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Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

telegra.ph

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Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#181

Post by reaperducer »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #144
Biganon wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use Was it? The only time I tried to use it to find my way with a car in a forest, it guided me towards a road that simply wasn't there. It was on the map, and in real life it was just trees. My friend, who was driving, wasn't too happy. I switched to Google Maps and it worked.

I'm guessing GP is European and you're American. There are significant issues with OSM data in the rural US.

Not just OSM. Google Maps is missing plenty of roads, and even entire towns in rural America.

Every National Park I've been to in the last three years has had a sign, a flyer, a notice, or a line in the brochure pleading with people not to rely on Google Maps and to use paper maps.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#182

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

improbable22 wrote: post #174
Ayesh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the hiking maps are simply not even on Google maps. Only in OSM

It depends a lot where you go. In places like Nepal OSM is often better than any map you can buy. In the Europe and especially the US, it's not as detailed as the national maps. They usually also have much better contours (drawn from aerial photos not from the space shuttle). But still much better than Google maps, which seems very much for cars (at least outside of cities).

Most of the aerial imagery used in Europe for improving OSM is shot from planes, not from space.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#183

Post by 0df8dkdf »

kolinko wrote: post #89
fab1an wrote: post #5

Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use, and ideal for hiking. Commendable initiative to bring it back in its original version! A few examples of why it was so great: Simple, non social bookmarks. As in: place a bookmark so you don't get lost while hiking, or when you find a nice spot you want to come back to later. Yep, a utility feature that doesn't somehow map to some stoopid busines…

Apple Maps has an option to bookmark any arbitrary point and create collections without creating an account or doing any sort of sharing.

the iphone is your account.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#184

Post by improbable22 »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #182
improbable22 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends a lot where you go. In places like Nepal OSM is often better than any map you can buy. In the Europe and especially the US, it's not as detailed as the national maps. They usually also have much better contours (drawn from aerial photos not from the space shuttle). But still much better than Google maps, which seems very much for cars (at least outside of cities).

Most of the aerial imagery used in Europe for improving OSM is shot from planes, not from space.

> Most of the aerial imagery used in Europe for improving OSM is shot from planes

Yes I know, and not just Europe. But my comment there was specifically about contours, i.e. height data from SRTM. I'm not aware of any project to crowd-source stereo-pair contour drawing, but if you know of one, I'd be interested to have a link.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#186

Post by zelphirkalt »

orbital-decay wrote: post #112
zelphirkalt wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OsmAndroid sucked so badly with its seemingly hours of loading time. Search queries never worked well unless you entered exactly the string, including case and sometime whitespace. It would sometimes not find anything, unless I entered a useless whitespace after my words. In comparison to maps.me it is really really bad user experience and not to be recommended on any old phone. Your old phone will just laaaag and yo…

It used to be the case, and I also avoided using OsmAnd in cities for years, but my recent attempt was far more successful. I think they finally fixed their search, at least I didn't encounter any issues with it lately. It's still definitely worse than most apps for hotels, stores, restaurants and so on, but is much less laggy anymore, and is indispensable for biking and pedestrian navigation as it shows every little…

Thanks for that updated picture. Next time I need an app like that, I will give it a second chance.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#187

Post by The_Colonel »

RivieraKid wrote: post #136
mgraupner wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-Czech but close to the border living German I can also recommend this app, my current favourite on iOS. Ahoj!

I've always wondered, why is there such a massive difference in popularity of this app in and outside of Czechia? Do you think it's mainly - lack of focus on non-Czech user experience (poor translations, map layer looking worse, ...), lack of marketing, something else?

1. Mapy.cz is not marketed outside of Czechoslovakia.

2. It has its own (high quality) map data only for Czechoslovakia, outside it uses "just" OSM, although you'll get arguably superior rendering there.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#188

Post by mvexel »

leokennis wrote: post #30
fab1an wrote: post #5

Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use, and ideal for hiking. Commendable initiative to bring it back in its original version! A few examples of why it was so great: Simple, non social bookmarks. As in: place a bookmark so you don't get lost while hiking, or when you find a nice spot you want to come back to later. Yep, a utility feature that doesn't somehow map to some stoopid busines…

For this use case, let me recommend http://gaiagps.com/ You do need a subscription for offline maps...but you get very good map layers for outdoor use (some based on OSM data, some based on "official" sources like USGS or Ordnance Survey), you can create routes and tracks, set waypoints etc.

Second Gaia for outdoor activities. Map layers you won't find anywhere else; some that I use frequently are cell coverage, snow depth, many different aerial layers options, public / private land. They incorporate many region / country specific topo and aerial layers too. Their website is also great for trip planning, and the data you create there syncs with the app. Well worth the $40 annual subscription for me.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#189

Post by mvexel »

matkoniecz wrote: post #148
rnhmjoj wrote: post #120

I don't have much simpathy for MapsWithMe: they were illegally using OpenStreetMap data by not providing attribution[2] to the project and never complied. I don't know if intentionally or not, but they didn't make life easy for the maintainer of the libre fork, which looks dead too. [1]: https://github.com/matkoniecz/illegal-use-of-OpenStreetMap/b... [2]: https://github.com/mapsme/omim/issues/11845

"they didn't make life easy for the maintainer of the libre fork" They were trying to use servers paid by maps.me in version of app that removed all revenue generators. This part was perfectly understandable, removing ads/tracking/etc is fine - but use your own servers then. But lack of a proper attribution was not acceptable (yes, I am the same matkoniecz).

The Windy / Mapy apps recommended elsewhere in this thread don't seem to be doing that great of a job on attribution either. A recent draft[0] of OSM attribution guidelines states "attribution after one interaction" as suitable for a mobile app, but these apps require two, and some scrolling.

[0] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Draft_Attribution_Guidel...

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