Best iPhone GPS?

[Kirk Gittings]

As some of you know I am an archeology enthusiast. I grew up in New Mexico and I am always looking down at the ground and over the years I made some amazing finds of both archeological and fossils. For example last fall I found a J Phase basalt spear point about 6-8k years old and when I was a kid a Clovis spearpoint tip about 12k old, dozens of pueblo points, hundreds of fossils etc. etc. I have been doing this actively since I was in grade school and am 63 now.

As an adult I never take anything except the odd rock where collecting is allowed-never anything archeological-ever. I prefer to revisit my finds in situ. BUT sometimes I cannot find them again.

I want to use GPS to aid my aging memory. As I always have my iPhone (I just got one-I bought my wife a 5s for her birthday and took over her 4 with IOS 7) with me I thought one of the GPS apps would be useful for this.

Your thoughts?

[bill t.]

Hey Kirk, that full page "Where the Kachinas Live" picture of yours in the September/October "View Camera Magazine" is superb!  Tonality plus, the march of the grey tones is long and rich in that image.  Congratulations!

Can't help much with GPS, but my surveyor neighbor has a hardware dongle on his iPhone that he says gives him exceptionally high accuracy.  It's about the size of a big postage stamp and a few mm thick.  I think it's labeled "Logo GPS" and he has said it's no longer made.  Apparently the native iPhone GPS hardware isn't that great for accuracy.

[marvpelkey]

Kirk,

About a year ago, I picked up MotionX GPS for my IPhone, predominantly for hiking, although useable for any type of walking/driving. Of all that I researched, it was held in the highest regard by reviewers. It has a number of features, including the option to download and use topo maps from various Federal/State/local agencies (Fed Parks, BLM etc).

You might wish to take a look at it (gps.motionx.com). I have found it quite easy to use and it seems to be reasonably accurate.

Marv

[digitaldog]

MotionX is indeed awesome. I'm not sure it nor any other iPhone app's are necessary more or less accurate but in terms of features, MotionX is excellent.

[Misirlou]

You'd probably be better off with a dedicated GPS device (one with WAAS enabled) than trying to use a phone. But, be aware that any individual GPS unit will be subject to a certain amount of ambiguity, because GPS positions are derived from measurements relative to satellites moving in orbits. At least with WAAS, there is a little bit of differential correction to reduce the ambiguity. Without some kind of differential correction, horizontal GPS positions are subject to something like 16 meters of random error by spec.

[Peter McLennan]

An application called "Theodolite" works with iOS devices and allows you to take an photograph of a site that includes the geo-coordinates both visually as part of the image and as metadata.  Very handy for sharing your location.

[Misirlou]

An application called "Theodolite" works with iOS devices and allows you to take an photograph of a site that includes the geo-coordinates both visually as part of the image and as metadata.  Very handy for sharing your location.

Yeah, I like that one a lot. That would be perfect for the original poster's application.

[Kirk Gittings]

Hey Kirk, that full page "Where the Kachinas Live" picture of yours in the September/October "View Camera Magazine" is superb!  Tonality plus, the march of the grey tones is long and rich in that image.  Congratulations!

Can't help much with GPS, but my surveyor neighbor has a hardware dongle on his iPhone that he says gives him exceptionally high accuracy.  It's about the size of a big postage stamp and a few mm thick.  I think it's labeled "Logo GPS" and he has said it's no longer made.  Apparently the native iPhone GPS hardware isn't that great for accuracy.

Thanks much Bill. Means a lot coming from you!