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iPod touch iPod touch 4G 32GB + GPS or iPhone 3GS 32GB??

R

ronster22

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 15, 2009
59
11
pondering a buying decision...

I'm handing over my iPod Touch 3G to my wife and I am trying to decide what device to get, either an iPod touch 4G or and iPhone 3GS (both 32GB).

The reason being is I want GPS for my golf tracking software (Golfshot GPS).

If I decide to get the Touch, I need to buy the GPS cradle as well (around $130 dollars)...so I am looking at $430 dollars all in...

That has the new A4 chip, front and back camera, Retina display.

An iPhone 3GS on fleebay is running around the same price as a Touch + GPS. Advantages are the GPS is built-in (not as bulky as the touch / GPS) and possible 3G data connection (month to month contract) and better bluetooth profiles. No A4 and retina display and front camera though (the rear camera is better on the iPhone 3GS).



Any suggestions?
 
I would recommend the 32GB 3GS over the iPod touch. Better camera (Unless you need Facetime), phone, compass and other features!
 
A good portable GPS is $200 and there is no subscription fee. So the iPhone option basically costs $1,000/year more. Get the Touch and a Garmin.
 
Def. get the new iPod touch and a GPS, with the iPhone you will be stuck with the contract agreement, and I have heard that the GPS on the iPhone isn't very good and it doesn't even compare to a "real" GPS.
 
Thanks for the suggestions

Sorry I haven't been diligent in responding...

GPS

to expand, the only GPS options I consider are:

1) GPS cradle or dongle like XGPS251 or BadElf.
howitworks.jpg


2) internal GPS on iPhone 3GS


Reason being these are the only ones I can use with my GolfShot GPS software.

I dont need GPS for traffic purposes (Jeep has Nav and I have a Garmin for the Mini Cooper S).

Contrary to certain beliefs the GPS on the iPhone 3GS is just as good as the ones on the standalone Golf GPS units. I've seen it in person.

I do like the fact the GPS is internal on the 3GS; smaller package to carry around in my pocket. iPod Touch + GPS cradle is a little bit bigger.

Data Connection

While it's nice to have 3G data access everywhere I don't REALLY need it (this coming from a guy who works in the industry). 30 bucks a Month for 500MB (even though it's Month to Month) is one golf round a month. And I love GOLF.

Plus I don't need 3G Data for the Golfshot GPS program to work.


So again I am stuck between 4G iPod Touch + GPS cradle or iPhone 3GS.

And I checked...the prices are pretty close.
 
Last edited:
I have the Bad Elf GPS dongle ($99 on Amazon) and a iPod Touch 4G. The Bad Elf GPS seems to work well as long as you don't lock the iPT screen. If you lock the screen using the button on the iPT (or let it lock time out and lock itself) then the app using the GPS will lose its connection to the GPS after a few minutes. However, many of the GPS apps have their own lock-screen button in the app that locks the screen from input without putting the iPT into power saving mode, and if you use this the Bad Elf works flawlessly.

If I was in your shoes I would go for the iPT 4G plus Bad Elf. The iPT 4G on its own is a pretty nifty gadget with an amazing display.
 
Thanks Andy.

If I were to go down the iPod Touch / GPS route I was looking at the XGPS line of cradles (it was at the time the only GPS option ). Now that BadElf is here and cheaper I may look into that one.

Pretty fast location lock and acquire?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

So I ended up getting my wife an iPhone 4 and I bought a GPS cradle for my iPod Touch 3G.
 
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