By now you have no doubt experienced GPS in one form or another. Perhaps you have a Garmin GPS device or you have used a similar system in a rental car and thought, “that sure would be handy on trip or for traveling.” Well, you are in luck. If you have an iPad (3G preferred) then you have a perfectly viable GPS solution right in your hands. Here we will show you how to get the most out of your iPad as a GPS device.
What is GPS
GPS stands for Global Positioning System and it is a space-based global navigation satellite system which provides reliable location information no matter what the weather is or your location (to an extent). GPS is maintained by the government and is freely accessible by anyone with a GPS receiver.
How Can GPS Be Useful
GPS can be handy for many things other than just getting directions. Here are a few examples of how GPS can be useful:
- Driving directions
- Navigation within a new city or town
- Traveling
- Finding places of interest
- Tracking where you have been
- Social media
- Boating
Those are just a few examples, but in general GPS is great because of its accuracy and independence. You can be in Europe or in Africa and GPS will still work and provide you with accurate and useful information.
The iPad As An Assisted GPS Device
The iPad can also act as a GPS receiver. However, before we go any further there are few things to understand about the iPad and GPS.
- The WiFi Only model of iPad does not have Assisted GPS. It simply uses surrounding Wireless signals to infer location-based information
- Assisted GPS on the iPad 3G means that it uses Celluar towers to derive “GPS” information. Much more accurate than the WiFi only model.
The two points above mean that the iPad is not officially a GPS receiver in the sense that a Garmin (or like device) is. The 3G model is by far the more accurate of the two models so if you want to use GPS apps with any degree of accuracy, then it is recommended to use the 3G iPad.
GPS iPad Apps
Now that you know what GPS is, how useful it can be and the iPad’s implementation of GPS, let’s get into the really good stuff. The Apps. We are going to introduce a few useful GPS-based iPad apps here so you can go explore and see how nice it is to have the iPad become even more useful. Now, we can’t cover them all but here’s a great sampling of some top-rated GPS apps to try out.
Maplets
Maplets is a great compliment to Google Maps. It is also a great way to use GPS on your iPad. The way it works is that you download any map you want in their database of National Parks, Subways, Ski Resorts, Zoos, etc. (there are over 1000 in total). Then, you open a map and use it with GPS right on the iPad for navigation, location information or hotlinks to get up-to-date information such as the latest weather report.
Here you have the perfect mix of mapping with GPS. Imagine getting ready to go to the San Diego Zoo. Instead of that paper map they give you, how about bringing your iPad (you would anyway, right?) and then downloading the San Diego Zoo map and using it to find your way around. The same goes for subways and cities.
Spyglass
Here is an extremely useful iPad GPS app for all types of outdoor activities from marking and then finding your car, camp or hotel to many needs during hunting, fishing, hiking, scouting, seafaring, sports and touring.
This iPad GPS app is really pretty amazing. It simultaneously tracks multiple targets (GPS locations, constant bearings, and stars), that can be added manually or automatically. The positions being tracked can be displayed as augmented reality markers or as bearing hints on a compass when they are not in sight of a camera.
What makes this app so useful is the amount of measurements it can make and then how it uses those to give you some great applications to work with.
Breast Health GPS
Now here is a different use of GPS but very useful. This iPad GPS app has one primary goal and that is to use GPS to locate the nearest, certified mammogram screening center.
Using GPS it will locate on a map, the nearest screening center, provide directions, contact information and the ability to upload photos for posting to the Theresa quilt ( a gree on-line virtual quilt dedicated to breast cancer survivors).
MotionX GPS Drive HD
This app turns any iPad 3G into a next-generation car and pedestrian navigation solution. This app has some really nice and highly-rated features that make it unique. It has a “door-to-door” personal navigation feature and the ability to look up anything anywhere with voice navigation to get you there.
This is perfect for driving or walking! If you happen to be driving and have an auxiliary input jack in your car stereo then you can also get the voice navigation right out of your car speakers. To do this, you will need a 1/8″ (3.5mm) audio jack which you can get here.
One of the unique things about this iPad GPS app is the nature of it’s live search. It uses continual up to date information from the Internet to have the most accurate and truly relevant results. It uses the latest NAVTEQ maps, Bing search, and live predictive traffic from TrafficCast.
For the iPad it has full landscape support, a magnetic compass, address book integration, and it includes 30 days of Live Voice Guidance free. (You have to pay for the service after your 30 day trial).
If you have a Garmin-type GPS device you will be amazed at how extra-useful this app is. It can provide the same functionality with extended features for a fraction of the cost.
GPS Tracking Pro
You can use this great iPad GPS app to locate someone instantly. Use it to locate a child, parent, friend or business associate. Ever had a situation where you would like to find someone quickly and they aren’t responding to your phone call? How about a busy conference where it’s not convenient to call but you need to find someone? Or even needing to location a child at the mall? GPS Tracking Pro helps out here.
With security in mind you can locate and find anyone that is using the same app (whether on their iPhone or iPad). The great thing here is that you can find and locate others right on the built-in Maps app. It’s as easy as pushing a button to let other GPS tracking users know where you are or to request their location. The latest update to the app also includes Twitter and Facebook connect.
Tip: wanna make sure you can find your car in a huge parking lot? Just “mark” it with this app and then it will let you know how to get back to it later.
This app shows off the usefulness of GPS in a different way than just driving directions.
Trails – GPS Tracker
Yet another great use of the iPad and GPS. This is one of the highest rated apps for tracking. With it, you can record, export, and import tracks directly on your iPad. This is one of the best apps for hiking as it allows you to record your hikes and then view those later on an OpenStreeMap (the Wikipedia for maps) that includes all kinds of other information such as bike trails, ATM’s and ski lifts).
Trails will let you edit your hikes and you can then export it in the standard GPX format. This allows for geotagging your photos or sharing your tracks with others on Google Earth.
Where To Go?
For our last iPad GPS app we show you one you can use while traveling. No matter if you need to find a grocery store, restaurant, pharmacy or historical point of interest this app has it all – there are over 500 location types included. It even includes turn-by-turn directions to get you there.
With over 500 location types that means there isn’t much you could need to find that this app cannot find and it uses accurate GPS information for navigation. The developers are currently working on an offline version of the database so you can still use it even without GPS.
So we conclude by saying that the iPad is definitely a great GPS device. It is not perfect but even by using the cellular towers to get GPS information, it is still highly accurate and with some of the apps we profiled you can clearly see that there are more uses to GPS than just driving directions.
So how do you use the iPad as your GPS device? Let us know!
This iPad GPS app has one primary goal and that is to use GPS to locate the nearest, certified mammogram screening center.