navigation using far too much data?

[Rayvin400]

Hi. I just bought my first really smart phone, I have a galaxy note 2 on tmobile and before I had a prepaid Optimus....er...something from virgin mobile.

Anyway, I was going to get an iPhone, but being directionally challenged I needed a good, solid gps in my phone.

My Optimus had a horrible 3G connection, but I mainly used it for nav. Road trips out of state, finding my way around Chicago; I was surprised how little data I used monthly. I thought GPS/google maps would use a lot...I didn't get it. But I'd ended up using about 234 mb per month with Google nav usage about 3 times a week, marginal web page browsing and one or two low-res youtube videos.

Now, I used my navigation for the first time on my note and I was shocked that it used 24 mb of data in 25 minutes? I'm not sure if this is right or not...I just feel like that's too much, considering I'm seeing other people saying they used fractions of mbs after hours of usage.

Long story....shorter. Do these numbers make sense, or is there some sort of GPS setting this new phone isn't (or is) using that my last phone was (or wasn't)?

(I have never pre-loaded any maps, knowingly-just FYI.)

Sincerely,

Lost in Chicago

 

[euph_22]

Hi. I just bought my first really smart phone, I have a galaxy note 2 on tmobile and before I had a prepaid Optimus....er...something from virgin mobile.

Anyway, I was going to get an iPhone, but being directionally challenged I needed a good, solid gps in my phone.

My Optimus had a horrible 3G connection, but I mainly used it for nav. Road trips out of state, finding my way around Chicago; I was surprised how little data I used monthly. I thought GPS/google maps would use a lot...I didn't get it. But I'd ended up using about 234 mb per month with Google nav usage about 3 times a week, marginal web page browsing and one or two low-res youtube videos.

Now, I used my navigation for the first time on my note and I was shocked that it used 24 mb of data in 25 minutes? I'm not sure if this is right or not...I just feel like that's too much, considering I'm seeing other people saying they used fractions of mbs after hours of usage.

Long story....shorter. Do these numbers make sense, or is there some sort of GPS setting this new phone isn't (or is) using that my last phone was (or wasn't)?

(I have never pre-loaded any maps, knowingly-just FYI.)

Sincerely,

Lost in Chicago

25MB is a trivial amount of data, and right in line with what Google maps should be using. If you are using it in an are you've used before you will use less data (since it caches maps and other data). But that usage is completely in line.

 

[SkyJackpot]

You can search and download free navigation software called Copilot GPS from the Google Play store, they let you download the 1st map for free so you could use that to download the USA maps.

Although if you want the software to talk back to you have to pay something like $15 but i think that's a better option for you if your data costs are going to be high on your phone network.

Another thing to remember is that the Galaxy Note II is a high resolution device and depending on what cell phones you've used in the past, any map data you download is going to be larger because of the screen resolution being higher, but more clearer

 

[iphonerepairs]

look down ward for my comment...

 

[iphonerepairs]

Open Google play store or Android play store and download latitude GPS.

 

[Rayvin400]

Really? Almost 1 mb per mile is normal? I've even used it after I traveled a route once, to see if the cached maps made a difference in data consumption, but it still ate up the same amount of data.

 

[newbie4]

I been sending feedback via google maps on the phone asking for it to work like a GPS on GPS alone. As soon you open the app it say no data connection. All I want is type where I want to go GPS should pick up where I am and route to that place.

 

[euph_22]

I been sending feedback via google maps on the phone asking for it to work like a GPS on GPS alone. As soon you open the app it say no data connection. All I want is type where I want to go GPS should pick up where I am and route to that place.

The problem is Google Maps computes the driving directions in the cloud. You're suggesting that they completely change how their app works. Use copilot, or another app that does what you want.

 

[euph_22]

Really? Almost 1 mb per mile is normal? I've even used it after I traveled a route once, to see if the cached maps made a difference in data consumption, but it still ate up the same amount of data.

No. I'd guess about 0.7 MB per mile is reasonable. Plus about 8MB for the entire route. That's probably about the data usage I would expect.

It's downloading the map tiles for all the zoom levels (possibly for different map layers as well), speed limit information, traffic data, and route directions (gps locations, street names, direction prompts, whatnot), plus all the data used to specify the route you're looking for (the starting/ending point, settings for shortest distance/shortest time, etc).

And again, 1 MB is a tiny, tiny amount of data. 1MB is about 1 minute of MP3 Music, or 2 1-Megapixel JPEG images. That 20ish miles of routing information might include 100+ square miles of maps accross all the zoom levels.

 

[newbie4]

Is copilot free? Not found in play store via phone.

 

[chanchan05]

CoPilot is paid, and its probably not available for your phone (compatibility).

 

[Stuntman]

NavFree is a free navigation app that does not use any data connection. It is an adequate fall back app if you don't want to use any data.

 

[SkyJackpot]

CoPilot is paid, and its probably not available for your phone (compatibility).

The 1st line of the description. The 1st map is free, and then all additional maps need to be paid for. So its possible to download your country maps and use offline stop the data building up. Test it and the others suggested in this thread to see which one you prefer and if they work on your phone