I have tried many of them (the most popular ones at least), and I found HERE to be way better -- not because of the map data itself, but the look and feel of the app and also the quality of navigation is better than the rest (imho).
I tend to use it instead of Google Maps as well.
Re. Windows Phone: I think that if a cross-platform service gains foothold (on Android) then it's good for WP. If GMaps is the de facto mapping solution (as it is more or less), then GMaps not being present on WP is a deterring factor.
True, OsmAnd is not very user friendly, but I've used it for over a year now and I can't go back to anything else. Its user interface problem is just that it's so packed with features... but once I get used to them I don't want back.
In this case Google Maps has been steadily getting worse, so no worries. It feels like every month they remove features and make things take more clicks or require mystery meat navigation. It took me 15 minutes the other day to figure out how to get the list of directions back in navigation mode. You have to tap some unlabeled header. I'm sure that feature is headed for the cutting room floor eventually too even though personally I have no use for step by step navigation and just need to see the list of turns and I'm fine.
> In this case Google Maps has been steadily getting worse, so no worries.
Whether the UI changes are worse is a subjective claim, but the data Google has has not gotten worse. I've found all the alternative mapping solutions (Here, Bing, OpenStreet, and Apple maps) to be inferior when it comes to data quality which is the more important factor, unless you think getting directed through non-existing streets is a small concern. I'm not a Google fan, I've given up a lot of Google, but I can't quit maps or google search, although I use ddg quite a bit. Google has the most reliable map data, there is no competition and no good alternative.
About two weeks ago I was unable to switch to Street View in the android app. It simply wasn't accessible through dropping the pin, as it was in the past.
When Google's flagship app on their own platform forces me to find computer and use the web version, something is seriously wrong.
> About two weeks ago I was unable to switch to Street View in the android app. It simply wasn't accessible through dropping the pin, as it was in the past.
The first thing you should have seen after updating and adding an address is a message telling you to pull up to get more detail. It took me 2 seconds to figure out how to get street view in the new UI. So as I said subjective.
Depends where you live and what your use cases are. In many countries OpenStreetMap has road data of equivalent or better quality, and path/trail data of vastly superior quality to Google.
Unfortunately the US is not yet (consistently) one of those countries. But "there is no competition and no good alternative" is an over-generalisation.
At some point in the last few years, for a small town I'm familiar with, the alignment between Google maps and aerial imagery got worse, I assume because they switched data providers (or switched what data they are showing or whatever).
It doesn't matter how excellent the data is if the UI and access to that data are undermined to the point where I am now open to an alternatives (even if the map data is not quite as good).
It'll just take one half-decent app or company to take me away. Maybe HERE is the one. I will try it.
OpenStreetMap has such a level of detail (at least in Europe) that I can completely relay on it for my trips.
I went on a drive from Italy to Holland a month ago using MapFactor Navigatior with OpenStreetMap maps, and I was really surprised how good it worked. It even had POIs for the toilets on the highway! Amsterdam was mapped really well as well, with house numbers and everything.
And it was completely offline (even the routing algorithm) and free.
Depends on the place. In some places, the OSM is better than most commercial providers (e.g. Balkan in Europe), in others it is good enough. In Thailand, I got around by using OSM maps; I didn't have neither commercial maps nor connectivity, co I couldn't compare it to other maps.
It's just a pity the apps aren't quite there on Android. I find MapFactor Navigator to be clunky and outright confusing, Telenav Scout is only available in the US, Skobbler seems to have been withdrawn (at least, it's not accessible in the UK Play Store), and OSMAnd is great for what it is, but has no traffic information, and is a bit guileless in selecting a route - certainly enough so it's not sensible to trust it for long journeys.
From my experience OsmAnd routes equally well or better than other applications. I've only once caught it giving me suboptimal directions, our old TomTom has a much longer history of weird moves. Google Maps seems to do as well as OsmAnd, though I hardly ever use it.
Yes, I was hoping to use that app- I can see that in the US webstore, but nothing comes up searching for it on my UK phone.
Maybe they're half-way in transitioning from Skobbler to Scout, and they've removed the former without adding the latter. But I'm pretty certain it's been like this for weeks if not months, because I've looked unsuccessfully before.
I'm from Romania, so it isn't just in the US. Maybe the app has problems in the UK that need to be fixed, as your zip codes are nonnumerical and you're driving on the wrong side of the road :-)
They had an update in September, so it's alive. You could contact them at support@skobbler.com … BTW, I care about them because the company may have been German but the developers were Romanians :)
Strange this is an APK download, requiring users to reduce their security settings and download+install manually. A better way since mid-2013 is to make use of Android's alpha/beta/staged rollout setup. Ratings of beta users don't count towards the official rating if that's what they're worried about.
People don't know how opt in to beta.(I still don't after reading that page). Also requiring Google Play excludes open source android users, users on devices without Google $$$ licenses, and users who decline to link their device to a Google account.
That page is for developers, not users. Opting into beta for an app is pretty straightforward - users just need to join a beta community/group and click on a link to opt in. (I run a beta community and users haven't had any practical problems to my knowledge.)
Your points about open source Android etc are valid, though note that the beta channel will auto-update on each update (if user has auto-update app settings), whereas sideloaders will have to manually update it all the time. If you're releasing fast and frequent, it's unlikely testers will want to go through the manual install process on each release.
Anyway it's not mutually exclusive; you can distribute an APK as well as use the official alpha/beta rollouts. Having heard demand for Kindle usage, we sometimes post APKs in our beta community as an attachment to posts announcing a new build. So sideloaders can directly install the APK while Play users get an alert about what's incoming to their device.
I don't get how enabling side-loading is "reducing" security. Regardless of whether an APK comes from the play store or not the system still presents you with the permissions dialog and the apps still run sandboxed.
Permitting the installation of apps from untrusted sources is a big security risk, because it facilitates drive-by install attacks. Once you've ticked that box, Android doesn't subsequently warn you that you're installing an app from an untrusted source. Malware is disguised as a system app and installation is deferred until something else updates, so even savvy users can be tricked into allowing the installation of malware.
I've used HERE on FirefoxOS and was impressed for a HTML5 application working relatively well on an under powered smartish phone.
Majority of the work the HERE guys do is behind the scenes magic for car manufactures, they are just attempting to crack the consumer market.
I met a couple of the HERE guys in Berlin, they seem quite humble and want to play a bigger part in the mapping community whilst keeping existing clients happy.
Also to note, OsmAnd is awesome and have just traveled eastern and western Europe extensively with it.
finally!... I bought a 60 euro, 4 inch android smartphone without a data plan on it, and I already tried to download a OSM export to just browse it on my computer, without any luck. I thought I could export tiles and browse them as a html file on my phone, but I did not manage to do it.
On google map on the nexus 7 I managed to select a portion of an area and download it, but I could do it again on my huawei Y330. I could not make it work offline.
Huh no you're thinking way too difficult, just download the OsmAnd app. I'm afraid it needs a few gigabytes of storage though, at least in Europe the map is very detailed.
They offer regions as default downloads, but it's all open source and open data, so if you want you can export a single city and use it in the app. It is quite a bit more work than just downloading regions (or small-ish countries like the Netherlands) though. See OsmAndMapCreator if you want to do this for the OsmAnd app.
There's a whole ecosystem of tools for dropping tiles on a device. This is a tool for creating them, but it has a handy list of devices where you can use them:
Interesting move. HERE Drive+ on Windows Phone is better than any Android alternative as a navigation system. It just works and has a seamless offline experience. It is (used to be?) one of the main reasons to own a Windows phone.
Nice! 4,970 MB to download the entire map of the USA for offline use, or you can just download individual states. Unlike Google maps, there's full offline routing and search as well.
The transit overlay for pedestrians looks great with realtime tables for the stops.
Here originally was the branding for the Nokia suite of Navigation Apps on Windows Phone. I've been using them on and off for probably three years now and have used the mapping app in the US and Europe and find it quite useful. Downloaded maps and offline navigation is a great feature when traveling internationally.
51 comments
[ 5.5 ms ] story [ 103 ms ] threadI tend to use it instead of Google Maps as well.
Re. Windows Phone: I think that if a cross-platform service gains foothold (on Android) then it's good for WP. If GMaps is the de facto mapping solution (as it is more or less), then GMaps not being present on WP is a deterring factor.
Whether the UI changes are worse is a subjective claim, but the data Google has has not gotten worse. I've found all the alternative mapping solutions (Here, Bing, OpenStreet, and Apple maps) to be inferior when it comes to data quality which is the more important factor, unless you think getting directed through non-existing streets is a small concern. I'm not a Google fan, I've given up a lot of Google, but I can't quit maps or google search, although I use ddg quite a bit. Google has the most reliable map data, there is no competition and no good alternative.
About two weeks ago I was unable to switch to Street View in the android app. It simply wasn't accessible through dropping the pin, as it was in the past.
When Google's flagship app on their own platform forces me to find computer and use the web version, something is seriously wrong.
The first thing you should have seen after updating and adding an address is a message telling you to pull up to get more detail. It took me 2 seconds to figure out how to get street view in the new UI. So as I said subjective.
Two weeks ago, it didn't. I even googled it, how I'm supposed to find it. The street view strip just wasn't there.
It's unpredictable. Nothing subjective, just seek-and-hide UI, which was always hallmark of bad UI.
Unfortunately the US is not yet (consistently) one of those countries. But "there is no competition and no good alternative" is an over-generalisation.
It'll just take one half-decent app or company to take me away. Maybe HERE is the one. I will try it.
"Aren't we all just killing time until Google does it?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navteq
And it was completely offline (even the routing algorithm) and free.
I personally love it - it's cheap, it's polished and it works.
Maybe they're half-way in transitioning from Skobbler to Scout, and they've removed the former without adding the latter. But I'm pretty certain it's been like this for weeks if not months, because I've looked unsuccessfully before.
They had an update in September, so it's alive. You could contact them at support@skobbler.com … BTW, I care about them because the company may have been German but the developers were Romanians :)
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...
Your points about open source Android etc are valid, though note that the beta channel will auto-update on each update (if user has auto-update app settings), whereas sideloaders will have to manually update it all the time. If you're releasing fast and frequent, it's unlikely testers will want to go through the manual install process on each release.
Anyway it's not mutually exclusive; you can distribute an APK as well as use the official alpha/beta rollouts. Having heard demand for Kindle usage, we sometimes post APKs in our beta community as an attachment to posts announcing a new build. So sideloaders can directly install the APK while Play users get an alert about what's incoming to their device.
I don't get how enabling side-loading is "reducing" security. Regardless of whether an APK comes from the play store or not the system still presents you with the permissions dialog and the apps still run sandboxed.
Majority of the work the HERE guys do is behind the scenes magic for car manufactures, they are just attempting to crack the consumer market.
I met a couple of the HERE guys in Berlin, they seem quite humble and want to play a bigger part in the mapping community whilst keeping existing clients happy.
Also to note, OsmAnd is awesome and have just traveled eastern and western Europe extensively with it.
If you care about privacy and offline maps, OsmAnd is the way to go. Open source software and offline maps.
On google map on the nexus 7 I managed to select a portion of an area and download it, but I could do it again on my huawei Y330. I could not make it work offline.
> export tiles and browse them as a html file
Huh no you're thinking way too difficult, just download the OsmAnd app. I'm afraid it needs a few gigabytes of storage though, at least in Europe the map is very detailed.
http://mobac.sourceforge.net/
There are also quite some Android apps that give you offline vector maps.
The transit overlay for pedestrians looks great with realtime tables for the stops.
I just wish it would find its way over to iOS.