android app for mapping

evsy
evsy Posts: 111
edited June 2011 in Road beginners
hey everyone

does anyone know of an android app like googlemaps, which essentially gives you sat nav, but doesnt need a internet data connection??

im planning a few new routes and some spots doesnt have network coverage, so looking for an app which uses the gps not internet.

thanks

evsy

Comments

  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    HTC's Location preloads the mapping by country so doesn't need a connection during your journey. I presume it's only on HTC phones http://www.htc.com/www/press.aspx?id=149490&lang=1033
  • evsy
    evsy Posts: 111
    thanks for that.

    i have just bought the galaxy s2 - sorry, i should have mentioned that in my post :oops:

    so does anyone know any mapping apps for samsung galaxy 2??
  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    http://android.modaco.com/content/advent-vega-vega-modaco-com/339211/navfree-for-android-released-at-last/

    Can't vouch for it personally but seems to be okay according to others
  • alan_sherman
    alan_sherman Posts: 1,157
    Google maps is supposed to be able to locally cache the maps now. No personal experience.

    Viewranger is an option, it can use locally cached open street maps. It doesn't say 'left' but beeps and shows an arrow. It is quite complicated to use (as it is so feature packed). I think they have a free trial on their website. Good for off road use, not so sure abotu road stuff though.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    I could use an answer to this one before hitting the continent this summer - I'm frankly quite unsure about using the phone at all, given Google's insistence on "cloud with everything" and the phone companies' insistence on charging frankly quite absurd rates for data. (I'm with Orange, who proudly boast of their special deal at £15 / 30MB, their normal rate is £3 / MB, a mere 6000 times what I pay for home broadband)
    There are quite a few apps out there that can do this, none of them very simple to use, but what we really want is offline caching for Google Maps - which they seem to be dead against doing. My theory is that Google really don't like the idea of you doing anything that they can't spy on.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    alan sherman wrote:
    Google maps is supposed to be able to locally cache the maps now.
    Yes, but not a lot, and you have no control over what is in the cache
  • rich164h
    rich164h Posts: 433
    It's more likely that the owner of the mapping (tele atlas in the case of google in the UK) won't have given google a license to allow download of their data. Them and navteq survive by selling their data to people like garmin and tomtom to package up and resell (once again in a controlled way), so for google to give it away free would completely destroy their business.

    My company provides all of the aerial photography to google for the UK and there's no way that we'd give google a licence to distribute the actual data to anyone. Show an image of it yes and make it viewable via a controlled web portal/tools, but not download the actual data. If you want that you can come and buy it from us, it certainly costs us enough to collect it!!

    Remember that google doesn't own any of the data that it shows you, it only has a licence to use it for certain things.
  • Funkyfreddy1
    Funkyfreddy1 Posts: 32
    evsy wrote:
    does anyone know of an android app like googlemaps, which essentially gives you sat nav, but doesnt need a internet data connection??

    im planning a few new routes and some spots doesnt have network coverage, so looking for an app which uses the gps not internet.

    I have Maps (-) on my HTC which works offline. Download and cache areas/zoom levels to your phone and you don't need to be online.

    You can use OpenStreetMap.org both the standard Open Street Map and Open Cycle Maps together with Google Maps as locally saved maps/areas.

    I haven't used it for any bike rides or anything so can't comment on how it might work for that but it does the job when I just wanted offline city navigation in Europe recently.

    http://maps.coderminus.com/

    There is also Backcountry which allows you to cache map data locally on your phone.

    http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/

    I have "My Tracks" as an app to record any trip data but there are others I'm sure.

    Cheers
  • MountainMonster
    MountainMonster Posts: 7,423
    The app MiSport from Addidas is quite good. Shows also a few other stats, and from what I can tell the mapping is fairly decent. Used on a Motorolla Milestone, so seems to be ok!
    My London Road

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