A mini laptop or Ipad as my trail GPS?

[jgeck90]

That EEE tablet looks like it's going to fit my needs perfectly!
I was also looking at the Acer and HP mini lap tops but that beats it by being a tablet.
I honestly think that will be my decision!

Question about Delorme: Does it show off highway trails? Like say rubicon trail, Dusy ershim trail, or any of the national forest roads?


TheKsmith: Can you elaborate = "he Delorme software is the best all-around topo & routable software, but leaves alot to be desired.

 

[theksmith]

Question about Delorme: Does it show off highway trails? Like say rubicon trail, Dusy ershim trail, or any of the national forest roads?

TheKsmith: Can you elaborate = "he Delorme software is the best all-around topo & routable software, but leaves alot to be desired.

yes it shows many off-highway trails.

it shows off-highway and street/freeway in vector format, so it is routable (i.e. "how do i get here? how many miles? etc.). it also is capable of downloading and displaying raster USGS topo maps and aerial/satellite imagery. one great feature is a yearly "unlimited downloads" subscription for a reasonable price (like $30 i think last time i looked).

the downsides are mainly a clunky interface. i just don't think the interface was ever run by any usability engineers. it's not intuitive. the entire way it manages external files for trails and such is not very flexible. the other big downside is really slow re-draw when panning - even google earth on my laptop or desktop with full details turned on and in 3D is faster to pan than the Delorme Topo in 2D mode, and 3D mode is even slower. usually not a big deal since you will be using it to track along with your GPS (so it's panning small amounts). however, when you are panning around and zooming in and out trying to plan a route, the slowness is frustrating. maybe it works better with some graphics cards than others, but it redraws slowly on all 3 of my modern machines. the smaller the actual window, the faster it is (so on a small laptop/tablet, it won't be bad). oh and even the zoom tool is just r-tard.

so those are some of the drawbacks, but where else are you going to get topo, routeable, and cheap aerial/satellite for that price?

 

[jgeck90]

Awesome! This answers many of my questions.

I can't bring myself to pay $200 for a laptop mount so i am going to hit up my fab guy for a mount. All i need is swivel and tilt after we find it's final mounting place.