GPS and Cell Phones

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

There have been a couple discussions here lately on Cell Phones and GPS systems. If you are searching for a GPS or Cell Phone solution for your lawn care company, you will find this very interesting. I have used Garmin products exclusively for the last 5 to 6 years. However, that may soon come to an end. As noted in a previous post, I have recently upgraded my cell phone to a Droid2. This phone is amazing and it has a couple of GPS and routing features that will interest you. 1) Navigation - The navigation is on par with my newest Garmin. The Droid has full voice recognition. All you have to do is speak the address. The phone then finds the shortest route. You can develop a customer list in your contact folder. Then, all you have to do is speak the name of your customer and the Navigation program finds your customer and routes you using the shortest distance or fastest time. 2) Latitude - Latitude is an amazing function of the Droid that lets you track (real-time) the location of other phones. If each crew has a droid, you can check their location throughout the day to make sure they are keeping to their schedule. FourSquare is another useful location based app. It sends an email (or FaceBook update) when the phone "checks-in" at each location thus giving you a log of your crews movements throughout the day. The Droid2 uses both GPS and Cell-Assisted GPS. Therefore, Navigation works with or without cell service and inside or outside buildings. Latitude requires cell service in order to function properly. I am doing a lot of research and testing of these features so if you have any questions, let me know and I will try to help. Keith

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I am not sure what cell coverage is like in your area, in many places we work it leaves a lot to be desired, especially when working near very high voltage lines. That being said, the Droid has true GPS however without cell, it can not download maps, this may not be an issue for most, just something to be aware of. My son uses his IPhone for GPS, it does not require cell as it uses WiFi and Edge

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Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[Hedgemaster]

I have an HTC HERO (3G Android OS) that has Sprint Navigation GPS.

It works well - even allows you to "speak" the address you are seeking, but it's honestly just too damned small to be of any practical use as a "vehicle GPS".

I'm not much of a techno-geek, so I'm sure there are a lot of useful things I could be using my phone for and just don't know it. (like the things you mentioned above)