birding-aus

The perfect phone for a birder?

To: Peter Marsh <>
Subject: The perfect phone for a birder?
From: David Stowe <>
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:08:58 +1100
Hi Peter,
Like Damian and Russell I also use an iPhone and love it.
1. Coverage - I recently switched to Telstra 'Next-G' for my trip out to Round Hill so that my wife could contact me if needed. Even compared to Telstras normal GSM coverage the difference in alot of areas is amazing. Check their website for coverage details.
You do pay for it though.

2. No idea about International sorry
3. I must admit that I would love to know for sure about the gps etc too. I use an app called Motion X GPS which is fantastic. It plots your course on a map creating a track file that you can then email to others/yourself which has a link showing it on Google Maps. Great to send my wife while i was away letting her know where i was. Biggest downsides are that you have to have the application running in the foreground for it to work and it chews the battery ALOT faster. One clever thing they did though was create an iPod interface within the application so you can access music/bird calls from within the app so that the gps tracking keeps going. It has a number of maps that it can source (including google) and you can cache a certain amount but this is where I'm not sure about how much you are needing to download etc. 4. I would think Tom Tom for iPhone as Damian suggested would be good although it costs $100. You can also get an cradle with an external gps which offers superior performance. i have a mate who has it (without the external gps) and he is constantly frustrated with it telling him to turn after he has passed the street! 5. Perfect for this - i have masses of cds plus all the BOCA cds. You can also use an external speaker although i have been impressed with the quality of the built in speaker and it's ability to call in small birds.
6. No idea
7. Bird recording software - i also use Birdsight and whilst its a bit slower than a notepad it does save another thing to carry.
Hope that helps :)
Cheers
Dave

On 26/12/2009, at 6:45 PM, Peter Marsh wrote:

Dear Birders,
Knowing that you will all be at a loose end too full of Christmas pud to be able to go out birding let me test your tech savvy by asking what is the perfect phone for a birder?

I appreciate that the question goes a bit further than the phone. There is also the carrier and software to consider. Therefor the answer that I am looking at will necessarily cover these issues.

What I know I want in a phone are the following features :-
 1.. As great a coverage within Australia as is possible
 2.. As much international coverage as is possible
 3.. GPS coverage whether within coverage are or not
4.. Access to detailed maps of Australian rural areas when out of coverage
 5.. MP3 player to hold 500+ bird calls
6.. Sound recording capability ideally with the capacity to use an external mike
Possible other wants are :-
 1.. ability to load bird recording software
What else should I want in a phone?

So, what handset do I need, Who should my carrier be, what maps do I want, what other software etc, etc.

Hope responding to this RFI will fill in your post Christmas birding lull!

Oh, and may the new year bring many birds into your life.
regards
Peter
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

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