4S for biking SE Asia & China

[olindacat]

What's the best way to use a 4S for map navigation off- and on-line in the bush? I hear I can't do it. Is this true? That I must buy a Garmin and use both.

Anyone out there using an iPhone 4S in weird places with no coverage for maps?

How about SIM cards? I Googled them and theirs a trillion. Here, people just say get a local one. Last time I was in China I got so ripped off doing that.

I'm trying to do my homework. Does anyone have any input on best SIM cards for Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and China?

Do they include both voice and data? Any help appreciated.

 

[lordofthereef]

By coverage, you are referring to cell reception? You could download something like navigon. That will work without data. I am not sure how great the maps are actually going to be, as I assume you will be off the road. I know garmin actually maps "off-road" gps maps/units, but I am unsure if this is made for the iPhone. Anyway, the point is the gps will work just fine without data, so long as you load it with an app that has preloaded maps.

 

[apalmer]

I do a lot of mountain biking and my app of choice is MotionX-GPS. THis app has a function where you can save tiles (to varying zoom levels at your discretion) so that you can use access maps and track your position without a cell signal (assuming that your device is getting a gps signal (which means only that your position can't be plotted). What makes this app awesome is that it you can access/save both terrain maps (topographical) and road maps, which gives it a degree of usefulness above apps that are made solely for the road navigation. I'm not completely sure about availability of maps for asia but i did look at a few locations in china and saw that there were terrain maps loading for most areas to a pretty good zoom level. Anyways this app would be great to check-out as its only a couple bucks as i recall.