Put a PIN code on the SIM and reboot without entering the code. That kills the cell portion but leaves everything else available. Bonus: you also don't have to remember where you left the SIM card.

4G is about to hit the street in UK on T-Mobile. Decisions decisions...

Being forced to have the phone chewing battery while using GPS is just dumb.

Come on Apple, you can think smarter than this.

ETA: Good tip Jeremy! there's always a workaround. My remaining problem is I have access to 1:25K OS maps on android for free, but it's pricey on Apple's services.

Edited by tallbloke on 09/15/2012 10:50:30 MDT.

I'll second Eugene here. Anyone wants to drop their old phone, I'll be happy to take it off your hands!

Edited by mpd1690 on 09/17/2012 12:53:34 MDT.

"Wouldn't mind having one but at $250 and $90 a month for a data plan they are simply too expensive to be worth it."

My iPhone was $50 and my wife and I share an unlimited data and txt plan for $125/ month. - ATT

Coverage is as good as I need it to be.

Sooooo....I have read a few would like to purchase a used iPhone 4S. Let's start the bidding....NOW. I got one. Black, 16GB. Bought new in Jan. Let's go with $150 starting bid.

I am waiting for iPhone 9, sounds amazing :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFUz6vHEQCM

I'm disappointed with Apple lately... I had a 3GS that I absolutely loved. Only complaints were the small screen and poor battery life. I waited and waited and waited for the 5 to come out... Then they called it the 4S and didn't really give us anything new. Same size screen. Same crappy battery life. Same 3G connectivity. I finally broke down and got a Galaxy Note. In my opinion, it's an upgrade over the iPhone 4S in every way.

Now the "real" iPhone 5 comes out, and it is such a tiny step up from the 4S that I don't even remotely regret the decision to get the Note (though I almost wish I'd waited three more months for the GS3).

Apple has stopped innovating and started relying on Apply fanboys to keep buying their "new" stuff. They need to take a page from Jobs 2006 playbook.

I was half tempted to get an IPhone5 but sprung for a Samsung Galaxy S3 instead, the fact I can change batteries swung it for me.

For the samsung galaxy s3, just drag down from the top of the screen to open the notifications drop down. On the drop down there are multiple toggle buttons. There are individual toggle buttons for bluetooth, gps, sound, mobile data, screen rotation, power saving mode, airplane mode, driving mode and sync.

Or you could download a toggle widget from google play and just drop a customized widget bar on one of your home screens.

Seems like some folks haven't read the article about disabling cell phone on the iPhone in order to save battery, and other battery-saving info. The info in this thread has touched on most of the issues, but here's the full story:
Instructions for using iPhone as Backpacking GPS/Mapping device.

One thing in that article is no longer true - ViewRanger recently fixed the battery drain problems in their app, so it's now a viable candidate. I need to update the article.

Here is a list of all the iPhone mapping/gps apps I've evaluated. When I learn about an app I've missed I put it on my list to evaluate, and try to get to it when I have a chunk of time (it's not a fast process).

I don't have an iPhone 5 so can't test to see if 1) for ATT it still works same as iPhone4, and 2) if there's still no solution for Verizon. If you have an iPhone5 and figure it out, please let me know so I can update the article.

My Verizon iPhone5 has a SIM pin feature, if that helps.

@stephenP "I'd like to be able to use GPS without having my phone chew up a ton of battery life trying to find a cell signal.

I know the phone was designed to use cell towers and wifi along with GPS to find your location, but it has worked fine for me with just GPS.

Currently, you can shut off wifi and close down apps to save battery, but putting the phone in airplane mode will disable GPs as well. With the AT&T phones, you used to be able to remove the SIM card to disable the cellular antenna. Not sure if it still works that way."

If you turn on the SIM PIN on iPhone with AT&T contract, you can disable the phone's attempts to connect with cellular network in backcountry (saving the battery) and still use GPS and everything else. This works with iPhone 4, 4S, and 5. The default PIN that the iPhone 5 ships with is 1111. Not sure about 4 or 4S. In Settings, go to Phone, scroll to bottom, turn SIM PIN on, and change it to whatever number you like better than 1111 or leave it alone. When you turn the phone all the way off, then on, it will ask you to either enter the SIM PIN or not. Do this again to re-enable the SIM if you want to make a call, text, or access internet. You can still use the a wifi connection (if available) even with SIM turned off.