Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by gioele 4295 days ago
This is possible, but rare. If your GPS navigator requires "cloud maps", it will be useless the moment its provider goes out of business or turns off the v1 servers in favour of v2 servers. This as already been discussed in the Ars Technica's article about Android and the problem of old phones with "broken" apps.

(Well, the reality is that it will be useless for 3 years, after which somebody will finally crack the DRM and put a OSM-based replacement on it that has 90% of the features of the previous software, but it nowhere as polished as it.)

[1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/building-android-a-40...
1 comments
toomuchtodo 4295 days ago
> This is possible, but rare. If your GPS navigator requires "cloud maps", it will be useless the moment its provider goes out of business or turns off the v1 servers in favour of v2 servers.

I have a 10 year old GPS receiver in a box, with no way to update with maps from Garmin, not because Garmin went out of business but because they just choose not to support the device anymore.

Do I want to spend hours trying to figure out how to update a 10 year old device? Or would I rather spend $100-$200 on a brand new one with the latest maps?

Obsolescence isn't a bad thing, its how we move forward. We just need a clean process to recycle the waste that process generates.

link
userbinator 4295 days ago
The issue is that a GPS navigator is basically a solved problem, and the only part that requires updating are the maps.

Do I want to spend hours trying to figure out how to update a 10 year old device? Or would I rather spend $100-$200 on a brand new one with the latest maps?

The ideal situation would be a device that you buy once, but it's also one you could use with whatever map data sources you want (OSM, commercial, etc.) - based on an open format.

(I know GPS is also dependent on the satellites being available, but since it's government-owned and critical to many parts of the infrastructure, it's likely to stay around for the forseeable future.)

link
toomuchtodo 4295 days ago
> The ideal situation would be a device that you buy once, but it's also one you could use with whatever map data sources you want (OSM, commercial, etc.) - based on an open format.

Like an iPhone/iPad/Android phone/Android tablet? Tomorrow's tech will be available to me soon, and much cheaper than today's tech. Support = people's time = expensive.

link