FWIW, I've been using a Nexus 7 for a while now, and love it. Battery lasts pretty long, although I recommend getting one of the little "backup" battery sticks/packs for it. Solar charger is nice if you're gonna be camping. If you stop at coffee shops, or are staying at someplace you can plug it in, the battery and extra pack will last you pretty well.

Remember: you're not locked into using AT&T as the carrier for the Nexus 7. You can choose any GSM carrier: AT&T, T-mobile, StraightTalk, etc. How much you pay likely depends on your exact carrier, plan, and commitment length.

500MB of data isn't much if you use your device regularly and 3G speeds are pretty slow compared to 4G/LTE, so the 500MB for $10 plan doesn't seem like much of a bargain to me. If I didn't have access to WiFi and was forced to rely on cellular data alone, I'd whiz past 500MB pretty quickly. That doesn't include any video or music streaming, BTW! It does include photo uploads, however, which might interest a bicycle tourist. Without guaranteed access to WiFi, I'd be looking for a 1-2GB/month plan. Internet on the Go offers a 1.5GB plan for $25... but if you're going to spend that much you might as well spend a few more bucks and get a 4G/LTE plan.

I hadn't heard about mapwithme. It's also based on Open Street Maps. It might have some good features for non-automobile use, perhaps more points of interest and ways of tracking your location.

Osmand on google play is free with up to 10 map downloads. I think the first one or two are the base maps, large coverage maps (worldwide?) with just major highways and cities. The separately downloadable regional maps are state maps here in the midwest, so it's easy to get your state and bordering states for free.

The "osmand+" $7 one-time pay version to get more regions is mostly to help support more development. (Both the osmand software and the Open Street Maps themselves are open source, which allows free usage and modification or adaptations for new uses.)

Osmand does a pretty good job of car navigation, including optional voice prompts for turns and zooming in when the car's speed slows down. It can keep the map oriented to North, or turn it in the direction of travel. If it picks a route I don't like, I add a waypoint in the middle to get it to go the way I want.

Last fall, one rider on the group ride had osmand (or something that sounded exactly like it,) running on his phone in his jersey pocket, calling out turns! It actually worked pretty good! He probably downloaded the route from ridewithgps.com, but I don't know how he linked that route file to the mapping software. But this was a 3 hour ride, not a multiple day tour.

For exploring, the map can be dragged and zoomed with the usual android finger motions.

You can also get a 4G hotspot, T-Mobile, with 3.5 GB "broadband pass" at $35. The T-Mobile data can alternatively be used with a tablet instead of a hotspot. Which one would depend on your tablet, and what your typical internet use is. Without streaming, and light internet useage even with photo uploads I'd be hard-pressed to use more than 500 MB. Using a mobile plan is going to be much more expensive. This may cheaper even than my tracfone smartphone scheme (I'm using SIP phone with a free DID from callcentric), which in turn is cheaper than literally anything else I've priced. With mostly Wifi and light 3G data use. Using the tracfone data with VOIP is somewhat cheaper than tracfone mobile minutes even with 2 cents per minute on the outgoing DOD, although I'm sure they'll eventually take steps to correct that.

It's an intriguing idea to just do away with the cell phone service entirely on the smartphone, having no data plan, using pay-go: Internet on the Go or the T-Mobile broadband pass with just internet phone. The same thing could be effected with a tablet that has no capability for data broadband. A few services that bundle something like this are starting to pop up already, none really better than do it yourself but close, and all are more cost-effective than a mobile plan with 3G or 4G/LTE. If there's a cheaper option for light usage I'm very interested. But I don't see beating it unless you really need one of the unlimited plans, watching youtube or netflix or things of that nature.

For cell phone, I use a vintage cell that was made before they started to put cameras in phones. No data plan, just a pay by the minute plan.

And, I have a smartphone running android 4.1 but I have no cell plan for it. I only use it where I have wifi. Thus it is basically a wifi device for when I want to check e-mail or the latest news at a restaurant with wifi. I also have the mapping GPS apps on it. And I have Google Voice and Groove IP Lite which allows me to use VOIP for phone purposes when my regular cell is out of range, but that means that I only can use it where I have wifi, thus I only make calls on this, do not receive calls on it.

I use dedicated GPS devices for most of my GPS duties, my GPS units run on AA batteries which I prefer. I usually carry about 5 or 6 days of AA and AAA batteries that I recharge when I have power for an overnight.

I was the same as you, carrying an old flip phone, then got smartphone to use as a wifi tablet, then got cell for it so that I don't carry two ... it's a slippery slope. I've been screwed by phone companies in the past so I make a special study of paying them as little as possible.

On the Google Voice, make sure you have an alternative lined up because it will cease to function as you use it on May 15 when they are disabling the XMPP support (all of the third party stuff). I had a similar setup for my house line - you can't beat totally free - but since that's ending I settled for forwarding my GV number to a Callcentric incoming DID (which is still free) and used Callcentric's pay per call outgoing VOIP which is "almost" free so it's almost the same thing. Callcentric forwards the GV to both my cell number and wifi SIP number, so my phone picks up whichever is available, prioritizing the wifi (or data if I turn that on) if both are available.

With those mobile hotspots I could be like you and turn off cell using only VOIP over 3G data and wifi (or if you had one you could get your email or news even without wifi fairly cheaply), the difference being that my flip phone is disabled now and I'd leave it off. The big drawback with that as sstorkel said is the coverage map. And maybe the hotspot devices aren't that great, that I don't know.

I have a Nexus 7 tablet. I've had mine for over a year now. I only use it light to moderately (I have a desktop PC and a laptop at home also) but it has held up well and and has worked perfectly. I have taken it traveling in the car and on airplane trips. I have a cheap usb keyboard case that turns it into a mini laptop.

A few months ago a friend upgraded her smartphone and gave me her old one. It's a LG Marquee with Android 2.3. My tracfone flip phone is cheap and fine for my light talk/text needs so I didn't want to use the smartphone as a cell phone. I like it as a mini wifi tablet though. Much easier to carry around than the Nexus 7. I like the camera and GPS (loaded offline maps). The Marquee is kind of old and slow so I have been looking for a more updated used smartphone to use as a mini tablet. I just last night bought a used ZTE Flash on ebay for $60. 4.5" screen, Android 4.0 (ICS) and 12mp camera. This might be fun to play with.

I also use Google Voice and could make calls on wifi on the smartphone. I have been using GV at home with a Obi100 and have been happy with the free phone calls. I've been deciding what to do for the end of the xmpp support when I can't do that any more. I want to keep my GV acct. I think I'm going to get a $25 GVMate adapter to use with the GV. It's a little less convenient than the Obi100 but I think it will work for us.

I don't care about using the smartphone for phone calls but data might be nice sometimes. I might look into prepaid services like Ting or Republic Wireless where you can bring your own phone to use. Or I might try the Freedompop for some free limited use wifi on the go.

I'm not a big techy but it's fun to play with some of these services and gadgets as the tech filters down to the cheaper prices.

I also only have a simple pay as you go plan. My phone costs me $20 every 3 months, so $6.33 a month. I was thinking about doing what you're doing and buying a smart phone with GPS, but not activating it. I was wondering if there's any problems with doing this? Does a phone need a sim card for the WiFi to work? How about the GPS? I've toured for over 20 years without using GPS, but the idea of having GPS with downloaded maps is very appealing.

I found a smart phone on Amazon for $99 with free shipping. It says it's got an Android 4.2 operating system. WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, with a MTK 6572 processor . (2G only)

Just jump in there get a phone and start playing with it. That's what I did. I've learned a lot.
These smartphones are amazing little devices even if you don't want to make calls with it.

I'm new to the smartphone-as-no-service-device thing but I don't think you need to have a SIM card to make it work on wifi/gps, etc. I haven't checked but I don't think my LG Marquee has a sim card in it. It does not have cell service but it was still looking for cell towers, showing bars. I put it in airplane mode so it would stop doing that as it drains the battery. I only turn wifi on when I'm going to use it as well. In general it seems that battery life in smartphones is not great, compared to the simple flip phones. If you use your smartphone moderately during that day you'll probably have to charge it at night.

I do favor the phones that have replaceable batteries. Not all smartphones do. I got two new batteries for my LG Marquee ($5 each on ebay). The ZTE Flash I just ordered has a replaceable battery. And not all have a microSD card slot. The Flash will take up to 64gb. That's a lot of images and background maps!

I know I'm such a newbie: when I started taking pictures with my LG Marquee I noticed that when I put the phone on wifi at home (or where ever) afterwards that it automatically sent the photos to my Dropbox and to my Picasa (google pictures album). The pictures are on the camera too, but it's a nice automatic backup. It's a settings in the camera and i suppose it could be set to send them where ever you want. Nifty.

T-mobile has a (carefully hidden) pre-paid mobile plan that offers 100 minutes of talk time, unlimited text, and unlimited data (the first 5GB of it at 4G speeds) for $30/month. Unfortunately, I've tested T-mobile and AT&T side-by-side and T-mobile's service is pretty craptastic when compared to AT&T: coverage is worse and transfer speeds are much slower, too.

StraightTalk offers a similar plan to T-mobile for $45/mo: unlimited talk, unlimited texts, and unlimited data (first 2.5GB at 4G speeds). StraightTalk uses the AT&T network, so it's fast and reliable. StraightTalk also offers data-only plans: 1/2/4GB for $15/25/40 per month. I would recommend this option over T-mobile or other regional/no-name carriers.

For my iPad Retina mini, I use the AT&T prepaid $30 plan (when needed) that allows 1GB of data transfer over a 90-day period. I believe that's a special rate that Apple negotiated, so it probably isn't available For the Nexus 7.

That GVmate is pretty cool (I didn't know about it before now), and will purportedly still work after the XMPP shutdown. I'm not sure I trust it, or Google rather, since it's kind of a hack but keeping the free service and the phone company out of it is laudable in and of itself. If it even works for a few months you still come out ahead.

When I finally got a smartphone it was the Samsung offered by tracfone, so it was a matter of transferring the service over to it. No difference that way, except when you buy time for the smartphone you ALSO get some data (no extra charge!) so it was "might as well". Of course, I got screwed on the transfer. The customer rep said all of the minutes would transfer, but it wound up being only 120 out of around 600 that I had. It seems like anyone selling phone service of any kind just can't help it.

BTW you can keep the GV account and the Obi box when you get a DID. What worked for me is:

caller phone -> GV number -> DID number -> Obihai box -> your phone

so the caller only ever knows the GV number, since the DID is just inserted in the middle.

I know that Google Voice might not always be a sure thing, but for free I'll hang onto it for as long as I can. I looked into adding the DID number into the mix to keep using the GV but decided I didn't want to go there yet. GVMate seems simpler and should work for us. For $25, if we even only get a year out of it, it's well worth it. I'll keep the Obi box in case I want to use it again someday in the future. The savings we've got out of it, not paying for a landline, was well worth it.

Thanks Eofelis!

I'm thinking I will - The price isn't that much different than what some people pay for a mp3 player. The phone has a 8mp camera and with the WiFi, I'll be able to check my e-mail whenever I can find a free WiFi signal.

What phone is it? It sounds good.

I think you are on the same pay by minute as I am, $20 a month with my vintage phone. I pay $0.25 per minute for first 10 minutes of the day, $0.10 per minute after that. But since I almost never use it, I have a lot of minutes sitting in my account waiting for me.

I got an Android 4.1 smartphone on Ebay that takes SIM cards, I have not bought any SIM cards yet. I only use it on wifi, it does not need a SIM card to work on wifi.

Some of the cheap Android phones do NOT have GPS chip inside. So, be sure that the one you buy has that chip in it. I think the 2G only phones are more likely to NOT have the GPS chip than the 3G phones, so that is something to double check before you buy.

I was unaware of this, thanks for the warning. I have some homework to do.

I'm narrowing down my choices. They're all mystery name brands, so that's always a concern. Some of the mystery brands seem to work better than others. I'm looking through Amazon, so that should make it easier to return if there's a problem when I buy. These are the phones I have it narrowed down to:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

I bought the new 32gb Nexus at Christmas. Love it so far and with the Kindle app on it and a bit of jiggery pokery my wife and I can share her Kindle books. I don't have a sim card in it but I've upgraded my phone to 5gb of data a month for a fiver and will use the phone as a hotspot when 3g is available. Another mapswithme convert here too.

Looks like all five of those use the same processor package of electronics. And it looks like all 5 use the same Android version.

Mine is very similar but a year older and thus mine has a slightly slower processor and an older package of electronics. They all appear to be quad band on 2G, that is important if you want it to work globally. Mine is dual SIM too, that is a popular option in Asia, a lot of people there use one SIM card for work and one for personal, thus they can have one phone instead of two for both purposes. One lists triple SIM capability, I never heard of that before.

One says 2G only, I do not know if that would be a problem or not but it does say it has GPS navigation. Still I would be a bit nervous about that when the others all can take 3G.

Looks like all are 4 or 5 inch screens. Mine is 4.7 inch screen. You want the biggest screen you can get that is comfortable to use. You want it to fit comfortably in your hand and you want it to feel comfortable when you hold it to the side of your head. I have large hands (glove size XL) and my 4.7 inch screen is fine, I also suspect that if mine was 5 inch that it would also be comfortable to hold. But if you have small hands, the 5 inch ones might be a bit bigger than you would prefer for holding and for using as a phone. For a while I had my 7 inch tablet configured so I could use it as a phone and it was just too big for my hand to comfortably hold to the side of my head.

These cheap generic Chinese Android phones are cheap with low quality components. So, they are fragile, be careful with them. A friend of mine saw mine and was very impressed, so he bought one to take to Europe so he could buy a local SIM card in Europe instead of having to pay high roaming charges on his USA phone plan. First his camera stopped focusing properly. Then he dropped his phone while in Europe (about a 30 inch drop to the floor) and it stopped taking input from the screen after that. So, take care to avoid harsh treatment. Mine is always in a case unless it is in my hand or being charged. I think these cheap phones are great, but I would not want to be too dependent on this being my only form of communication.

You will also want a Micro SD memory card to plug into it for more map and app capacity. Memory is so cheap these days that I think I got a 16 GB card for mine when a much smaller one would have been good enough.

I have the original Nexus 7 love it. I use the Kindle app and keep it synced with my Kindle Touch. For off line navigation I use MapFactor so far so good, but I have not used it on a tour yet. I used to haul a netbook with me. Now I take a smart phone (typically my Razr M) and the tablet.

Aaron :)

The OP here. I had a young friend help me out with understanding some of the apps as I am not very tech savy at all!
Any way here is my dilemma, I got Map With Me Pro($5) and I started down loading the different states. I started getting "Down Load Failed" and I cannot down load any more states. So I am at a loss as how to proceed. I also downloaded Osmand,the free version, that allows 10 maps. But when I got the 10 maps I decided to delte one and down load another. It continued saying I had all 100.
So any help would be Great!
Thanks

Yuck.

Don't get anything with less than 16 GB. Really.

You can get a Motorola G with 16 GB for $200. And it's a phone people actually like.

Some phones allow you to use an microSD card, which is a useful feature (the Motorola's do not).

It's going to be hard to figure out what your problem is.

I'd suggest uninstalling both from the nexus and reinstalling the apps. (You won't have to rebuy mapswithme.)

You might want to power-off (hold the power button down untill the "power off" menu appears) the nexus before reinstalling the apps.

Re: Osmand, I will give that a try. As for Map With Me, it is working this AM after I tried it again.

Hey Tom, Also give CoPilot a try. That is what I use. It works really well and seems to be the de facto standard for mapping apps. I think you have to pay for routing after your trail period but it is not all that expensive. Mine just ran out several months ago and I have not had a chance to try it since.

I am going to give it a try now and will let you know. I find I do not use minute by minute routing all that much on tour anyway. I use my gps for that. I then use the Nexus to get the bigger picture when looking for alternate routes.

Very few apps can compute turn-by-turn routing without being connected to the internet.