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Organic Maps

organicmaps.app

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Re: Organic Maps

#421

Post by janc_ »

orbital-decay wrote: post #58
fuzzy2 wrote: post #7

Organic Maps is super awesome. The routing feature is really good, too. It even works on Apple CarPlay! There are some glitches to be aware of though: Routing across region borders is often broken. Also, a warning about OSM in general: Do not blindly trust it. Map data can be very out of date in some places, especially on remote-ish hiking trails.

Instead of trusting or not trusting any map by default, try understanding how they're made, then you'll have a good idea what could go wrong with it. OSM in particular doesn't use third party registries and surveys due to the licensing issues, relying on volunteer work instead, and has a participation-based culture (aka "if you want to have a map of something, make it yourself"). Armchair mappers are using satellite…

Depends on the country also; some have their own official mapping data available in the public domain...

Re: Organic Maps

#422

Post by janc_ »

gniv wrote: post #251
acec wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No not trust it google maps either. There is a crossroads that is wrong in Google near my house and it is right in OSM. In fact... I did fix it but I will not report about the error to Google ;-)

> I did fix it but I will not report about the error to Google Why not? That seems like a weird stance. Is your desire to hurt Google so strong that you are not willing to help potentially thousands of people?

I'm pretty sure you aren't even allowed to report an error to google without creating a privacy-invading account...

Re: Organic Maps

#423

Post by janc_ »

eh__dub wrote: post #381

Using OSM is not unique amongst mapping apps. Almost every company's mapping app is using OSM data in some way. The no ads bit is nice. I don't think I properly understand the "no tracking" claim. I don't want to be tracked by miscellaneous third parties, but designers and engineers should absolutely be instrumenting the app so they can understand user behavior via empirical means. I saw another comment mention they…

Whenever a company is tracking such data, there is no way for users to know if collected data is used or sold for other purposes, now or in the future, so the default should always be to collect no data at all.

If you want to run UI/UX tests/experiments on users, just ask them (and maybe offer incentives to participate?).

Re: Organic Maps

#424

Post by mcv »

scatters wrote: post #420
mcv wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it that there are more cars? Because I live in Amsterdam, and there's definitely more bikes than cars here, yet bicycle support still sucks. Although it's possible few cyclists use Google Maps because a) it's bad, b) they don't need to, and c) you need a special clip to use your smartphone live on your bike (though that's also true for cars).

Most modern cars have a center console with Android Auto, so you just plug in your phone to USB and it takes over navigation, communication and entertainment.

I guess my car isn't that modern. Our car nav is okayish, but the ui is crap and the maps are outdated.

Re: Organic Maps

#425

Post by dieortin »

palata wrote: post #103
Maxion wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I just old if I as a developer think that 10mbit/s is plenty enough? I could probably do with 1mbit/s and still be about as productive as I am now.

Unless your coworkers find it it absolutely normal to design a system that needs pulling half of the Internet for every build, because they do have a gigabit connection. Developers should use old hardware and slow connections, they would make much better apps.

As someone working in a company using old hardware and slow connections, hard disagree.

Re: Organic Maps

#426

Post by palata »

dieortin wrote: post #425
palata wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless your coworkers find it it absolutely normal to design a system that needs pulling half of the Internet for every build, because they do have a gigabit connection. Developers should use old hardware and slow connections, they would make much better apps.

As someone working in a company using old hardware and slow connections, hard disagree.

I would guess it's probably because the rest of the industry is happily wasting hardware and bandwidth because they can afford it.

If the whole industry had been stuck on hardware and bandwidth from 10 years ago, that most likely wouldn't be a problem.

Re: Organic Maps

#427

Post by jasonfarnon »

ex-googlemaps wrote: post #319
xigoi wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think Google is watching your location only when you're using Google Maps?

The widespread assumption that Google collects all data all the time and uses it for everything is ridiculous. There’s a labyrinth of explicit user agreements, all of which are strictly enforced, and then there are further layers of voluntary restrictions on top of that. Yes, Google might collect location data even when you’re not using Maps (there are a lot of passionate, dedicated Timeline users), but you have to h…

"Yes, Google might collect location data even when you’re not using Maps (there are a lot of passionate, dedicated Timeline users), but you have to have that enabled"

Of course that opt-in requirement was only the result of a hard-fought class action settlement.

Take this with a grain of salt as my recollection of the litigation is somewhat hazy. But I believe Google argued, even when a user opted out of location tracking, Google could still keep the data for its own uses. Ie opting out of location tracking simply meant the user didn't have access to their location history, it didn't show up on the phone (couldn't be searched by suspicious spouses) etc.

Re: Organic Maps

#428

Post by andrewshadura »

gniv wrote: post #298
NoboruWataya wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is. When you click on a place, there is an "edit place" option which allows you to edit common details including business hours.

Oh, I see it now -- sometimes it's there, but for a lot of places I cannot even lift the drawer, probably because there is no data other than category, like "Cafe". So I cannot edit.

It usually means that you have outdated data. Update the app, update the data, try again.

Re: Organic Maps

#429

Post by NGRhodes »

KnackeredHues wrote: post #369
ihatehn wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bike profile in OSM routers will prioritize bike paths, bike lanes, and small streets over big highways, but there's always a balance since you're unlikely to want to bike 10 miles out of your way to avoid a busy street. That balance is always in flux and can only ever be as good as the OSM data underlying it (road classification and bike tagging etc) If you bookmark streets that it's sending you down or avoiding…

The balance is problematic in every cycling directions app. Some may be a bit more comprehensive than others in certain areas but all of them prioritize shorter routes over flatter ones. I wish there were a true flattest route app/website that prioritized quieter roads and more gentle slopes by default using existing terrain data instead of making users manually add a bunch of waypoints using their own knowledge in o…

Magic Earth (proprietary app that uses OSM maps) allows you to choose the maximum hilliness you want your cycle route. I've never used cycle routing, so can't comment on how well it works.

Re: Organic Maps

#430

Post by codetrotter »

vintagedave wrote: post #55

This was the first time I’d heard of the app, but due to comments in this thread I downloaded it. * Website, ethos: straightforward. “Old internet” vibes, love it. They seem very active, have a presence on every platform, very impressive * The app seems very nice. Simple clear UI. Lots of features. I need to experiment for more than a few minutes but I get the impression it could replace Google Maps for me, especiall…

> the offline approach is very visible. I zoomed in to where I live and it starts downloading it.

Downloaded the app because of this part of your comment.

It’s awesome!

At the moment I am in Cancún in Mexico, and one thing that was sad about Google maps is that it shows Playa Tortugas in the wrong part of the map, so when I booked our hotel thinking we were next to that beach it turned out that it was not correct.

Meanwhile, this app with the OSM data shows the correct location for Playa Tortugas.

Of course, there is probably a lot of other places in the world where OSM has something similarly wrong.

But I found it encouraging to see that OSM data is better than Google Maps in this case.

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