Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 90 total)
  • Google Maps as satnav
  • sadexpunk
    Full Member

    just started playing around with this on my htc due to having an old and now outdated garmin nuvi. i was impressed with its speed, and decided to use it more, so id like a few newbie tips please.

    obviously im scared of data usage. to start with i put in a destination, then switched off mobile data so it was either going to use what was already stored in the phone or fail. it worked!
    so then i started looking into whether i could save the whole of england as a map over wifi and then just play happily ever after offline. apparently not, you can only download 50km square offline maps at a time. so can i not use it offline to drive 200 miles say?

    also it didnt look like i could save the route id just selected offline (like i could an area), to use tomorrow say. it seemed id have to select it then drive straight away.

    is that about right? how are you all using this app to the best of its ability and least data?

    one other question. if i use maps on the chromebook i can drag a route about a bit to change the default route if i so wish. didnt seem to be able to do this on the phone.

    and lastly, sort of tied in with ^^^, as its all one account between laptop/phone etc, could i select a route, save anything on the chromebook and use it on the phone later?

    thanks a lot

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    Get unlimited data and save yourself a lot of hassle! 😆

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    why are you so concerned about not using data? are you mega skint? it doesn’t cost that much.
    No you can’t save the route and use it on another device. Just load up the route at home on wifi and then off you go, the map will then continue to show you the route without a data signal as the route is cached but you won’t get up to date info about traffic.
    Just get a tariff with data incl.

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    Cougar
    Full Member

    There’s a number of free offline mapping apps, might be more appropriate? (Waze?)

    slackboy
    Full Member

    download Nokia Here. its free, has most of the features of google maps and you can download offline maps on a country by country basis.

    or get more data. I use google maps every day and manage on about a 1gb of data per month, including all the other stuff like iplayer radio

    butcher
    Full Member

    I use Navmii. You download and store the maps when you install it, just as you would with a GPS. No data usage required (as long as you install over wifi). But you do need a fair bit of space to store the maps.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    why are you so concerned about not using data?

    i only get 2Gb data, and i use most of it each month. id use a satnav infrequently so its not worth it to me to upgrade my contract. unless you can tell me that using it for a route hardly uses any data maybe? im just scared of it eating all my allowance in one journey or something.
    surely its still better to use it offline anyway?

    cougar, thanks, ill look into waze. im impressed with the way google just integrates everything to your account tho, so would have preferred to use Maps. is Waze as good, or inferior?

    Cougar
    Full Member

    In honesty, I’ve never used it. It’s well regarded though. And yeah, I hear you about integration.

    How do you manage to use 2Gb every month?

    sockpuppet
    Full Member

    It really doesn’t use much data. Especially for infrequent use I don’t think you’d notice the difference.

    Just maybe make sure that the satellite overlay is switched off, but even then it’s not a big drain. I have 500mb a month and use gmaps freely; no issues here.

    Have you found the turn by turn but yet: really does replace a satnav now, IMO.

    northernmatt
    Full Member

    Another for Navmii here. Downloadable maps for all of Europe.

    PePPeR
    Full Member

    It’s blooming brilliant! Although I have an old Tom Tom and a road atlas in the van too.

    If you hit the back button once you’ve set a route and go back one click you can then see the various route choices, click on each one too see the different routes.

    The re routing is the best part of using it, it’s saved me hundreds of hours since I’ve started using it to get around traffic!

    You can see individual Lane slow downs on the motorways as it uses other Google users locations too see where the hold ups are, far far more intelligent than any other system I’ve used.

    twistedpencil
    Full Member

    Google maps, got me lost in rural France. Not risking it again, Nokia here is pretty good.

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    I run CoPilot and Google nav at the same time and only make a turn if they both concur that it is the right way to go…

    It’s like a failsafe system.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    How do you manage to use 2Gb every month?

    well i dont use 2Gb but thats my limit now as i regularly ran out when i was on 1Gb. its this site innit 😀

    Have you found the turn by turn but yet: really does replace a satnav now, IMO.

    not sure what you mean by turn by turn. whassat?

    If you hit the back button once you’ve set a route and go back one click you can then see the various route choices, click on each one too see the different routes.

    The re routing is the best part of using it, it’s saved me hundreds of hours since I’ve started using it to get around traffic!
    thats more what id want, choices. i havent come across any part of it yet thatll let me choose anything, spose thats why im asking for more help.

    ideally id like to use a laptop to fiddle about with routes the night before, drag routes about, then use that route on my phone the next day. i thought i may have been able to do that as its all one google account.

    bigyim
    Free Member

    Another vote here for waze. I have it on everyday just for traffic updates

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    just downloading the navmii maps, also installed waze, so will experiment when im back from holiday, which is how this all came about really.

    off to east mids airport tomorrow and i prefer to get there the back roads rather than nottingham ring road. i know the route now, but thought id see how easy it was to do set it by satnav.
    easy enough on the chromebook, but i couldnt manipulate the route on my phone.

    isitafox
    Free Member

    I’m sure I’ve searched for a route and saved it to my Google account then opened it up on my phone.

    nealglover
    Free Member

    I use google maps all day every day as a satnav, covering 250 miles ish daily and 15 ish destinations visiting clients.

    Never gets me lost and always works. Can’t use that much data as I’m on 5gb plan on that phone and never get close even covering 5k miles all on google maps.

    Scienceofficer
    Free Member

    Uh, you know you can get a live traffic data overlay for gmaps too?

    geoffj
    Full Member

    I use waze (owned by Google now, I think). I’m on unlimited data and so don’t worry about it. The routings, traffic info and warnings of incidents nearby plods (recorded by other waze users) is pretty good.

    It’s much better than the inbuilt kit in my new beemer.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    I’m sure I’ve searched for a route and saved it to my Google account then opened it up on my phone.

    just been trying again but cant see how to do this….

    Can’t use that much data as I’m on 5gb plan on that phone and never get close even covering 5k miles all on google maps.

    id be interested to know how much data it does use, and would it be by time on, distance travelled, whether you zoom in or not, what do you think?

    votchy
    Free Member

    I dont know what I do wrong with google maps but it eats data when I use it, a journey to Ireland didn’t get me back as it had used all of my 1gig of data allowance. I use Here instead and that has the ability to go online if needed but otherwise I have the whole of Europe downloaded and had no issues using it in france. I just use google maps via wifi to check the traffic before I leave home.

    allthegear
    Free Member

    I use it all the time on the motorbike. 16k miles in last year, including a trip last month to Hungary and now in Basque region on my way to Barcelona. Can be made to find really interesting routes and the estimated times of arrival are pretty accurate.

    Very reliable on my iPhone 6+

    Rachel

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    Can be made to find really interesting routes

    how are you playing around with it on the phone to find these different routes?

    I dont know what I do wrong with google maps but it eats data when I use it,

    s’wat im scared of.

    Stainypants
    Full Member

    If you zoom in on an area and type or say OK maps it stores in offline not sure if it then uses this for sat nav. I used it in France All summer it was great.

    It a bit big brother as must get feedback on the traffic speeds from phones which are sending there location back to Google central. But that combined with waze makes it pretty awesome.

    If your worried about data just down load here maps and use it offline or just switch the data on just as select your route to make sure there’s no traffic problems.

    gravity-slave
    Free Member

    I dont know what I do wrong with google maps but it eats data when I use it,

    Satellite layer turned on?
    I did this once by mistake. Only wanted nav for the ETA. Used 800MB going down M1 from Sheffield to Slough!

    Turned off, it uses virtually nothing. Even better if you fire up the route when you’re on WiFi, then stick to it, as said already.

    I have 1GB allowance Google nav barely even makes a dent.

    It’s brilliant – until you need directions and have no signal.

    robbo
    Free Member

    I’ve started using it on the road bike with voice instructions and the phone in my pocket. Just about gets the directions in time but saves having the phone on a mount on the bike.. Did notice it used quite a bit of data during two trips. You can check on the Data Usage settings page.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    You can check on the Data Usage settings page.

    just found that in my settings app, thanks. ill do a test journey or two using data and see how much it uses. thanks for the heads up 🙂

    ji
    Free Member

    As long as you are logged in to Google (via Gmail of Google plus etc) on each device, any route you search will also appear as a recent search on nay other device.

    As others have said the live traffic updates and automatic rerouting etc are brilliant. I don’t think mine uses that much data tbh

    robowns
    Free Member

    Google maps is much better than any other satnav.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    As long as you are logged in to Google (via Gmail of Google plus etc) on each device, any route you search will also appear as a recent search on nay other device.

    nope. i did my E Mids airport search on the chromebook, tweaked it for back roads, just looked on my phone and theres nothing there?

    skids
    Free Member

    get another garmin or a tom tom.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    get another garmin or a tom tom.

    firstly, ive never seen the ability to do what ive just said above ^^^ on a dedicated satnav, and secondly ive got an all singing all dancing phone, i ought to use it to the best of its ability 🙂

    Kelliesheros
    Free Member

    You can star common locations, but I don’t think you can do what you ask and save a route choice. That would be slightly counter intuitive, as the point of the navigation bit on google maps is that it continually checks whether u are on the fastest route.

    If you are worried about data. Go into settings and then data usage. You can put a warning at a certain mobile data usage and turn it off after another.
    wife had a 500mb allowance and used map navigation several times a week and never broke her allowance.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    That would be slightly counter intuitive, as the point of the navigation bit on google maps is that it continually checks whether u are on the fastest route.

    yeah, thats what im finding…..im surprised its not a feature tho, as id expect that to be useful to people. look at a map the night before, yep, google says thats the quickest way, but i just want to veer off here and miss that main road, join it again there etc….and thats when youd need the satnav most, once youve left the main road and its left here, right there, through that little village…..
    i think we’ve all had that moment when the satnav is telling us to go somewhere but we know we shouldnt, itd be easier if we told it where we want to go 😀

    dooosuk
    Free Member

    I’m only on 500mb data and have never had any issues with it.

    I think you’re worrying too much.

    nemesis
    Free Member

    I use Google Maps most of the time – in fact pretty much any time I’m going somewhere where traffic could be an issue because it’ll tell me in advance if there’s unusual traffic so that the route that’s usually fastest isn’t in this instance.

    Similarly, I’ve found that my preconceptions about which routes are fastest or which shortcuts actually get me from A to B fastest are quite often wrong and the seemingly slower route actually isn’t slower than my ‘shortcuts’ even if they feel slower because I’m sometimes sitting still.

    So I follow what google says now as I find it’s better than me at deciding what’s the best way regardless of my years of local knowledge.

    ransos
    Free Member

    Google maps, got me lost in rural France. Not risking it again, Nokia here is pretty good.

    I used it to guide me from Bristol to Alpe d’Huez and it was flawless. I never got close to my data allowance, and in any case I have my phone set to give me a warning if I’m approaching the limit.

    nemesis
    Free Member

    The only thing that I’m disappointed isn’t included is current speed and the speed limit of your location. Both bits of information are available (since ‘proper’ satnavs have them) so I’m surprised that google haven’t yet integrated it.

    globalti
    Free Member

    A cycling pal of mine used it to cycle from Blackburn to St Ives and back for a wedding. It was almost faultless; he downloaded the route every morning from his B&B to the next B&B or YHA then turned off the data and plugged in one earphone. What I still don’t understand is that the phone knew where he was and gave him timely directions without using data – presumably GPS doesn’t gobble data?

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 90 total)

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