Best Tablet and Trucker GPS

look up TruckersTablet.com a friend of mine got one and so far he likes it. He hauls tanker/Hazmat plus he said its got everything, even live video cam. plus truck routing is right on. wifi too.

 

Frankly, Blind- the situation on the motor carrier GPS is just atrocious.
They don't work for half a #### of not giving a squat. They're great for routing and finding distances to certain areas, so long as they're taken with a large grain of salt but on the whole I find my Rand Mcnally 720 (supposedly one of the best, considered by several independent reviews)to be complete crap.

When I'm in an area I know (LA, Dallas NYC ect ect) it always tries to route me around the long way, around medians and in several occasions- under low bridges. Not only that, but the amount of times my GPS has asked me to do U-turns in areas that will not permit it; is beyond ridiculous.

I have come to a point that most days, it's turned off and stays turned off.

Good `ol motor carrier atlas will never treat you wrong, my friend!
That being said, I've heard good things about (the newer) Garmin('s). Stay away from Cobra! Rand is so/so as I mentioned.

Tablet-Go with the original, go with the best! Get an Ipad. The thing about (most) tablets is that they're entirely too finicky. Android...well, Android sucks. Anything related to the new androids is terrible.

They were good, now they're not- and they're gonna remain not good.

Apple's Ipad is great for several reasons and I'll gloss over a few that will probably sell you on this topic:

• Apple's products are self enclosed, or "closed systems." This means that the software, hardware and applications used for/on the device were made for that device (apples) and not twenty different versions of a single operating system (androids.) What this means for apple is that, even though modern Ipads are a bit under powered, they are able to take full use and advantage of hardware, software and applications specifically designed for the ipad because it will always operate at the same levels of availability.
  Androids, however are usually spun off in some weird directions with a ton of bloatware (useless applications and software that are unnecessary and frankly, a hindering to its operations) by the company that made the particular bit of hardware you are buying.
  So even though that android phone might have a dual core 2 ghz processor with 4 gb's of ram- it will NEVER be able to utilize them effectively or in a consistent manner because software made for android has to be made with the consideration that all phones and tablets are not made alike in the areas of processor power/speed and ram space as well as graphical power.
  
  I can provide a great example to this situation.
  
  Apple does not include an NIST (national institute of standards and technology) application on it's ipads. NIST is a tool available on the open internet, which allows devices to synchronize time, precisely. That is to say, a devices (such as the ipad) internal quartz clock can drift. Sometimes the drift may be milliseconds to whole seconds. But never more than a few seconds in either direction.
  
  Frankly, I see the point of this and I hope you will as well. By cutting out this unnecessary service of synchronizing an internal clock every few minuets- apple has cut out small portion of software that was frankly- unnecessary. Thereby, freeing up more space and hardware resources to allow the tablet to run faster. The draw back? Depending on how cold that ipad is, it could be a few seconds off time. But in the trucking business, do you really need a clock that is precise- to the millisecond?
• The ipads applications were DESIGNED FOR THE IPAD's IOS.
  
  This is not a trait shared by android and the user experience suffers as such. Some software that works on one version of Android, may not work (at all, or as well) on another version of Android.
  
  We as truckers, have enough stress to deal with. Is a device we just paid hundreds of dollars for, not working, another thing we really need to deal with?
• The ipad has exclusive media offers that are not available through Android. These include publications, music series offered through itunes and amazing apps/games that are offered no where else.
  
  I am in fact too lazy to go get my ipad to list some of these, so you will have to read some reviews on this topic or just take my word.

On the whole, I'd stick with apple.
And I'm not trying to advertise for apple, I did in fact hate their products up until a year ago when I finally broke down and bought an Ipad (and I still love it.)

 

[h=1]Apple Announces Plans For New iPad With Extra Storage Drawer[/h]

 

Funny, I had exactly the opposite experience. I couldn't wait for my contract to be up so I could dump my iPhone and get an Android phone. I have a Galaxy S II Skyrocket phone, and I doubt that you could pay me enough to go back to iOS.

Funny, I have never seen this NIST app on any of my Android devices. Anything connected directly to the cellular network (phones, tablets with data plans) automatically get the time from the cellular network. My WiFi-only tablet will check the date/time ONCE when it first connects to the internet, then that app exits completely. Yes, there are apps I can download to check time more frequently, but I find once when I turn it on to be sufficient.

I have an older 7" tablet that I used to use exclusively for watching movies when waiting for my passengers. (Driving class B.) It didn't see a WiFi signal for months at a time. After a few weeks, the internal clock was off by 15-20 minutes. Not sure about you, but I would like my clock to be more accurate than within a third of an hour.

To me, that's a negative thing. There are a LOT of good programmers who like to write apps, who don't want to pay Apple's "developer tax" to allow others to run their app. Some may be crap, but Apple has its share... just search iTunes for fart apps.

Oh? I can run any media I get through iTunes on my Android devices. Maybe not encrypted (DRMed) stuff, but I won't pay for those, anyway.

 

There is a support thread under Electronic Connection. Have not seen your issues posted there?????

Thanks,
Mark

 

Bilind I'd go with what driver55 suggested