Data from where?

    • 339 posts
    July 22, 2026 8:08 PM PDT

    Appreciate many apps work on GPS locations but they still have to get the data from somewhere,

    Whilst in US recently I downloaded an app named TRANSIT.    Showed local buses, location on a map and times of arrival.  The closest three bus routes were shown by default.  Oddly when I returned to UK it showed my local London buses.

    I am assuming that a coincidence has not occurred and the US bus company and the London company (TFL) are not using the same software but I find this quite strange that they are able to pull bus data from different countries.

     

    Geffers

    • Moderator
    • 429 posts
    July 23, 2026 5:43 PM PDT

    That's pretty interesting.  Thank goodness for GPS, but how weird?  

    I can still remember using paper maps to get around town.  Actually, that was better training than always having the app because you always remembered places better visually, at least I did, but I have an excellent knack for direction.

    • 339 posts
    July 26, 2026 2:34 AM PDT
    Web Diva said:

    That's pretty interesting.  Thank goodness for GPS, but how weird?  

    I can still remember using paper maps to get around town.  Actually, that was better training than always having the app because you always remembered places better visually, at least I did, but I have an excellent knack for direction.

    Paper maps are so much more interesting when driving, show rivers, railways, hills and often other useful factors.  GPS is good and useful but we'll end up losing map reading skills.  We are too dependent on electronics.

    Geffers

     

    • Moderator
    • 429 posts
    July 27, 2026 8:08 AM PDT

    There's also something classic about opening a paper map and following the path of your destination as opposed to the digital feel.  I suppose the experience likens to reading a physical book, whereas we all mostly use digital now to read anything.  Agreed, that physical map reading is a potential lost skill.  Everyone should know how to navigate as there may be a day that GPS goes down and one would need to know how to get from point A to point B another way.