The apps have no instructions an and there are several very severe problems with Awol's guide. As far as youtube videos go, they're basically useless because the people going over these things in the videos, are jumping around saying things they didn't first go over.
The only thing people say or mention is they used it and how good it they are. Problem is no one is explaining HOW they're doing that, and how they're getting any starting information to even do anything.
The problem I have when people do this is the excuses people give to get out of having to explain anything about the basics
Awol's guide makes no sense for several reasons, for starters there is no explanation on how to read the guide itself. The little section at the beginning of the book that is supposed to breakdown what things are is still missing a ton of basic instructions. For example the maps in AWOL'S guide will show a town and things in it, but fails to explain where in the town those things are. As far as you know the stores could be in town 8 miles away from the trail head. The maps also do not denote what side of the town on the map is North, South, East, West. You simply have no idea.
Unless you have every single area of the entire trail memorized, I don't see how anyone is able to set up any resupply points using this guide. Even though there are millage on the side, that doesn't help anyone because you still would have absolutely no idea where you are in conjunction to a town or how far away you are. The only way that would be possible is if you already have it memorized.
AWOL'S guide is useless to a first timer like myself. There is too many unexplained aspects that you have to know, in order to have the guide be helpful.
The apps are even more of a mess. Far out has no instructions it doesn't even explain how to navigate through the interface or explain what any of the icons are, there is no mention of what features are in the app, never mind hwot to actually do anything with them. The company that made the app, expects people who get it to already have some extreme and vast understanding and know how of how phones work not taking into consideration that isn't a valid comment. The company is still supposed to explain what their product has in it, how to access it and how to use it. They need to stop expecting people who have a phone to know how to use something just because they have a phone.
Well I have a phone and 100% in the dark about pretty much all of it. Personally phones are extremely limited to what they can do.
I'll use gmail as the example of what I'm talking to show people just how bad this is for someone like myself, When I open gmail on a computer, All the options that make gmail usable are right there on the screen at the top left, I can see spam, trash, inbox..etc...But when I open GMAIL on a mobile device, the options that show up on a computer, simply aren't there on a mobile device, and I don't mean some of them either, I mean all of them there isn't even a compose option. Furthermore I see strange words like primary. PRIMARY??? I'm sorry but WTH does primary mean. That word doesn't belong in GMAIL because it's not in the computer version.
Google doesn't even have the courtesy to have a basic user manual for gmail. Everyone always starts saying to do things or open some screen they didn't explain how they got to or what they're even talking about. They just say it as if everyone knows what they're talking about.
Apparently apps are the same way, there are no actual instructions that will help someone that doesn't know anything about a phone to be able to use any of this stuff.
BTW this post is coming from someone who for a year had no idea a phone had a brightness option. The screen went dim and I just thought that's how it was I only found out about it when someone asked to borrow my phone and asked me why is the screen so dark, I replied phones don't have a brightness option so I didn't think to mention it, I thought people accepted that and just dealt with it. For 3 years I didn't know you could even close screens. I had to shut the phone off to close the screen. To this day I still have no idea what SCAN a QR code means because every time I open my camera and take a picture of it, nothing happens I wind up with a bunch of pictures of QR codes in my gallery.
People like me cannot even ask anything because we aren't being told what exists to ask and so there is no possible way to know what exists in order to ask. We just assume if a phone does something, then that's just how it is and people just deal with it.
my point to this is, all these apps and guide books need to have an actual video by the makers going over every single little thing that is in them, show how to access them, then give an example of it's use and they need to stop throwing things out with no instructions and using it's 2023 so that means everyone should know. Its infuriating