GPS Navigation App Gets New and Important Features on Ubuntu Touch

"GPS navigation is an important function for any smartphone"

It is!? Why?

I've managed to survive 65+ yrs w/o any form of GPS. Yes, I know it's big fun to learn the distance you jes ran in yer new Reeboks or the exact number of footsteps from wherever you are to yer favorite Starbucks, but why do most cellphones have GPS on the internet instead of jes a private informational feature, only. Why I gotta worry about the NSA (or ????) tapping into my current location w/o my knowledge? I keep my GPS feature disabled. Am I deluding myself.

A second dumb question: are Garmin-style GPS devices more secure than cellphones? They are not cellphones or handheld HAM tranceivers, which can communicate location data over great distances.

GPS is for people who can't read maps. If you can't turn it off in a phone, I don't want the phone. Still they can locate you by triangulating your signal from the cell towers. Oh well.

I hate to be contrary, but I'm a big fan of having GPS in the phone/tablet.

About 10 minutes ago I stepped out of my small plane after a three hour trip, and it sure was nice having a full-featured GPS moving map on my Nexus 7 Android tablet to serve as a cross check to the approved flight instrumentation. Aviation has taken an amazing path over the last decade as tech has stepped forward to elevate the safety and convenience to this transportation mode.

Oh, we don't worry about being tracked while on a flight. All the tracking information anyone would like is already in the public domain. The FAA releases the information and there are web sites that publish it.

Your phone can still be located without GPS, the carrier must know where you are approximately, to forward the call. I too keep the GPS off, but to save battery. When we're away during holidays, it's very conveniant to find our way. In any case, the industry looks forward, not backwards. And any phone OS needs to be competitive.

penguinist -

Don't they have built-in GPS with map screens for planes? Why use a phone?

nmset -

> When we're away during holidays, it's very conveniant to find our way. In any case, the industry looks forward, not backwards. And any phone OS needs to be competitive.

I agree that it's convenient. And most of the public is more than willing to trade convenience for privacy, just as they have traded liberty for a false sense of security. I just don't happen to agree with the majority these days.

@_seatex : you're right about privacy and security, with one nuance : the public doesn't know and doesn't want to know what they have lost, as long as they can watch TV...

> the public doesn't know and doesn't want to know what they have lost, as long as they can watch TV...

I agree. The sheeple are nothing if not predictable, and the government knows it.

> I stepped out of my small plane after a three hour trip....

penguinist, I realize GPS is a god-send for airmen and mariners, but I'm neither (tho I have taken ground school). That's why I (and seatex) asked about dedicated devices, like Garmin. It's the same problem with new cars. These newer vehicles could not be hacked if it was possible to fully disable internet connectivity.

Basically, mobile devices are no different than M$ and crapple computers, in that they are aimed at maintaining a constants connection for updates, adverts, and other nefarious hand-holding. Actually, desk/laptop boxes are probably more secure, as I can kill any connectivity by means of several options. Not so much with mobile devices.

I jes checked my almost-never-used Android phone and discovered I've used 233Kb of "mobil data" in the last wk. This is amazing, as I only learned how to enable "mobil data" last night!

seatex and notbob:

You are both correct in that there are dedicated GPS devices in the typical aircraft panel for use in navigation. In fact I have three devices in the plane in addition to the tablet. One IFR approach-certified Garmin that is coupled to the autopilot and can guide the plane down an approach path with amazing accuracy, another in-panel redundant spare, and a semi-portable Garmin attached to the control yoke that serves to display nexrad weather, coming down over a sat-link, layered on a moving GPS controlled map.

The thing is, none of these devices replace the need to carry a suitcase of flight charts and that's where the tablet comes in. The tablet contains 10GB of always-current charts covering the entire USA. We used to get a lot of exercise carrying 20 pounds of paper charts around, but fortunately those days are past us. Having a GPS on your tablet just gives you the extra benefit of seeing your plane depicted on whatever chart you are looking at. It makes chart reading really quick, easy, and accurate.

In flat, featureless terrain at night, where you aren't sure where it's safe to pull over and read a map because the crops are nearly ready for harvest, GPS is a godsend.

Been there, done that.

@gus3: does your car not have headlights? I don't quite understand why you are unable to safely pull over at night... You shouldn't even be able to drive safely if you can't pull over safely!

Quoting: @gus3: does your car not have headlights? I don't quite understand why you are unable to safely pull over at night... You shouldn't even be able to drive safely if you can't pull over safely!

gus3 is correct... There are lots of places where the roads are narrow and don't have a sufficient shoulder, and where a passing motorist might clip you if you pulled over... Not the best road design,... but a fact of life, nonetheless.

> I don't quite understand why you are unable to safely pull over at night.

Headlights are designed to show you the road in front of you, not to either side. And on a road with little to no shoulder you can't just pull off anywhere. You have to be able to see to the side to spot good pull off locations and side roads.

I think gus3 was referring to places where plant growth obscures the edge of the road and you can't tell if there is a level dirt shoulder past the edge of the pavement or a precipitous drop off into a ditch or field.

Yes, yes, and yes. Thanks, y'all. I might also add, there was no moon in the sky, either, so I had absolutely no sense of where I was or which way I was going. To top it all off, no cell phone service in such a remote location. I might as well have been driving under water. The only way I could know which way to go was the relative bearing to the destination on my GPS unit.

somehow i read crops as cops. well, i leave it up to you to figure out what they might be harvesting...

greetings, eMBee.