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without a SIM?? Not clear on this. Any views?

Depends what phone, iPhones do it.

So what phone is it?

shitty old HTC Wildfire.

Bit of a tale here - but short version, daughter has to have an iPhone (no rational reason) so is getting a 4 on he Tesco contract I believe, I get her sh1t old Samsung when I want a Google Nexus 4 (at £150 it is the phone bargain of the century). So thought I could dedicate the HTC as a cycling GPS to save buying a cycling GPS with no maps as without all the phone nonsense the battery might last longer. Clear!

Well, I think the Wildfire is a relatively new-ish phone? If that's the case it should be able to use GPS without a SIM card. Don't hold me to it though Best way is to just try and see. If it doesn't then there are plenty of free sat-nav's for Android phones. You can always lower brightness, activate power saving, limit processor power etc to lengthen battery anyway. Unless you're going out for a good 7-8 hours it's unlikely you'll run out of battery. Even if it is you can get small chargers that you just stick a battery in and connect to your phone, use that while cycling?

Download navfree app. Works ok on iphone. Never tried without a sim. Let us know if it works.

thanks Virt. Can't be carrying any excess weight, all about power to weight in the cycling world. I take all data functions off the phone and turn everything down and get about 5.5 hours out of this three year old battery which is pretty good.

Just been outside to try the phone - GPS works it seems, however, the app didn't locate a satellite. Maybe because it's a bit cloudy. Hey ho. Might just have to use the daughter's old Samsung and flog the HTC for a tenner or so

BigVeeGrin wrote:thanks Virt. Can't be carrying any excess weight, all about power to weight in the cycling world. I take all data functions off the phone and turn everything down and get about 5.5 hours out of this three year old battery which is pretty good.

Just been outside to try the phone - GPS works it seems, however, the app didn't locate a satellite. Maybe because it's a bit cloudy. Hey ho. Might just have to use the daughter's old Samsung and flog the HTC for a tenner or so

Make sure to uninstall everything else then, those electrons sure add up

Worst case scenario find a cheapy iPhone (3G or higher, preferably a 4). You can get some pretty cheap nowadays with a bit of damage (which doesn't matter. They are surprisingly sturdy, mine fell out my pocket at 35mph. Not a scratch ) and just load a satnav on it, battery life on iPhone's is sh1t though. That is assuming they have a battery, and don't run off the current in the air around them. I never quite figured it out, but I do think it's the latter. What sort of phone has a 6 hour battery life when being used? I can use my s4 all day, and it will still be like 30% when I stick it on charge at 11pm

You could also steal your daughters iPhone and make her keep the old one. Don't let her become a statistic and a slave to capitalism.. or something..

phones tend to just take a little longer when finding your start location without a network signal, as they often use that to triangulate your position first

callam_nffc wrote:phones tend to just take a little longer when finding your start location without a network signal, as they often use that to triangulate your position first

that would be why I stood in the rain for ten minutes and thought wombles this now

BigVeeGrin wrote: that would be why I stood in the rain for ten minutes and thought wombles this now

Wait, rain? In England?

I'd have just left it on a table near a window or something and went to make lunch or something before coming back to it and checking it's progress.

surely a phone needs a sim to activate 3g which is what they pick up the data link from

3G is a seperate entity to GPS on newer phones. The gps is built in to modern smartphones and will work without an internet connection or anything, as it isn't necessary. Everything is stored on the phone

I rode to Wales and back last weekend using TomTom on an iPhone 4 with no SIM card, for example

maybe you passed lots of maccy deez

I didn't see one actually Was quite gutted. I do love me a good McDonalds, nothing quite has the excitement of filling my body with Hydrogenated fats

so why is it then that if I dont have a phone signal I dont have maps