How to Choose the Right Device and App for Your Travel Adventure

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So welcome everyone to another episode of the
Explorers podcast.
Today we're going to cover someof the frequently asked
questions that we get askedabout what device is best to
purchase and use for running theExplorers Traveler app and the
offline Eotopo Maps.
So we've got quite a lot tocover today and we're going to
start with the basics and we'regoing to look at, you know,

(00:23):
device options what's out therephones, tablets and the like.
We're also going to explainsome of the basics for those of
you that aren't familiar withhow to go about using an app
store and the basics of how theapp store works in regards to
paid apps and how the updateswork.
We're also going to discuss howdo you keep a device charged
when you're travelling, becausethese are some of the questions

(00:44):
that people often come to us andusually they're just quite some
simple technical basics, so wewill speak these through to you
today.
For those that aren't quitesure what to do, there's some
practical tips that you'll pickup.
We're also going to discusssome of the offline capability
issues and GPS, because somepeople have asked questions and

(01:05):
it makes me realise that justthis stuff just doesn't come
naturally to everybody if youhaven't experienced it before.
So these are the topics.
We'll also look at screen sizesand how that might affect your
device choice when it comes tobuying, and we will eventually
start talking about some newtechnology that's available With

(01:26):
the head units and those, inparticular, that are car play
only head units.
We're going to talk about theAI box adaptors and how you can
actually use these to installthe Explorers Traveller on a car
play head unit.
So make sure you listen all theway through to the end of this,
because that'll be coming uptowards the end.
Also, towards the end, we'regoing to be talking about the

(01:49):
membership only feature that wehave available, which enables
you to run the web app.
So listen in.
There's quite a bit to do andwe'll get started.
So, as I promised, the firstthing we're going to start
looking at is your variousdevice options.
So the Explorers Traveller appwas built way back in 2016,

(02:11):
that's seven years ago now butto be compatible across the
three major platforms.
So that means all devices,whether they're Windows,
obviously on the latest Windows10 and 11, not pre Windows 10.
Also your Android devices, bothphones and tablets, and also
compatible on Apple devices,being the iOS platform.

(02:34):
So that's your phones and iPads.
When it comes to Apple Macdesktop computers, obviously
they don't have built-in GPS andthey're not practical to take
with you in the car, but thereare obviously MacBook users out
there, so we'll touch on some ofthose capabilities.

(02:56):
There's a few little things tothink about when we talk about
that.
First and foremost, whilst I'vesaid that the app platforms are
all covered, the first way toget our app is you need to go to
the app store, so you need toactually have the device and
you'll be using the app icon togo to the app store.

(03:17):
That's already built into yourdevice and that's where you go
and download the app.
So let's just rewind a bit andgo back to actually your device
selection, because the firstquestion that props up is what
device is best?
Do we actually recommend oneplatform over the other?
Do we recommend Apple?
Do we recommend Android?

(03:38):
What about Windows?
So look together, david and Imight tackle this subject,
because technology is changingall the time.
What we say today may not applyif you're listening to this
podcast in six months time.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Tomorrow it might be our data tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
So let's just confirm that today is November 2023 and
at this time, the latest modelSamsung tablets that are out is
the.
I checked it today.
The S9 is the latest model ofthe Android tablets and, like

(04:17):
all, what have we got in thebackground?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
The crows don't like the Android tablet.
They're giving it a serve,anyway, continuing on.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
I do know from past podcasts you're actually going
to hear those crows.
We're quite conscious aboutbackground sounds and look,
while we're talking about that,our background for today we are
sitting on what's calledWhitford's Nodes, which is not
far from where we are in thesouth of Hillary's, and we're
overlooking the Indian Oceanjust there at Whitford's Beach.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And it's one of those stinking hot days.
We had 40 something yesterday,it's 36 or 37 today and,
dedicated as we are, we're outhere doing a podcast.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
We've got a slight breeze, which is kind of nice,
so anyway back to devices andcrows.
Android tablets yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
So Android tablets, yes, go on.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
So look like anybody.
I'm sure the first thing you dois you jump onto the internet
and go I want to buy an Androidtablet, let's have a look what's
out there.
Or you've taken yourself off toJB Hi-Fi or you've gone to
Officeworks If you were buyingnew.
Those are the two stores thatwe would recommend that you go
and have a look at One.
You can hold them and have alook and try to do some

(05:31):
comparisons, and one of thefirst things you'll see is there
are a lot of different pricepoints for what looks like the
same model, and so I just had aquick look today on the internet
and had a look.
I went straight to the Samsungwebsite and I do recommend going
to the manufacturer's websitefirst to get a good rundown on

(05:52):
each of the different models.
So the different price pointsin your different models is for
a very good reason.
So start by looking at what doyou get with the premium,
high-end model and then workyour way backwards and you need
to make a decision of what'sright for you.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Before we go on too far with that, there's one thing
to note.
We all have these latest phonesand all of that sort of stuff,
and the phone technology ismoving very fast, but the
tablets the tablets don't moveas fast.
The technology is a little bitslower in adopting the latest
and greatest specs and CPUperformances and everything else
, because, at the end of the day, a lot of tablets have been
created for much more socialmedia watching Netflix and

(06:34):
YouTube and things like that ona larger screen platform.
So you've got to be a bitconscious that a device that
might be really good wow, hello.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Grace, he's just there on the screen, so whilst
the it's, a Raven, that oneactually.
What is it?

Speaker 2 (06:49):
The difference between a Raven and a Crow?

Speaker 1 (06:51):
No someone might be interested anyway.
The Raven with his littlefluffy neck.
That's what we have here inperson.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Now I forgot what I was talking about.
So the technology within thetablet platforms.
Now you know, as Michelle said,she did a search today for
Android tablet.
The first screen came up withan S9 Ultra for $1,200 or $2,000
or something, and then the nextline item was a Lenovo.
They're both 10 inch sort ofscreen sizes.

(07:20):
They both read nicely that theLenovo was $130, I think you
said you know so how do youcompare it to the $1,000 product
?

Speaker 1 (07:29):
To be honest, with you.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Between those two devices there could not possibly
be a comparison.
All you can be because of theprice point.
The price point is going to bedictated on your CPU.
So the CPU internally, thegraphics processing capability
internally, the amount of ROM ithas, the amount of RAM it has
and the screen size.

(07:50):
So you know the $2,000 device.
Yeah, it'll certainly run theapp reasonably you know
exceptionally well the $130device.
I personally I wouldn't evenlook at it.
It's going to be CPU limited.
It might work today and then itdoesn't get Android updates,

(08:10):
you know.
Or it does get some Androidupdates and then these things
start to get slower.
So the laptop, the tabletmarket, the tablet market is
complicated and recently whatI've been basically telling
people that have been asking me,you know, what Android tablet
should I buy, is I say look atthe comparable model from Apple.
So if you want like a, you say,grab the iPad at 10 inches and

(08:32):
get the latest spec of one ofthose and that's going to cost
you, you know, in the vicinityof five, six, seven, eight
hundred dollars.
They're the price pointcomparisons.
These machines are all made insuch similar specifications
between these manufacturers, sotheir price performance, price
points have become very muchaligned.
So certainly in the Samsung andthe Apple market, you know, if

(08:57):
you're looking at an eighthundred dollar iPad, you should
be looking at an eight hundreddollar or more Android tablet.
So just that's just the firstkey point.
So take out the decision pointabout the two, those two
particular platforms, and justlook at it at dollar value and
that's where you're going to go.
So are you an Apple person oran Android person?
And that's entirely up to you.

(09:17):
And the app works equally wellon both and also Windows, not as
well on Windows.
We'll discuss that in a bitmore detail coming up.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Now look, I know that going back about two years ago,
there was a lot of discussionabout people pushing us to try
and quote a recommendedspecification.
And look, technology changesfar too fast and there's far too
many model makes and models onthe market to actually make that
comparable number.
We can't tell you all.

(09:47):
You need a device with fourgigabytes of RAM or eight
gigabytes of RAM, whatever,because it's not apples for
apples.
So we always notice we do notgive that statement and it's
because it's an impossiblestatement that's comparable
across devices, so it's notrelevant.
The whole point, however, isthat when you do start comparing
these devices, you will seethere's a budget range the

(10:10):
cheaper ones buying brand newthere will be a lower end one
and there will be everything inbetween and a higher end range.
You will get what you pay for.
So one of the things to keep inmind is the how to read between
the lines of the marketing.
So at the bottom in the budget,devices that obviously we'd all
like to get away with, notspending too much, because we

(10:31):
all do understand that a lot ofthese devices become almost
superseded within five years.
But you need to first of all putthat in your head, that five
years is the maximum, yeah.
Okay, three to five is yourmaximum lifespan of the
technology, of what you buytoday, and I know that's going
to come as a shock to the hippocket.

(10:52):
All right, particularly whenyou're presented with a $2,000
device and that's beyond yourmeans.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
But understand that the more you spend, the longer
you're going to get.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Okay, so this is what we need to talk about.
So let's start with the bottom,because I know that there's a
lot of budget conscious peopleout there.
So this is the first thing.
Do you even consider the bottomof the line, and I'm talking
buying you?
Let's just not go down the pathof refurbed online, because we
do not recommend that at all foranybody who wants for running a

(11:22):
high powered app that you'regoing to rely on for your
special trip and in your remoteand your offline.
Just don't look at that optionat the moment.
So buying you.
A budget device is marketed asgreat for the whole family
streaming movies Okay, let'sread between the lines.
An entertainment device is nota high powered device.

(11:44):
These streaming servicesactually don't use anywhere near
the amount of resources as anactive GPS mapping system.
Okay, so don't think that thatmarketing means that it's a high
powered device.
It's actually blurring thelines With your high powered
devices.
Your top end.
They're usually sold as businessgaming, that type of thing.

(12:08):
The gaming part of it is moreto do with its graphics and its
performance, its screen display,how quickly it refreshes In
terms of converting that to whatyou're going to use in the
traveler apps and mapping.
That means what happens when Imove my finger fast, zoom in and
zoom out.
So look good, graphics is afactor to look at.

(12:28):
Probably the biggest key andDavid touched on it before is
the dollar point.
The value in devices has a bigfactor of that graphics, but it
also combines on the graphicscard.
The way the hardware is built isthe CPU, so that's the
processing power, the actualspeed of the device.
It's to do with how well doesit multitask.

(12:50):
Now, david's probably best topick up here on the discussion
about the technicals of whatdoes the app need in terms of
how it is doing things.
It's built to use location databecause you're moving and in it
it's not just showing yourlocation on the map, but in the
background there's a lot of data, so your places, your tracks

(13:13):
and information on the screen.
That is also using thatlocation data.
There's a lot of smarts in thebackground and I suppose we
don't want to go too technicalright now in this discussion
about that.
The wind's just blowing overeverything here, hang on, but it
is a factor in why does thedevice need to have good grunt
and power.

(13:34):
Dave, do you want to comment onthat?

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, you missed the one that is the most grunt-using
component of the app and that'sbeen mapped.
Oh, the screen size.
The screen size is the mapresolution.
Yeah, sorry, the trick with thephones and I'll just go back
again.
I'm making a bit of adifferentiation between tablet
devices and phone devices.
One, because the screen is somuch different in size.

(13:56):
So your five or six inch, seveninch phone to your 9, 10, 11 or
bigger tablet, the screen sizesare immensely different.
Now, why is that important?
Well, we're putting more map ona bigger device, we're putting
more PRIs on a bigger device, sothe device itself.
So to have this greatresolution where you can see

(14:19):
more detail and all of thisstuff, that requires more
processing power, more GPUgraphic processing unit and more
CPU central processing unitpower to make the thing deliver.
Just in some, you know, you lookat some of the tiles, even in
our vector mapping, the dataitself, it's vectorized.
Some of those vector tiles,certainly around that, the

(14:43):
higher level zoom, once you getover 13 levels of 13 zoom level,
in cities like in Perth or inSydney, melbourne and those
sorts of places where themajority of people live and
there's heaps of roads, there'sheaps of stuff, there's heaps of
parks there's heaps of all thethings that we've mapped on the
map.
So there's heaps of them.
Some of those tiles are up to amegabyte in size to render a

(15:08):
piece of the screen.
Now on some of those tablets wemight be rendering up to 10 or
15 of those tiles either on thescreen or in memory, because it
keeps a perimeter around those,around what's on the screen
already loaded into the systemso that if you pan around or you
move, it'll already bepreloaded and pre-capes those
tiles.
So fitting more of those thingsonto the screen requires more

(15:30):
processing power.
Yeah, a comparison between eventhe CPU in phone X if it had
exactly the same Processingpower, and bits and pieces in
tablet white tablet white willprobably be slower because of
the graphics processingrequirement to make it, to make,
to make to fill the screen.
So we need CPU.
To get the, we need CPU andstorage.

(15:50):
So we need to get the data offthe, off the internal storage.
We need to pass it through,render it as a graphics.
We need to get it through theCPU to the GPU.
The GPU's got a render.
It's bigger on the, on thebiggest screen.
So you certainly need morepower on this, more places.
More on the bits and pieces isgoing to be Incidental, but it
is more power.

(16:10):
Yeah, the core of it comes toscreen resolution.
So you'll also notice if you'rea stutely user.
Yeah, a lot.
If you've booed up the app inthe city and you boot up the app
in the region, the region willbe significantly faster when
you're out in a less less densemap Part of Australia, so out on

(16:31):
a road great central roadduring the middle of it there's
absolutely nothing around youexcept a couple of roads.
That vector tile data might bein the kilobytes of size.
It might be five kilobytes I'monly making an assertion Versus
and and we might load up ifthere were 20 tiles at five
kilobytes each.
So what?
We've loaded about 50k, 100k ofdata.
We come into the city and loadthe same thing and we might be

(16:53):
loading 20k, 20 meg, 10 meg, 5meg, so that when you boot the
app up in the region you'll seeit faster.
So this all relies on theprocessing power of the product.
So you know, the tablet, thetablet, the tablets.
Whilst they're fantastic forscreen resolution, the
manufacturers are a few stepsbehind in the processing power

(17:15):
that they're delivering for youin the same level of thing that
you're going to get with yourphone.
So hence the price point, henceyou need to if you want to use
the product nicely.
Take that, take the bigger leapand get the more powerful.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah so look, having heard all those technical
reasons, the real takeaway,though, is you get what you're
paying for, so you don't reallyhave to worry about any specs
and understanding all thedetails of what they've said.
The takeaway is the higher Costis covering all those
technicalities and it's therefor a reason.
And look, this is the next partof the complication is okay,

(17:56):
most people are saying I want abigger Screen size because when
I'm traveling, I want to be ableto view that, but then there's
also a compromise between what'savailable on the market to buy,
and I had a look today andguess what size some of these
tablets are in Android, 12 inchnow.
Last year, the problem was 10inch when tablets first started,

(18:17):
though a more seven and eightinch and then, as you would have
, noticed you can't buy an eightinch tablet anymore.
But good news is I just had aquick look again Comparing Apple
and Android brand new specstoday on the internet.
The iPad mini, I still reckon,is a very good option for people
, but only if you're buying thelatest model, again for the
reasons Davis just said aboutthe CPU.

(18:38):
The iPad mini Older models werequite an underpowered device.
The iPad mini 6 is has caughtup.
But what's good about the iPadmini 6 is its screen sizes the
perfect compromise.
It's an 8 inch, okay.
So if you're that's, you cannotfind an Android 8 inch in a
high-powered new device.
They just don't exist.

(19:00):
And I think if you find one now, it'll be so old that it
doesn't even run Android 7anymore.
It's like it's out of thequestion.
So if the smallest sizeCompromise of tablet that you're
after is 8 inch, I'd steer youdown to the iPad mini 6.
Okay Now the other iPad out atthe moment, just so that you

(19:20):
know, the latest is the 10th gen, 10th generation of iPad.
If you're looking at buyingiPad, there are different models
, the pros, the top of the linethen you've got the air.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
But the pros which we get, it's like it's like a
computer, it's like 12 or 13inch.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Well, this is also the issue.
When you're looking at yourAndroid, you've got your 12 inch
and that the s9 FE comes inevery size, from 10.9 up to 12.4
inch for the same S9.
However, then it's got theseletters after it, so s9 FE plus
is 12.4 inch, s9 FE is 10.9.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Is the FE is problematic, as it used to be.
Well, they had now have anultra, yeah so look, the FE.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
We've been a bit concerned about the FE of any
device.
Keep in mind that stands forfan edition and in doing that
it's a cheaper version of theultra edition.
So you'll, the altars are thetop of the line and you'll see
that in the price point.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
They have FE and SE.
They've also fan edition.
You know Plus and all of thatthey also have light and all of
those, all of thosedifferentiations mean less.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, well, less money and less performance.
So it's a, it's a, it's adifficult.
It's a difficult thing, youknow it's not to say it won't
work.
So let's just get this clearall new devices and all last
year's new devices, and evenonce three years ago, they are
all going to run the travelerapp.
Okay, no problem, they've allgot enough grunt to do it.
However, how well do they do doit?

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Your satisfaction with the product and your usage
and I you know and the longevityof the product.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
So let's just move on to that part.
The longevity of the product ispart of the price point.
If you look very carefully, alot of the web pages both Apple
and Android are to blame forthis.
I had another look today.
They've actually won't tell youwhat version of the operating
system is installed on thatbrand new device.
I went into the specs and theywould not.

(21:21):
I cannot find what version.
Okay, so you've got a reallydelve and do some internet
searching.
Just do some googling, put inthe model and ask what does it
come loaded with Path.
The people at the store won'teven know if you should go in.
This is part of the problem.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Some of this stuff is way easier to research online
because the store people reallydon't.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
It's really try they will have a reasonable.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Reasonable understanding of the products
that they have not anything elseand also for the mainstream.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Keep in mind, using devices offline with GPS
Technology is not mainstream.
What we're talking about withyour Requirements for when
you're traveling and you're outof mobile service and you're
wanting to get location data, itdoesn't come from the Wi-Fi and
it doesn't come from yourmobile data.
This seems to be unfathomableto a lot of storekeepers selling

(22:20):
devices.
They don't get it and I havespoken to customers a little bit
disheartened that have boughtan iPad Wi-Fi only and being
told that, yes, it works offlineand it has location data.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
I want to just touch on that we didn't actually talk
about the Apple platform.
Yeah, as a purchasing decision,because we did a fair bit on
that Android.
Should we just talk about thoseApple decision points?

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Is this a cut point in our recording?

Speaker 2 (22:48):
No, because we missed the Apple stuff.
So I think okay just to, justto go back, because we did talk
about.
Tablets and the androids andthe bits and pieces and we
talked about the pricing.
You know some of the bits andpieces of the Apple and that the
Apple products exist, but wedidn't actually Go through the
various options with the apples.
Now, as Michelle said quiterightly, the Apple Wi-Fi only

(23:12):
units.
They do not physically containa GPS chip in the hardware.
So don't, don't be confused,don't be don't be fooled by some
store assistant that knowsbetter.
There is no GPS.
There is no GPS unit in anApple Wi-Fi device.
It just does not exist.
There also isn't GPS is inMacBooks.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
So but it doesn't mean you can't use the app on
the app.
On the app.
It's a solution.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
And there's probably a possibly a better solution
depending on your usagerequirements.
Yeah, if you want to have theGPS built into the Apple device
by a phone, because they allhave it, every single phone
model, every iPhone has abuilt-in GPS, but every iPad
doesn't.
The ones that do other onesthat have the SIM card for

(24:00):
mobile service connectivity andthey're sold as Wi-Fi plus
cellular iPad.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, so they've got the cellular.
You've got to have the cellularpart, even though you have the
GPS and we look this is a stupid, confusing, vague terminology
that Apple have adopted becauseYou're not getting the GPS from
the cellular.
So what's happened is it's amarketing decision that they've
made In how they build thedevice.

(24:25):
They've said we're going tohave two price points, with
Wi-Fi, with iPad.
The iPad that has the cellularcapability will be the one that
costs more.
It's also going to be the onethat we're going to put the more
expensive GPS chip into.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, all about about two dollars at manufacturing.
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
So you won't actually have to put a SIM card into the
cellular iPad to be able to useGPS.
So that's a really importantpoint that I know trips up some
people.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
You don't have to be on.
You don't have to have the SIMinstalled, the GPS chip and the
cellular functionalityIntegrated into the hardware.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, so the whole idea is you just need the
hardware that comes in thatparticular option.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Now the other choice with the Wi-Fi units is to get a
Bluetooth GPS.
You can do this with Androidtablets as well.
This is how you can go upWindows.
You're not limited to whatdevice you can use the.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
External GPS receiver .

Speaker 2 (25:26):
We've got direct experience with Garmin Glow.
We have one that we've traveledwith Garmin Glow 2.
We've had it for a few yearsnow.
It's been very reliable, worksquite well.
There are some others on themarket.
They're all fairly, they're allreasonable.
We've got you two people thatwe know of that are using a
whole myriad of differentBluetooth GPS units.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Can I just explain a little bit, because I talk to a
lot of people on the phone thatget confused about how does the
external GPS work and whetherit's a pro or a con in the
buying decision of the tablet.
So first up, I will just saylast year we bought a brand new
iPad and we chose the bottom ofthe line iPad at the time in

(26:09):
terms of the lowest amount ofstorage and it was Wi-Fi only.
But that was because what wereally like about the ability to
use a Bluetooth External GPSreceiver is that it's just a
very small thing that you put onthe dash.
Now to get GPS, you need lineof sight, so when you're offline

(26:30):
you need to be able to get lineof sight.
So the thing is you put thisexternal GPS receiver on your
dash at the front of thewindscreen inside the car the
the rest of the time you canhave your very expensive iPad
either folded up under the seatin the door pocket.
It does not need line of sight,because the GPS using Bluetooth

(26:53):
that's Disconnected is is allthat's needed.
It's the thing that's gettingline of sight and, using the
Bluetooth connectivity, it istalking to the iPad to transmit
that data.
Now we have tested that, ashave thousands of app users and
its mainstream knowledge in anyNavigation product out there
that this technology works very,very well, so don't see this as

(27:15):
a limitation.
Well there's a cost point.
If you actually compare thecost of an iPad cellular of the
same Storage compared to theiPad Wi-Fi without the GPS
built-in, you're actually goingto save yourself a little bit
because it costs about a hundredand forty dollars to buy an

(27:37):
external Garmin glow to GPSreceiver, compared to about
three hundred dollars differenceto fifty or three hundred more
for the same, for the same Apple, yeah for the same Apple unit
In terms of it's the rest of the.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Don't get us wrong either.
It's fantastic to have a SIMcard in it, have the thing
online and then it all syncs andit does everything whenever
it's in service.
So that's all great as well,but it's not necessary.
It's not, it's not, it's notnecessary.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
So if you're looking to save money on the iPad,
that's the way to do it.
Yeah, by the Wi-Fi and anexternal GPS, one of the other
things you know in terms ofpower management.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
One of the bigger things from her using the
external GPS is that you aren'tusing a GPS in your device.
Gps so we're power hungrybecause they're basically
receiving data from satellitesall over the place is doing a
lot of mathematical Computations.
What a lot of people also thatrealizes that GPS is one way,
it's only being received.
You aren't transmitting to theGPS, you're only receiving GPS

(28:33):
data.
So it does use it.
The processing power to do thetriangulation, the coordination
is fabulous.
They're receiving all, it's alldone on the chip, but it runs
hot, they get, they get warm andthey use a fair bit of power.
So when the GPS is on, enabledand running full-time, yeah, you
will consume power.
So if you've got an externalBluetooth GPS unit that's away

(28:57):
from your phone, your powerrequirements on your on your
tablet or phone are much less.
People then say how convenientis you got a turn on the GPS,
you got a turn on the thing youdon't actually do.
The way that we've plugged in isif you plug in the Garmin glow
Into a cigarette lighter adapterand you run the cable just up
under the dash.
In fact, three months in any ofour videos.

(29:18):
I put the.
I've got a dash mat and so whenwe're here to carpet mat thing
over the dash and when you putthe Garmin glow has a tendency
to get hot, like everything.
It's black, it's great color,it's a stupidly, there's a
stupid design color Because theydo overheat.
So putting it, I actually putours under the dash mat, just

(29:45):
jam it under the dash mat, runthe cord down to the cigarette
Lighter adapter and then what'llactually happen is sure I need
to turn it off, but if I forgetit doesn't matter.
If you sit there running allnight it will go flat.
It does have its own batteriesin it, so they are designed to
be battery Work alone.
You can take it, you can throwit in your backpack if you're
going for a hike with your iPad,so you're not limited.

(30:06):
Just leave it in the car.
It does work on battery power,but in the car every time you
get in, if it's turned offbecause of battery management or
power saving, or it's run outof battery or you've manually
turned it off.
When you get in the car the nextday and you put your iPad in
there and you turn the car on,the GPS will immediately come on
when the power is appliedthrough the cigarette lighter
adapter.
So you don't have to thinkabout turning this thing on and

(30:29):
up all the time, it can just sitthere and do that job for you,
and you can share the Bluetoothconnectivity with more than one
device.
We've had three or four devicesusing our Garmin globe at the
same time and that all worksvery well.
So if, if price point is athing and you don't need the
cellular part of your tabletsand stuff, then yeah, get the

(30:50):
get the less, get the Wi-Fi only.
Ipads, most of the most of theSamsung's and stuff, those
tablets, are they all connected?

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yeah, they all seem to have built in GPS.
They have seen no, not one.
No, okay, but they all have GPS.
It seems that all the Android.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
We haven't actually found yet that we're aware of an
Android tablet that doesn'thave an internal GPS.
But, again, you can use theBluetooth version and shut down
the internal one and get thatpower management or battery
management saving in place aswell, and also that line of
sight connectivity to the GPS.

(31:27):
That's not to say that everyoneshould have one.
We have two phones and youshould see what we travel with
in the car.
We have two tablets, we havetwo laptops, we've got a couple
of iPads, we've got the phonesand they're all basically
running the travel app at thesame time.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
For anyone that's listening.
If you actually want to seesome video of this, jump onto
the Explorers YouTube channel orfollow us on Instagram or
Facebook.
We do constantly share a lot ofcontent about our setup and you
can go back through and have alook at some of that now if you
want to have a look.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
And so we've got a lot of this stuff, and it all
doesn't necessarily have to havethe best line of sight, now
that we've got multiplesatellite providers.
So the GPS satellite system,there's two there's the American
and the Russian satellitesystems that we're using the Air
Force NASA and GPS, so there'stwo of them that we're using,

(32:21):
and it's not uncommon now to bepicking up 20, 30 satellites in
view at any one time, whereasyears ago that was unfathomable
and we would be waiting two orthree minutes for the things to
acquire to find how manysatellites were there.
Now this stuff is so much better, and with AGPS as well, the
assisted GPS stuff I was wantedto talk about AGPS.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
And when we do talk about iPads the Wi-Fi only iPad
one of the things if you aregoing into a store that is going
to confuse you is they willtell you that it does work
offline and it's because of thisfeature that David just
mentioned, then called AGPSassisted GPS how it actually
works and this is my take on itand I'm not going to explain it

(33:04):
in technical terms like Davidmight they may even make a
mistake, so please correct me.
But my understanding and the wayI explain it to people is that
in a Wi-Fi only device like theiPad or that does not have the
built-in GPS or an external GPSreceiver, as you are travelling

(33:24):
and you'll see this in urbanareas it does seem to be giving
you location you go.
Where's that getting it from?
It is not getting it becauseyou don't have your SIM card in.
It's not getting it from mobiledata.
So you're thinking and thestorekeeper is thinking it's
giving you real GPS becauseyou're offline.
It's using fixed, known GPSpositions that are actually

(33:48):
being transmitted.
They're public nodes.
So shopping centres, sometowers, some buildings, mine
sites and places like that areactually transmitting their
known, fixed GPS location.
And what happens?

Speaker 2 (34:04):
is.
It's through the Wi-Fi, though.
Yeah, the A, that's all throughWi-Fi.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
So the AGPS system is able to roam and pick up this
information and in some cases,if you're in an urban area, it
appears to be accurate enough,you've got to.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
It will actually track you, and we've tested it
on our iPad.
Once you start moving, it getsa bit sketchy.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, the further you get away from these actual
fixed nodes and it's looking forthe next one, it starts to jump
.
And you'll see it, there'squite a delay in the position
data it's picking up while it'smoving away from the last fixed
one, trying to find the next one, and so it'll jump randomly and
then eventually it'll start tostray off the road.
So it's not reliable.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
There's a couple of technologies that are making
that happen and most of it, asMichelle was alluding, is Wi-Fi.
Even in your house you will bean AGPS hotspot, unless you know
how to disable it, and if youuse anything to do with Google,
you will probably be an AGPShotspot at your house.

(35:05):
So when you're watching AGPSsignaling work and you're
driving down the street, if youturn your GPS off and you drive
down the street with AGPS on,what you'll see is that you'll
actually jump between houses andbuildings.
So you're always a few hundredmetres or a hundred or ten,
fifteen, twenty metres off theroad, but you're jumping past
buildings.
You're jumping past thesebuildings because the system's

(35:28):
detected, the Wi-Fi signaling isbeing brought broadcast, that
it's picking up.
It's all still secure andprivate because it's not
actually giving these thingsaren't actually giving you your
position away or your knownlocation.
It's basically across-reference table that says
IP address of XYZ, and I'm notgoing to go into IP addresses
but IP address.

(35:48):
XYZ is connected to this Wi-Finetwork and we know this Wi-Fi
network is at you know, 10 JonesStreet, some suburb.
So as you drive past 10 JonesStreet, some suburb, you will be
picking up that signal andit'll be, and then the system
will go and ask Google, whose IPaddresses this, and it will
basically send back thatposition.

(36:09):
So this happens really quickly.
But as you're moving around,the ASSISTED GPS functionality
is using Wi-Fi and I alsobelieve it does use some sort of
cell tower triangulation, butit doesn't have, it doesn't use
a SIM to do it.
It triangulates off the celltower network.
There's a few complexities.
I'm trying to make itrelatively techless, a techless

(36:30):
explanation, and I hope I'mright.
If there's an AGPS engineer outthere that can give me a heads
up, that knows more about it,that's fine.
If I'm totally wrong, let meknow.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Right, a comment in the YouTube right now if there's
any questions you've got aboutthat part of the technology.
I'd prefer that people startcommunicating in the comments
section, because then we knowwhere there's more information
that needs to be explained ornot.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
And the AGPS, the ASSISTED GPS thing, is the thing
that allows us to acquire ourGPS position lightningly fast
when we're in a reasonably tight, when we're in an urban
populated area, fast.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Now that's the key, that the other thing is, people
don't understand when they'relooking at the specs and buying
a device.
Your device is programmedwhether it's a phone or a tablet
, an iPad to give you or givethe program.
You're using the fastestpossible way of getting a bit of
location data to show you whereyou are on the map, so that
functionality is built into thedevice and it will use all of

(37:27):
those systems randomly and itmakes the decision not random it
makes the decision as to whichsystem AGPS, offline GPS or
mobile data is giving thequickest display of that
location data.
And sometimes they can get itwrong and, without going on a

(37:47):
tangent too much, some of thattechnology is really complicated
for the software developmentthat David's written into the
Explorer's Traveler app, becausewhen you have been offline for
some period of time and you aremoving back into an urban area
where it's starting to pick upAGPS and you've got your Wi-Fi

(38:11):
functions turned on, there'ssome funnies that can happen in
the background and many yearsago we used to occasionally see
some GPS glitches occur inpeople's tracking and they were
asking questions why does thishappen?
So we've put a lot of effort.
David has put a lot ofdevelopment and research and
testing into trying to make surethat when an offline device

(38:33):
does come back into a town oreven passing through the town,
that we don't have any randomGPS drifts and jumps occurring.
So it's pretty robust.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
We've seen it at night.
If you're camping just outsidethe cellular service range, if
you're travelling just outsidethe cellular service and you
have a cellular device.
Sometimes we've seen it atnight time when the atmospheric
conditions are conducive for thesignals to travel just that

(39:03):
little bit further.
Sometimes we get these jumps onthe map where it moves from
where you are to some town insome other place.
It's generally not that far.
If it moves further than that,there's something else has gone
wrong and we've had that in thepast.
But those sorts of issues haveall been out now.
But you do see things jumpingaround.

(39:24):
So it is very complicated.
In your device when you get it,do you say should you turn off
a GPS?
Should you leave it on?
Should you do this?
Should you do realistically thedefault settings?
A GPS will be part of the mix.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
You don't have control over these things.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
You do on some.
You can go on some.
Some of them are there to justgo.
I only want to use the GPS.
I don't want a GPS.
On most of the devices you canmake that setting.
So you can do it also on a lotof Android devices.
So, should you know, just leaveit all turned on.
You want the highestperformance pickup of where you
currently are so that when youboot up the device again, it can

(39:59):
immediately work out where youare on a GPS Again.
If you're out in the bush,you'll see that it takes a
little bit longer to acquireyour position if you're in a
completely remote, turned off,isolated area than if you are.
Of course, the GPS willremember where it was when you
turned it off.
If you happen to have turned itoff and travelled a couple of
hundred k's, it could take alittle bit of time for it to
reapply when you put it back up.
These are just some.
This is just a technology thing.

(40:20):
It doesn't need to becomplicated.
I'm not trying to make itcomplicated.
Just leave the settings thatyou've got on your device.
But understand that if you're,if you're travelling with a
Wi-Fi device or even with whatyou think is a GPS device and
you are basically jumping maybea hundred or 200 metres as you
drive down the streets ofSuburbia.
Your GPS is sort of followingyou, but it's like a hundred

(40:43):
metres behind you, it's a littlebit off the road and it's
jumping through people's houses.
What you're seeing there ispure A GPS and no GPS.
So that's what you'll get on aWi-Fi iPad.
And yeah, as why does it work?
Reasonably well, because whenyou're sitting in your house,
your little A GPS node knowsthat the IP address that you're
broadcasting on your internetconnectivity belongs at your

(41:04):
address, and so it immediatelycan work out where you are
because of your Wi-Ficonnectivity.
So that's just a quickintroduction to that level of
technology.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
He's going to water.
I think it's time for us todrink a bit of water.
I'm just checking how hot thetemperature is.
We're starting to feel theeffects of it.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, it's getting warmer, so I think we've covered
off the Android devices and theApple devices and realistically
, you make that decision pointon your own.
We go through both.
We go year or two here with theApple and we switch back to
Android, and then we go Appleand we go.
At the end of the day itbecomes a UI.
The other devices that youmight want to use on that device

(41:44):
become part of the equation.
Obviously, if you're putting itin your car or you want to get
a tablet with a special mount oryou're going to do an Android
head unit in your car, you knowthose decision points determine
what to look for on the specs ofthe device.
But the reason why we chose tostay with the standard platforms
of these devices for our app isthat you don't want to have to

(42:06):
carry another device and wecarry such high powered
computerised things with ourphones.
It makes perfect sense that weshould use that.
Why force you to have to have adedicated piece of hardware to
do this job?
So make sure you buy a goodmachine as much as you can
comfortably justify your bankbalance.

(42:28):
You'll get much longer jevityout of the device if you spend a
bit more and you'll get a muchbetter experience, one using our
app, but two also using all theother apps and features of that
device.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
We didn't talk much about operating systems and how
the life of them is about threeyears on manufacturer updates
and how important that is it'sbecoming more commonly
understood.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Google.
You've got to understand.
Android is written with Googleand Android is an open operating
system platform.
Apple is completely written byApple and it sits with Apple's
environment and life cycle andthey control and secure their
environment and life cycle verytightly.
Obviously, the Android marketis open slatter.
Google is not Samsung.

(43:18):
Google is not Lenovo.
They do make Pixel, so that'stheir jump into this market, but
at the end of the day, it's aload of disparate developers or
hardware manufacturers thatcreate these products and they
are life cycle limited.
So if you release a piece ofhardware today and it can run,

(43:40):
say, android 13, you may be ableto support it through Android
15 and 16.
But there might just besomething in Android 17 or 18
that knocks out its performance.
All these manufacturers willlife cycle their available
operating system updates for acertain period of time and, as
Michelle was looting, threeyears is about the most we've
seen so far.

(44:00):
Apple does have a tendency togo a little bit further.
A lot further than a lot of theAndroid device manufacturers and
that's also because a lot ofAndroid devices are on the least
level spec so they won't takethose next operating systems
moving forward.
So buying those cheaper fanedition and the cheaper

(44:21):
streaming machines and all ofthose devices then become the
limiting factor.
So the manufacturer limitstheir operating system updates
to the least common denominatorof that hardware platform.
If they've got seven or eightmachines in one year specific
release and it goes from acludgy piece of hardware to a
super-duper piece of hardware,they will probably still life

(44:43):
cycle the operating systemacross all of those devices
based on the least powerfulmachine.
So three years is about thelife cycle of that.
So, realistically, where do youwant to be when you buy today?
Whatever the latest is is whereyou want to be targeting your
purchase decision.
It's a bit different again ifyou're buying head units because
, like tablets, they're a bitbehind, because it's not as

(45:06):
common as buying a phone.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
So let's so, talking about head units, breaking it
down in this most basic point.
A lot of people don'tunderstand All the aftermarket.
Head units are effectively anAndroid tablet and they are all
built in China and there's lotsof different brands out there.
So this is exactly what Davidhad just explained before.
The manufacturer of the deviceis using the open source Android

(45:31):
operating system to run theinternal system of it, to run
the software.
So that's what you get when youbuy a head unit.
You're buying an Android tablet, and so, in terms of the buying
decision and particularlyputting your apps on it, you're
effectively there's nodifference between the head unit
and the tablet in how youobtain the Explorer's Traveler

(45:53):
app or any other app anddownload it.
You're going to be just tappingon your Google Play Store and
making your purchase and yourdownload from within the head
unit using those apps, the PlayStore app to put it on.
I was asked that question thismorning but, as David said, the
manufacturing device Now this isinteresting.

(46:15):
Some of these head units we'veseen and we've tested quite a
lot.
We've had some manufacturerssend some to us for testing
because they get mixed reviewsfrom their customers and they
want to make sure thateverything works.
We've had a lot of interestfrom head unit distributors in
Australia about the Explorer'sTraveler app.
From what they're telling us isa huge amount of demand and is

(46:36):
the app of choice.
So they want to hear from usdirectly how well it works and
where they can improve.
One of the big things first ofall that we can see between
different ones is the screenresolution.
You can't really change theresolution, so when you buy a
device, have a look at theresolution specs.
That is the difference betweenthe manufacturers of head units.

(46:57):
So I would number one use thatas your point of comparison.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
No point getting a 10 inch, no point getting this
great 10 inch head unit when anolive or render is 800 by 600
pixel, because it looks terrible.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
What happens when the resolution is low on a big
screen device?

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Surely we know about that now, don't we?

Speaker 1 (47:14):
I don't know I don't think so.
It's just in simple terms.
Basically, it makes everythinglook bigger than it needs to be,
which means you're actually notgetting advantage of the big
screen because it's not fittingas much detail into the big
screen.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Well, in a short thing, trying to do it through a
podcast where I can't actuallykind of show you.
So let's take a screenresolution of 800, 600.
So that's basically saying thatwe've got 800 dots across and
600 dots down, and that's.
Each one of those dotsrepresents a little light.

(47:51):
If we're thinking about it ineasy terminology, each one of
those dots represents amulticolour tiximedia colour
light bulb, and so you can turnany one of those 800 across and
600 down, a lot of rows and alot of columns, light bulbs on
and off, in any colour you liketo render the picture on the
screen.
If you've got 800, 600 in a twoinch display and 800, 600 in a

(48:14):
100 inch television screen, youwouldn't even be able to look at
800, 600 on a big televisionscreen because it would just be
the dot sizes would be too big.
It would be stupid, youwouldn't.
You wouldn't see anything, it'dbe pixelated, it'd be very
pixelated.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Glurry, so 800, 600 is low resolution 800, 600 is
low resolution.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
These days our iPhones and stuff are around
about 3,600 by 2,700 or 2,800.
And then they've got this thingcalled the iPad resolution.
Oh yeah, 20, 230, 4x14, 40, oh,I'm 1570, 1752 by 2,600.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Yeah, landscape, so they're big.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
So they're reasonable .
So if you think about, there's2,304 lines across and there's
1,440 rows, there's a lot oflittle lights to switch on and
off, and that's why we need thegraphics processing power to
make all those things be able toturn on and off smoothly and
stream nicely across so that ourexperience and it also our eye

(49:12):
our eye pickup at 20 to 30frames a second works so that
the motion looks smooth and allthat sort of fancy stuff that
you get.
This is all the difference withthe fancy TV versus the cheap TV
.
It's all the same.
It's scan lines and it's thespeed to display and the graphic
processing is the speed torender on the screen.
So you know you want to makesure you've got the best
resolution.
So if you go and get and I,there are some head units,

(49:34):
unfortunately I know, that havepretty poor screen resolution,
whilst everything runs right,the app looks right, the buttons
are big, the maps too big, thelayout doesn't look 100% because
the resolution for the screensize isn't right.
So again, get the bestresolution that you can have a
look at these things in realterms.

(49:54):
The other way you can sort ofit's a bit hard to change the
resolution on some of thesedevices that don't let you
change the resolution like weused to be on On no PC.
Yeah, you used to go and changethe resolution, but there's no
point looking at a 27 inch or a24 inch computer screen and then
setting the resolution to 800,600 and getting the gauge and
what it looks like.
But if you do do that, you willsee exactly what I'm talking
about.

(50:15):
If you've got your PC at home,change the resolution from
probably whatever you're lookingat HD, you might be looking at
a 4k or, you know, might evenhave a 4k screen.
4k screen is just anotherdiscussion about the resolution
number of pixels, number of dotsacross and number of dots down.
4k bends 1000.
So there's, you know that ifyou change your computer down

(50:38):
and render it at 800, 600 oranything less than the optimum
resolution, you'll start to seeit pixelating, and that's what
this is all about.
So you want to get as bestresolution you can.
It's impossible for me to saybecause it depends on the size
of the screen.
But you know, as I say, youknow your phones and stuff.
The phones are greater thanthese 2300.
These have got retina displays.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
So a retina display we say one and two times retina
and one and two times retina orthree times retina.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
That's basically taking the resolution, the
native resolution of the displaypanel, and multiplying it by
one time, two times, three timesor four times.
Two retina, two retina, whatwas it, what was it, what was
even the terminology of retina?
So if you're two times retina,you're basically take, you're
doubling the resolution of thatscreen.

(51:28):
So these resolutions and thesescreens, they're so high now,
and they're really high becauseour camera processing power on
these phones is so high.
So most of our phones are madefor cameras or our cameras are
made for phones.
We only have worked out the twoof those.
The resolution on the screensare so impressive these days,

(51:50):
but they're so impressive on thesmall format device on the
phone.
So in your Android tablets.
And again, the Android headunit.
And the other thing to rememberis that if you want a head unit
in your car, whether it's theone that's already in your car
or whether it's the one you'regoing to buy for your car, it
will be Android.
There is no such thing as anApple slated or Apple

(52:12):
manufactured car head unit.
They have a thing called carplay, but no head unit.
They don't manufacture anythingand, as I said earlier, apple
control their whole life cycle.
So there is nothing.
There's nothing coming, there'sno plan.
There's not going to be anApple head unit.
You will be buying Android andyou'll be buying Android even if
you want to use it under carplay, and we'll discuss that

(52:34):
when we get to that.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Okay, I'm wondering if we maybe should discuss that
because, however, we haven'tdiscussed the third platform,
windows and that's for a reason.
So why don't we just touch?
On Windows it only needs a fewshort things to be said and Dave
a little explain why.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Okay, windows only just recently, and in our one of
our last newsletters, weannounced depreciation of
support for Windows.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
moving forward, we haven't actually announced oh
yes, we did announce it lastweek.
I'm so sorry, I almost forgot.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
If we didn't, if we didn't, we just did.
That's what we're worried about,so the depreciation of support
for Windows doesn't mean we'returning Windows off today.
It doesn't mean we're turningWindows off tomorrow.
I can't tell you the day thatwe're actually going to have to
turn Windows off, but for thelast two years we've had very
little operating systemassistance with being able to
move forward on the Windowsplatform using the development

(53:23):
technologies that we've writtenthe app around.
So there's a few things thatwe're.
There's a few options we'relooking at using, doing it in a
slightly different way, but thecurrent slated Explorers
Traveler app for Windows isbeing depreciated so it wasn't
as widely used as these otherdevices.
It does everything exactly thesame as we all have.

(53:45):
You can run it on your computer, but we also have a web version
that you can use on yourcomputer, and we'll discuss that
as well.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
So two things here, but.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Windows.
The major reason that we've hadto put down the support is lack
of ongoing.
Microsoft dropped the ball onsome of the technology that we
had used.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Microsoft dropped the ball.
A massive, a massive no-yearflashing light, a number of
developers got upset about this.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
They have got solutions around it, but they
didn't fit with the technologymodel that myself and hundreds
of thousands of other developershave used.
So, yeah, the support for thatas it stands in its current
fashion, is disappearing.
I do expect to be able to havean answer to that and still be
able to run on Windows into thefuture, but we've got to move

(54:35):
through this depreciation tomove forward on a solution,
because I think we're going tobe forced into the depreciation.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
So what you're basically saying is we may not
make future versions of theTraveler app through the
Microsoft Store.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Yeah, we may deliver it in a different way.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
We may deliver it in a different way, but it's going
to take some time.
I want people to also have atakeaway on this comment.
For those that are listening inthat already own the Windows
version, what does it mean foryou?

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Oh, okay.
Well, what it means for you isthat you'll still be able to run
the Traveler app that you havenow, and you'll be able to run
further Traveler apps until Ican't until we either get to a
point where we have to turn itoff.
We're already running intosupport issues.
For those of you that have usedthe Windows version, one of the
things that you'll see now isthat the store links are up

(55:28):
there.
You have to buy the EOtopo mapupdate through our website
because of the support.
The store support depreciatedfrom the way that I was able to
access store support.
So you know, these things areslowly falling into the equation
and one day there'll besomething that they'll turn off
or develop the pre-set,something that I can't recover

(55:50):
from.
What we will be doing up untilthat time is we'll keep
releasing them.
We'll keep releasing ourupdates as long as we can.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
But it might start to vary you.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
It may be different, it might come out in a slightly
later day or date than we may dothe other ones, but we'll keep
running it, we'll keepsupporting it, we'll keep
putting it out there until wecan't.
At that time we would make aversion that will stay in the
store and you'll have access tokeep downloading it, that

(56:19):
version in the store, for aslong as possible.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
So if you've got a license, you've purchased it.
Well, if we have to remove itfrom the store, it'll only be
removed for new buyers.
That means existing buyers willstill be able to get a new
device and download it to thatdevice because it will support
that version, keep running thatversion.
That's not updating and whether.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
I have the potential to still allow you to do map
updates within those versionsthat I just have.
We just haven't formulated thatpart of the plan exactly yet as
to whether, if we cut our firstversion 9.6 or something we'd
be able to run 23, 24, 25, 26year top on map updates that
decision point.
I haven't yet formulated howwe're going to manage that.

(57:02):
But don't be concerned, ifyou're a Windows user, or even
if you just bought it, we're notgoing to leave you in the lurch
.
You'll be able to keep usingthe product for a number of
years.
The appreciation of support isreally just to let you know that
the platform and the technologyis currently the way, that it's

(57:23):
currently developed and written.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
The Windows platform has become a little bit
problematic, so if you'relistening into that and you
haven't yet got the Traveler appand you're wondering what
device to use.
Take that as a hint perhaps gotowards Apple or Android,
because that's easier for us todevelop on and that's where the
technology is All right.
So I think the next thing forus to talk about is we need to

(57:47):
talk about the head units, but Ialso would like us to touch on
charging of the device.
Oh, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
So reasonably quickly or not reasonably quickly,
depending on how we go with this.
As I said earlier, we travelwith a lot of these devices in
our car all at once and Michelledoes get questions periodically
from people about how do I keepmy device charged, because
that's not using the GPS to wipeout the battery.
And the answer is yes, it does.
But all of these devices youwould hope they do have enough

(58:21):
inbound power supply capabilityto run the machine with
everything turned on.
So there should not be a devicethat you can turn on more
features than its power supplyis capable of keeping up with.
So from a manufacturingengineering point of view, we
would build the machine so thatthe GPS was on full power, the
screen was on full power,everything was on full power.

(58:43):
The availability of bringingpower into that device should be
sufficient that you can keep itrunning.
The difference is have you putthe right plug on the other end,
the right device connecting youto the power source to deliver
enough power to make that work?
It's not that complicated, butthere are some new technologies
that have come out in recentyears that have been adopted by

(59:08):
most of the manufacturers.
In the old days, usb was afive-volt system and that's all
that ever was.
Now with DP, the differentconnectivity types PD, dpd, pd
with the PD connectivity, noweach one of those same little
micro USB ports.
It's not just five volts, itdelivers five volts, nine volts,

(59:29):
12 volts, 18 volts and I think20 volts, and that's just so
that we can power thesehigh-powered devices through
that little piece of thin cable.
If you're an electronicsengineering kind of person, you
understand this dynamic.
I wondered for ages how you get80 or 90 watts for your MacBook
charging through a USB-Cconnector and understanding how

(59:50):
tiny those little connectors are, if it's all coming through a
five-volt or it's not comingthrough a five-volt, it's coming
through it more.
I'm not trying to get tootechnical.
In our car we travel with asingle-cigarette lighter plug-in
device.
It's got seven USB ports on it.
It's got 3.2-inch connectors.
It's got Quick Charge 3interface, which is an early

(01:00:14):
version of the PD thing is theQC3.0, and then there's QC3.1
and 3.2.
And that's where thattechnology came from.
But it's using thissquare-style USB connector, not
the little USB-C micro connector.
As I say, we've got a thing inthere with seven of it.
We smash it because we can havetwo iPads, two phones all

(01:00:41):
running at once, and also thegum and glow.
We charge cameras and all thosebits of pieces all at the same
time.
So it's not impossible.
You've just got to get the rightcharger for your device type
and try to avoid the minimumdevice specifications.

(01:01:02):
But have a look at thespecifications for your device.
If it's a PD, you want to get aPD input system and you'll want
20, 30, or 40 watts on that andyou'll want to make sure the
wattage that you're providing isthe maximum that you should be
providing for that device or getthe next size up.
They will get the next size upcharging because they'll only
take what they can take.
They won't charge.

(01:01:22):
They won't take more.
So if you've got a PD 80 wattcharger you can plug your phone
into it.
You're not going to blow upyour phone but you're not using
the full power of that 80 watts.
You might only be using 15 or20 to charge your phone.
So in that new technology, justget the next size up.

(01:01:45):
In the older technology,minimum 3.2 amp charge on the
connector where you plug yourusage device on and
realistically you should be fine.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
And David, can you just help people know where do
they buy such a charger from?
Can they just get it from thelocal store?
Yeah, just go to the localstore, Right, you don't have to
buy it online.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
No, no no, you can go anywhere.
Obviously, you can get stufffrom Apple, you can get stuff
from Samsung stores, you can getfrom JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, all
those places.
But don't buy the $19 one, buythe $35 one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
That's again you get what you're paying for.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Don't buy the cheapest one, buy the most
expensive one that your bankbalance can afford, and then you
should be coming.
3.2 amps on the standard USBold square style plug-in devices
and whatever device type youneed or other new appliances.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Start with the VD stuff.
Okay, all right, so we've comein a lot there, but it's time to
perhaps start talking about thehead unit.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
We did a bit of head unit.
Oh no, car, play the car play.
That's what I meant, Okay so wealso recently just released.
We got a new car play AI box incame through from our mates at
EC Off-Road and we're having abit of a play with that, and I
went to a Volkswagen Polo, oneof my mates' cars, and I don't
actually have a car that's got awide car play in it.

(01:03:10):
It does need wide car play,these things, but the 300 series
, land Cruises and all the newcars all seem to have these wide
car play systems in them.
They also have Android Auto, sogenerally, if your head unit
has Android Auto, it'll probablyhave car play.
They seem to come out with thetwo, and so the AI box is an

(01:03:32):
Android computer, if you need to.
If you want to have a look,jump onto our YouTube channel.
The video is there or it'sgoing to be there.
Yes, it's going to be up by thetime people hear this podcast,
by the time you hear this itshould be published, and in that
I've gone into the car andplugged in the box and show you
how it works Effectively.
You're basically plugging in anAndroid operating system little

(01:03:53):
, teeny, weeny little computerinto your car play head unit and
as soon as it's detected, yourcar play head unit thinks it's
an iPhone.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Yes, it thinks it's an iPhone.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry the car play unit, when
you plug it in the AI box, loadsinto your car play system as an
iPhone and basically what itdoes then is the iPhone.
That interface emulates anAndroid, the whole Android
computer system under car play.
So you would then load theAndroid.

(01:04:25):
You got the Play Store so inthe AI box, once you've plugged
it in, you've booted a fullAndroid environment.
You've got access to the PlayStore.
You can download Spotify andyou can download Netflix and all
those streaming platforms andall that stuff that you can't
run on your built-in head unitbecause they don't let you.
You know, you can't run movieson a lot of those devices and

(01:04:47):
you can't.
It's fair enough, oh fairenough.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
you shouldn't be distracted while you're driving.
So in the traffic doing yourmake-up and watching Watching
Game of Thrones is somethingwhile you're sitting in the
traffic driving to town.
Well, you can do that with an.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Android Auto with one of these AI boxes, because it
does circumvent all of thosecontrols.
It doesn't break in, it's notdangerous.
You haven't voided yourwarranty.
You're not doing anything wrong.
Instead of plugging in a phone,you plug it in a different box
to your head.
Unit looks like a phone, but onthere you can run the travel
app.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
See, that's why it gets confusing, because you said
it makes you think it's aniPhone but the problem is we're
not using iPhone apps, we'reusing Android apps, so that's
why it gets a bit confusing, sousing an AI.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
I should believe it's an iPad.
No, that's why I stumbled andcut you off because I'm going.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
My head's going around that we're turning a car
play unit into an Androidoperating system so that we can
install the Google Play Store sothat we can access apps.
So the issue is, if you'regoing to go down this path this
is how you can access Explorer'sTraveler app that you will
always only have access to theGoogle Play Store, buying an
Android version of the Travelerapp.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
And putting it or any other app, you put it on the
little box.
So one of the other advantagesof little box and it comes to me
quite often you go and hire acar or you go travelling
somewhere or a friend's car or afriend's car, you're going out
with a mate for a four-wheeldrive trip somewhere and he's
got a spanking new 300 and hewants to show it off to you.
You can jump into his car andplug in your AI box straight

(01:06:18):
onto his head unit and run yourversion of the Explorer's
Traveler app in his car andinstill upon him how wonderful
it is and that he should buy oneas well.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
So he just wants to be your mate.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
Well, my mate thought it was fantastic because he
just thought he could sit andwatch Netflix while he was in
the traffic.
But you know, it's being ableto just take this box with you.
If you go and hire a car in astate you can put it in.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
It's great for international travellers coming
to.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Australia, whatever, and you know it'll be great if
all the higher companies hadthem and that you and you come
over you could have one.
Again, you know it's an Androidversion.
So you know we're talkingcarplay and an Android.
If you're a carplay aficionado,you're probably used to using
Apple products.
It would be a licensing thing.
You would need to get theExplosive Tramler app from the

(01:07:04):
Android Play Store as well, butyou know it's a small price to
pay these AI boxes.
They're in the $250 price point, 200 to 300.
They're called an Android AIbox and they have it.
They'll definitely tell you theversion of Android that they're
running.
I think the one we played withwas Android 12 the other day and
and it worked great and it andit was easy and it's a really

(01:07:28):
good user interface.
It emulates the carplay setupsquite well.
The difference is that it'sAndroid apps and not Apple apps
and after all of that you reallycan't tell much difference.
And it does release the abilityfor anybody With the fancy new
car where they don't want to doa head unit replacement.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Yeah, this is the key to still be able to run the
Explorers Tramler app At a muchcheaper price point of putting
the AI box there rather thanpulling the whole head unit out.
So you're comparing $250 foryour hardware, and I've got some
links to a couple of differentbrands that are available online
at the moment from our research.
If you want to have a look atthose AI box options that we're

(01:08:08):
recommending at the moment, openup the Explorers website,
wwwexplorerscom.
Click the box on the home pageto go to Traveller.
That's the Traveller web page.
It has everything about theTraveller app that you need to
know.
Scroll down, open the FAQ taband everything about head units
and all the different options islisted there, including this
discussion about the AI boxoption.

(01:08:29):
As David did allude to, though,in the beginning of this, we
are thinking about putting a bitmore Development time into
these AI boxes to help some ofour customers enter that Into
that market.
So stay tuned.
We will be looking at that inthe future and we'll have more

(01:08:50):
information coming soon.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
So the last probably thing that we should have a
discussion about in terms ofDevices that can run the app
would be the web app, and theweb app is an online extension
of the Traveller app.
It basically runs in yourstandard web browser on your
desktop computers or on yourcomputers at home.
It's basically Functionallylimited, so it doesn't do.

(01:09:16):
It doesn't have the trackinginterfaces, it doesn't have
First destination navigation, itdoesn't and I'm that
complicated, but I have to sayit's designed for truth,
planning and browsing.
And you can just run it on onyour, on your web interface it's
exactly the same screencontrols.
It looks exactly the same.

(01:09:37):
It syncs perfectly with all ofyour data.
So you know, you do yourplanning on the web app and then
you Go to your car head unit,sync it and all of a sudden, all
your planning data has traveledacross your trip destination to
track logs, your tracks and allthat stuff in your places that
all come with you, the.

(01:09:58):
As I say, the web app runs in abrowser.
It's currently the the optionto run the web app.
You need to be an explorersmember to gain access to the web
app and that's currently set ona one-time payment per year at
$34 or $39, 99 and or 95 andnumber 95, 95 and um.

(01:10:20):
You do that once a year andyou've got access to the web app
and so, basically, you can doEverything that you can do in
the car, except for the actualnavigation parts within the app.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
You can plan Tricks and save them, and therefore
that means when you go and pickup your phone or your head unit
or your tablet.
That's the one you're actuallygoing to take with you, the
device you're taking with you.
It'll bring all that planacross and you just open it up
and it's ready to use.
After it's been synced, you'vethen got it all available
offline.
So it's just a tool To enableyou to use a different device

(01:10:54):
without having to buy anotherversion of the app.
So you can use a windows pc, amacintosh, an apple mac desktop
or a laptop or a laptop, andwithout having to download and
buy a different platformsVersion to use that, because
maybe you've got pc at home andan ipad in the car or on android

(01:11:14):
.
Instead of having to deal withall that licensing, you just do
the explorers membership, whichhas other benefits anyway now
and you can and you and andthere are.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
With our recent release, or recent update, only
in the last two weeks or so, ofthe web app, we do have a little
technological problem.
Um, we were, we were browserlimited, um, in the platforms
that you were able to run theweb app on.
That limitation has now beenremoved.
It'll basically run on prettymuch every devices with the with
the latest browsers.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
So that means sapphire, safari, chrome,
firefox, edge, opera, all themain ones all the main ones, but
make sure it's the latestversion.
So I've had a couple of peoplethink that they can run it
because they've got the latestversion, but then they've got an
old version.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
I managed to make a work for safari 16, but when you
upgrade from safari 16 tosafari 17, you'll have to redo
the install because it was adifferent technology.
But these things, these thingsare all sent to tries.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
But it's all possible , but it's all possible.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
It all works and so you do have access, you know, to
use the web app as well.
So they're all the.
They're all the interfaces.
We've got android, we've gotapple or ii pads, ios.
One of the other things wedidn't touch on was macos.
The mac operating system, a lotlike now with windows windows,
is now preaching that you canrun a lot of Window android apps

(01:12:37):
on windows.
Apple.
You can run your ipad apps,ipad iphone apps on macos.
So if you're a macbook user,you can actually download your
ipad, your app store version forios, and run the app On that
platform.
So you don't have to use a webapp if you don't want to.
You can actually use the nativeapp.

(01:12:58):
So that, obviously, connectinga gps to that is another
challenge and we haven't playedwith that much.
We don't currently documentthat we support using macos as a
navigation platform, but forall intents and purposes I
believe it would work.
The app we do.
Actually, the app will actuallyrun and it does work Correctly

(01:13:19):
in on that device.
I haven't tried transporting itand cooking up, so that's
another platform, but so we'vegone the apple, we've got the
android, we've got the windowswe know about that and we've got
the web app, so that kind ofthe uis that we use.
Someone comes up, says what doyou recommend?

(01:13:40):
Any one of those, possibly notthe windows.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
We can use.
So the beauty of the web app isif you want to use your
computer for planning, don't buythe windows version, just use
the web app version and then youuse a different device and
we've just explained why a phoneis really good, and so don't
think you can't use your phone,because it's actually got the
high resolution, it's got fastscreen performance because of

(01:14:07):
good cpu and fits in your backpocket.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
So it's very portable .

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
It's easy to charge.
Gps is already in it.
A phone should not bediscounted as Well.
For me, it's my number onedevice, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Um, we're in our car with our head unit.
So we've got the head unit, a10 inch head unit.
It sits in the middle of thecar.
You know where the head unitwould sit.
Michelle's got a phone bracketOn her side.
I've got a phone bracket on myside.
We've also got the ipad sittingon the center console or
michelle's lap when she'sworking on them, and we use them
all at the same time.
But specifically for me, whenI'm driving, I have a one level

(01:14:42):
of map detail on the head unitwhich is usually A little bit
more expanded out, and then onmy phone, on my, on the on my
right hand side field of view, Ican see really close detail.
So I I'm zoomed in a lotfurther.
So the differing zoom levelsgive me the ability to see
what's close and what's far.
So you know, I might be lookingat three or four kilometers in

(01:15:03):
advance on the main head unit.
I might be looking at 500meters in advance on the on the
car unit.
I can pretty much pick everycorner and know where I'm going
to have to turn and when I'mgoing to have to do stuff,
because it's all pretty muchwell mapped out for me, right in
front of my face and I've gotit on the two devices.
So there's nothing wrong withhaving it on those two devices
while you're doing that.
And the advantage of having thebackup or having the thing on
your phone Is that when you getout of the car you can't take

(01:15:24):
the head unit with you you don'twant to carry an ipad with you
when you go hiking up in thebush but you will take your
phone and then.
So you're taking your phone andimmediately you've got access
to all of our walking andwalking trails and track
information.
That's all part of the top ofmap system and we're publishing
walking in Different tracks forwalking, cycling and those sorts
things as well.
So the ability to just keepusing the same thing take it out

(01:15:46):
of the car and go for your walkand and have access to all the
latest mapping and tools Whileyou're walking or doing all
those other activities.
As of currently out, it's easyand simple and the phones
generally all the new phones andeveryone's got to have the
latest swankiest phone has allthe power that you could
possibly have.
Some people, if you'reinheriting phones from your

(01:16:07):
children, it may not be goodenough, but but you know all the
latest, or certainly all thelatest phones for the last few
years, have been more thancapable Of doing what we do.
And don't don't be fooled.
You know the ipads and the bitsand pieces that we're using um
eighth generation.
What are we up to now?
I think we're up to 10, sowe're using an eighth generation

(01:16:29):
ipad.
For one of them, or, that's forsure, one.
There I've got an air forsomething or other.
They're all moving ahead aswell.
They all work.
They all work really well Appleor Apple or Android personal
preference.
If you're used to one of thoseand you're happy with your phone
and you want to look at atablet, obviously you can't go.
You can't go head unit Ifyou're not in the android

(01:16:53):
Environment, but everything elseyou pretty much can.
So I know you said that we'regoing to talk about a lot of
other things.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
I've just read through my list and we have
covered everything.
So hope that was really usefulfor you.
And if you do have questions,well, we are more than happy to
answer those questions, becausewe want people to really
understand this, because thisreally does affect how much
enjoyment and satisfaction youget from using the explorers
travel app.

(01:17:19):
We have put so many featuresinto the app and it's well
tested and well robust.
We do test older versions of alot of devices and we do test
new versions of a lot of devicesand we can give you with all
assurance that, as we've justexplained, that huge range of
device choice Is is available toyou.
Um, it's not difficult andHopefully that's summarized most

(01:17:43):
of that for you.
But, as I said, put somequestions if you've got them
into the youtube comments thatwe because we're publishing this
podcast both as audio on thespotify and on the podcast
podcast, but we're also actuallyfilming this for those that are
listening and don't realizethat we're filming it and
putting it on youtube Justbecause it gives a bit more

(01:18:03):
interactivity.
And, of course, um, we'realways available on the normal
communication channels throughour website.

Speaker 2 (01:18:11):
All right, so thanks for watching.
Make sure you subscribe and, uh, we look forward to catching up
with you when next we talk tech.
Okay, bye.

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