Following on from Darky's post RE: mobile phones.

[Spriteah]

HTC Magic

 

Magic I have with Voda phone. I love the phone and has good apps some fly. It's android and if you are brave you can make lots of changes to it at your own risk.

 

I have flight panel which is great however keep in mind not flight instruments. On a balanced turn acellerometers don't detect changes. But the in built GPS gives you direction, ground speed, Alt, and some climb info. Now that telstra is releasing android im expecting lots of i phone apps to come across.

 

Regards,

 

Jim

 

 

[DarkSarcasm]

Just hijacking this thread slightly...although still on topic

 

I think that you can get a program/setting for a GPS which tracks your path - it draws a line on the map where you've been which you can save to your computer (hopefully this explanation makes sense!)

 

My question is - can you get an app for android that does the same for your phone? If you have your phone in the aircraft with you, can you use an app to track your flightpath and show on the map where you've been?

 

Or am I am completely wrong and you can't do this at all?

 

(Please don't tell me about the 'amazing iPhone app you can get to do that', otherwise I might be tempted to :Annie:)

 

 

[CraigRat]

My Tracks for Android | GPS Tracklog

[Guest davidh10]

...I would rather gouge my left eye out slowly with a blunt screwdriver than have to ever deal with Telstra EVER again. In my experience, they have the worst most unreliable website on the 'net and have the most useless, aggravating, unresponsive "customer service" operation bar none.You have been warned . . .

That's what happens when companies outsource their customer service. The :devil: is in the detailthumb_down

 

 

[DarkSarcasm]

My Tracks for Android | GPS Tracklog[/url]

Thanks Craig :)

 

I installed it last night and tried it at my lesson today.

 

The result -

 

 

So I think I'd recommend this app if anyone else wants to do the same thing :)

 

 

[GraemeK]

A very timely thread, and some great advice!

 

I was in the market for a new phone (the ancient i-MATE JAM was slowly degenerating into old age, getting to the stage of needing a reboot once a day to fix its scrambled memory cells), and was leaning to the iPhone.

 

After reading through this thread, however, I took a closer look at the HTC Desire. All the reviews seemed to rate it above the iPhone. After looking at each side by side, the standout for me was the screen, the iPhone's looked a bit fuzzy and dull by comparison. apart from that, it did everything I needed, plus seemed to be more customisable.

 

So I ended up getting the HTC, and so far am very pleased with it. I've downloaded the GPS tracking app, so I'll be able to see how accurate my circuits are!

 

So again thanks to the contributors on this thread for steering me in the right direction!

 

 

[Thalass]

I know many of the (younger) pilots at work have a NAIPS program for their iphones - which i'm told is weather and flight planning. I wouldn't touch an iphone with a stick. I wouldn't want the lobotomy and free membership to Steve Jobs' harem that comes with it. :P

 

I'm getting a Nokia N900 soon (vodafone contract expires in november, I may have to cop a couple of months early-termination fee), but I'm an engineer and linux nerd so I'll enjoy fiddling around with all the neato stuff it can do. haha

 

 

[Tracktop]

Hi all

 

Well had the HTC Desire for a couple of weeks now and it seems GREAT.

 

Nice to have in flight weather Radar, real time tracking on satellite or map overlay.

 

Good maps ( not aviation ones though - or I haven't yet found them )

 

Great screen, in all but the brightest daylight and even then still viewable.

 

A touch screen to die for., especially after using

 

the navman / moe/ ipaq types previously - absolutely vague and totally unresponsive compared to the Desire. Simply amazing how, with my fat fingers I can type on a screen qwerty keyboard with 4mm * 8mm buttons butted together mostly error free.

 

Negatives so far that I am still working on finding a solution for.

 

1. The phone seems to need to lay flat for the compass to work nicely.

 

2. Speed indication on all the programs ( and they do vary between programs ) I have tried so far ( mostly in the car/truck where it should be fairly constant) seem to fluctuate up to about 4km/ hr rather than giving a steady state speed. I am not yet sure if it is GPS reception, GPS performance, lack of good program speed analysis or something else I haven't thought of yet.

 

A couple of essential add-ons ( Free) that I have found.

 

Call Confirm - stops accidental calls with such a responsive screen input.

 

Volume Locker - stops accidentally turning the the ringer volume down while in you pocket

 

Just working on in flight calls now. The People from Lynx - my radio interface brand tell me they are expecting a HTC/iphone interface solution and a blue tooth interface within the next couple of weeks. :-)

 

Ray

 

 

[CraigRat]

Iphone 4 ........ Lo and behold - it can even make phone calls!!

In light of recent events would you like to retract this post (or at least the last bit)??:big_grin:

 

 

[Thalass]

Only if you aren't holding it!

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

Only if you aren't holding it!

Perhaps you are holding it the wrong way!

 

There have been two reports along these lines. One indicates that the phone does not favour left handed people in terms of obtaining better reception and the other discloses that Apple have admitted that their algorithm for showing signal strength is showing two bars too much and they will release a firmware fix. That won't fix actual reception, but may disclose how bad it is actually. Links to the two blogs are provided below.

 

Is Apple covering up the real problem with its iPhone? | ZDNet

 

Apple: Don't hold your iPhone 4 that way | ZDNet

 

 

[Tomo]

Me and my Brother are both Lefty's, he has the iPhone, and gets the exact same reception as I do with my Nokia, which is a quite a lot of area considering. Only difference I can plug mine into the external ariel on my ute to get more reception in more of a remote area. Failing that, use the UHF!

 

With Telstra obviously.

 

When my simple contraption dies I'll probably go iPhone, it is more user friendly and idiot proof in my opinion. Which is a must if I'm using it! ;)

 

 

[Spin]

iPhone 4 Tomo? That seems to be where the trouble is, with blame apparently centering on the antenna system which uses the metal part of the body in the circuit.

 

 

[Tomo]

iPhone 4 Tomo? That seems to be where the trouble is, with blame apparently centering on the antenna system which uses the metal part of the body in the circuit.

No not the 4th G

 

I guess we wait to find out what the 4 is really going to be like when it gets here in more force.

 

 

[flying dog]

Ok,

 

You got to look at this link then.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4742268086_d8e9ea1dda_o.jpg

 

 

 

[Tomo]

Ok,You got to look at this link then.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4742268086_d8e9ea1dda_o.jpg

 

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

Ok,You got to look at this link then.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4742268086_d8e9ea1dda_o.jpg

 

What a ripper FD:laugh:

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

Here's a technical review demonstrating that the iPhone V4 is a better unit in terms of receiving weaker signals, but that the external antennas cause significant signal degradation when held in the wrong way.

 

The particular blog linked usually has good reviews IMHO. At least there are actual measurements, so objective results, not just FUD or subjective assessment.

 

 

[P4D]

Every Android user needs Android Travel App, Android GPS Tracking by EveryTrail This not only records your track and distance information it includes height (altitude) information as well. There is also an iPhone version if you are infected with that particular disease

 

 

[CraigRat]

Every Android user needs Android Travel App, Android GPS Tracking by EveryTrail This not only records your track and distance information it includes height (altitude) information as well. There is also an iPhone version if you are infected with that particular disease

Grabbed that App today, and took it up while doing circuits.

 

The result: Flying lesson 12 - Flying - Everytrail. Awesome.

 

(Did my first unassisted landing today too on the final one... a little bit on the hard side, but a good feeling none the less!!)

 

 

[mAgNeToDrOp]

Had my HTC desire for about 2 weeks now, fantastic little unit.. good to see more and more apps appearing too, prefer it to the iphone as its more customisable, nice to see a real alternative to the iphone

 

 

[justinm001]

:)

 

 

[CraigRat]

Goto find me an app for windows mobile/i900 now..

EveryTrail - Windows Mobile Application

These doovers are great to keep an eye on consistency. I have noticed that my circuits this weekend were a lot more uniform that the last lot.

 

(Mind you, conditions were totally different...smooth as silk on Saturday for the most part)

 

It's also interesting to dump this stuff in to Google Earth and look at the altitude and all that on the track log.

 

What can I say, I loves me some gadgetry..... and this phone has taken my usual array of gadgets that I have on me (GPSr, Phone, MP3 player , Compass) and distilled it in to one chunk of awesome :-) ... It even makes phone calls!

 

I should point out that the GPS recivers in all these phones are NOT on par with a dedicated device... I've been testing against my Garmin GPSrs I have. (yes, multiple) and the quality is not in the same ballpark..... Good but not great...so my Oregon is still my primary GPSr for now when in the bush or whatnot.

 

 

[bushpilot]

Just posted this thread. It's only relevant to iPhone and iPad, but it's all to do with aviation. Hope OZ coverage happens at some stage:

 

http://www.recreationalflying.com/forum/avionics-engines-props/104299-new-aviation-app-foreflight.html#post213216

 

P.S. If you are choosing a phone to use in the air, it has to be NextG to get decent coverage. I've had 3 phones on 3 networks running on flights all around NSW and only Next G gives 90% coverage.. (And I'm not a Telstra reseller..)

 

 

[Admin]

Ok, I now have to weigh in on this discussion...

 

I have a HTC TYTN 11 that is about 2.5 years old. When it was 2 months old I had it in my pocket and stepped into the spa to clean it but the water came up to just above the bottom of my pocket so the Tytn got wet.

 

I had it fixed for $600 and the darn phone was only 2mths old.

 

Now that it is 2.5 years old the touch screen has failed. This will cost $200 to get fixed.

 

My question is what would you do...get a new modern phone that I can get apps for and like my Tytn use as a backup gps plus more and if so which phone OR get my old Tytn 2 repaired till the next time?

 

Got to decide in the next 24hrs