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> However, their server still needs to know where users are temporarily in order to send a map of the local area. Serve the maps in very coarse blocks that are

> However, their server still needs to know where users are temporarily in order to send a map of the local area. Serve the maps in very coarse blocks that are downloaded ahead of time (and updates are served as binary diffs) so the smallest region the backend can pinpoint is the current city. Over a decade ago stand-alone GPS units with single-core, sub-gigahertz CPUs, RAM measured in dozens of megabytes and shitty slow SD cards managed to hold maps for the entire country, so there's no reason devices orders of magnitude faster on all fronts can't do the same. In fact, in the iPhone 3G era I remember buying a GPS app that embedded all of Europe's maps locally and it worked well (in fact, local search is actually faster than online search).

Wowfunhappy 4y ago
But GPS didn't provide real-time traffic estimates, public transit arrivals, and similar information which can't be calculated ahead of time. And while something like satellite view and/or street view could be pre-downloaded, that would be a ton of data. Predownloading also wouldn't work for webapp users. I suppose you could make the blocks a lot coarser though.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Surely most (all?) of the real-time data such as transit times or roadworks is quite minimal and can similarly be downloaded for the entire city?
ISO-morphism 4y ago
Doesn't this already (somewhat) exist in open street maps? I feel like the answer here has to be open map data that anyone can download so there isn't a company to track the location in the first place.
- landemva 4y ago
  A curious person could put Organic Maps on their phone, download city/region maps at home, then try to navigate somewhere using airplane mode with GPS on. I disabled the pre-installed Google Maps app on my phone. Expecting Google to do things contrary to their business interest of collecting and selling data would be naive.
deleted 4y ago
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Wowfunhappy 4y ago

But GPS didn't provide real-time traffic estimates, public transit arrivals, and similar information which can't be calculated ahead of time. And while something like satellite view and/or street view could be pre-downloaded, that would be a ton of data. Predownloading also wouldn't work for webapp users. I suppose you could make the blocks a lot coarser though.

Nextgrid 4y ago
Surely most (all?) of the real-time data such as transit times or roadworks is quite minimal and can similarly be downloaded for the entire city?

ISO-morphism 4y ago

Doesn't this already (somewhat) exist in open street maps? I feel like the answer here has to be open map data that anyone can download so there isn't a company to track the location in the first place.

landemva 4y ago
A curious person could put Organic Maps on their phone, download city/region maps at home, then try to navigate somewhere using airplane mode with GPS on. I disabled the pre-installed Google Maps app on my phone. Expecting Google to do things contrary to their business interest of collecting and selling data would be naive.

deleted 4y ago

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