Having a GPS when Travelling

gps on phone

Remember life before GPS in your smartphone? I do, as it is when I first drove from New York to Philadelphia–and got lost. I wound up on a seemingly never-ending two-lane street, without a place to even turn around. Getting back on track took forever. Getting lost, of course, can lead to exciting adventures. This is why using a readily available GPS device is perfect for most travelers. Whether driving unfamiliar land, walking through the wilderness, or researching a new town, a dependable GPS navigation for your car gives you choices. It can direct you from the beginning, or you could become intentionally lost, knowing there is a way out.

The best GPS devices not only provide spot-on navigation but also include a range of bonus features that maintain the consumer super-informed (weather and traffic reports) and make the exploration experience more fun (with social media connectivity). Some GPS devices in your prestige car do more than simply play electronic tour guide: they can also function as lifesaving devices in a crisis. The DeLorme Earthmate PN-60w, by way of instance, includes a SPOT satellite communicator feature which lets you send an SOS message, in case you end up in danger when braving the elements. You can also use it to send messages to family and friends once your trek takes you out mobile phone range.

Other devices are multifunctional, such as the Garminfone. It’s a terrific GPS device, also it includes many smartphone-like features in addition to a dash mount, so it seamlessly transitions from a handheld to in-the-car navigation. With a contract, the Garminfone is hundreds of dollars less (as low as $99 at press time) than many standalone GPS devices.

Whether you are hiking in the woods, surfing the Souks of Marrakesh, or simply forcing the Northeast Corridor, these terrific GPS Devices can assist you in finding your way.

DeLormeEarthmate PN-60w

The benefits: The SPOT Satellite communicator allows users to send and receive email and social media updates via satellite. Plus, the identical feature may be used to send an SOS in case of an emergency.

Downside: The display is small and not too sharp.

Price: $550

Droid2 by Motorola

The benefits: The compass mode enhances the Google Street view feature. The image display matches what you are seeing through the windshield. As your car turns, the image moves, kind of like a live–activity smart map.

Downside: To use this mode, the telephone must be facing forward; this could be awkward when walking.

Price: $560

DroidIncredible by HTC

The benefits: The phone’s GPS and camera team up with Wikipedia to deliver content related to your environment (using the free Wikitude program, available through the Android shop).

Downside: While impressive, the points-of-interest database is not all-encompassing, yet.

Price: $530

Garminfonefrom T-Mobile

The benefits: The system includes uber-reliable GPS, and it is backed by the spot-on Garmin network. In addition to the car mount (included) means it moves readily in the palm of your hands to your car’s front window.

Downside: The phone’s built-in camera is simply so-so.

Price: $450

GarminOregon 550t

The benefits: This handheld has a built-in 3.2-megapixel camera using geo-tagging Capabilities, so that you can photograph your environment and plot them on a map.

Downside: The device is on the bulky side.

Price: $600

MotorolaMotoNav TN765t

The benefits: The extra-wide 5.1-inch display shows more of your environment. Plus the dashboard menu, which displays direction, speed, and elevation, can stay open without obstructing route instructions.

Downside: Obtaining a constant sign can be problematic in town settings.

Price: $250

TomTomGo 740TM Live

The benefits: Real-time traffic reports and five-day weather forecasts make this In-auto GPS useful for planning multiday itineraries and spontaneous detours.

Downside: Initial setup is a small pain as the steps are long and tedious.

Price: $280

How Secure Are Your Travel Photos?

two people taking photos

A photograph is worth a thousand words, but what if you have got a million photos on your telephone from your latest holiday spent roaming around Europe, and you have no room to store them all? You can move it your laptop or hard disk, but what if you wanted to share a few of these pictures with friends or loved ones? Your very best choice is to maintain them in the cloud, and that is why we provided you with the best cloud computing services out there. By using any of the below providers, you can create one photo library and upload images from your smartphone, digital camera or tablet computer and access them anytime from any device as long as you have internet access.

Privacy is another essential criterion, particularly for users who are expecting to store their private holiday family photos on the cloud. If that’s the case, it is better to decide on a cloud storage supplier with a zero-knowledge coverage (such as Sync.com) or personal encryption (such as IDrive). Below are the top best online storage providers for your travel photographs; and notice how all of them provide some choice of free cloud storage for photographs, so you can pick the right one for you!

Sync.com
With 5GB free storage space and zero-knowledge encryption, Sync.com isn’t simply the best cloud photograph storage; it is also the most secure. With the latest technology in encryption, Sync.com is one of our most secure Dropbox options (for more detail, we also have compared Sync.com vs Dropbox). You can upload pictures from desktop, tablet or mobile. Although the download and upload process takes a lot more than other cloud storage suppliers due to the encryption, that’s simply the price that you pay for privacy.

SugarSync
SugarSync is another one of the best online photo storage platforms for your holiday photography. However, SugarSync does not encrypt files everywhere, images pull up much faster as compared to Sync.com. However, SugarSync only encrypts data when it is in transit and on the cloud server. It will provide 5GB free storage, but only for 90 days. To have access to this free space you need to download SugarSync’s desktop program.

Google Drive
Google has altered its editing tool Picasa to Google Photos and has shifted the whole focus from photo editing to picture storage. With Google Photos, users get unlimited photo storage free of charge, which is perfect for storing your holiday photos. But, there are some catches as photos can only be up to 16 megapixels in resolution. If you would like to save higher quality photographs with RAW data, then it will count towards your total Google Drive storage, however, there is a limit of 2000 pictures per folder. Therefore, if you want to save over 2000 pictures, then you will have to split them up into multiple folders.

Moving on from these few grabs, Google Photos has a remarkably powerful search engine, which may identify components in pictures. Therefore, if you search for “shore,” then it will automatically scan through all of the uploaded photographs and pull the pictures that have a beach within it. (Yes, its one of the most innovative picture search programs, but not ideal.) Storing pictures on it cloud computing is now crucial for any holiday maker wanting to save their precious memories, as storing them on the cloud not only allows the photos to keep to a central location, but also to keep them safe if one of your devices corrupts or gets stolen. After all, our pictures hold lots of memories and losing them can be a huge loss.