I can't believe that a phone has a better GPS than a dedicated GPS where I live. What you are missing is that there is often no signal for the phone to triangulate. There are also very few trees on Shetland, so no tree cover means good satellite reception.
Battery life - the other thing that smartphone users moan about, after the poor quality camera, is that the GPS functions suck the life of their batteries. For users with cars you probably just plug them into the lighter socket. I ride a bike or take the bus so there is no power available. I don't know how long the batteries in my bike computer last as I have never tried them, but another Garmin GPS last over 24 hours on two AAA batteries. The GPS datalogger lasts 40 hours I believe, this is about 3 inches long in its longest dimension, so must have a tiny inbuilt battery. Going back to battery life, I have read many stories of walkers out on the hills on the UK mainland, using a smartphone for their mapping, suddenly finding themselves without any map when the battery expires due to the GPS' power requirements. It goes without saying that The GPS will suck more power when searching for mobile towers, especially when it is not finding one to lock onto.
My description of my tablet being a phone without a SIM was based on ip telephony, a mindset brought about by poor mobile signal here. You are quite right in your description of GSM systems. Long before mobile phones came to the general public I was involved in testing a military system at Plessey. The cells were mobile, truck based systems, but otherwise the system was the the same with mobile voice and data traffic.
My camera is a Canon Powershot S95, and I would be more than amazed if mobile phone cameras were better than this camera in all conditions. I assume that when you say a better camera, you mean than the dross that has preceded it?
Waterproof? To what IPX standard? My GPS can be dunked in water. The datalogger can't though, but I wanted to be able to swap out the microSD card so that was my choice.
Radio - I have no interest in a radio on the move. I would rather look at the view or chat to a fellow passenger. If I am on the bus the driver may have his radio on, so I have little choice. On the bike I would rather be listening to the traffic noise. My Roberts radio at home is fine as far as a weak FM signal will allow. There is no DAB signal where I live, and the Pure DAB radio that I bought so long ago has sat unused for over a decade. Of course I could get a phone line run into the house, but the only choice is through BT as the local loop still hasn't been unbundled. Virgin, who offer fibre broadband only to the house have not rolled out the service up here, and if others are anything to go by, never will.
Reception - when you hear the BBC in respect to DAB, mobile phone companies and BT in respect to coverage, waffling about their coverage, it is always expressed as a percentage in respect to the amount of people that their service covers in the U.K., not the coverage of the land mass. This is great if you live in a sprawling urban conurbation, but once you move about in the less populated regions you suddenly see how dire coverage from any of these "great" institutions is. I have friends here that can't get broadband. They are just too far from the exchange and have to have satellite broadband. We looked at a little house recently. Up until recently there had been broadband available, albeit slow. The nearest, previously empty house, some 300 yards away, had become occupied, the residents choosing to have broadband meant that the house we were looking at could no longer have it, presumably a capacity issue. Now, I am not complaining about any of these things, it is just the way it is, why I have the mindset that I have, and why I choose the equipment I choose. It is the best for the job here. The BBC and BT in particular are not bothering to invest in remote communities unless the government give them handouts. We will always have slower services, if any service, than anyone else because we have the lowest amount of people per square mile, and therefore the service is more difficult to deliver for less potential reward.
One point that I have made that does not seem to have been taken into consideration is that the size of the iPad mini screen is the size compromise that I am not willing to go under. I don't want to squint at these tiny screens on today's mobiles. I don't care how good the quality is, at the magnification that I am comfortable reading at there will still be less on the screen that the iPad mini. Yes smartphone screens have increased in size since the days of the T28, one of my early phones, but when they reach the size of the iPad mini, I would still rather use my current Nokia dumb phone.
I haven't mentioned the Android OS being different to all my other devices, but there is no point because I would not consider even an iPhone. The system that I have got is the best system for me and the place that I live and the remote places I ride though when I am cycle touring.
Live on a remote Scottish island for a few years and you will soon realise the limitation of your all in one device when you can't get onto the internet to do whatever that important thing that can't wait is, can't use most of the inbuilt functionality, most of which is actually a remote service in reality. At least you will still be able to take some nice photos though.
If you don't know the geography, as most cartographers put Shetland in a box-out on maps, Shetland is nearer to the capital of Norway than London. The lines of 60 and 61 degrees north run through the island group. Lerwick, our main town pop. c7,000, is roughly 150 miles north of Aberdeen, which is an hour by air or 10-12 hours by ferry. The islands are windy, unpolluted and have very low crime rates. A missing bicycle, people don't bother to lock them here, will probably be reported on the radio, along with missing phones,even the dumb ones. Out of Lerwick it is not unusual for people to leave their keys in their cars and the houses unlocked. Young kids will wander about on their own, and a woman will feel perfectly safe walking home late at night. The roads are well surfaced and maintained. There are plenty of sports centres, each with their own swimming pool. The old folks homes are council run on the whole and are first class places apparently. Almost everyone seems to start work at around 9 am so there is a build-up of traffic in Lerwick in the morning, but at 5 o'clock a traffic jam extends to about 15 cars at the roundabout at the same time. That's 15 in total. There are only 4 roundabouts in Shetland. There is a good bus system, which is very cheap. I travel the 18 miles to work for £2 each way. A recent 5 mile each way return trip on a bus in Sussex cost me £7.70. We have a number of inter-island to-to ferries, which cost £5 return as a foot passenger. Pushbikes go free. The ferries run frequently. If you prefer to fly the two Islander planes can take you out to air strips on most of the islands. The Islanders fly out of Tingwall Airport mainly, 7 miles from Lerwick. If you arrive from Lerwick to take a plane and the weather conditions are not suitable then, but may improve later, the pilot will tell you when he reckons it will be better, offer you a seat in the waiting room, but suggest that you go home and he will ring you when it looks better. He will then wait for you to get back to the plane, which is a lifeline service for some of the islands so has to fly most days of the week if possible. I think that they seat about 8 including the pilot, but I have found myself the only passenger, sat up front with the pilot on more than one occasion, so he might take you by a more scenic route. I could go on but I won't. Whatever you do though, please don't think that this is some land of milk and honey that I am trying to portray, we have crap mobile signal coverage after all.
Andy
