Gear

I was quite keen on this gadget when I saw it, but not so keen now that I've found out that MM OS maps don't "set" themselves to North within the display. To quote the man from MM, "Memory-Map always displays the map as North up".

So, you have to keep "resetting" the whole device when you change direction, as you would if you used a paper map. Which means that if you're walking Southwards and wanted the map in the display to align with your surroundings, the unit would have to be held so that the display menu is upside down. Now, that seems a bit dumb to me... or am I being a bit too picky?

Do others orientate like you want?

I'd have a look at one, I was thinking about a Sat Nav for the car and the combined unit may still make it worthwhile.

I did a quick google and saw them for around £250 (Halfords etc) but I suspect without the MM software.

It's still more of a would like than a must have though.

"Do others orientate like you want? "

Well, Dave, I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that when you use a driving satnav, the way forwards is always "up" on the screen. If it navigates you to, say, a left turn, the picture rotates clockwise within the display as you make that turn, thus keeping forwards = up.

So it is possible. It's not rocket-science.

I should be getting the Magellan Crossover in shortly for review, a similar type of device combining on and off road mapping. The Crossover will use Magellans mapping rather than OS, but I wouldn't be surprised if it automatically orientates according to the direction of travel.

Cheers Dave I'll look out for that

Me too. Thanks, Dave.

I think that's just how the Memory-Map Software works isn't it. When I tried using it in the car with a laptop it always kept the map as north and think its the same for the phone and PDA versions of the program?

Does anyone know if ViewRanger does the same thing, fancy ViewRanger when the new Nokia N95 eventually comes out (built in GPS).

I suspect it always points 'North' because it's using raster map imaging. Now, whilst they could rotate the raster images to set the map correctly, you'd have to have a compass built in to the unit. A real compass, and not just relying on delta position like car navigation units are (although delta posn would be a reasonable approximation).

Real-time rotation to set the map to the unit's attitude would be a little harder (i.e. more processor intensive, which means shorter battery life). Note that, in a car, the unit is usually in a fixed position. In the hand, the orientation relative to the user is unknown (to the unit, anyway). You could, for instance, be holding the unit upside down. This might confuse it a little...

If you started with vector mapping, it might be a little easier to set the map correctly. You would also be able to keep the annotation horizontal, whilst the features set correctly.

MemoryMap uses a little red circle & pointer to show direction of travel. You can just make it out in the picture. This arrow rotates when it doesn't know which direction you're travelling in; there was a thread about this a while back.

The lack of a compass is why I will not be considering it. The Satmap however looks very interesting.

The thing that I find disappointing with Satmap is that you have to buy maps all over again as it doesn't use MM maps, you need to use their own proprietory maps on SD cards.
I had a look at the Road Angel unit, (ready to cough up the £'s) at the Outdoor Show and the screen was a little disappointing - not very crisp at all, but that may have just been the well fingered demo models! I wanted a demo but it was impossible to try and speak to someone, they were all so busy.

But don't you have to buy MM with the road angel unit as well? ie: it comes in the box and the unit is not available separately.

I've been using my PDA together with MM and a Bluetooth GPS receiver. Pocket Memory Map can be installed to the PDA from the main program on you PC.

It's great in the warmth of home but not practical when you get out on the hill wearing glovers. Battery life isn't good either.

The main drawback I found was only being able to view a minute area of the map so map and compass are still essential (see April 2007 Trail mag for a review)

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a GPS geek - I've got Memory Map on my PDA with a separate bluetooth GPS unit and I agree with Mark Dixon - it's pretty to look at and impressive in your back garden, but the low screen resolution of PDAs means that you can realistically only look at a 1km square of an OS 1:50 000 map and actually see any useful detail for real navigating, and 1km is just not enough area for navigating in the wilderness. You could zoom out, of course, but on my PDA's screen, at least, all detail becomes unreadable! Also, With the short battery life and all the hassle of keeping PDA and BT GPS dry, I concluded that it wasn't a robust enough navigation tool for the hills.
I looked at the Road Angel with Memory Map and considered getting one for a while, but it's basically just a water resistant PDA with GPS built it, subject to the same limitations I've just listed above, so I decided to go for a Garmin GPSMap60CSx and the GB Topo maps.
Yes - duplication of expense for the mapping, but the Garmin is waterproof, has an 18-hour battery life (with field-replaceable AA batteries rather than Li-Ion rechargeable type used in PDA/BT GPS), the mapping is vector-based rather than bitmap (aka raster)so with the built-in electronic compass in the 60CSx turned on, I can configure the map screen to orientate "ahead-up" or "north-up" as I wish. Okay, the Topo maps are not the same as OS maps, but the detail is pretty good - contours, features, footpaths, and you can customise the level of detail and types of features you want to be visible at any given magnification setting. Used in conjunction with a conventional paper OS map, I find this the best compromise. Oh, and the 60CSx is compatible with the PC version of Memory Map for data transfer, so I can plan my routes on MM, send them to the GPS, and when I get home I can upload my tracks and waypoints to MM and view them on OS maps/3D view.

I have an N560 LOOX, and find the GPS a little temperamental.  I'd be interested in seeing how you've gone about unlocking your unit, whatever it is.