Re: OT

On 2026/8/20 16:41:47, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> J. P. Gilliver <[email protected]> wrote:
[]
>   For use in countries like your and mine, a dedicated device is fine.
> 
>   But for more sparsely populated areas it's nice and often essential to
> have several different map sources (TomTom, HERE/NAVTEQ, OSM). A
> dedicated device doesn't offer that flexibility. (N.B. The OSM
> (OpenStreetMaps) maps often show roads where the vehicles of the
> commercial map providers don't bother/dare to come.)

In this country they do get to soee pretty obscure places - I remember
being at a remote farm in Northumberland and most surprised to see the
Google car there! For many years I used to show people me and my friends
on Google (Rivergreen mill), though you had to pick your angle. But yes,
I take your point.

> 
>   Case in point: In Queensland (Australia), we encountered a couple with
> a car and caravan who were about to take a 500km detour, because the
> road they were on was not on their dedicated device and they didn't dare
> to continue. We could show them that the road would take them where they
> wanted to go, saving them some 400km.

Probably apocryphal story - someone going to an address in, I think it
was, Alice Springs. The SatNav said turn right (or left), then didn't
say anything for the next 500 miles or whatever. ("And then I missed the
turn ...")

> 
>   A long, long time ago, in Australia, I was about to buy my first
> dedicated navigation device, but hesitated several times. Eventually I
> bit the bullet and bought my very first 'smartphone', with a whopping
> '4GB' - actually 1GB 'free', if that 'much' - (non-volatile) storage.
> Added a MicroSD card for the maps and never looked back.
> 
>   But, as always, YMMV/YMWV.

I would imagine smartphones - plus the incorporation of SatNavs into new
cars (are they a standard thing these days? I rarely buy a car - mine's
twenty this half) - has more or less done for standalone devices, except
for people wanting to drive old cars in areas where there's no cellular
coverage, which can't be a very big market, so the price of standalones
has probably rocketed.
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If a cluttered desk is characteristic of a cluttered mind, what does an
empty desk mean ?