Reject Convenience Forum

Does anyone know of a good Portable GPS that allows me to easily set it up in different cars throughout the day that won't wear it down at the same time? I am going to be driving in different trucks throughout the day and week and am afraid of an adhesive or suction based mount wearing out as I move it between cars. I've been using my phone for GPS and have a mount that can easily clip on and stay onto the air vent.
If you don't know of one, what do you suggest I do? The main plan is to be using my smartphone less over time. I recently watched the "I switched to a dumb phone 2-year check in" video and feel driven to do something similar over time.

I’m in a similar position as you. I’m reliant on my smartphone for GPS, and I’m not able to switch to a dedicated GPS device because the local bike route navigation is subpar at best or nonexistent on those devices. I also need my smartphone for full-day Metro transit passes, which aren’t available physically. If you can’t find a replacement for that function in particular, why don’t you try replacing the other “habits” or apps on your smartphone? I’m getting an old Sony Walkman to play music on the go, and I’m using AppBlock to steadily wean myself off Internet browsing on my phone (you can start off by blocking one app or even one website at a time, for example).

I think where a lot of people stumble is trying to go cold turkey all at once, when that’s very difficult to do and not actually too helpful in helping establish new maintainable routines. It’s best to set an attainable commitment each week, and progress cumulatively. If you progress like this, you can designate your smartphone as your portable GPS, and relegate other functions and potential distractions to dedicated devices, with established habits firmly keeping you away from the nagware.

JINSBEK wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2024 3:52 pm I’m in a similar position as you. I’m reliant on my smartphone for GPS, and I’m not able to switch to a dedicated GPS device because the local bike route navigation is subpar at best or nonexistent on those devices. I also need my smartphone for full-day Metro transit passes, which aren’t available physically. If you can’t find a replacement for that function in particular, why don’t you try replacing the other “habits” or apps on your smartphone? I’m getting an old Sony Walkman to play music on the go, and I’m using AppBlock to steadily wean myself off Internet browsing on my phone (you can start off by blocking one app or even one website at a time, for example).

I think where a lot of people stumble is trying to go cold turkey all at once, when that’s very difficult to do and not actually too helpful in helping establish new maintainable routines. It’s best to set an attainable commitment each week, and progress cumulatively. If you progress like this, you can designate your smartphone as your portable GPS, and relegate other functions and potential distractions to dedicated devices, with established habits firmly keeping you away from the nagware.

I think this is a good idea. for limiting web browsing on my phone, I think I'll just prevent myself from searching certain things as I don't find app blockers effective for myself. It wouldn't exactly be going cold turkey, as if I needed to look something up for one reason or another I still would. Or if a friend I'm chatting with sends me a link to something. But I'll stop using it for things like YouTube (the browser I have comes with an addblocker and I will NOT pay YouTube to fix a problem they caused). Subscription Video apps like netflix are also on the list to go since I don't need to be watching things on my phone really. I'm already looking into an mp3 playerhttps://www.amazon.com/iRULU-F20-Blueto ... 1264866011, though I'm gonna wait until I have a bit of money saved up so I can spluge a bit on buying albums. Looking forward to getting my first paycheck and slowly de-phone my self over the next year or so.

When I started driving, I had an old Magellan GPS that does everything locally and only connects to global positioning satellites. As I got familiar with street naming and types of road ways I developed the other method I use which is looking at a map on the computer, planning a route, and taking notes of street names and turns and such. Of course my GPS is always in my car so that's a fail safe if I get lost. Otherwise I can search for a major roadway that I'm more familiar with helped by the compass on the GPS, or even the position of the sun. At this point I can see how a map book would be used for navigating.

YennyTheYak wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2024 11:24 pmI'm already looking into an mp3 player, though I'm gonna wait until I have a bit of money saved up so I can spluge a bit on buying albums. Looking forward to getting my first paycheck and slowly de-phone my self over the next year or so.

Oooh, that’s a cute chonky audio player. I was considering that model when I was thinking of switching to a dedicated digital audio player, especially as it’s one of the few modern ones that are designed with a physical interface rather than touchscreen glass. I’ve heard good things about Rockbox working on the Surfans F20, so if you’re looking to get the most out of your HiFi experience, there you go! There are multiple reports that the stock SD card it comes with can be unreliable, though, so it’s best using your own trusted SD card rather than risking your files on the stock one.

YennyTheYak wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2024 11:39 am Does anyone know of a good Portable GPS that allows me to easily set it up in different cars throughout the day that won't wear it down at the same time? I am going to be driving in different trucks throughout the day and week and am afraid of an adhesive or suction based mount wearing out as I move it between cars. I've been using my phone for GPS and have a mount that can easily clip on and stay onto the air vent.
If you don't know of one, what do you suggest I do? The main plan is to be using my smartphone less over time. I recently watched the "I switched to a dumb phone 2-year check in" video and feel driven to do something similar over time.

Back in my day...your phone was attached to the wall at home(sorry I had too).

tl:dr I rant like an old man for a bit before saying buy something like this , and mount it on something like this

But even when phones became mobile it didn't have GPS. You actually had to call Google and deal will the worst voice recognition to get current travel times from point A to point B, and even then you still didn't get directions. You just got the estimated travel time. These were truly dark days. But we suffered so you can now choose to suffer like we did and learn the art of carrying 5-10 devices at all times. You carried those devices because they each performed 1 task, but they performed that one task well.

Let me introduce you to a little thing called the TomTom/Garmin war. Doing some quick searching shows that it looks like TomTom has stopped selling stand alone GPS units in the US(nothing shipping fees can't fix) and Garmin isn't far behind(but you can get an app and smart watch instead! ) But I can tell you from my personal experience that these devices last forever as long as you're able to manually update the maps. I'm still able to do that on both mine. And while I can't find when exactly one of mine was discontinued it boosts being "compatible with Windows® XP or newer and Mac® OS X 10.4 or later" on it's product page. You'd probably want to look into a newer version though. Just research how the maps are updated, mainly looking for ones you can do directly via sdcard/usb or with bluetooth without using an app. If you really want to deep dive there are whole communities based around the use of discontinued GPS devices because GPS is a one way street.

As long as there is something transmitting GPS data, then any device that has ever been capable of receiving GPS signals should function. No wifi, no network, no carrier, no subscription, no app required.

If you have open sky and a charged device, you have GPS. Full stop.

But having maps with that GPS is really nice and it seems like the old gaurds are still fighting over the market share that hasn't been swallowed by Google. I personally lean toward Garmin but that's only because I've had more time to hack around with it and I'm a sucker for any company that keeps the pages for their discontinued products up. Though look into the modern product offerings for sure.

As for switching vechiles that one's thank fully easy and requires no storys that go nowhere about how I used to wear an onion router on my belt, which was the style at the time...

This is the type of phone mount you're looking for....or something like it. Basically seach beanbag phone mounts should get you in the right direction. No adhesive, no suction, easy to move between vechiles. They do better with flat dashboards (esspecially if you have one with those random tray areas that are like 1/2 inch or more deep whuch I can't find a picture of) but they are absolute garbage on dashboards(which I could find a picture of ). That said, it will at some point go flying. Either during a turn or a Fast and Furious tryouts, but that's what adhesives and suction cups were invented for.