Any Smart Phone App recommendations?

[Sam Wormley]

Any Smart Phone App recommendations?

What I am looking for is

1. A way to drop a pin or otherwise create a way point on,
say Google maps as opposed to typing in coordinates.

2. continuously updated
ETE or ETA
BRG to way point
Distance to way point

The closest I've found for the iDevices is Air Nav Pro.

-Sam

[Terje Mathisen]

Sam Wormley wrote:
> Any Smart Phone App recommendations?
>
> What I am looking for is
>
> 1. A way to drop a pin or otherwise create a way point on,
> say Google maps as opposed to typing in coordinates.

Hmm... sounds like you're asking for a default Android installation?

>
> 2. continuously updated
> ETE or ETA
> BRG to way point
> Distance to way point

Except for bearing those should be good.

>
> The closest I've found for the iDevices is Air Nav Pro.

That's your error right there! :-)

Terje
--
- <Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no>
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

[Sam Wormley]

On 2/6/12 12:10 PM, Terje Mathisen wrote:
> Sam Wormley wrote:
>> Any Smart Phone App recommendations?
>>
>> What I am looking for is
>>
>> 1. A way to drop a pin or otherwise create a way point on,
>> say Google maps as opposed to typing in coordinates.
>
> Hmm... sounds like you're asking for a default Android installation?
>>
>> 2. continuously updated
>> ETE or ETA
>> BRG to way point
>> Distance to way point
>
> Except for bearing those should be good.
>>
>> The closest I've found for the iDevices is Air Nav Pro.
>
> That's your error right there! :-)
>
> Terje

iDevices?

[Alan Browne]

How will you be using it? For air nav? Car? Walking?

Paid for iPhone Apps that I have.

GPS Motion X - $1.99 (usually $2.99).
GPS Kit $9.99

I have both of these. They both do all the classic straight line nav
functions. They both have learning curves vis-a-vis their UI and
function organization.

They both record tracks.

They both record targets of opportunity (pin drops).

Data can be exported to the PC/Mac and displayed in Google Earth.

(I also have Motion X Drive, but it's not a good GP navigator).


--
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
Douglas Adams - (Could have been a GPS engineer).

[Terje Mathisen]

Yeah, I assumed that meant one of the Apple "Walled Garden" devices
where you can get anything you want as long as Apple wants you to do so. :-)

[Alan Browne]

On 2012-02-07 06:38 , Terje Mathisen wrote:
> Sam Wormley wrote:
>> On 2/6/12 12:10 PM, Terje Mathisen wrote:
>>>> The closest I've found for the iDevices is Air Nav Pro.
>>>
>>> That's your error right there! :-)
>>>
>>> Terje
>>
>> iDevices?
>
> Yeah, I assumed that meant one of the Apple "Walled Garden" devices
> where you can get anything you want as long as Apple wants you to do so.
> :-)

Yet, other than a couple cash scams, the idevices have been to date
immune to malware. Not the case with Android.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/02/06/evolving-android-malware-shows-how-evil-apps-will-evade-googles-scans/

I'm not a fan of walled gardens for general computing - but for mobile
phones on which s/w can be installed from a large, international base of
contribution, it's a better model. Esp. as we're heading towards more
personal transactions with our phones.

I do banking with my iPhone, for example, as well as business related
tasks that cannot be exposed to malware. More and more smart phones
will have payment devices integrated into them. A walled garden is a
good thing in such devices.

[Sam Wormley]

On 2/6/12 2:51 PM, Alan Browne wrote:
> On 2012-02-06 10:30 , Sam Wormley wrote:
>> Any Smart Phone App recommendations?
>>
>> What I am looking for is
>>
>> 1. A way to drop a pin or otherwise create a way point on,
>> say Google maps as opposed to typing in coordinates.
>>
>> 2. continuously updated
>> ETE or ETA
>> BRG to way point
>> Distance to way point
>>
>> The closest I've found for the iDevices is Air Nav Pro.
>
> How will you be using it? For air nav? Car? Walking?
>
> Paid for iPhone Apps that I have.
>
> GPS Motion X - $1.99 (usually $2.99).
> GPS Kit $9.99
>
> I have both of these. They both do all the classic straight line nav
> functions. They both have learning curves vis-a-vis their UI and
> function organization.
>
> They both record tracks.
>
> They both record targets of opportunity (pin drops).
>
> Data can be exported to the PC/Mac and displayed in Google Earth.
>
> (I also have Motion X Drive, but it's not a good GP navigator).
>
>

Thanks Alan! The GPS Motion X compass/navigation screen and the
ability to create waypoints from maps, addresses and coordinates
does me well.

Whether walking, cycling, driving or flying, I make use of
SOG, VMG, DIS, BRG, ETE and ETA.

Thanks!
-Sam

[oriel36]

These gadget guys are nearly as fascinating as their gadgets,can't say
they know so much outside their chosen subject though which amounts to
a moving gadget and the surface of the Earth.We use to use atomic
clocks to fill in the gaps in the GPS system way back when yet for
some unknown reason they projected the Earth's rotational
characteristics out into the celestial arena even though it doesn't
fit.

Now,I had this project going on since 2005 where I work with an uneven
rotational gradient of internal fluid dynamics between equatorial and
polar latitudes acting on the surface crust,it is called plate
tectonics and the evolution and motion of the surface crust is
dependent on a maximum equatorial speed reflecting 15 degrees of
geographical separation with 1037.5 miles,it also reflects 1 hour time
difference.

I would have asked that these dummies come up with a system which
treats daily rotation as an independent motion from its orbital motion
and reflecting an equatorial speed of 1037.5 miles per hour and a full
rotation of the 24901 mile equatorial circumference in 24 hours but
discover that they are entirely stupid when it comes to a moving
Earth,sorry to say.

You do know the Earth is round and rotating ?.

[Sam Wormley]

On 2/7/12 11:36 AM, oriel36 wrote:
> I would have asked that these dummies come up with a system which
> treats daily rotation as an independent motion from its orbital motion

You don't get it Gerald--the earth's rotation (changing over epochs)
*is independent* of the earth's orbital period. There are currently
366.242199 rotation of the earth every astronomical year. This is
easy to measure with a gyro, or even 5th grade kids siting a prominent
star with two sticks, and a timer.

[Alan Browne]

On 2012-02-07 12:49 , Sam Wormley wrote:
> On 2/7/12 11:36 AM, oriel36 wrote:
>> I would have asked that these dummies come up with a system which
>> treats daily rotation as an independent motion from its orbital motion
>
> You don't get it Gerald-

He's a troll Sam, just let it go...

[Alan Browne]

Glad I could help.

[oriel36]

On Feb 7, 5:49 pm, Sam Wormley <sworml...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/7/12 11:36 AM, oriel36 wrote:
>
> > I would have asked that these dummies come up with a system which
> > treats daily rotation as an independent motion from its orbital motion
>
>    You don't get it Gerald--the earth's rotation (changing over epochs)
>    *is independent* of the earth's orbital period.

Ever hear of Feb 29th as the 1461st rotation enclosed in 4 orbital
circuits of the Earth or,in other words,the 4 years that began Mar1st
2008.

These dummies don't get that daily rotation is independent of orbital
motion,the original system was built from the top down starting 1461
days in 4 years and not from the bottom up of 365 1/4 days for 4
years.The averaging process which transfers the 1461 AM/PM cycles to
the 1461 clock AM/PM cycles also substitutes for steady or constant
rotation without any need to appeal to an external reference point.

There are currently
>    366.242199 rotation of the earth every astronomical year.

Dummies one and all,you are introducing a false assumption which tries
to make sense of stellar circumpolar motion and tries to fill in the 3
minute 56 second gap to 24 hours and gaining 4 extra rotations in the
process.The Earth rotates 1461 times in 1461 days and creating a 1465
rotation/1461 day imbalance basically exposes how much these gadget
guys know or care about the Earth or its features.I get to come here
and enjoy guys who imagine they are at the forefront of things get
demoted to little more than very limited dullards.

> This is
>    easy to measure with a gyro, or even 5th grade kids siting a prominent
>    star with two sticks, and a timer.

They will measure a star returning to a meridian based on the
timekeeping average of the 24 hour day within a continuous stream of
24 hours days formatted as 3 years of 365 days and 1 year of 366 days
and no 5th grade school kid will work out the complicated switching
issues between timekeeping and the astronomical cycles with 4 distinct
phases involved.

It is lucky for this group here that my poor proofreading skills and
awkward expression may be an excuse for many to ignore what they
actually believe as principles but to believe 1465 rotations in 1461
days as you are doing now and without objection more than makes up
for any superficial deficiency I may have.

These guys here get paid a few euro/dollars and if all is that they
want then good luck to them but the currency of astronomy was always
marked by an honor and reputation that no money could buy.

[oriel36]

On Feb 7, 6:01 pm, Alan Browne <alan.bro...@FreelunchVideotron.ca>
wrote:

> On 2012-02-07 12:49 , Sam Wormley wrote:
>
> > On 2/7/12 11:36 AM, oriel36 wrote:
> >> I would have asked that these dummies come up with a system which
> >> treats daily rotation as an independent motion from its orbital motion
>
> > You don't get it Gerald-
>
> He's a troll Sam, just let it go...
>

This translates - you are a gadget freak who can't distinguish a
moving gadget from a moving Earth and in believing Sam that the Earth
rotates 1465 times in 1461 days it makes you among the dumbest people
ever to set foot on the planet.

For guys who get paid to work these things out,4 minutes of clock time
equal 1 degree of geographical separation organized around the Earth's
geography.

http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/education/curricula/giscc/units/u014/tables/table02.html

I bet you think you are intelligent ?,but not knowing that Feb 29th is
another rotation of the Earth and the 1461st one that closes out 4
orbital circuits to the nearest rotation basically tells you how much
you do know .I like Edgar Allan Poe's summary of your kind -

"“than the persons thus suddenly elevated by the Hog-ian philosophy
into a station for which they were unfitted — thus transferred from
the sculleries into the parlors of Science — ­from its pantries into
its pulpits — than these individuals a more intolerant — a more
intolerable set of bigots and tyrants never existed on the face of the
earth. Their creed, their text and their sermon were, alike, the one
word ‘fact’ — but, for the most part, even of this one word, they knew
not even the meaning. On those who ventured to disturb their facts
with the view of putting them in order and to use, the disciples of
Hog had no mercy whatever. All attempts at generalization were met at
once by the words ‘theoretical,’ ‘theory,’ ‘theorist;’ — all thought,
to be brief, was very properly resented as a personal affront to
themselves. Cultivating the natural sciences to the exclusion of
Metaphysics, the Mathematics, and Logic, many of these Bacon-
engendered philosophers — one-idead, one-sided and lame of a leg —
were more wretchedly helpless — more miserably ignorant, in view of
all the comprehensible objects of knowledge, than the veriest
unlettered hind who proves that he knows something at least, in
admitting that he knows absolutely nothing." Poe

Presently that is your condition and I don't mind reminding you of it
with a special thanks to Sam.

[oriel36]

On Feb 7, 6:02 pm, Alan Browne <alan.bro...@FreelunchVideotron.ca>
wrote:

Let me help you out.

You imagine that a GPS satellite's only function is to follow the
longitude of its ascending node which effectively is an outrigger of
the Ra/Dec system.As right ascension,fully expressed,in not just an
angle but a format whereby stellar circumpolar acts as a reference for
a timekeeping average within the 24 hour day and an average stream of
24 hour days,it just doesn't ignore the normal Lat/Long as some people
imagine but also the orbital elements which combine with daily
rotation and reflected in the variations in the natural noon cycle -

"The line of nodes pokes out two places, of course. We only need to
specify one of them. One is called the ascending node (where the
satellite crosses the equator going from south to north). The other is
called the descending node (where the satellite crosses the equator
going from north to south). By convention, we specify the location of
the ascending node.

Now, the earth is spinning. This means that we can't use the common
latitude/longitude coordinate system to specify where the line of
nodes points. Instead, we use an astronomical coordinate system, known
as the right ascension / declination coordinate system, which does not
spin with the earth. Right ascension is another fancy word for an
angle, in this case, an angle measured in the equatorial plane from a
reference point in the sky where right ascension is defined to be
zero. Astronomers call this point the vernal equinox."

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/keps/kepmodel.html

Point of fact,the people who talk in terms of the 'Vernal Equinox' are
no astronomers,merely your ancestors who couldn't distinguish between
a clock and a moving Earth or more accurately,decided that they could
model planetary dynamics via right ascension -

" ... our clocks kept so good a correspondence with the Heavens that
I doubt it not but they would prove the revolutions of the Earth to
be isochronical... " John Flamsteed 1677

I wish I could believe you understood all this but I know you may
not,after all,1465 rotations in 1461 days !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

[Jim Glidewell]

> -Sam

One other iPhone/iPad app in a similar vein is ViewRanger. Like GPS Motion
X, it is a "techie" GPS app. It was only released recently, and has a few
rough edges, but it looks like it has potential. One interesting thing it
offers is a customizable trip display with up to 8 sub-panels, either full
screen or about 1/4 screen (on an iPad). Each panel can have a dial, graph,
or text. Text panels offer stuff like ETE, VMG, etc. Minimum is two such
panels, which provides fairly large (say) speedometer and compass...

But GPS Motion X is pretty much the gold standard for iOS apps which
emulate a classic non-auto-nav GPS.

BTW thanks Sam, for all your contributions to this newsgroup. My first GPS
was a Lowrance GM100, and I have learned a lot from this group over the
years...

[Sam Wormley]

Thanks Jim.