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davyvfr

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 3, 2012
148
0
I am planning a trip using my iPhone but only have a 1GB Plan. I will use it only for the remaining few miles. How much data does it use per mile or hour?
 
I wouldnt worry about the data usage. I would keep a charger handy that is atleast 2.1Amps or more.
Keep in mind that the IOS Google navigation isnt exactly like the android one. Many features are missing but its reliable. The battery hog is just unacceptable though since it seems to be totally unoptimized at the moment. I drew from PHX to SanJose for christmas and my observations were that i was loosing about 8% per hour. so unless you have a good charger which is atleast 1amp or 2.1amp if you are charging both ipad and iphone you will never be able to complete your trip with the phone active.

I have to admit, at some points i found the apple maps to be better than the current IOS Google Maps. while driving to San Jose i got caught up in very severe rain and storm. Due to flooding, a few roads were closed and apple map actually gave me a direction considering the closed roads. Google Maps didnt.

About data, considering both apps running i took about 70mb for 12.5hrs of driving and browsing during breaks.
Hope this helps.
 
Future updates for Google maps will probably have optimizations on the battery part and also include better road routing too.
 
Future updates for Google maps will probably have optimizations on the battery part and also include better road routing too.

Yes, they sure will. I have been on android for a very long time and really respect the google navigation app there. I know this is their first cut and it sure will be great like their android counterpart over time.
 
Yes, they sure will. I have been on android for a very long time and really respect the google navigation app there. I know this is their first cut and it sure will be great like their android counterpart over time.

Yeah it's only version 1.0.0, so give it some time for updates to arrive and this already awesome application will become even better. :)
 
Just make sure you are in map view and not in satellite view and you'll be fine
 
The battery hog is just unacceptable though since it seems to be totally unoptimized at the moment. I drew from PHX to SanJose for christmas and my observations were that i was loosing about 8% per hour. so unless you have a good charger which is atleast 1amp or 2.1amp if you are charging both ipad and iphone you will never be able to complete your trip with the phone active.

8% per hour? And you say that's bad? Is that with screen on, too? If so, that's freaking amazing, dude. That would be 12.5 hours of navigating with screen on.

Personally, I am losing about 30% per hour while navigating with screen on. And that's roughly consistent with what I used to get on my Android phones. Even at 30% per hour, that's over 3 hours navigating screen-on without charging, which seems at least decent to me. So I'm really not sure what you are complaining about losing 8% per hour, unless I'm missing something here...
 
Just keep it charged. Other than that, I used GMaps all the way from Boston to DC one day and I think it used like 200 mb.
 
To save battery life...

Not sure if Google Maps does the same thing, but with Apple Maps you can turn your screen off - just push the home button - and when you are close to the next turn the voice and screen will come on. I used mine on a long drive most of which is on the freeway until the end.
 
Not sure if Google Maps does the same thing, but with Apple Maps you can turn your screen off - just push the home button - and when you are close to the next turn the voice and screen will come on. I used mine on a long drive most of which is on the freeway until the end.

I just figured this out yesterday. really handy for saving battery life if youre connected to a car charger
 
I just figured this out yesterday. really handy for saving battery life if youre connected to a car charger

Yes I have seen this too. It's really good and that's about the only thing I am liking about apple maps so far. But when the screen comes on, and if you keep your iPhone in portrait mode, the unlock slider shows from bottom up and if you don't slide the directions are shown in a fallen mode (landscape) even when my orientation is portrait.
That is a real turn off.

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So I'm really not sure what you are complaining about losing 8% per hour, unless I'm missing something here...

So when I had just 15% left, I was seeing 8% like a big drain. 30%per hr ?? Did you have your phone on full brightness ? Or were multiple apps running ? The worst I have seen is 8 or max 10% an hr with auto brightness set.

If you are seeing 30% it might help to turn the device off and on to allow some messed up app to cool down.
 
If one can "pre-load" the maps like in a real GPS then that would save a bundled$?
 
Bumping this thread.

I need something to get me to December as my plan is ending at the end of June and want to wait until Dec to start a contract because of the accouncement that Canadian carriers must allow you to cancel after 2 years. Obviously two years is better so I'm going to go prepaid until that law takes affect.

So my question:

Is 100MB of data enough for just very minimal usage? I have 1gb on the plan im on but as I said it's ending.

I use Google Maps maybe 4 times a month and I maybe load 30 text webpages a month. I'll try my best not to use much but the data plans on pre paid is very expensive so I want to go as low as possible.

So how much will 100MB get me?
 
Bumping this thread.

I need something to get me to December as my plan is ending at the end of June and want to wait until Dec to start a contract because of the accouncement that Canadian carriers must allow you to cancel after 2 years. Obviously two years is better so I'm going to go prepaid until that law takes affect.

So my question:

Is 100MB of data enough for just very minimal usage? I have 1gb on the plan im on but as I said it's ending.

I use Google Maps maybe 4 times a month and I maybe load 30 text webpages a month. I'll try my best not to use much but the data plans on pre paid is very expensive so I want to go as low as possible.

So how much will 100MB get me?

I have a 200MB data plan and have never gone over. I do maybe 20-30 web pages, odd email check and maybe 7-10 text a month. As a matter of fact, I have never even come close to going over 100MB, let alone 200MB. We have similar usage so should not be a problem. I am in Canada as well.
 
Is 100MB of data enough for just very minimal usage? I have 1gb on the plan im on but as I said it's ending.
Depends on who you ask and what you specifically mean by "minimal usage". Both are very vague matters. If you want to know if it's enough for you then you need to monitor your data usage. 100MB is 100MB and it's really not much. I suspect my email would easily consume that much usage in a month. As with all usage matters, YMMV.

If you are trying to eke by on 100MB you should probably look into a nav app with locally stored maps verus one that streams maps.
 
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