6 ms·

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, coincidental

by 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.
        maxerickson 13y ago
        The OsmAnd people translate most of the world and I just checked, all their maps would fit into ~25 gigabytes. That's device ready, indexed data with quite a lot of overlap (they provide smaller extracts to help people save cell data and larger extracts for people that want them). That even includes a bunch of POI data from wikipedia. On the other hand, as a for instance, that total includes more data for Germany than for Africa.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        Wikipedia (text articles alone) is about 10GB compressed. I'm in awe that I can carry around most of the world's mapping data and a lot of its knowledge on an SD card or my phone.
        maxerickson 13y ago
        The Hitchhikers Guide to the Planet.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        That's the plan.
- 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.

by nolok 13y ago

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.
      - maxerickson 13y ago
        The OsmAnd people translate most of the world and I just checked, all their maps would fit into ~25 gigabytes. That's device ready, indexed data with quite a lot of overlap (they provide smaller extracts to help people save cell data and larger extracts for people that want them). That even includes a bunch of POI data from wikipedia. On the other hand, as a for instance, that total includes more data for Germany than for Africa.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        Wikipedia (text articles alone) is about 10GB compressed. I'm in awe that I can carry around most of the world's mapping data and a lot of its knowledge on an SD card or my phone.
        maxerickson 13y ago
        The Hitchhikers Guide to the Planet.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        That's the plan.
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.