I don't buy roadmaps, but I have a ton of orienteering maps for when I go hiking. I really love orienteering with a proper waterproof map & compass.
Paper map sales are booming
301–310 of 326 posts
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#302This is a little tangential, but last year me and my girlfriend went to Greece for the first time. A few days after we purchased the tickets, a book came in the mail. She had ordered a tourism guide for Greece that had some recommendations about what to see, where to eat, where to stay, etc. My first reaction was along the lines of "why would we do this when we have the entire internet? Each section is written by onl…
> low-quality clickbait articles that come up on google when you search "things to do in _____" Reddit subs are handy for that. Search term: site:reddit.com/r/denver things to do
For me, this is about the most ineffective way to find travel advice. Reddit's great if you want to actually get a pro-con of whatever subject you're looking into, because people will argue for and against everything there simultaneously. Since I'm looking to be given recommendations, that means pretty much every recommendation will come with somebody else saying why I shouldn't "waste my time" on that thing.
I'm sure this varies person to person, but I end up spending way too much time on reddit trying to find the "right" advice and never end up feeling truly satisfied with any of it.
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#303I’ve been a google maps user for ten years and I tried Apple Maps recently and it’s way, way better. Google maps has always had a million little problems that annoy the shit out of me. It will take you down a road that is totally inappropriate, one lane and hasn’t been maintained for decades.
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a hiker I find paper maps absolutely essential and far easier to use than anything digital. Maybe it's because of that familiarity that I print or buy paper maps whenever I'm going on a trip more than a few hours' drive from home. I also rely heavily on printed maps and guidebooks for any extended travel and for trip planning, which are excruciating if you're relying solely on the internet. Can't say I've ever use…
> and far easier to use than anything digital. Paper maps are great for knowing where to go, but a little less great for knowing where you are. Off/deep trail hikers will have a stand-alone GPS, because climbing trees/hills to get your bearings ends up being a serious risk, with just a compass: https://gripped.com/gripped-outdoors/how-100-hikers-got-lost...
Entirely depends on the environment you're hiking in tbh.
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always been a bit surprised by the sentence "learn to read a map". What is there to learn exactly?
Given a map, can you find where you are in the map without GPS? How about planning a route from contour plots? Or maybe figure out which direction you should go without a digital compass?
Yes, yes, and yes. All basic skills any hiker should have.
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#306Something I find really fun when traveling in the car with kids is to give them a paper map and ask them to plan a route a for us to get to our destination. Then when you're driving ask them to follow along and give the directions. Obviously they can't be too young and they're not going to be perfect, but if you have a child around 7-13 they'll probably find this quite fun. Being able to use a map is one of those ski…
an interesting thought experiment is to ponder just how many skills are being lost due to technology. I know how to read a map and how to find rough compass bearings but i was never in a situation where i needed either skill. Could i manage without GPS - probably but i’m not confident. If GPS died tomorrow because of a solar flare, would the younger generations manage?
I distinctly remember my parents, before satellite navigation systems were common (let alone phones) having endless arguments over bad map reading when on family trips.
It's not a skill that was lost to technology, it's a skill that most people never mastered even before we all had GPS systems in our pockets.
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#307I will go out of my way to use _anything_ that is not a screen. I stare at screens, all day, ever day. Every moment not gazing into a hyper-bright magic rectangle is a relief.
I'd like to read about your approach. This is something I am considering too, but screens are a good medium for a lot of what I do.
Well, me too. Hard to write software with pen and paper. But it resolves to "use tech for work and only work". I go online to get my job done but it's all work, no pleasure.
I've ridden my phone of any app which can eat my attention. It goes without saying that social media apps got trashed but also news apps, even the default google news app. My phone is more like an old-school Nokia than a modern magic rectangle and if they made a decent e-ink phone, I'd seriously consider it.
I will watch _some_ tv or film, but only in the living room, on the dedicated television, never on a laptop or tablet.
Lastly, zero video games at all. Edit, well, almost zero. Factorio is a hard habit to break but I have been clean now for several months.)
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple's solution isn't a serious contender because it's hardware locked to high end devices that the majority of people don't use / can't afford (the demographics of this community not withstanding). While it's nice that their users can have an alternate first-party experience, that experience is not a publically available map. For example if you go to maps.apple.com you are told "Open this on your Apple Hardware". (…
One could argue that "most" people[1] have iPhones (at least in the US). And yes it is only 22% world wide. But putting aside the currently available "seats" for a moment, at the point where is it clearly the better product then two things start happening 1) People start buying Apple hardware because it has a better map experience. 2) Apple can produce the iMap device, likely in cooperation with their maps partner To…
While 55% is technically "most", there are hundreds of millions of people in that minority block. Definitely not a number to just dismiss from a function as important as mapping. As a member of that minority, I'm very grateful for non-hardware-locked mapping apps.
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've found that when I'm planning things I tend to use Google Maps, but when I get in the car I tend to use Apple maps. I swear there are little differences like Google instructions will be "In X feet... turn right" where Apple is "turn right at the stop sign" which is easier to follow.
Recently I've found that Google has started to put more effort into this area -- I've started getting directions like "Turn right at the next corner after the Chase bank."
That's called an ad
Re: Paper map sales are booming
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
$400 isn't low-end. The Samsung phone I got from T-Mobile for a one-time payment of $40 after taxes (for trading in a flip phone) is a low end phone. I've been using it for over a year, and I expect to continue using it for at least another year, probably two. At that point, I might just switch to a flip phone, since I spend my money on nice large tablets instead of oversized phones. Hopefully there'll be a decently…
> $400 isn't low-end. The Samsung phone I got from T-Mobile for a one-time payment of $40 Are we pretending that T-Mobile won't cut you a deal on an iPhone SE?
This is a no strings attached offer. I'm not required to continue using T-Mobile. There are no installments or contract. I can take my T-Mobile phone and immediately stop using T-Mobile without paying a fee for it. The phone might be locked to T-Mobile though.