Silver Case

Someone emailed me a UPS tracking number. When I tried to select-copy, it instead simply asked if I wanted to track the shipment directly! Hahah oh my…clever!

I’ve been hating Garmin since 2001.

Their shitty proprietary software and proprietary data have been my bane on every vacation I brought Garmin equipment to. It’s not a walled garden, it’s a walled slum. Years ago I would say, “I wish Apple would make a GPS — at least they could do the interface right.”

It’s only recently come home to me that I have something even better than an Apple GPS unit…I have an iPhone.

It’s an Apple UI + Google brains + Google Ubiquity. And it’s just part of my phone… no stupid walkie-talkie sized nerd tool. And it doesn’t need to rely on GPS — it can figure its location from triangulating cell-phone towers, too.

Now Garmin doesn’t get to ransom me into buying CDs of their stale old data for each of the regions I might travel to and then guess which regions I should download to my handheld unit. If I am connected to the net, the iPhone just sucks down whatever map data it needs from Google (both map and satellite imagery) (for free)

The UI is Apple/Google, not something farted out by one of Garmin’s Kansan engineers. I guess it lacks the “Hunt/Fish Calendar” and the “High Altitude / Low Opening Parachute” function, but I can probably get by without. In the worst case, I’d just google for whatever it is those two stupid Garmin functions do.

Example: I MMS’d this screenshot to Ling so she knew where/when I’d be coming from when I met her at the Queen Victoria Building.

And since it’s Google, the place finding and direction routing is superb. It allows you to route for driving, walking, and even public transport (although the transport is in beta and failed to work with Sydney trains)

What’s the downside? If I use the iphone for data in a country where I don’t have a data plan, it can be fiendishly expensive. Fortunately, I can get ok data plans for most places I travel to. (note to self: get ready for Italy)

The other downside? The iPhone battery is pretty bad and the GPS/Map seems to be a particulary vicious joule consumer. I really should find a decent (non-Griffin) car charger for my iPhone.

But anyway, the tide has turned.

Death To Garmin!
Death To Garmin Apologists!

While Matt was here, we tinkered on servicing my pool of bicycles. Only just recently did I finish sanding off the light rust layers from all the spokes of my lightweight Shimano road wheels.  All week long I had good intentions to ride in the morning.  Alas, every single one of those intentions was abandoned.  So this afternoon, after a delightful chile-mushroom-pasta invention by Matilda, I went off on a ride.

I was trying to record the trip using the iPhone App TrailGuru.  But I couldn’t get a fix with my GPS.  Later on I restarted the phone, and it managed to figure out where it was. Therefore I only recorded a short 8km fragment of what was a 48km (~30mile) ride. Next time I’ll get a proper, full log. The app looks pretty clever. I think the only pisser is that it needs to be the foreground app at all times.

Anyway, I came back pretty shagged. I was out for maybe 2 hours or so.  I came home, showered, cooled off, and then accidentally fell asleep for something like three hours. So now I have the disgusting overslept feeling.  One indicator of how out-of-shape and off-the-bike I’ve been — my forearms are sunburned.  That’s soft.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!