The app Dropsync was installed on the tablet. I've already been using it on the smartphone. Because I've been pleased with it's performance, I purchased the pro version on the Google Play store for $5.99. For my upcoming hiking trip, I was making maps on my desktop computer that would need to be displayed on my smartphone. When I get my motorhome running, the circumstances are similar for the cellular signal enabled tablet that runs it's navigation. The problem is without the Dropsync, I'd have to tether either device to the desktop computer and then move them somehow. Well, I might forget to do that and if I really need the data, that could mean spending up to 4 hours re-creating it somewhere.
What Dropsync does is it synchronizes and downloads any new information sent to a Dropbox account. Dropbox allows users to select certain files to always be "off-line," but my set up needs entire Dropbox folders that are updated to be ready when I don't have cellular signal. Dropsync does this.
Normally on Dropbox, whatever the account has sits on the cloud before one of my other devices selects the file and downloads it over my cellular data signal, or WiFi. When it comes time for me to need one of these, I might be in a place that has neither. So, on my Dropbox account, I added a "Transfer" folder with a "Smartphone" and "Tablet" sub-folders. When I create a map on my more powerful desktop computer, up to an hour after I save it, Dropsync will automatically download the files to both devices. At that point it won't need any external signals. By the 1970's definition of a computer, smartphones and tablets meet the criteria. They can function off-line so long as the files are.
Take smartphone and tablet navigation for instance. I use the Locus app on Android because I can download maps for offline use with the Buckeye, North Country Trail's data as well as that of my own. This is somewhat of a re-occuring topic on the Buckeye Trail Association's Facebook group, so while I'm here, let me state some of the the pros and cons of this...
The pros... if your a day hiker and you already own the device, you might as well use it. Some of us have spent between $400 - $800+ on our smartphones. Why buy a separate hand GPS that's going to cost an extra $150+? Some say that because the GPS antenna is smaller, that the position on the map is inaccurate. But I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and I find that the placement of my waypoints and geotagged photos rival that of my Garmin eTrex 20 hand GPS. But, I can't say that about my previous smartphone.
The cons... they're power hungry. A hand GPS on rechargeable AA size NiMH batteries can run for 3 hiking days if the screen is allowed to dim when it's not being used. Smartphone's have separate componentry in them for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and cellular signal. They have to supply power to their storage, main boards, screens and all these soldered components.
Well, a hand GPS is a dedicated device. By far and large, it only does one thing without all the extra components. A smartphone ran as I described for a hand GPS is going to expend a battery once every day, perhaps every 3/4ths of a day. On a hiking trip of a week, it will take about 180 minutes to recharge all of them with the use of an external battery charger, while hand GPS will charge that which it expends in those 7 days in only 45 minutes (with a high speed charger).
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