GPS App for Droid

[Ashland Train Enthusiast]

Hey all,

So over Christmas my family decided to join the digital revolution and get Droid phones, and one of the first things I thought about was the use of this when traveling via train. I have used a standalone GPS before, but was wondering if anyone knew any good GPS apps for the Droid. I've checked out the Google Maps App on my commute home, but that will only give me where I am, it won't give me other information like my lat/lon, speed, direction, etc.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Have a Happy New Year All!

~ DCTE

 

[Devil's Advocate]

What's weird is that all that information is in there somewhere, it's just not displayed in any obvious way. On my iPhone I have Navigon which worked so-so for the train but had difficulty keeping a signal lock and kept trying to put us on a road somewhere near the tracks. I don't yet have any stand-alone GPS apps on my Android phone but maybe someone else here does.

 

[AferVentus]

Android's such a great curse and blessing in the fact that there are many, many available apps to do the same thing. I've used a few different ones on my Droid 1, and I've found the best to be Google My Tracks. It records everything from speed to lat/long to even max/min grades. And best of all - it is free! Another great thing is that you can upload the maps to google and even share them with others (if you so desire). Oh and one other great thing - it can do a chart of your overall speed and/or elevation. I just recorded our entire MSP-WFH trip on one map - it works without 3g, too!

 

[Long Train Runnin']

For basic info I use an app called GPS Status it gives you speed and lat/long and elevation and so on. It doesn't put all on a map though just that information displayed on the screen.

I've used the GPS on my droid on many trips, and it works quite well. My favorite use for it is waking up on the top bunk of a superliner, and in less then a minute I know where I am.

 

[fredevad]

I've used one called "GPSTracker Lite". It plots your position on a map while showing you your longitude, latitude and speed. It will also record your geo tracks. I would just like to have one that allows you to see your position on the map with an overlay display of speed and altitude, but this is the closest I've come (in the free apps realm anyway).

 

[ABDeh88]

I know this is a few months old but I installed Instamapper. Works pretty well. Runs in background and will plot your tracks on their website. It is free!

 

[Green Maned Lion]

iPhone > droid

 

[Stephen]

Is there a working app for Amtrak?

 

[railiner]

I found the Verizon Navigator to work nicely for my purpose on my plain old flip phone. I used it while riding the Eagle detour thru Illinois last year, and it showed clearly that we were in fact on the railroad, not a parallel highway. It even showed the owning railroad reporting marks as well as tenant roads using the portion. No speed info, but my watch and mileposts handle that the old fashioned way.

 

[PerRock]

Is there a working app for Amtrak?

No. People keep asking Amtrak to develop one, but there is no response from Amtrak. Although I think the only reason Amtrak spent the money developing an iOS ap for them is that the new eticketing system uses iphones.

peter