Droid saved the weekend...stories from real life

[Redflea]

Trip this weekend to a competition my son was involved in...we had to drive about 150 miles to another city, navigate between four different locations while up there, and then get back home the next day. The previous year when we'd gone to this event we had gotten lost twice and actually missed being able to watch most of one event we were so late. So the pressure was huge to avoid a similar situation this year..

I set up nav shortcuts on one of my home pages to each of the four locations in the other town the night before. So in the morning we pulled out of the garage, I tapped the icon for the first destination and off we went, faultlessly directed to our hotel.

On the way there, my wife says "I'd really like to hear some music, do you have any Elton John?" (So sue her, she's a child of the 70's. ) "Nope," says I "but I think I know where we can find some." So I tell her how to fire up Slacker on the Droid and she enters "Elton John" and a few seconds later she is rocking to the sound of "Crocodile Rock" and various other artists she likes.

Nav interrupted Elton et al when necessary to provide directions.

Used the shortcuts the rest of the weekend to move between the four locations w/out fault. Looked up traffic a few times to decide whether to bail on a route or not.

No screams of "What street do I turn on, what street!?!" from me, and no wails of "I can't tell, I can't tell - Oh the humanity!!!" from my wife. Pure wedded bliss maintained, with Slacker providing the 70's soundtrack for the our weekend montage...

Big high-five for the husband/geek and his new Droid. Hey, don't leave me hangin'...

 

[Graz]

Trip this weekend to a competition my son was involved in...we had to drive about 150 miles to another city, navigate between four different locations while up there, and then get back home the next day. The previous year when we'd gone to this event we had gotten lost twice and actually missed being able to watch most of one event we were so late. So the pressure was huge to avoid a similar situation this year..

I set up nav shortcuts on one of my home pages to each of the four locations in the other town the night before. So in the morning we pulled out of the garage, I tapped the icon for the first destination and off we went, faultlessly directed to our hotel.

On the way there, my wife says "I'd really like to hear some music, do you have any Elton John?" (So sue her, she's a child of the 70's. ) "Nope," says I "but I think I know where we can find some." So I tell her how to fire up Slacker on the Droid and she enters "Elton John" and a few seconds later she is rocking to the sound of "Crocodile Rock" and various other artists she likes.

Nav interrupted Elton et al when necessary to provide directions.

Used the shortcuts the rest of the weekend to move between the four locations w/out fault. Looked up traffic a few times to decide whether to bail on a route or not.

No screams of "What street do I turn on, what street!?!" from me, and no wails of "I can't tell, I can't tell - Oh the humanity!!!" from my wife. Pure wedded bliss maintained, with Slacker providing the 70's soundtrack for the our weekend montage...

Big high-five for the husband/geek and his new Droid. Hey, don't leave me hangin'...

High five buddy!

 

[Redflea]

High five buddy!

Thanks! Whew...I was hangin' there for a bit before you saved me.

 

[MotoDroidHelpandInfo]

Good for you. I set the Droid to take me to the nearest Bass Pro Shop. Instead took me to some residential area about a half a mile away. The place was very new though.

 

[oceanlight]

high five!

 

[johnlgalt]

I have found that the Google Maps for my area (middle Georgia) suck. A lot of things are misplaced, the data is completely off-base in my own neighborhood (in a neighborhood of ~100 houses, the entire circle has numbers overlayed incorrectly, has 3 different streets (including part of the circle itself - which is one big circle, and thus the same road) misnamed, and I have found some more just wandering around town.

The good news is that you can go into Google Maps online, find the same discrepancies, and report an error using the link that is almost hidden away in the bottom right hand corner of the map. I reported between 11-14 issues (the majority from my own neighborhood) and within a few hours I started getting replies from Google saying they were looking into it - and within a day I started receiving replies that I was right, and that the maps would be updated in a month.

So far, it has only been 2 weeks, but I expect that as more and more people learn how to report, the wait time will go up. To date, though, the issues have not been fixed.

I am actually going to contact them to see if I can work for them over the holidays fixing their maps in my city....

 

[Redflea]

Cool, John...great to see you're doing more than just complaining, you're helping to fix the problems. Good to see you adding value.

I'm lucky I guess...everything has been perfect so far, aside from the fact that like every other GPS I've ever used, GNav also wants me to leave and arrive at my house via a private drive that is behind my property, rather than from the street my house fronts on.

 

[Graz]

Cool, John...great to see you're doing more than just complaining, you're helping to fix the problems. Good to see you adding value.

Haha!

 

[syntrix]

Cool, John...great to see you're doing more than just complaining, you're helping to fix the problems. Good to see you adding value.

I don't think he helped the OP in anyway, rather he derailed the thread Where's the antidisemderailermenting button when you need it?

 

[Graz]

I don't think he helped the OP in anyway, rather he derailed the thread Where's the antidisemderailermenting button when you need it?

Haha! +1

 

[Redflea]

I don't think he helped the OP in anyway, rather he derailed the thread Where's the antidisemderailermenting button when you need it?

You know I'm the OP, right.

I was going to complain about taking my thread negative, but I decided to take the high road and at least note that he is submitting errors to Google so they can fix them. That's a good thing.

I was hoping the focus here would be stories about the Droid helping you through a day or situation. We'll see...

 

[Graz]

You know I'm the OP, right.

I was going to complain about taking my thread negative, but I decided to take the high road and at least note that he is submitting errors to Google so they can fix them. That's a good thing.

I was hoping the focus here would be stories about the Droid helping you through a day or situation. We'll see...

Did you use your google nav when you took the high road?

 

[allanlaw]

So I tell her how to fire up Slacker on the Droid and she enters "Elton John" and a few seconds later she is rocking to the sound of "Crocodile Rock" and various other artists she likes.

I've run Slacker and Pandora on the Droid, and Pandora seemed more stable, at least in my location. My question - I haven't run either on the road, and was wondering if you found that Slacker kept connected even though you were obviously moving from cell tower to cell tower?

 

[Watashi]

Ok, heres mine:

I was at a 7-11 and I saw a little old lady in the parking lot with a map on her hood looking very confused. After I was done inside I approched her and asked if I could help her find something. She had the address and I popped it into the droid and gave her the turn by turn directions. She was amazed to say the least.

Good deed done for the month

 

[Lacutis]

Im curious, how do you create a nav shortcut on the desktop?

 

[Redflea]

I've run Slacker and Pandora on the Droid, and Pandora seemed more stable, at least in my location. My question - I haven't run either on the road, and was wondering if you found that Slacker kept connected even though you were obviously moving from cell tower to cell tower?

Didn't have any connection issues along the way. There were a few (maybe three times over 2 hours) very minor "blips" in songs, but they were quite minor...if you weren't listening to the song actively it would have been easy to miss them. I was driving through a mostly very populous area that likely has very good cell tower coverage.

 

[Redflea]

Im curious, how do you create a nav shortcut on the desktop?

Press and hold on home screen
Select Shortcut from the context menu that appears
Select Directions
Enter or copy/paste address
Give it a name
Save

Tah-dah!

 

[siuc1996]

Press and hold on home screen
Select Shortcut from the context menu that appears
Select Directions
Enter or copy/paste address
Give it a name
Save

Tah-dah!

Ha! Haven't even tried that yet. This phone rocks my socks.

 

[syntrix]

You know I'm the OP, right.

I was going to complain about taking my thread negative, but I decided to take the high road and at least note that he is submitting errors to Google so they can fix them. That's a good thing.

I was hoping the focus here would be stories about the Droid helping you through a day or situation. We'll see...

I know you are the OP, I just had to add that, all in good fun with johnlgalt


Did you know you can create a new "my maps" in google maps on the pc... save all your waypoints (addresses), and if you sync normally through your google account, your "my maps" will be an option in maps on the droid!

I got antsy and clicked it right away, but I think it needs a min or two to sync up, if you get an error on the droid, give it a min or two and it should work flawlessly!

 

[kali kid 619]

Great stories!

 

[Redflea]

I know you are the OP, I just had to add that, all in good fun with johnlgalt


Did you know you can create a new "my maps" in google maps on the pc... save all your waypoints (addresses), and if you sync normally through your google account, your "my maps" will be an option in maps on the droid!

I got antsy and clicked it right away, but I think it needs a min or two to sync up, if you get an error on the droid, give it a min or two and it should work flawlessly!

Thanks...I tried that and it works, but what I liked about the nav shortcuts is they provided a single-click "go here" option that you don't get when using My Maps...

 

[Redflea]

Ok, heres mine:

I was at a 7-11 and I saw a little old lady in the parking lot with a map on her hood looking very confused. After I was done inside I approched her and asked if I could help her find something. She had the address and I popped it into the droid and gave her the turn by turn directions. She was amazed to say the least.

Good deed done for the month

Back on track!

Great story - and a good deed well done, sir knight.

Hmmmm...maybe an ABC Movie of the Week? "In a world where people get lost...'Directions' - the story of a man and his Droid, and their life on the road."

 

[johnlgalt]

I'd have a story - but I haven't had anything to do with my DROID yet.

Sorry for being the antidisestablishmentarian that I am and taking this thread on a wild goose chase for black humor, but I just happened to note that in my city there are a lot more problems than solutions - makes me wonder if geographical and topological data is like this in lots of areas of the US where there are not large cities nearby (Atlanta is 100 miles away).

Never fear, though, I ma probably going to be taking my annual winter trip somewhere to visit friends - and I'll try to be good enough to detail the trip (maybe even video it).

If anything comes up between now and then, you'll be sure to hear about it here.

 

[syntrix]

Never fear, though, I ma probably going to be taking my annual winter trip somewhere to visit friends - and I'll try to be good enough to detail the trip (maybe even video it).

There's an app for that!

 

[JMarvel03]

I wish there were more success/positive stories about the Droid like this one!

High Five!