GPS on the iPhone - good and bad

I went to Nottingham this week for a short conference in Jubilee Park. I was expecting deep snow, but it wasn't deep at all. There was more fog than snow. Here's the view from the 'Meridian' train.

Before I left London, and it was a bit touch and go waiting at the ticket office, I bought an addendum to my train ticket. PlusBus extensions. Living in London, I'm used to the idea of a travel card, and actually it's not a London thing at all now, many bus companies offer all day 'rover' tickets allowing travel (on their network) in a region. PlusBus builds on this by putting (participating) bus companies together on one ticket. Buses and in Birmingham, Nottingham (yay!) and Sheffield, the trams too. This is what it looks like. No, nothing special.

Well, that's great, but you go to this strange city. How do you know what bus to take? I think I've said it before, so I'll say it again. Plan in advance with Transport Direct. TD, somehow has many or most, or all (I don't know) bus timetables built into it's online planner.

But this time, I did it live as the train arrived at Nottingham station. How? Because TD's buses (but not the trams) are the source for Google Maps UK public transport options on the iPhone. Well, it seems so. I took this screen shot on the tram (tramways don't seem to exist on GoogleMaps).

Off the tram, I used the compass to set me in the right direction to the bus stop. Here it is.

It seems like the TWO service is very frequent. A bus turned up 10 mins before I expected. I was rather impressed by the fake leather interior.

Slim seats, but not used to give extra legroom, sadly. I kept the maps app running with GPS on (4% battery in 11 mins!), and I was able to see clearly ahead where to ring the bell to get off. I rung the bell as we crossed the railway line.

You have to suspend disbelief at this point and just follow the map. Luckily, despite minor doubts, and walking a bit further than the map, I got there on-time. I commend this method to the masses!

View from my venue. Some interesting architecture in Jubliee Park.

So that was good.

Today, I went for a walk and because Google Maps doesn't do tracking, and I wanted to track and measure my walk, I decided to use GPS Motion-X, or whatever it's called. I find it a bit hard to use frankly. I only just now, back from my walk found how to enable Google Maps within it. The regular load maps menu just has open street and open cycle maps. You have to click further down the menu, select north up and then you get the option.

Menu? On the iPhone? Menu, hidden away? On the iPhone? Like I said, I find it a bit hard to use. Then there is the GPS. I got this for the majority of my walk.

I wasn't walking in forests. I was walking in South London, mostly in parks in the open air, or along roads with few trees. Google maps was able to get a signal when riding on a bus and when walking the narrow streets of Nottingham. This thing couldn't find a signal on top of One Tree Hill. Well, it found a signal right on top, and what a view from up there, North to St. Pauls! But off the summit - beep beep beep, no signal.

But back to Open Street map, and I realise now that Google Maps is hidden in the app. This was my experience most of the time.

No GPS signal, and no map either. I dunno, can hear a drum beat, can you hear it? I hear it all the time (when I'm using this app). It says "The master is coming, the master is coming, Viewranger is coming Viewranger is coming"

Well, I'm waiting cash in hand. This is all Motion X got.

3 miles tracked, whereas, yes I walked north through Mountsfield park and out the other side, then west to Ladywell Fields and north through it along the Ravensourne River. Out the top and up, up, up to the summit of Hilly Fields and down to the Brockley exit.

At this point I switched to another GPS app, Atlas. It got a signal where Motion failed, but it doesn't seem to have any functions. It tracks but doesn't analyse it. I think it is just an adjunct to the desktop, RouteBuddy application.

So anyway, I walked up to Honor Oak and up, up, up to the summit of One Tree Hill, passing into Southwark (gasp!). Back down and then (back into Lewisham, phew!) down Honor Oak Road to the South Circular and the Horniman Museum. The aquarium is great and definitely worth a visit. I was captivated.

Then I walked down the South Circular back home. About 4 hours of walking! I need to do this sort of thing more often. My feet were fine the whole time too, especially my right foot. Walking is fun!