Originally Posted by
revelo
Modern smartphones allow you to download maps to the phone and use it offline. My Nokia N8 has maps for the entire world available. For the iPhone, visit this excellent site:
http://adventurealan.com/iphone4gps.htm
Some phones, like my Nokia C6-01, have awfully slow gps receivers. If totally offline one has to wait for about 30 minutes to get the position. 30 minutes each time the position is lost, that's too much.
With A-gps it's a matter of 30 seconds to get the approximate position which is refined then by the GPS signal, this is why those smartphones like mine are only useful when there is some cell coverage available.
External bluetooth GPS receiver would solve the problem, but it's too much of gizmos when better solutions are available for less money.