N things

[seryn]

I watched Accepted and really enjoyed it.
I'm not sure who played the main B guy nor where all these people with Muppet mouths have come from in the past decade. Usually when people grin from ear to ear, it requires their facial muscles moving. Some of these actors lately look like their ears are reinforced hinges for their mouths.

Did I say that I read all three books of The Hunger Games trilogy? I did. Honestly, Collins's other series was better than these. I wasn't too disappointed, but I thought it came out pretty obvious. Some of that was based on an animated movie I saw about a scary house where during the credits characters who had been "killed" early on crawled out, obviously having just been snared. I'd seen a commentary where the speaker said they'd had to add that to get the child-friendly rating they wanted. So there wasn't a lot of doubt about the overall outcome for me--- I thought the plot was really obvious. But my major problem is that I hated Katniss.

A former friend talked about a story crafting class she'd been in where they were taught that the central character of a book is the character who changes the most. Katniss should never have been the star of the books if you're using that definition. Of course since none of the central characters did much changing at all, maybe it stops being a surprise that the plot bored me.

I'm officially old, by the way, there's a billboard advertising a radio station as being an "oldies station" that's "all 80s!" But what makes me feel even older is how much some of the most modern music sounds like the easy listening music from the 70s. Maybe not topically, but instrumentally and vocally.

Something else that needs changing... apparently British schoolchildren's cheap-ass notebooks are all grid kind. I can't even get college rule notebooks when I'm shopping during "back to school" (which occurs during July now!!! Summer doesn't really start until August, lately it's seemed like the seasons are almost a whole season late, so Summer break is like a 3 month Spring break that happens to occur between school years. More and more schools have to have air conditioning too.) I mean, sure, I can get fancy notebooks, but when you're grabbing a 10-pack of 70 page spiral notebooks for $1, they're always the ones with the super-wide rule. Personally I prefer grid paper.

Panasonic makes great stuff. I really like the new house phones we got. The only thing I wish we'd done differently is bought the whole set, spent the money for a new answering machine too. Because now it tells me in the bedroom that I've "missed a call" because I answered it in the kitchen. Panasonic makes great cameras too. If cell phones weren't all about the software and the service, I'd wish they made cell phones. (The camera software that came with the camera kind of sucks compared to Picasa.)

I'm glad I didn't buy an iPad, I saw the rumors that there would be a smaller cheaper one in a few months. Plus rumors that there would be a front-lit Kindle. I might still want a Kindle Fire for the streaming of video content, but I feel stupid being too lazy to carry my laptop 20 feet.

I do need a phone but I was really disappointed that buying a whole set of matched Apple products wouldn't enable me to sync them to each other trivially. I'm really disappointed in Sprint and their pathetic 4G coverage while they're selling ultra expensive 4G phones.

What's the general concensus on GPS v. using your phone for driving directions?

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Do you mean a standalone GPS device or GPS built into the car? The latter tends to lag a bit for updates, eventually. But I find the phone's directions hard to use while driving unless I set everything up beforehand, have one destination (car can do multiple destinations in sequence), and turn on speech mode.

[seryn]

I want to be able to go places I've never been while I'm driving alone in the car. I've had more than a decade of always having a navigator. I'm not getting a new car and mine is so old that there's no spot for it to be built-in. So I'm debating between a stand-alone car GPS and the phone version.

The cons for the phone version are the limited functionality, and I'd need a new phone.

The cons for the stand alone version are the hundreds of dollars for a mono-purpose device that increases the risk your car will be stolen so it requires awkwardly moving it into and out of place every time.

There's a lot of detailed decisions to be made about the stand-alone GPSs too, competing brands have different features and it's often hard to tell which things are going to be deal breakers. Garmin supposedly gives lifetime map updates by putting ads on the screen. TomTom supposedly has screens that are unreadable in sunlight. TomTom does read street names, according to an experience in a friend's car, but Garmin acquires satellite links a lot faster.

I've picked out a model I think I might like, it's the forthcoming TomTom 6" screen model. But I'm wondering why I think it's worth $230 and the lack of privacy just not to have to plan ahead. Then I remember coming home after dark from somewhere I'd never been before, where I'd only printed the TO directions and my phone had gone flat. AAA promises roadside assistance but you can't call them and say "I can't get home from here because I'm lost." And doubly so when you don't have a phone. It worked out but I was left feeling that I probably shouldn't go to new places.

[thistleingrey]

Makes sense. Something that can tell you audibly that the next turn is coming up seems most useful, then, for driving alone, if you buy such a device at all.

Android phones use Google Maps (what else), and their speech module tells you when next to turn--though their GPS is sometimes imprecise. They'll say the correct street name and direction, in other words, but you may be a block away. Then again, you don't need to remember to remove/hide an extra thing if it's your phone, assuming that you don't have a regular problem remembering to pick up your phone from the passenger seat or whatever.

A 6" model sounds like it'd have a very readable map, which is a plus if you're figuring out the turns yourself. In some areas, both GPS and phone will refuse to tell you where to turn, and you do need to be able to do it yourself from the map. When darkforge's sister turned forty, she had a movable winetasting party, and we left the lands that the car's system knew (good thing I like maps).

Good luck deciding--it seems an issue of which features one needs most/least.

[seryn]

The friend who had the TomTom put it on when we were headed out of my neighborhood and the part I knew of the directions, I was only a second ahead of the device, and it was more precise.

So it seems like they've advanced enough to be a good substitute to bringing your own friend.

There are phone apps from Garmin and TomTom where you can get their data. But it costs about as much as buying the separate device--- and frankly my phone doesn't get that great of connectivity. OK.

That solves that. I should definitely get the stand-alone device. GPS devices plug into the car system, (I could get a phone charger) and you don't pay for data transactions to find out if you're lost.

[pj]

I have only used the Google one on my Droid. I've had no problems with it and when I change my route from which it thinks is best it adapts quickly to the new route. <-----This is an important feature because in Pittsburgh the roads are a maze that every out-of-towner complains about. The voice is annoying, but other than that I am happy to have it because it gives me the confidence to venture places I would not have gone otherwise.

OlderBoy had both a Garmin and a Droid phone and prefers the Droid navigation by far.

[seryn]

That helps. I've come to understand that a lot of people don't like the Garmin navigation because it doesn't have streetnames when it reads aloud.

One of the things stand alone GPSs have now that I'm interested in is lane highlighting, so you can be informed in advance which lane goes where you're going. Often times here the backup starts well before the lanes are labeled for the highway split. The other thing I've heard tell of is that GPS devices know what the current speed limit is where you are. California has a major dearth of speed limit signs, like you're lucky to see one every 5 miles, even in major interchanges. The highway that goes nearest my apartment is 65 but it's right after an interchange with a road that's 55, so most of the people drive 55 because they don't know. It's really irritating if you've been on that road for a while and are just trying to get home because you have to drive in the slowpoke lanes to get to the exit. I'd been thinking for a while that roads should emit speed limit pings and all cars should be required to display the current speed limit. But that would be expensive and nobody else wants it. (In other states they can afford speed limit signs.) So I was intrigued to hear that GPS devices have that.

If I was using my phone for directions, I'd want the voice directions and voice recognition to work pretty well. And I'd want a charging dock. My current phone doesn't talk.


But I need to be able to get to places without a navigator, so I think I should get something. I appreciate your comments. Because it sounds like you agree with the "something" part of the idea.

[pj]

You do need something. I think it's pretty individual which works best and I don't have enough experience with stand alone GPS units to give much detail.

We use the phone's system even when the hubster is driving and it is more useful probably because I can look ahead w/o you know, crashing the car from eyes off of the road.

I have used it alone, though. I look over the route first and have a vague idea of where I'm going. I've never used it "cold" so I don't know how well my hearing it and driving skills would integrate with no prior knowledge of the route.