For any iPad 3g users out there in cyber space, what's your opinion of the built in GPS? In particular, how reliable is signal lock? Especially in a car? Also, do you notice any latency in position when you are traveling at high speeds.
Thanks
Ipad is useless junk -
Deral..iPad?
I believe Deral uses an iPad. Hopefully he sees this and can help answer your questions. 🙂
Sorry that I cannot be of any help. I did not get the 3G iPad but only the vanilla one. I have wifi at the house and found hot spots all over the country on my recent trip. I got the iPad to surf the internet, check email and to download my photos. It does all these extremely well and has a big bright screen.
I love the touch screen. It's a breeze to use. I do use the ArcGIS app and a few others that expand the standard use of the iPad. The only expensive app that I have purchased ($9.99) was the word processor so that I would take notes at the ESRI conference.
I have some crossword games, suduko and a few other entertainment apps but Gale usually will run off with the iPad if she has a chance. She loves the games and the light weight of the iPad.
It is not a computer nor will it do any heavy lifting but for what I wanted it has turned out to be the perfect choice.
I would expect the GPS to be about the same as the smart phones.
Deral
Hey Deral, just curious how the ArcGIS app works and what it can be used for. My mother in law has the same unit you have, and loves it. I just asked her if she used it or her laptop more, she said ipad, hands down.
I use the ArcGIS app to get maps and data from the cloud.
I can build a map in the office on the main computer then retrieve it while in the field via the iPad. With the cell model then you could easily serve up data in real time to the crews from the office.
I used it the other day to build, in real time, a map that showed the census data for a question in Lawton about redistricting. It took several minutes to pull all the data that I needed and build a map. This while I had no cad/gis products on the iPad other than the free app.
I could see it being used during presentations to pull up displays and maps that you are wanting to show a client. You could feed questions back to the office, have them build a map then look like some magician by being able to call it up in response to some technical detail.
I see lots of possibilities. The app is primarily designed for the iPhone but on the larger screen it is much more useful. I think they are working on other versions for other smart phones.
I think the reason that people favor the iPad over the laptop for surfing is the interface. That is one thing that Apple does better than anyone else. Very fast and simple.
I'll be writing more on the app in coming months and other uses for it.
Deral
One other thing is that the iPad has built in bluetooth. It's mainly for the external keyboard or speakers but i have hooked it to several other things. (science experiments). More on this if anything develops.
