View Single Post
Old May 25th, 2023, 08:19 AM   #6
InvisiBill
EX500 full of EX250 parts
 
InvisiBill's Avatar
 
Name: Bill
Location: Grand Rapids-ish, MI
Join Date: Jul 2012

Motorcycle(s): '18 Ninja 400 • '09 Ninja 500R (selling) • '98 VFR800 (project) • '85 Vulcan VN700 (sold)

Posts: A lot.
Blog Entries: 1
MOTM - Aug '15
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob KellyIII View Post
do any of these apps keep the smart phone on in real time ?
I used google maps on the phone and it turns itself off after a few minutes so it is useless to me, even with the screen saver disabled.
I haven't figured out how you guys can use these maps on the phones yet but it sure would be handy to have ! I'll admit that.... especially on the back roads where the road splits into 3 roads and they all look like the main road.... I gott'a stop pull out the phone get google maps out ...find my location, zoom in and then see where I am and zoom out to find the road I want.... it is a major P.I.T.A ! I thought seriously about a GPS because of that but having to pay yearly for a service I will only use once or twice a year is a no go for me !
At least with iPhone, I think the phone relies on a lot of its sensors to determine if the it's being used to decide whether or not to keep the screen on. While listening to music in the shower, sometimes the screen will still be on when I get out, and other times it's not. As far as I know, I'm doing it the same way every time, so I'm not sure why it gives me different results. My phone has FaceID and I have an iWatch, so during normal usage (not when I'm in the shower), I also have non-phone inputs helping it decide what to do. It's usually quite good about it, but there are occasionally times when it seems to do the exact opposite of what I want.

I've been a Waze user for 10 years or more, so I don't have much experience with other mapping apps. But I think Waze has always kept the screen from shutting off. There might also be settings in the apps themselves to enable keeping the phone awake, besides just the main settings for the whole phone. Generally speaking, I feel like all the mapping apps I've used in my car keep the iPhone screen awake. Occasionally I'll switch to a different app to check something (e.g. switching to GrubHub to see if my food is ready while I'm on my way to pick it up), and then it does shut the screen off after a while of inactivity.

Check out Motorcycle CarPlay/Android Auto screen too. With that, your phone stays in your pocket and links via Wi-Fi to a separate screen mounted on the bike. It's a lot like a dedicated GPS unit, but it just shows data from your phone rather than having an internal program/data. The screen is wired into the bike's power, and your phone saves on battery because it doesn't need to keep the screen on (plus the engine vibrations won't ruin the camera's stabilization system). Admittedly I'm a bit biased because I really like Waze, but this feels like the best of both worlds - a rugged screen hardwired to the bike, but fed updated data from your phone in realtime. The downside is that it does require your phone to do anything other than play music from a MicroSD card.
__________________________________________________

*** Unregistered, I'm not your mom and I'm not paying for your parts, so do whatever you want with your own bike. ***
InvisiBill is offline   Reply With Quote