Now have this installed on an iPhone. First, at the current price it's amazing value and gives you 1:50k mapping of all the UK National Parks. Reproduction is brilliant and it scrolls, pans and zooms quickly and shows you where you are with a blue dot.
The rest of the app is quite basic compared to, say, ViewRanger and the interface is a tad non-intuitive, though you can plan and follow routes using the app and the makers are apparenty developing it. GPS burns batteries too.
I have downloaded this app recently and was most impressed
i manually plotted my route via the touchscreen (which was straightforward) and used it on a walk to kinder plateau yesterday
It performed excellently, it picked my location up virtually instantly everytime. I didn't have it on all the time only when i wanted to check my position and once i had done that i would hit the sleep button.
After around 4 hours of walking i still had 90% battery left
It should be even better when the OS costs hopefully disappear later this year!
As far as the OS costs go, I think that only relates to online mapping on web sites rather than downloaded mapping, which I think will mean that OS mapping on web sites is free but if you want OS map data in a format compatible with, say, Memory Map or Anquet, in their proprietory format, then you'll still have to pay.
I might be wrong, but it's definitely interesting and I can see that caching maps is a bit of a grey area - after all, as soon as you look at a map on a web site, it's effectivley downloaded to your computer anyway, so you can see a scenario where iPhone apps, for example, might cache web-based OS mapping for use later when there's no data connection.
As far as theRoadTour app goes, in basic use - showing you where you are on an OS map on a screen - and in terms of value, I think it's great. Thought on-screen route planning was very clunky and non-intuitive though. Maybe that's because sub-consciously I'm comparing it to ViewRanger on a Nokia touchscreen phone which is a much more developed bit of software and easier to use.
It's early days though and RoadTour has stressed that it's committed to developing the app.
> but if you want OS map data in a format compatible with, say, Memory Map or Anquet, in their proprietory format, then you'll still have to pay.
Sounds like that would be the death nell of MM and Anquet; if mapping can legally be downloaded for 'online mapping websites', there will be nothing to stop people hoovering all the data and using a little, standalone mapping app to view it. I know of a number of such apps already.
My understanding of the 'proprietary formats' is that they are present purely to maintain their OS licence terms, which prevent the data being transferrable to other applications or other users. In other words, they'd be mad not to allow their tools to usd the open, unlicensed mapping.
I note that a number of mapping suppliers are offering discounts at the moment, and I suspect they're trying to sell as much licensed mapping before it becomes freely available...
Don't forget that Streetmap.co.uk offers free OS mapping at 1:25,000 and 1:50,000. I use it all the time on my laptop. A similar service is available as a iPhone app. It's called iOSmaps. It lets you view OS maps over the internet but they can't be downloaded, so it's not much use for navigating on the hill. But why would you want to use an iPhone as a hiking navigation aid anyway? That's what Garmins are for and the Oregon / Dakota models are both OS compatible.
> But why would you want to use an iPhone as a hiking navigation aid anyway?
Because you've already got one? Because an iPhone app has a better UI? Because it's a phone, a camera, a media player, a GPS unit, a ... ? 'Why take two bottles into the shower...?'
Don't get me wrong I love my iPhone and it can it can do so much very well. But it's not designed for outdoor use especially in Britain. If it gets wet or gets dropped from height onto rocks then your stuffed, unless you got phone insurance and some of these don't cover water damage. The battery's not great either and I always like to keep my phone off when I'm in the hills to save some juice for an emergency call if required.
Because the reproduction of mapping on the Garmin units isn't particularly good compared to an iPhone, though I share your misgivings about carrying one on the hill.
For minimal use, there's a free app called GridPoint GB, which simply gives you your OS grid reference. Ideal for emergency use. iOSMaps is great in theory, but at the moment it's limited to 40,000 tiles per day and right now, it's already over allowance at just after one o'clock in the afternoon. On a week day. Plus you need a data connection.
RouteBuddy Atlas already allows you to cache Open Streetmap tiles and I suspect the same will happen with OS mapping eventually, legally or otherwise.
