I think that smart phones all have very similar capabilities with regard to this aspect: I suspect this anyway, based on the universal use of smart phones for this purpose nowadays and the fact that no one seems to complain about them not carrying out this function (some folks think that they have a slow "response", lock on time or similar comments but that's about where it ends as far as feedback on this aspect is concerned).



I would be interested to hear why you have settled upon using viewranger among what must be 100s of apps on the market (for me, OSM is a given)

See post number 13 in the link, that I have just come upon:-
smart phones and gps

Excellent work sir! Many thanks. I sometimes wonder what I'm doing wrong with search engines 'cause everyone else seems to find stuff that I can't...
Viewranger is a particular app developed in conjunction with the TRF (Trail Riders Fellowship) and it's trail riding navigation that will be the primary use of the phone. (Apart from shared routes and map overlays, one of many other useful features is the "buddy beacon" so you can see which pub the rest of your mates have diverted to without telling you!)
Just bought an as new Defy+ for £50 and find they still use standard size SIM cards. Bonus! That means I can use my Nokia 6300 dinosaur that never runs out of charge (well, it seems like it!) for normal use, and swap to the Moto when out on the bike and can plug in the power. Screen is small by some standards, but the same size as my Garmin 276 so I'm used to that.
Thankyou for taking an interest in my predicament,
Simon.

Well, I spend far too much time looking at websites, during the winter, so I didn't get to that small nugget via a search engine; more by following-my-nose in fora.

I have found, over many years, that "taking an interest" tends to teach me along the way - so, there are benefits to me also!

Yes, I had seen a piece earlier about the UK TRF adopting Viewranger as a standard app for their purposes; yet another case of following discussions within fora.

Good to know that you are sorted.

For trials I use viewfinder it works on any phone android or iPhone works off line you decide what detail you what, I bought the local trails 1.50 then i got the lest detailed maps for distance traveling, works in the remotest areas, Albania back trails, where the maps are very basic, view ranger worked floorlessly,

Just an update: The Defy is a nice robust little phone and the battery seems to last about 5-6 hours with Viewranger's screen permanently on and active. There are bigger batteries available (with modified back panel included) which I may experiment with, although plugging in to the power socket on the bike is no problem. Kept in a water"proof" case, the touchscreen works only with an ungloved finger, unless the glove is wet!
Only negative I'm experiencing is that if I try to manipulate data or move through the menus too quickly, the app freezes and I have to exit and restart. This may be because of the older operating system of the Defy+, I don't know (don't ask which one, I get confused by all this jellybean fairycake bull###t nomenclature!!)
It's still worked out as a cheap way of having the entire uk os mapping on a gps.
Ride safe,
Simon.

For a nano second or two I have wondered about the naming of the Android versions; then I read somewhere that they are labelled in alphabetical order (in addition to the more usual numbering), so the later the first letter of the name of the operating system the newer the version.
e.g. Jellybean is a more recent release than Ice cream sandwich.

OTG
 

A minor victory made me think of this thread. Pardon my language and apologies to all of you who know this stuff, but a quarter century in engineering has made be well fed up with all the jargon (I know, it stops any Tom, Dick or Isambard stealing the nice easy jobs and I know mention of a non-self relieving cock makes the salesmen giggle and not get in the way, but it's annoying).


For Christmas I picked up things called OTG's (or OMG's as the wife has called them after the bad language the set up caused) as stocking fillers. These allow a device with a small USB designed to pull info to push through a big one. (So called host, although I didn't see anyone handing out the cheese and pineapple on sticks). This means we can use common memory sticks to carry our data about the place and access via phone or tablet, thus extending the use for a bit of kit that will fit in a match box.


Now, while we navigated to the moon with some sub ZX-81 device and a tape player we seem to have lost skills at making small computers work. My Samsung didn't like the small to big converter thingy or it's software app. Goodness know why but Samsungs like "Total Commander" not OTG.


It gets better. You need to install the app, start it, power down with the charger connected and then re-start. This seems to reset how the phone views the plug and lets it connect to the memory stick rather than try and feed off it.


I bet it would be quicker to just find an eight year old, but having battled this thing on and off for months and now won to the point of viewing map data held on a nice safe stick and sending my tracks there for later, I thought I'd post the fact!


Andy

On the go indeed
 

Interesting to me, in that I had never heard of this capability.
You prompted me to look around and there is an app which "decides" if a particular smart phone is up to the job:-
How to tell if your Android phone or tablet supports USB On-The-Go - CNET

I am in no rush to muck about with my own phone (I have only just figured out what the terms "jail breaking" and "rooting" mean) but what app is saving your tracks to this OTG attachment?

Chinese phones to match Chinese motorbikes
 

Since this is a key factor in the design of phones for use on motorbikes (on mine anyway because I have been known to drop both the phone and the bike), I've just posted some info into the sticky thread (so that I can find it again!).

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...in-et-63191-24

Real-time GPS tracker does the tracking. This goes to a website but you can also access via Total Commander (or Fx) and drag the track files onto the stick.


Andy

I've just started to become familar with the AGM Stone, having purchased this rugged (love that adjective) thingy recently.
My earlier posts in the sticky thread give the specifications for the Stone e.g. it has a massive battery capacity (4000 mAH from memory).
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-26#post512904


My first impressions are good.
I've also started to take an interest in viewranger; I am warily checking out what their website is "all about".

I'm still using Viewranger on my phone, purely as a gps with UK os maps on, but I'm put off by all the extras which appear to be trying to create some sort of wierd lifestyle constant "monitor me and see how wonderful and adventure packed my life is" cr#p. Call me an old curmudgeon!
I've been pointed towards Mytrails (?), which my mate suggests is simpler and geared less towards the lookatme facebook generation. I have yet to check it out as what I've got works.
With the appearance of more/better model-specific hard cases, maybe ruggedness has become less of an issue?
Sort of off topic, but still part of the conversation I hope.
Ride safe,
Simon.

It is not just using a USB stick that way. In fact I don't think that USB connectors are particularly rugged .. so I'd not use them while moving.

You can also access your USB camera... anything you would access via USB from your computer. So the phone becomes computer like for USB things. So if your running out of room on your phone .. you can then take stuff off the phone and put it on any USB memory - CD, hard drive, stick... probably not as fast as a computer. But lots smaller and probably less battery energy.

... could even have a USB hub? So you can have the camera and hard drive connected and transfer the photos from one to the other under the control of the phone. Usefull where the camera won't do it by itself.

Thanks for that summary; I don't see the OTG capability as too important to me at present, which is just as well because a wee app I have used on my Stone phone (rhyming slang maybe?) tells me that I don't have OTG capability.
Rooting the phone might help in that regard.

I can see how it is good for flexibility in offline storage and I think I would use such a capability in that manner only, rather than on the move.
I have yet to hook up the phone to a computer to take any files off the phone; I gather that is straight forward. A host-peripherai (aka master- slave) facility with the phone as the slave.

I still use a stand alone camera which is another reason that I don't feel a need for OTG; that all gets downloaded to a notebook and then onto backup external hard drives x 2 (having lost too many happy snaps over the years to failed internal hard drives).