pretty cool. I was very resistant to getting a cell phone PERIOD, but it is berkeleying awesome. I heard a good tune on the radio (WRAS) on the way home yesterday, looked the band up on iTunes, downloaded the record to my phone for 10 bucks, connected the phone and the car and listened to that E36 M3 on the way to work this morning. 15 years ago I would've written down the band's name in a notebook, then had to drive 45 minutes to some obscure record store in the hopes that they could order a CD for me. While there's some romance lost there, free time to do dumb E36 M3 like dick around on message boards is good.

Posting pics on Facebook letting the world know your home is ripe for the pickin', or telling some stalker molester type where your kids are and posting pics of them is weird. IMHO. Call me paranoid. I'll be the paranoid motherberkeleyer whose house doesn't get robbed and kids don't get stolen.

Streetwiseguy wrote: And its not a big problem if you drop the paper in the toilet.

Yes it is!

But who says you can't have paper and the phone. I have both this time.

As someone else said, "Spend 6 months with one and you will change your mind completely..." It only took a couple of weeks to make me realize how much I'd been missing and how my life had been enriched with the smartphone.

And if all you want to see is point A to point B you can, but all you have to do is scroll around or do some searches and you'll never go back to maps as a primary guide again.

With the phone I can go to the next town and search for food, gas lodging, auto repair place, whatever and know what's there before I get there. It really helps you plan.

But now I'm "on the road again"

Interestingly the only thing I don't do on my phone is email. I get so many emails that I just don't want to deal with them there.

I've never done GRM on my phone either, but I'll give it a try this trip.

tuna55 wrote:

JThw8 wrote: Spend 6 months with one and you will change your mind completely...

Had a loaded up Blackberry with a free data plan provided for me from work for two years. No thanks.

We're talking about smartphones, not Blackberries. I have to carry one of those abominations for my job. They keep giving me the latest and greatest trying to convince me they are good, they are terrible. Try a real smartphone.

I had a Compaq iPaq back in the days before the smart phone (I still have it today). I would go onto MapQuest, get directions, and then have them sent to my iPaq when I synched it up with my computer. No papers to blow around in the convertible and I could check off boxes as I passed waypoints. Also, the iPaq was backlit, so no having to turn on map lights (which Miatas don't have anyway).

It didn't have a GPS chip of its own but it sure helped me out a bunch of times.

JThw8 wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

JThw8 wrote: Spend 6 months with one and you will change your mind completely...

Had a loaded up Blackberry with a free data plan provided for me from work for two years. No thanks.

We're talking about smartphones, not Blackberries. I have to carry one of those abominations for my job. They keep giving me the latest and greatest trying to convince me they are good, they are terrible. Try a real smartphone.

What does a "real" smartphone offer over a up to date blackberry?

It has the web, and it is capable of nav.

We use my wife's on vacation, and I still have not found the need to get one for myself.

It can download and play music (we don't), it can play games (we don't), it can read books (sometimes, but rarely), etc.

Like I've said before, I think smartphones are really cool, BUT have not found a good reason to get one. All of the reasons that are ever brought up here are the same thing- nav, the Book, game, etc.

From someone who HAS worked with both, what is the real difference between the two, and what do you get in a smartphone that is so good that it makes BB that bad? I really want to know.

I would go to the Sprint store TOMORROW if I had a reason to get one.

tuna55 wrote: Had a loaded up Blackberry

That's your problem right there. Blackberry's (for the most part) were "smart" in the early millennium. I do not consider a phone "smart" unless it has an actual web browser on it. The Blackberry is only good for enterprise solutions because a company can have complete control over it.

Edit- JThw8 and I think alike lol

I don't care if other people have smart phones, but I do get annoyed when they think they're better than me because they own one.

HiTempguy wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Had a loaded up Blackberry

That's your problem right there. Blackberry's (for the most part) were "smart" in the early millennium. I do not consider a phone "smart" unless it has an actual web browser on it. The Blackberry is only good for enterprise solutions because a company can have complete control over it. Edit- JThw8 and I think alike lol

que??

my wife's BB has a browser. Works fine.

Now I'm really confused.