Tag Archives | gps

I think I’m relying too much on GPS

Written by on March 22, 2011
Filed Under Travelogues

Been sick with a stomach flu ever since I got back from Texas, so I haven’t been able to catch up on blogging or do much of anything else for the past few days. Finally catching up now, little by little.

I was thinking about how my iPhone handled things during my trip down in Texas, and as much as it was aces for nearly most of the time spent there, there was a day where the GPS just could not seem to maintain a lock to save its own life. As a GPS tracking device, my precious iPhone was starting to falter in its accuracy.

It started happening in Austin where I would get a GPS lock, only to lose it 10 seconds later, only to regain it another 10 seconds later, and the net result was causing my Navigon app to go completely haywire, telling me to drive into walls or off exits that didn’t exist. Good grief.

To say I was displeased would be an understatement. I ready to go in kill-murder-destroy mode here. I thought maybe solar flares could be to blame, which I know can disrupt vehicle tracking, but I did some research into the MacRumors forum, and it seems this has been an issue experienced by owners of the new Verizon iPhone in particular. For the first time I realized it doesn’t actually use the same chip the AT&T phone does, and rather than having a dedicated processor, this GPS instead shares processing power with the iPhone’s CPU. At least that was my understanding of how it’s set up in the Verizon version.

Some people were thinking this was having am impact on the GPS accuracy of the Verizon iPhone, but fortunately it may just be a matter of updating the software code, something I’m hoping they do in the next iOS update.

In the meantime, I compared the GPS fleet tracking thingie in my car rental to see if it was having problems too, and I noticed occasional glitches as well, but it was still more usable than the iPhone was at the moment. Then a thought occurred to me, and I went to check my Wi-Fi settings and noticed I had it turned off. I went to turn it back on again and… nearly picture perfect GPS accuracy ever since. Go figure.

Thank God I figured it out before I began my major drive from Austin to Dallas, or I would have had a major canary. I was sure my iPhone was defective or broke on me or something, but thankfully it seems to be one of the quirks that hasn’t been worked out yet since Apple released the Verizon iPhone.

At least I hope that’s what it is.

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How Traveling Changed My Perspective

Written by on February 1, 2011
Filed Under Personal Reflections

Once upon a time when I was but a virginal traveling weenie, I would watch a movie, a TV show, or maybe a video on YouTube that often depicted a place in the world I’ve never been to, and I would wonder to myself what it would have been like to actually be there.

Nowadays though I would find myself watching a show on TV where the setting is say, Las Vegas, and I would nearly shout out to no one in particular: “I was there! I was there!!!”

I did the same thing when I saw a preview of Russell Crowe’s film, The Next Three Days, and immediately recognized the Duquesne Incline of Pittsburgh that I took a ride on last October.

“I was there! I was there!!!”

Suddenly, the world was no longer as alien to me as it used to be. Places once exotic are now familiar territory. A jaunt around Arkansas no longer required the need for a GPS like it used to. And yes, in fact, it is indeed possible for pubs in New Hampshire to make good pizza. :-D

Just the act of traveling changed me in a way. I no longer have to wonder about the world and the many wondrous places it offers. Instead I am finally experiencing it firsthand, and I know eventually that experience will expand beyond the country’s borders as well once I make my first international trip ever, either to Vancouver this June, or perhaps Germany this October.

If only I could do this for a living. Unfortunately though I can only stretch the umbilical cord that is my job so far before it ropes me in again with a vengeance. There must be a way, some way to achieve the life I’ve always dreamed of.

One that doesn’t involve winning the lottery of course.

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Is Verizon Getting the iPhone? Does a former drill sergeant make a bad therapist? :-P

Written by on January 10, 2011
Filed Under News Commentary

The Internet has been abuzz with speculation, but it looks like the announcement will be official tomorrow, January 11th, 2011 (in case you didn’t know what year it was.) After many years of plague and darkness, the iPhone is going to Verizon, and when it does, it’s going to be a game changer for me.

The timing is impeccable too, although the announcement is tomorrow, the iPhone Verizon release date is actually 2-3 weeks later, when it will finally be available for purchase. I’m under the New Every Two contract with Verizon which renews this week, just in time for me to put in an order using that discount rate. Yay!

Anyone who’s been following my blog with any regularity will know that I’ve been using a faux iPhone solution on Verizon by pairing an iPod Touch with a Wi-Fi enabled WinMo phone (a Samsung Saga.) While it worked, my WinMo phone still proved to be the most unstable piece of poopy crap I have ever had the displeasure of using. I mean, OMG. Endless crashes, an unfriendly user interface that intermittently refused to respond to commands, speed dials that would break at random, apps running as slow as a mud in a glacier, and then the days when the phone would temporarily brick itself and not even turn on. The love I had for the iPod Touch was only surpassed by the pure, unadulterated hatred I had for this evil Samsung phone. I will never, and I mean NEVER, buy a Windows Mobile powered phone again.

Besides that, when it DID work, the Wi-Fi drained the battery quickly, giving me only 2-3 hours of air time for me to use my iPod before it completely died on me. As a result I carried around extra AA batteries and a portable charger to help keep the phone going so I could use my iPod to surf the Internet. If the phone started to die I would quickly connect it to the charger, then toss the whole thing into my backpack, and every 2 hours or so I would replace the AA batteries in the charger with a fresh batch so it would keep charging the phone. It was all so terribly inconvenient, especially when someone calls me and disrupts the connection. I’ve often had to reboot my phone just to get its Wi-Fi going again after whatever call I took ended.

Because the iPod doesn’t have GPS built in, I also had to invest in getting a GPS cradle as well to really utilize it to its full potential. Everything that I’ve been doing for the past year, from geocaching, to checking into Whrrl, to navigating on the roads, to finding hotels to stay at via TripAdvisor, was all being done from my GPS powered iPod Touch, which was able to access Verizon’s network using my Samsung phone.

It was a crazy setup, and there were times when I was sorely tempted to take my chances with AT&T just so I wouldn’t have to use this piecemeal of an alternative solution that drove me nuts half the time, but two things stopped me: One, the iPhone wasn’t hearing aid compatible, and two, AT&T’s network is so horrendously bad that an iPhone on that network would have been like using a standalone iPod Touch anyway. For all the trouble I had using my piecemeal solution, whether I was at the deserts of Las Vegas or the mountains of New Hampshire, Verizon was rock solid wherever I went, and at times the connection was even better than a hotel’s Wi-Fi service. Using a solid network like Verizon had been absolutely crucial for making my travels around the country as pleasant and trouble-free as possible.

So to hear the iPhone going to Verizon, it’s like an answer to much prayer and tears. At last I won’t have to juggle an iPod, a GPS cradle, a cell phone, a battery charger and a stack of AA batteries around anymore.

At last, I shall be free! FREEEEEE!

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2010 – FINALLY a year that didn’t suck flaming hogballs

Written by on December 31, 2010
Filed Under Personal Reflections

For as long as I can remember, every time a year came to an end I would curse it, spit at it, then kick it in the groin and declare good riddance as I eagerly awaited for the ball to drop to finally put that crap year out of its misery.

But for the first time that I can remember, I’m actually sad to see the year go. Where the Zeros continuously served up one tall glass after another of FAIL, 2010 instead turned out to be a refreshing bowl of WIN, topped off with a sugary dose of AWESOME.

So what made this year so special? Well…

  • It began with my first ever trip to Boston last February. I had so much fun that I was effectively bitten by the travel bug, and I knew my life would never be the same again. My blog would also complete its metamorphosis from a blog where I whined about my failure of a life, to a blog about traveling and geocaching. Although I still whine every now and then, just to a slightly lesser degree. :-D
  • After that trip, I invested in completely upgrading my desktop for the first time in 8 years. I now have a powerhorse that can not only play all the latest games but also makes it SO much easier for me to work on my many blogging projects.
  • By this time (after purchasing my new computer) I was breaking records with the income I was generating from my blog. 2010 would prove to be the most lucrative year I’ve ever had in terms of sponsorships, revenues and giveaways I received as a direct result of blogging.
  • Then came the long awaited GPS cradle for the iPod Touch that I had been pining to get my hands on for months. This was one of the most CRUCIAL purchases I have ever made. It not only made it feasible to use my iPod for geocaching, but it also powered all my geolocation apps from Whrrl to Navigon. It allowed me to do everything I ever wanted to do with an actual iPhone, at least until it finally becomes available on the Verizon network (hopefully next month!)
  • And then came… the MACBOOK. If 2010 had been nothing but a pit of death and destruction, my MacBook’s arrival alone would have ensured that 2010 would still go down as the GREATEST year in history.
  • Although not as important or exciting, It’s still worth noting that this was the year my car received its 60,000 mile service. It’s one of the most extensive (and expensive) service jobs to ever have done for your car, but once it was out of the way I was confident I could rely on my beautiful ride for another 60,000 miles, as well as for the future road trips I was planning.
  • 2010 also marked the first time I ever went to a Drive-In movie theater. The movie sucked, but the food was teh awesum.
  • I would finally, at long last, transform my wardrobe from Walmart drags to Banana Republic/Gap awesomeness. Let it be known that from now on if a girl rejects me, I will at least have the consolation of knowing it wasn’t because I was donning a $5 sweatshirt from Wally World.
  • I also joined Collective Bias, a marketing agency that opened doors for new sponsorships, new possibilities for generating revenue for my blog, as well as a trip to Las Vegas to attend BlogWorld.
  • In October I began my first ever road trip, traveling over 4,000 miles to at least 14 different states. and at least 20 different cities. The experience will stay with me forever.
  • I experienced my first ever car accident too, just outside of Columbus, Ohio.
  • I hadn’t flown on an airplane since I was 14, but that streak was finally broken when I flew to Vegas to attend BlogWorld with my friend Casey. It was also the first time I have ever gone on a flight on my own.
  • And of course, VEGAS! Easily one of the noisiest, busiest and most unbearable cities I have ever been to. Not even the buffets could lure me back there again. The trip to Vegas also marked the first time I’ve ever attended a major conference like BlogWorld as well.
  • After 7 or more years, I would finally meet one of my closest friends, Casey, who discovered my previous blog circa 2003, and has been a thorn on my side ever since. :-D While in Arkansas I had the pleasure of meeting his wife, kids and parents, and in a unusual twist of fate we met up again only a few weeks later, this time on my home turf in New York. For you Psych enthusiasts, I am the Shawn to his Gus, and occasionally vice versa, although we don’t know what started first. It’s like the chicken or the egg, minus the chicken. And possibly the egg.
  • While in Las Vegas I could honestly say the biggest highlight of my trip was meeting Bailey of MakeoverMomma.com. To meet such a beautiful woman who was also hearing impaired like me, but so fiercely determined not to let that keep her down was inspiring. Meeting her family was also a treat and gives me a reason now to visit Virginia in the future. I am so blessed to have her as a friend as well.
  • And finally, I would close the year out with a trip to New Hampshire for an early Christmas getaway, where I took an unbelievable driving tour of the gorgeous White Mountains and feasted on the bestest nachos and pancakes evahs!!11!1 The trip also gave me the occasion to meet yet another Internet friend, who by now I’m sure regrets that decision. LOL, I keed, I keed… I hope.

After all that, it makes me wonder how 2011 will stack up in comparison. Can the new year continue to carry the torch of awesomeness just as 2010 did? There’s certainly a lot expected to happen for 2011 that makes me hopeful. For one, it will mark the arrival of the iPhone on Verizon. YES, YES, THANK YOU GOD, YES.

Not only that but I will probably purchase my first iPad too when the second generation comes out, completing my trifecta of owning an iPhone, MacBook and iPad. I will be an unstoppable force of ubergeekness then.

I also have a few trips and meetups planned already, beginning with a meetup with Bailey in the city in January, then again in February when she comes to attend the fashion show. I trust by then she can sneak me in so I can ensconce myself in a sea of the world’s hottest models, where any one of them could be looking for a downtown man like me. Just like Billy Joel says, so it must be true! :-D

After that I would immediately flee New York (on Valentine’s Day no less) for a trip to Portland, Maine (and possibly beyond), a return to New Hampshire for a day or two, and finally a four day stay at Boston, where everybody knows my name, and they’re always glad I came.

March will be even crazier with a flight to Texas(!!!), where I meet up with Casey again at SXSW for a few days of Texan BBQ, funsies, and possible new networking contacts (read: people who can save me from my current dead-end job.) After SXSW I might rent a car and take a drive from Austin to Dallas for a few extra days of sightseeing around the state before returning home.

In April or May I’m planning another trip to Tennessee for a week long stay in the Smokies, hoping this time around I’ll have a chance to explore Knoxville and some of the surrounding areas before vegging out once again in a gorgeous luxury log cabin. Tee hee. It will also give me a chance to stay in Virginia for a night and meet Bailey and her family again (at which point I have to think that they’re all going to get sick of me by then, lolz.)

After that things get a little fuzzy. There’s a travel blog conference taking place in Vancouver in June and as much as I want to visit the city, I’m not sure it might be worth the investment then. There’s also the tornado chasing expedition I want to join in late June or July in Colorado, something I need to keep hush hush because my mother would be very upset if she knew what I was up to.

I do know it’s a given I’m going to be in either Colorado or somewhere in the Rockies for my 35th birthday in August, because there is absolutely no way in HELL that I am going to be celebrating that here in stinky New York.

2011 could also possibly be the year I travel abroad for the first time. My friend Casey will be traveling to Germany sometime in the fall and I may (permission pending) tag along for the ride, presuming there’s enough room in the trunk to hold me.

The only downside I’m seeing for 2011 has to do with my blog. Despite the record breaking year I had in generating income from it, my traffic level actually went DOWN by 10 percent for the year, and Google reduced my ranking from a PageRank of a studly 5 to a paltry 3, effectively setting all my efforts to bring in traffic back 2 years. Thanks Google! Motherf—- but anyhow, something will have to give in 2011, otherwise my blogging income will eventually evaporate, along with my dreams of becoming a full-time and self-employed blogger AND my ability to travel on a semi-regular basis.

For 2011, it’s make or break time. Bring it, baby.

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Magellan ToughCase Review – What You Need to Know

Written by on December 27, 2010
Filed Under Reviews

Note: Magellan was kind enough to send me a complimentary ToughCase in exchange for this review.

I’ve been looking at alternatives to the GPS Cradle from Dual I currently use for my iPod for a while now, and discovered some time ago that Magellan released something similar called the ToughCase. It also boasts an extra battery and a GPS chip just like the Dual Cradle, but with a more durable container that can not only withstand a considerable amount of abuse, but is also waterproof as well, making it ideal for more rugged outdoor activities.

Magellan ToughCase and Accessories

Yay, another GPS solution for my iPod! Maybe...

I could tell right away that it was definitely far beefier and heavier than the Dual Cradle, which no longer makes it possible to simply slip the iPod inside my pockets like I usually do. Instead, a clip is included so you can attach the ToughCase to your belt or backpack.

Shell for the iPod Touch to use on Magellan ToughCase

A protective shell is included to put on the iPod before inserting it into the ToughCase.

The ToughCase will ONLY work with earlier generations of the iPhone and iPod Touch. The current iPhone 4 will not fit inside the case, and neither will the current iPod (with built in camera.) I’ve also noticed that unlike the Dual Cradle, there’s no option to only use the GPS chip. You will have to use BOTH the GPS and battery, so the ToughCase’s power drains a lot faster than I’d normally like. There’s an idle mode to extend the battery life when you’re not actively using it, or you can shut it off altogether by opening up the case and switching off the master on/off button. One upside over the Dual Cradle is that you can plug it into a simple USB cable and it will charge both the iPod and ToughCase, although the charge time will be longer for obvious reasons.

The ToughCase does not have a car dock either, but I found a universal car dock I’ve been using with great success called the SoundGate M2. I attached a tiny clip included with the SoundGate kit to the back of the ToughCase and voila! My ToughCase is now officially car-docked.

Magellan ToughCase attached to car dock

Ready to roll!

To complete the ensemble I needed to hook up two cables: a USB cable to power and keep the ToughCase charged, which I then connected to a Scosche reVIVE II USB Car Charger. The car charger is powerful to charge an iPad, so it had no problem keeping the ToughCase fully charged as well. I also needed to hook up the ToughCase to the radio using my Monster RadioPlay FM Transmitter. Once I had everything set up, the ToughCase could now stay charged as well as deliver sound to my car stereo.

The setup though was far more cumbersome than my Dual Cradle, which already comes with a car dock. I could easily slide my cradle in and out of the dock without unhooking any wires whenever I needed to grab my iPod for geocaching or other uses, whereas with the ToughCase I had to manually unhook the wires to disconnect the ToughCase and take it with me. I also found the mic to be underpowered as well, forcing me to crank up the radio volume to the point where I could hear excessive static. The only way I could really avoid this now is if my car had an auxiliary input so I could bypass the need for an FM transmitter. Ah well.

Now for the acid test: I turned on the GPS and after a moment the ToughCase locked onto my location. I decided to pick a nearby geocache to drive to, so I keyed in the coordinates in Navigon and I was off. I drove several miles without any issues until I arrived close enough to the geocache that I could get out and walk the rest of the way. That’s when I noticed a VERY significant problem.

The ToughCase does not update your location when you’re at walking speed. I was maybe 300 feet away from the geocache and yet I walked several blocks without an update. Perplexed, I thought maybe there was a software issue, so I pulled out my iPod and inserted it into the Dual Cradle I brought with me for comparison. Nope, my GPS instantly updated and kept updating without issue. I slid out the iPod again and inserted it back into the ToughCase. Once again the GPS stopped updating. I did a running sprint to see if that forced an update, but to no avail. I also tried using different apps, from Geosphere, to the official geocaching app from Groundspeak, to just plain old Google Maps. None of them would update my location while I walked around. Only when I shut down the app and open it up again does the ToughCase finally update to my most current location. I also noticed that it will start updating again, but only if I move at a fast enough speed, such as when I’m in my car, or when I’m boating or biking. Anything slower and the ToughCase will not actively update your GPS location.

I don’t know if this was an issue introduced with the last iOS update from Apple or if it’s a design flaw (I’m thinking it’s the latter) but the bottom line is that geocaching is virtually impossible to do as a result, along with any kind of navigation that involves merely walking or even hiking. Under these circumstances you would have to constantly shut down and re-open whatever app you’re using to force a GPS update. Oddly enough, the Magellan ToughCase is specifically billed for outdoor use, and yet according to one ToughCase owner who left a comment about my Dual GPS Cradle review, Magellan had responded to his inquiry about this issue by stating that they never tested the ToughCase for geocaching or even outdoor activities, despite its previous advertisements to the contrary.

As a durable case to protect your iPod/iPhone during outdoor activities it works as intended, but as a GPS receiver with an unacceptably short battery life, not so much. For a pricey $180, I expected better quality than this. Worse still, the ToughCase is being advertised at GroundSpeak as a geocaching tool even though it clearly fails as one.

All in all, I can’t recommend the ToughCase if your primary objective is to give your iPod Touch GPS functionality, at least until they address its failure to continuously update your location whether you’re standing still or moving. It seems the design went more into providing a durable case to protect it from the elements, while the GPS/additional battery function was just something they tossed in as an afterthought. Still, $180 is far too pricey for what’s really little more than a glorified waterproof case, especially a case that’s not even designed to fit the latest iPod/iPhone models.

It’s a shame, but I am hoping Magellan will take a lesson from Dual and release an improved ToughCase with better GPS functionality and compatibility with today’s iPod/iPhones. We’ll see!

Update: Magellan has since upgraded the firmware of their ToughCase to improve GPS sensitivity. Here are the details:

For those of you who have had trouble using the Magellan ToughCase GPS for Geocaching, we are happy to report that a new GPS firmware will be made available by Magellan to significantly improve the sensitivity and the accuracy for pedestrian use. This is a firmware update that has to be performed at the factory. So, what this means for you is you will be getting a brand new ToughCase with the updated firmware pre-loaded.

To proceed with a product return, please follow these simple steps:

  • Contact Magellan Support
  • Hours: Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST/PDT Telephone: 1 800 707 9971
  • Obtain a RMA number
  • Return your ToughCase to the address provided (Magellan will pay for the shipping)

Magellan will replace your unit with a firmware updated device. They expect to fulfill the replacement orders starting the end of February. We encourage you to contact Magellan now to begin the process.

Please feel free to share this information with anyone else who has been affected by this issue.

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