Maps & Navigation for your Mobile, iPhone or iPad
Most of us keep a mobile phone on hand all the time. So if you have one of the latest generation of smartphones an iPhone or iPad in your pack or pocket, why not put it to use? With the capability to offer both on-road and off-road navigation on the same device, and the ability to download your favorite routes & trails direct to your mobile it can now deliver a complete personal navigation experience.
Many manufacturers are putting GPS technology into their handsets, and Nokia & Apple now sell more GPS-enabled devices than TomTom and Garmin added together. The GPS receiver in these phones & tablets is as good as the latest dedicated outdoor GPS units with excellent stability and signal reception. Early models suffered from a slow “first-time-to-fix”, but this has been addressed with features such as Assisted-GPS.
Outdoors Use
As you will be aware there is a huge growth in apps for these products; our favourite outdoor app for our iPad is ViewRanger. The soon to be free app allows you to view you current position in free open street mapping; however you can buy & download OS mapping direct to device. What is really interesting is that it gives you access to over 30,000 downloadable routes & trails and 400 walking brands like Walkingworld & Carlisle Tourism and routes downloaded can be transferred to your outdoors gps. Garmin offer Fitness and Auto Navigation apps but no Outdoors app to date
Whilst we think that growth in the use of these types of navigation apps will become more popular we don't think they will replace the Outdoors GPS for the dedicated hillwalker & enthusiast.
1:25k OS mapping seen in my iPad
Navigation, Fitness & Geocaching Apps from Garmin for iPhone & iPad
Garmin offer Fitness and Auto Navigation apps but no Outdoors app to date; however one product that seems to be receiving good reviews is StreetPilot app. It allows you to turn your iPad into a Satnav. There are apps for UK & Ireland, Europe & USA
Garmin Fit allows you to view & monitor your current walking, running or cycling stats at one glance, or review and share them later thanks to automatic uploading to Garmin Connect. It even allows you select the perfect soundtrack for your workout.
The Fit app provides the following data; Current speed, Distance traveled, Route traveled and Calories burned. With an optional Garmin Ant+™ Adapter for iPhone, you also can see data from your Garmin fitness sensors. Easily monitor how hard you’re working with a heart rate monitor, train indoors with a foot pod, or receive valuable cycling data with a speed/cadence sensor.
Garmin Tracker is a free mobile app that supports Garmin's tracking rpoducts like the GTU 10; it lets you see your location and your tracking device's location on a map, making it easy to track and locate it while you're on the go.
OpenCaching is the official geocaching app for OpenCaching.com, a geocaching community powered by the user, for the user. With this app, you get the full OpenCaching.com experience right in the palm of your hands. Easily find, hide, log and share caches right from your iPhone®.
There are other garmin apps available to support various other products and we're sure that the availablity of these apps will grow in line with the growth of the iPhone & iPad range of products.
