I use an app called Be on Road which uses OSN data. Tested it on iPhone, iPad and android and it is pretty good. The app actually works great, the data download is very easy, your data stays on your device. The OSN data however has quality problems. It doesn't seem to have house numbers and there are connectivity problems between road segments.

I'm a bit biased against Garmin. I use Tom Tom in my car and now Be on Road on my bike.

What about the DeLorme InReach (or SPOT) as an alternative? I know cost-wise it is not a cheap alternative, but it adds the function of emergency help, tracking, and (limited) texting with friends/family back home.

Anyone have experience using one vs a GPS or the seemingly preferred phone options discussed above?

I guess you mean OSM i.e. Open Street Map data which is developing rapidly and is updated regularly.
I access OSM via a variety of phone apps and I find that house numbers can be found on their maps if a sufficient level of zooming in is done with the app.
For instance, "navigator" shows house numbering and has a search function which can find, for example, UK postcodes/addresses.
As per the app name, it can navigate to such addresses in the same way as my garmin Nuvi does, while showing a better detail of mapping along the way - hence I rarely use the Nuvi nowadays.


If you search in the HUBB there are some threads that talk about the capability of the InReach and the SPOT products but I don't recall anyone has said that they have used either as a navigation aid.
There are certainly smart phone apps that record tracking data - I have experimented with one called MY Trails which does exactly as it's name suggests.

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Dave

OSM house numbers... depends on unpaid people putting them into OSM. As there are lots of unnamed roads around me .. I am spending some time just putting those names in. I'd rather spend time putting in tracks in the country side, but given the vast number missing I though I'd add a few. Some 300+ in the last week.

So house numbers will depend on where you look .. Glasgow UK does not have many. Sydney Australia does not have many either.

I've just caught up with the existance of yet another water resistant smart phone, this one coming from Motorola.
UK's Cheapest Moto G (3rd Generation): Where To Buy?

It looks like a great specification at the price (for around the cost of a rear tyre on a sports bike).

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Dave

Another year and a half goes by and the technology moves along nicely.
Document

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Dave

I've used this for street navigation in a few countries of Europe now.
It has found street addresses in a very accurate manner, in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK using either full addresses or postcodes.
From a recent update (which are offered regularly) it also has a basic form of lane guidance for major autobahn type highways – what I found more interesting, and even quite useful, were the depictions of the overhead gantry signs on the German autobahns which automatically appear in the app software in good time while approaching the junctions.
Naturally, voice directions are also available.

The app had something of an apparent glitch around the area of Geneva airport; I was disappointed in this at the time and put it down to something or other to do with the density of roads in that area, or the complex international borders – later, when fiddling with the app settings I found that I had it set for a walking mode at about 4 miles per hour (which previously I did not realise existed), so I guess that this is what caused the apparent glitch. In this mode it could use all forms of footpaths as part of the routing algorithm, such as pedestrianised precincts.
It certainly hasn't misbehaved since then and it is now set in a vehicle-use mode.

This led me to look more at the settings of the app, having ignored this aspect for some time.
It's impressively detailed with various modes that can be chosen and the parameters for each mode can be preset in great detail (such as the average speed, types of roads to be used – tolled roads, ferries etc etc).
I can't find a thing this app can't do actually.
The display can also be modified and personalised to suit most things that folk may wish to view – number of satellites in use, time to destination, distance to destination, all that kind of thing.
A compass heading can also be placed at the top of the screen.

I think it also has a route tracking capability but I haven't looked into that aspect, having no specific use for suchlike.

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Dave

Sorry if this matter is courrently solved in the thread, but I don´t find it. I have no smartphone at this moment, I´m going to Thailand from Spain through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Myanmar (Bhirmania). I have a new Tomtom Rider 400, who has all Europe and Turkey maps too, but I look for Tomtom maps from Iran, Pakistan, India, Myanmar and Thailand and there are not available, only Thailand.
Do you know if "here maps" has maps of these countries, and witch kind of smartphone (Nokia, Windows, Samsung...) I need for? I´m not introduced so much in smartphone new phones, I have a simple Nokia with no internet connection but I need to get in contact with the world when I depart from Barcelona. I will stay also about three month in Thailand, and need one cheap smartphone but in the middle range of quality.
Can you help me, please?

About 18 months later and I am still using this mapping/navigation app with the "free" OSM maps (they still offer online purchase of TomTom mapping).
No reason to change, it does what I want it to do.

It does track routes used and save them into GPX or NEMA formatted filing.
It can also import GPX files from elsewhere but I haven't explored that capability much - just the importing process that is explained in their online handbook -
https://www.mapfactor.com/manuals/ma.../Navigator.pdf

ps
Hardware.
Reading elsewhere, it seems that IPhones are prone to overheating when used for navigation - something to do with "the CPU working intensively".

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Dave