POI Confirmation & Cloud Data vs. Cached Data

As I was reading the posts http://www.poi-factory.com/node/5107?page=3 about incorrect POIs, etc., I was sort of reminiscing about another hobby of mine and comparing and contrasting. I am a licensed amateur radio operator as well as scanner radio listener. My area has now gone to mainly digital, trunked radio systems, but back when things were analog, conventional hobbyists would often compare frequencies and sometimes even PL/DPLs. One of the inherent problems was old, outdated, unconfirmed data. Other technical problems could also crop up, like inter-modulation, harmonics, mixing, etc. Some hobbyists, in an attempt to reduce these problems, started posting whether a channel was actually confirmed. I was sort of thinking that it would be neat if we had the ability to do that with POIs, but it really isn't practical, yet, for most of us. If more of us had connected GPSs and/or smartphones and we visited the local pizzeria listed as a POI, we could touch a button to verify that the address, telephone number, etc. was correct and the data would get "back to the mother ship" so that others knew how recently the information was verified. On the other hand, maybe with the popularity of the Android Operating System and its Google Mobile Navigation, maybe POI confirmation really isn't so far away.

Along a similar line, with traffic information, timeliness is of great value. To know that there was a traffic tire up an hour ago is of little value if the tie up is now corrected.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/5107?page=3

Anyway, that leads me back to what I think is a classic question of our time right now. And that is, what is better data on the device (cached content) or data in the clouds (connected content)? We essentially deal with that now in entertainment in many areas. For example, do you watch satellite/cable/over the air TV or do you watch DVDs, etc. Do you listen to XM/Sirius, AM/FM radio, internet radio. Or do you prefer CDs, MP3, etc. Getting back to GPSs, do you prefer POIs stored on the device or do you prefer connected data from a smart phone GPS, Garmin Nuvi 1690 or (soon?) a Garmin Nuvi 1695?

For me, the obvious answer is BOTH, if it is possible. By that I mean if I am using my Garminfone and I am connected to wi-fi, since I don't currently have a data plan, I will check on board POIs and Google Local Search, if time permits. As an aside, since I have had emergency management training, I sometimes have a tendency to plan redundancy, even in my personal life, just in case. Or another way of putting it, even though I was never in the military, they have an old saying something along the lines of, "Two is one and one is none." Another hobby of mine is flashlights. So when people bring flashlights along, say touring a cave, they bring more than they need in case of failure. That is often a good thing to do with GPS. If you have a smart phone or connected GPS, you are all set, well that is until you CAN'T connect, then you will wish you had data stored on the device! (Getting off my soapbox now.)