Features The ViewRanger software is a unique product that puts
real OS 1:50,000 maps on your mobile phone. ViewRanger is available
with either full national coverage or this version which covers all
the national parks of England, Wales and Scotland.
The areas covered in this release, all at 1:50,000, are: Ben
Nevis, Brecon Beacons, Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Lake District,
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, the New Forest, Norfolk Broads, North
York Moors, Northumberland, Peak District, Pembrokeshire Coast,
Snowdonia, the South Downs and the Yorkshire Dales.
There are two distinct ways of using the software once installed
on your phone, either as a standard GPS mapping package or with the
addition of an online database of information about points of
interest. The GPS and mapping side works pretty much the same as
those on a PDA, though without the PC based functions for
pre-planning. You select the maps you want and transfer them to the
phone’s memory card from the supplied CD. With a Bluetooth GPS
configured you can then see your exact location on the map. Maps can
be zoomed in and out, tracks and routes can be recorded and waypoints
set. The data can be saved and exported for use in other programs,
though some conversion may be required for use in certain commercial
applications.
One of the unique features of the software is the Panorama view
option that lets you see your virtual horizon with name tags. Simply
enter your grid reference, or use your GPS position, and you get a
full 360 degree horizon with every hill, lake, settlement or other
POI shown in its position. Each point is clearly profiled and
labelled, with interactive labels that can be selected for
information on that point. This information comes preloaded, but you
also get the option to upload your own data and photographs to share
with other users via the online database. The GPS and panorama
features are totally independent of phone signal, so can be used
anywhere, but access to the database requires a GPRS connection so
it's location dependent.
In Action We’ve been testing the new version of
ViewRanger in the Lake District and Peak District for a few weeks,
and we're quite impressed! Combined with a SiRF Star III GPS receiver
reception has been excellent. The maps are clear and perfectly
adequate for walking purposes. There are occasions when a 1:25,000
option would be nice, and times when the screen size is somewhat
limiting, but for the average user this seems an ideal all-in-one
solution. If you normally leave your GPS in your rucksack and only
pull it out to check your position occasionally then this really
could be a replacement.
In terms of value for money, at £24.99 for all the National
Parks, ViewRanger is considerably cheaper than the PDA based software
available with similar coverage. Installation was simple, and
activation straightforward. While there were some early GPS
compatibility issues the ViewRanger team are constantly updating the
installation and the latest version &endash; available from the
website at www.viewranger.com
- works with all the receivers we tested.
The major limiting factor is a lack of PC desktop software to
pre-plan your routes in the way you can with Memory Map, Anquet or
Tracklogs, but to be fair you pay a whole lot more for those
applications than for ViewRanger. All in all this is a great little
package and could save carrying multiple devices with you &endash;
and battery life on a phone is so much better than on a PDA.
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Compact, lightweight mapping solution.
Small screen size, no PC based software for
planning.
