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RouteBuddy - UK National Park Maps for iPhone now available
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Darren
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:01 pm    Post subject: RouteBuddy - UK National Park Maps for iPhone now available Reply with quote

pocketgpsworld.comFollowing on from the launch of 1:50k mapping RouteBuddy and Ordnance Survey have now announced the availability of UK National Park maps at 1:25,000 scale.

The maps cover all fifteen national parks and work in conjunction with RouteBuddy's free iPhone app RouteBuddy Atlas or RouteBuddy's desktop application.

Retailing from £19.99 these maps offer a significant saving on similar national park maps available on other platforms. For more information visit RouteBuddy's Map Store here.

Click the RouteBuddy icon above or click here to read more and view sample images of the maps and app.
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NickG
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looked interesting at first, but RouteBuddy seems to have pretty awful reviews in the AppStore, averaging just 2 out of 5 for the latest version. I think I'll give it a miss..
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Darren
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NickG wrote:
Looked interesting at first, but RouteBuddy seems to have pretty awful reviews in the AppStore, averaging just 2 out of 5 for the latest version. I think I'll give it a miss..

I think you need to take the Appstore reviews with a large pinch of salt. I've got it and it works very well. So much so that I even bought my own map!

You can download the free app and evaluate it with the trial map supplied. Then you would be in a better position to comment?

Many of the Appstore review comments are farcical and show a clear lack of understanding. Comparing the price with paper maps for example!
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NickG
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK I'll give it a try... I hadn't realised it was free.
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NickG
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm still a bit confused though. You seem to need to pay for maps, which are free in other applications like OffMaps and OSMaps? I'm not trying it if I have to pay for maps.

It also seems ridiculously basic... reviews seem to claim that although it's called RouteBuddy, is has no routing, or even basic waypoints, and no visible tracks (they don't appear on the map but are only logged to a file). So it seems it's just a map with a dot on it? If that's the case, I'll stick with the apps where you can do this all for free and also get far more functionality.

I can't see a great deal of point in installing a map application that doesn't support waypoints. Even a 15 year old Garmin has this.
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Darren
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NickG wrote:
I'm still a bit confused though. You seem to need to pay for maps, which are free in other applications like OffMaps and OSMaps? I'm not trying it if I have to pay for maps.

OSMaps doesn't offer off-line maps and I have no idea what licence they have. These are on-board maps. OS charge a hefty fee and you ought to compare with map pack prices from Satmap and Garmin as a fair comparison. You can use and access OpenStreetMap maps on this free of charge to evaluate it.
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It also seems ridiculously basic... reviews seem to claim that although it's called RouteBuddy, is has no routing, or even basic waypoints, and no visible tracks (they don't appear on the map but are only logged to a file). So it seems it's just a map with a dot on it? If that's the case, I'll stick with the apps where you can do this all for free and also get far more functionality.

Such as? I'm not aware of any app that offers off-board OS mapping for free.
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I can't see a great deal of point in installing a map application that doesn't support waypoints. Even a 15 year old Garmin has this.

Why not give it a go before drawing a conclusion? Sorry but it seems rather short sighted to make so many assumptions and decide to berate an app you haven't tried!

I'm not suggesting that this is a replacement for a dedicated GPS but it is an alternative. I do find it odd though that you are happy to decide its rubbish without ever having tried it. It's also a first release, perhaps some suggestions to RouteBuddy may get these features added in an update?
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NickG
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK you win - I'll try it! Smile

"I do find it odd though that you are happy to decide its rubbish without ever having tried it."

There's nothing odd about that at all; The entire point of the reviews is that you can decide if something is rubbish without having to buy, try or install it! That's *exactly* why they're there - to prevent people wasting time and/or money evaluating dozens of products, when several hundred other people have already just done it.

Imagine if you had to install every app on the AppStore to find out which ones were worth using. Using reviews to decide what to pollute your computer or iPhone with is vital. Apple have done work recently to ensure reviews are current and show comments only relating to the current version of any app. I think it's fair of me (and probably quite common) to dismiss an app that gets very poor reviews. Don't forget this is not ONE particular biassed review I'm reading - it's the *average* score of over 140 users who collectively, have given it that low score.

You mention Satmap - that's exactly what I was looking for, but no app seems to provide what I reguard as the minimum feature set:
1. Offline maps
2. Waypoints and waypoint navigation

Lots of apps provide ONE of those features, but very bizarrely, no app seems to provide both.

The satmap is also something I was about to buy, but was again put off by poor reviews on web. Unfortunately there's no way to try one of those and they're very expensive to buy.

In other news.. iOSMaps's API key seems to have been blocked today! I can no longer get it to work, but it was working fine yesterday.
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mikealder
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you want the device to be usable in a National Park then you will need maps stored on the device, quite a few National Parks have large areas that are devoid of phone coverage which means no maps unless you carry them on the device.

Route Buddy is very good even if its a little basic, but compare the prices with any of the other applications that can use OS maps stored on the device and you will see why its plain and simply good value for money - Mike
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NickG
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mikealder wrote:
compare the prices with any of the other applications that can use OS maps stored on the device and you will see why its plain and simply good value for money - Mike


OK, I will try it I promise Smile
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mikealder
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have to say when I want to go out walking I would never consider taking anything other than my active10 from SatMap its a true quality device that is geared for the outdoors and is far more rugged than the iPhone - I would only really use the Route Buddy for OS maps if the active10 packed up while out.

I think you need to be a little more careful which reviews you pay attention to rather than base a purchase decision on what you read that is often written by someone who is flying a desk rather than a true walker who knows what to expect from such hardware - Mike
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Darren
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NickG wrote:
OK you win - I'll try it! Smile

Smile
Quote:
There's nothing odd about that at all; The entire point of the reviews is that you can decide if something is rubbish without having to buy, try or install it! That's *exactly* why they're there - to prevent people wasting time and/or money evaluating dozens of products, when several hundred other people have already just done it.

Whilst that may be true of 59p games, clearly the average user does not understand the app as many of the comments are laughable. The same is already proving true of the GPS Nav apps. The Appstore review process needs to be re-designed to prevent reviews from people who have no clue how the App works spoiling the ratings with comments that are incorrect.

In this situation though it is FREE so it's not onerous to load and test. if you don;t like it, delete from iTunes and that's it. No 'pollution' of you computer will result.

We have said we like it given what it is and purports to be at present, a map 'viewer'. I'd hope our opinion bore slightly more weight than an Appstore comment?

However RouteBuddy are working in adding features to it and waypoints, trails etc will I'm sure come to the app in due course.
Quote:
In other news.. iOSMaps's API key seems to have been blocked today! I can no longer get it to work, but it was working fine yesterday.

Hmm, maybe the licence didn't cover this use, I must say we were all surprised given the OS's sometime onerous terms that a free app offering online access such as this could have been given the green light by them.
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NickG
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Would you choose a Satmap over say, a Garmin 60csx? I'm getting so many conflicting reports that's hard to know what to go for. All I know is that the iPhone's poor GPS and lack of "Garmin" type apps means means a proper GPS is still required for hobbies like hiking and geocaching.
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Darren
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NickG wrote:
Would you choose a Satmap over say, a Garmin 60csx?

Yes, in a heartbeat Very Happy
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mdalgleish
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 9:42 am    Post subject: Garmin vs SatMap Reply with quote

If you walk overseas, then the Garmin is a much better buy. SatMap only had maps for the UK when I last looked. I've used both and whilst Garmin has its faults, I'd chose it ahead of SatMap for overall use even in the UK. You can get free (user generated) maps for Garmin if you look around on the web. (e.g. Teneriffe is very well covered.) You can always buy a paper OS map if you like that format.
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NickG
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I looked into Satmaps last night and it seems that the OSMaps for the prohibitively expensive. Just to buy the new forest alone would be £100 and then you'd also need to buy 1:50K resolution maps for the general area in case you want to use it outside the New Forest. I don't see why it's so incredibly expensive when the cost of paper maps, which contain the same data and have a higher distribution cost, is reasonable. It's around 10 times more expensive than buying the paper maps for the same area. You'd need to spend well over £500 to get a Satmap with a couple of local walking maps on it, and there seems to be no fallback ability to upload custom maps (eg OpenStreetMap) like you can with a Garmin?

Unfortunately though, it seems to be the only device in the world which actually does what I want. Does anybody have any figures for "real world" battery life for this device?

OS's pricing and availability is the second evilness the map-data world after Royal Mail postcodes. They want us to use postcodes, to make their life easier, but then charge a fortune to license the data! Sad
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