5 ms·

One thing where OSM really shines is the ability to downloaded maps for offline use. When i was travelling in South East Asia for two months i had an iPhone wit

by huskyr 13y ago

One thing where OSM really shines is the ability to downloaded maps for offline use. When i was travelling in South East Asia for two months i had an iPhone with an app that allowed me to download a part of any OSM map. Because every hotel had Wi-Fi access i just downloaded the parts where i was travelling and used that instead of finding a local SIM card. Even in pretty remote parts the maps were usually good, and in some cases they were even better than the Google Maps equivalent (e.g. Laos).

nolok 13y ago
FYI on android's Google Maps I've been able to do that for at least a year and a half, and it works great for me (I used it extensively in SEA too, coincidentally). Not sure if it's available on iOS's version.
- 4ad 13y ago
  It's incomparable. Google Maps only caches around 10km x 10km, and in offline mode search and routing doesn't work. Also, in Google Maps it's impossible to tell if/what is cached and what not. OSM maps can be for any area, and applications do provide search, including POI search and routing.
  - XorNot 13y ago
    I like to keep a complete world map on my phone, since the only time I'm ever going to need it, is very likely to be the most important time (i.e. possibly life or death).
    - rmc 13y ago
      "Complete"? How complete? The OSM dump is about 33GB compressed...
      - nswanberg 13y ago
        It's over 400GB uncompressed, so currently this person would have to settle for a subset on a 128GB MicroSD like http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IIJ6W4S/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IIJ6W4S/. I think there are larger SD cards. And certainly there are small 1TB hard disks. I'm not sure what sort of device would be best for carrying around the world viewing these things, but probably what this person wants is possible, if expensive and inconvenient.
        maxerickson 13y ago
        The uncompressed xml is not the right point of reference. The planet extracts in the pbf binary format are about 20 gigabytes. Looking at the OsmAnd map files, data for most of the world, in device ready format, would be several dozen gigabytes (even high density areas like California only end up being a few hundred megabytes).
        nswanberg 13y ago
        Good point. My estimate was a naive upper bound, ignoring things like efficient storage and assuming all data is included, and was focusing on how much storage is available on portable devices (that sometimes stretch the bounds of portable). Then the question is what does one do with all the extra space in this portable world device? Wikipedia information? Languages? Fun times.
        rmc 13y ago
        Don't forget indexes. That 33GB is without any indexes and in a basically random order.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        Tablets with 512GB of flash in the next 2-3 years is definitely possible; I could see a small niche market for a "world atlas" Android/iOS app that stored OSM data and indexes compressed, and read portions the compressed files into memory for the relevant map data.
  - danieldk 13y ago
    Plus you can download in mapsource/gmap format, which means it works on Garmin GPSes. Very handy for cycling/hiking!
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    "including POI search" (if the data is present in OSM) I guess some map providers might be pulling in other data sources, but in a lot of areas, OSM data doesn't have many POIs to find. (the minimal effort way to improve this is to drop an anonymous note on the map, using the not very prominent button at the bottom of the right panel: https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/ )
  - greggman 13y ago
    Does OSM have bike paths? Does it have bus routes, train schedules? Can it tell you the route to take to get from point A to point B on public transit? Does it know about current closures? Does it search based on info other than address? I ask because I've been using Google Maps to travel and those features have been invaluable. An offline map is usually missing those features. The schedules are not up to date and searching by context requires data not usually part of map data.
    - maxerickson 13y ago
      There is support for capturing bus routes and a reasonable scheme for bike paths (and bike access, lanes and such). But the data is not necessarily complete. In some areas it will probably beat Google, in other areas not.
    - 4ad 13y ago
      > Does OSM have bike paths? Actually, where I live it's OSM which has excellent bike paths and Google Maps which hasn't (posted an example above). And yes, of course it has bus routes and can route using car mode, walking, bike, public transit. Using applications like Osmand you can do much more complex queries than Google Maps, optimize by time, by length, prefer means of transportation X, etc. Of course every offline app potentially has the stale data problem, but for me, it's actually OSM with the better data. YMMV.
    - chaz 13y ago
      Agreed. I live in NYC, and every corner has been completely mapped, and it's a level playing field for almost every mapping tool that's out there. Google isn't competing on completeness of maps, but rather on transportation data. Subway schedules, route changes/delays, traffic, and construction data all matter a lot more to me than actual geolocation. And in NYC, streetview is enormously helpful. In many parts of the world, basic mapping data is incomplete, and one tool will have fresher data than the other for cherry picked examles. In another 10 years, we can imagine that mapping will all be relatively similar, and integration is what we'll compare against.
      - bronbron 13y ago
- est 13y ago
  Try cache satellite or terrain maps. That's why I love open source or hackable products. You don't need to whining to a shitty support forum to grind a kpi driven product manager to make empty promises.
- FigBug 13y ago
  It can do it on the iPhone as well if you search for 'ok maps' It's bizarre that it's hidden feature.
- kalleboo 13y ago
  Whenever I've tried that feature in the past year or so, it says that "this area can't be cached" (presumably due to licensing restrictions).
- krzyk 13y ago
  Google disabled this feature in the "new" Maps application, releases few months ago.
k_bx 13y ago
On android, MapsWithMe Pro is very nice. Use it a lot.
- mithras 13y ago
  I use this but I feel there is a lot of room left for improvement, does anyone have a better android OSM client?
  - aw3c2 13y ago
    Oruxmaps or Osmand.
  - css771 13y ago
    What exactly do you feel it's lacking?
    - mithras 13y ago
      Showing a route from one point to another, searching for POI is clunky. Adding markers doesn't work.
  - rakoo 13y ago
    City Maps 2 Go, albeit non-Libre [0] [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.android.citymaps2go&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.andr...
claudius 13y ago
Calling that a ‘feature’ seems somewhat strange to me – the native maps applications on both my E63 and N9 allow me to download whole countries (or parts of them) onto my phone.
- rmc 13y ago
  It's a feature that's hard to get with Google Maps.
  - bloodorange 13y ago
    It's hard for google to know where you've been (or where you are) if you use their maps only in offline mode. Them being an ad company, it is unlikely this feature will ever be fully available.
georgemcbay 13y ago
I find this applies even semi-locally. I take a lot of trips out east into the Anza Borrego desert near San Diego and my phone coverage out there is spotty at best, and often non-existent. Google Maps' offline caching is a pretty terrible bolted on feature that they obviously don't care much about; Having OSM maps (I use the OsmAnd client) available out there is insanely convenient. Due to the offline deficiencies, the terrible user experience regression from Maps 6.x->7.x, etc, I find myself using Google Maps less and less to the point where I'm not even sure my next phone will be Android based (until recently Google Maps/Nav was the killer app for Android for me, now I barely enjoy using that app at all).
unholiness 13y ago
Google maps also lets you download specific regions for offline use, though the way to do it is impossible to guess: type "okay maps" while zoomed to the desired region to download. (http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/10/save-maps-offline-new-google-maps/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/10/save-maps-offline-new-googl...) This is good enough to use as a paper map (a zoomable paper map, with GPS and starred locations). HOWEVER, there are some huge shortcomings: No offline search, no offline navigation, and in certain regions, it's not available. I'm not sure exactly what countries are off-limits, but since I'm also backpacking through SE asia, I can tell you now that all of Singapore and Vietnam are downloadable, but at least some parts of Thailand and Indonesia are blocked. While this feature is incredibly useful, it's limitations are making the switch to OSM tempting.

by huskyr 13y ago

nolok 13y ago

FYI on android's Google Maps I've been able to do that for at least a year and a half, and it works great for me (I used it extensively in SEA too, coincidentally). Not sure if it's available on iOS's version.

4ad 13y ago
It's incomparable. Google Maps only caches around 10km x 10km, and in offline mode search and routing doesn't work. Also, in Google Maps it's impossible to tell if/what is cached and what not. OSM maps can be for any area, and applications do provide search, including POI search and routing.
- XorNot 13y ago
  I like to keep a complete world map on my phone, since the only time I'm ever going to need it, is very likely to be the most important time (i.e. possibly life or death).
  - rmc 13y ago
    "Complete"? How complete? The OSM dump is about 33GB compressed...
    - nswanberg 13y ago
      It's over 400GB uncompressed, so currently this person would have to settle for a subset on a 128GB MicroSD like http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IIJ6W4S/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IIJ6W4S/. I think there are larger SD cards. And certainly there are small 1TB hard disks. I'm not sure what sort of device would be best for carrying around the world viewing these things, but probably what this person wants is possible, if expensive and inconvenient.
      - maxerickson 13y ago
        The uncompressed xml is not the right point of reference. The planet extracts in the pbf binary format are about 20 gigabytes. Looking at the OsmAnd map files, data for most of the world, in device ready format, would be several dozen gigabytes (even high density areas like California only end up being a few hundred megabytes).
        nswanberg 13y ago
        Good point. My estimate was a naive upper bound, ignoring things like efficient storage and assuming all data is included, and was focusing on how much storage is available on portable devices (that sometimes stretch the bounds of portable). Then the question is what does one do with all the extra space in this portable world device? Wikipedia information? Languages? Fun times.
        rmc 13y ago
        Don't forget indexes. That 33GB is without any indexes and in a basically random order.
      - toomuchtodo 13y ago
        Tablets with 512GB of flash in the next 2-3 years is definitely possible; I could see a small niche market for a "world atlas" Android/iOS app that stored OSM data and indexes compressed, and read portions the compressed files into memory for the relevant map data.
- danieldk 13y ago
  Plus you can download in mapsource/gmap format, which means it works on Garmin GPSes. Very handy for cycling/hiking!
- maxerickson 13y ago
  "including POI search" (if the data is present in OSM) I guess some map providers might be pulling in other data sources, but in a lot of areas, OSM data doesn't have many POIs to find. (the minimal effort way to improve this is to drop an anonymous note on the map, using the not very prominent button at the bottom of the right panel: https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/ )
- greggman 13y ago
  Does OSM have bike paths? Does it have bus routes, train schedules? Can it tell you the route to take to get from point A to point B on public transit? Does it know about current closures? Does it search based on info other than address? I ask because I've been using Google Maps to travel and those features have been invaluable. An offline map is usually missing those features. The schedules are not up to date and searching by context requires data not usually part of map data.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    There is support for capturing bus routes and a reasonable scheme for bike paths (and bike access, lanes and such). But the data is not necessarily complete. In some areas it will probably beat Google, in other areas not.
  - 4ad 13y ago
    > Does OSM have bike paths? Actually, where I live it's OSM which has excellent bike paths and Google Maps which hasn't (posted an example above). And yes, of course it has bus routes and can route using car mode, walking, bike, public transit. Using applications like Osmand you can do much more complex queries than Google Maps, optimize by time, by length, prefer means of transportation X, etc. Of course every offline app potentially has the stale data problem, but for me, it's actually OSM with the better data. YMMV.
  - chaz 13y ago
    Agreed. I live in NYC, and every corner has been completely mapped, and it's a level playing field for almost every mapping tool that's out there. Google isn't competing on completeness of maps, but rather on transportation data. Subway schedules, route changes/delays, traffic, and construction data all matter a lot more to me than actual geolocation. And in NYC, streetview is enormously helpful. In many parts of the world, basic mapping data is incomplete, and one tool will have fresher data than the other for cherry picked examles. In another 10 years, we can imagine that mapping will all be relatively similar, and integration is what we'll compare against.
    - bronbron 13y ago
est 13y ago
Try cache satellite or terrain maps. That's why I love open source or hackable products. You don't need to whining to a shitty support forum to grind a kpi driven product manager to make empty promises.
FigBug 13y ago
It can do it on the iPhone as well if you search for 'ok maps' It's bizarre that it's hidden feature.
kalleboo 13y ago
Whenever I've tried that feature in the past year or so, it says that "this area can't be cached" (presumably due to licensing restrictions).
krzyk 13y ago
Google disabled this feature in the "new" Maps application, releases few months ago.

k_bx 13y ago

On android, MapsWithMe Pro is very nice. Use it a lot.

mithras 13y ago
I use this but I feel there is a lot of room left for improvement, does anyone have a better android OSM client?
- aw3c2 13y ago
  Oruxmaps or Osmand.
- css771 13y ago
  What exactly do you feel it's lacking?
  - mithras 13y ago
    Showing a route from one point to another, searching for POI is clunky. Adding markers doesn't work.
- rakoo 13y ago
  City Maps 2 Go, albeit non-Libre [0] [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.android.citymaps2go&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.andr...

claudius 13y ago

Calling that a ‘feature’ seems somewhat strange to me – the native maps applications on both my E63 and N9 allow me to download whole countries (or parts of them) onto my phone.

rmc 13y ago
It's a feature that's hard to get with Google Maps.
- bloodorange 13y ago
  It's hard for google to know where you've been (or where you are) if you use their maps only in offline mode. Them being an ad company, it is unlikely this feature will ever be fully available.

georgemcbay 13y ago

I find this applies even semi-locally. I take a lot of trips out east into the Anza Borrego desert near San Diego and my phone coverage out there is spotty at best, and often non-existent. Google Maps' offline caching is a pretty terrible bolted on feature that they obviously don't care much about; Having OSM maps (I use the OsmAnd client) available out there is insanely convenient. Due to the offline deficiencies, the terrible user experience regression from Maps 6.x->7.x, etc, I find myself using Google Maps less and less to the point where I'm not even sure my next phone will be Android based (until recently Google Maps/Nav was the killer app for Android for me, now I barely enjoy using that app at all).

unholiness 13y ago

Google maps also lets you download specific regions for offline use, though the way to do it is impossible to guess: type "okay maps" while zoomed to the desired region to download. (http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/10/save-maps-offline-new-google-maps/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/10/save-maps-offline-new-googl...) This is good enough to use as a paper map (a zoomable paper map, with GPS and starred locations). HOWEVER, there are some huge shortcomings: No offline search, no offline navigation, and in certain regions, it's not available. I'm not sure exactly what countries are off-limits, but since I'm also backpacking through SE asia, I can tell you now that all of Singapore and Vietnam are downloadable, but at least some parts of Thailand and Indonesia are blocked. While this feature is incredibly useful, it's limitations are making the switch to OSM tempting.