4 ms·

Surely there is something? E.g. Google Maps was a breath of fresh air after MapPoint.

by DenisM 13y ago

exodust 13y ago
You know what Google Maps needs? Offline downloadable map functionality. They had that feature, then removed it, then put it back... now I honestly don't know where it's at. Browsing offline maps is a breath of fresh air, it's so much quicker. Obviously you wouldn't download the whole world, only your home city or whatever. But it's lightning fast to zoom and pan around an offline map compared with connecting over mobile bandwidth. Browsing maps in Airplane mode should be possible. It's a map after all, not a website.
- batbomb 13y ago
  It does, "ok maps"
  - viraptor 13y ago
    Not anymore. They became reasonable again and both the search and any selected location description has a "save for offline use" button at the bottom.
    - mjcohen 12y ago
      But you can't search the resulting map or get directions. I have an Android phone, and the last good Maps for it was version 6. I do two things: (1) use copilot GPS with the whole U.S. and Canada (takes 1.8 GB); (2) keep my old Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.2 which cannot be upgraded and has Maps 6.
- danpat 13y ago
  It's mostly a question of storage. Here's a great tool for getting a feel: http://tools.geofabrik.de/calc/#type=geofabrik_standard&bbox=-114.306298,50.814573,-113.789696,51.244067 http://tools.geofabrik.de/calc/#type=geofabrik_standard&bbox... Z=18 is rarely used, so for Z<=17 you're looking at roughly 300MB for raster tiles a city the size of Calgary. You also don't get routing information with purely raster data. You could try vector data which would be smaller, but then you have to display it, which can be computationally expensive if you want it to look pretty, and you'd lose the snappiness you're seeking.
  - nknighthb 13y ago
    You've just told us a good-sized city fits in about 1/200th of my phone's storage. I'll take a dozen. Actually, you could fit the entirety of the state of Washington in <50% of my phone's storage. I'm not seeing a problem.
    - coldtea 13y ago
      >Actually, you could fit the entirety of the state of Washington in <50% of my phone's storage. I'm not seeing a problem. Well, most people don't want to lose even 20% of their phone's storage in a single app, much less 50%. And that's just for those satisfied to only have info for one state. What about people regularly travelling between 1-2 states? That said, I question the OP storage math. At least with vector information, I know that something like Navigon's GPS/map app, can store the whole of US (including the smallest of towns and cities) in around 1GB.
      - danpat 13y ago
        The OpenStreetMap vector data for Calgary is about 6.2MB-20MB, depending on the format.
      - morganherlocker 13y ago
        Vector data has a much smaller footprint in most cases, but takes lots of processing to render, and even more if you need to be able to zoom around the map. Rendering the US down to z17 as raster tiles allows for efficient processing, but could easily get into 10s of GB (which makes sense, since it is creating thousands and thousands of png images). The size grows exponentially with each zoom level though, so if you only need something like z12, you might be able get it into the 10s of MB range.
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
      - nknighthb 12y ago
        I wasn't saying I would want the entirety of Washington on my phone. Quite the contrary. I was pointing out the sheer area that fits in that amount of storage. It's 71,362 square miles. If you're traveling regularly between two states, you'd want your origin city, destination city, and your route with maybe a couple miles on either side. Say a 250-mile route, and 200 square miles at either end. I bet it fits in <2GB.
- k1chy 13y ago
  With the new version (v8 in Android) of Google maps, just click on the search and scroll down to end. There is an option "Save map to use offline". Alas, it has an expiry period of 30 days.
  - exodust 12y ago
    Just discovered google maps on my ipad only lets you save an offline map if youre logged in. Nice job Google, you've managed to make signing in to google a requirement even for offline functionality.
na85 13y ago
Off the top of my head, GMail is the only one. Mostly because Outlook's/Thunderbird's UI and UX are absolute ass. SAAS is inferior in: * games * text editors * photo editors * IDEs Backup storage is okay, but I live in a country with tight bandwidth caps so I can't really use things, plus I don't want Google or Dropbox or MeGa snooping at what I upload. So I would never pay to use any of the above things, and I would certainly NEVER pay Adobe for anything. I'm fortunate that I don't need to use their products.
- bentcorner 12y ago
  > SAAS is inferior in: > * games Isn't steam like this? The bits get downloaded to your machine, but if Steam goes offline your SOL. What steam could use is better download management. If they moved over to an on-demand streaming architecture it'd be really huge. The days you'd need to preload software could be over. This sort of thing has been solved many times before, so it's technically possible. In fact, as I type this I wonder why they haven't done it already.
  - na85 12y ago
    Well, Steam is inferior for that exact reason. It does have an "offline mode" where it will pre-decrypt the games or whatever it does behind the scenes. Why would on-demand streaming be a good thing? Now you have to worry about ISPs and bandwidth, it doesn't solve the problem.
    - bentcorner 12y ago
      I think it would be a good thing because if I have a hankering to play a game I don't have installed, I wouldn't need to wait for an hour for it to download. I need to worry about ISPs and bandwidth before, it's just that now I can be more frivolous with what I have installed on my machine (no sense leaving something installed "just in case").
SixSigma 13y ago
You've perhaps never been in the "damn, where am I...... Bollocks no signal, I still don't know", situation and that was just 30 miles from home. I bought a gps with the maps loaded at the first opportunity.
CaptainZapp 13y ago
Since I have a Nokia phone, which permits me to download maps for specific countries and regions, I'm not dependent on Google - (or any other on-line) maps. I'd wager that Nokia provides equal, if not - arguably - better quality than Google maps and I don't need to incur insane roaming charges when using a map abroad. Granted, there are a few functions, that require a net connection, but basic map functionality and navigation works very well without being on-line. Maps are only one example. I can't think of many applications, which I would prefer as a "cloud" based service as opposed to native.
unhammer 13y ago
OsmAnd+ works great offline ;)
EvanAnderson 13y ago
My self-hosted apps work on my laptop when I have no network connectivity. That's a big win for me. Funny you mention Mappoint. It's exactly what I use when I'm navigating for my wife on trips. It works fine in areas with poor wireless data coverage. (We supplement with Waze to get traffic reports, but "self-hosted" Mappoint guarantees we won't lose map coverage because of radio issues.)

Surely there is something? E.g. Google Maps was a breath of fresh air after MapPoint.

by DenisM 13y ago

Surely there is something? E.g. Google Maps was a breath of fresh air after MapPoint.

You know what Google Maps needs? Offline downloadable map functionality. They had that feature, then removed it, then put it back... now I honestly don't know where it's at. Browsing offline maps is a breath of fresh air, it's so much quicker. Obviously you wouldn't download the whole world, only your home city or whatever. But it's lightning fast to zoom and pan around an offline map compared with connecting over mobile bandwidth. Browsing maps in Airplane mode should be possible. It's a map after all, not a website.

batbomb 13y ago
It does, "ok maps"
- viraptor 13y ago
  Not anymore. They became reasonable again and both the search and any selected location description has a "save for offline use" button at the bottom.
  - mjcohen 12y ago
    But you can't search the resulting map or get directions. I have an Android phone, and the last good Maps for it was version 6. I do two things: (1) use copilot GPS with the whole U.S. and Canada (takes 1.8 GB); (2) keep my old Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.2 which cannot be upgraded and has Maps 6.
danpat 13y ago
It's mostly a question of storage. Here's a great tool for getting a feel: http://tools.geofabrik.de/calc/#type=geofabrik_standard&bbox=-114.306298,50.814573,-113.789696,51.244067 http://tools.geofabrik.de/calc/#type=geofabrik_standard&bbox... Z=18 is rarely used, so for Z<=17 you're looking at roughly 300MB for raster tiles a city the size of Calgary. You also don't get routing information with purely raster data. You could try vector data which would be smaller, but then you have to display it, which can be computationally expensive if you want it to look pretty, and you'd lose the snappiness you're seeking.
- nknighthb 13y ago
  You've just told us a good-sized city fits in about 1/200th of my phone's storage. I'll take a dozen. Actually, you could fit the entirety of the state of Washington in <50% of my phone's storage. I'm not seeing a problem.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    >Actually, you could fit the entirety of the state of Washington in <50% of my phone's storage. I'm not seeing a problem. Well, most people don't want to lose even 20% of their phone's storage in a single app, much less 50%. And that's just for those satisfied to only have info for one state. What about people regularly travelling between 1-2 states? That said, I question the OP storage math. At least with vector information, I know that something like Navigon's GPS/map app, can store the whole of US (including the smallest of towns and cities) in around 1GB.
    - danpat 13y ago
      The OpenStreetMap vector data for Calgary is about 6.2MB-20MB, depending on the format.
    - morganherlocker 13y ago
      Vector data has a much smaller footprint in most cases, but takes lots of processing to render, and even more if you need to be able to zoom around the map. Rendering the US down to z17 as raster tiles allows for efficient processing, but could easily get into 10s of GB (which makes sense, since it is creating thousands and thousands of png images). The size grows exponentially with each zoom level though, so if you only need something like z12, you might be able get it into the 10s of MB range.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
    - nknighthb 12y ago
      I wasn't saying I would want the entirety of Washington on my phone. Quite the contrary. I was pointing out the sheer area that fits in that amount of storage. It's 71,362 square miles. If you're traveling regularly between two states, you'd want your origin city, destination city, and your route with maybe a couple miles on either side. Say a 250-mile route, and 200 square miles at either end. I bet it fits in <2GB.
k1chy 13y ago
With the new version (v8 in Android) of Google maps, just click on the search and scroll down to end. There is an option "Save map to use offline". Alas, it has an expiry period of 30 days.
- exodust 12y ago
  Just discovered google maps on my ipad only lets you save an offline map if youre logged in. Nice job Google, you've managed to make signing in to google a requirement even for offline functionality.

na85 13y ago

Off the top of my head, GMail is the only one. Mostly because Outlook's/Thunderbird's UI and UX are absolute ass. SAAS is inferior in: * games * text editors * photo editors * IDEs Backup storage is okay, but I live in a country with tight bandwidth caps so I can't really use things, plus I don't want Google or Dropbox or MeGa snooping at what I upload. So I would never pay to use any of the above things, and I would certainly NEVER pay Adobe for anything. I'm fortunate that I don't need to use their products.

bentcorner 12y ago
> SAAS is inferior in: > * games Isn't steam like this? The bits get downloaded to your machine, but if Steam goes offline your SOL. What steam could use is better download management. If they moved over to an on-demand streaming architecture it'd be really huge. The days you'd need to preload software could be over. This sort of thing has been solved many times before, so it's technically possible. In fact, as I type this I wonder why they haven't done it already.
- na85 12y ago
  Well, Steam is inferior for that exact reason. It does have an "offline mode" where it will pre-decrypt the games or whatever it does behind the scenes. Why would on-demand streaming be a good thing? Now you have to worry about ISPs and bandwidth, it doesn't solve the problem.
  - bentcorner 12y ago
    I think it would be a good thing because if I have a hankering to play a game I don't have installed, I wouldn't need to wait for an hour for it to download. I need to worry about ISPs and bandwidth before, it's just that now I can be more frivolous with what I have installed on my machine (no sense leaving something installed "just in case").

SixSigma 13y ago

You've perhaps never been in the "damn, where am I...... Bollocks no signal, I still don't know", situation and that was just 30 miles from home. I bought a gps with the maps loaded at the first opportunity.

CaptainZapp 13y ago

Since I have a Nokia phone, which permits me to download maps for specific countries and regions, I'm not dependent on Google - (or any other on-line) maps. I'd wager that Nokia provides equal, if not - arguably - better quality than Google maps and I don't need to incur insane roaming charges when using a map abroad. Granted, there are a few functions, that require a net connection, but basic map functionality and navigation works very well without being on-line. Maps are only one example. I can't think of many applications, which I would prefer as a "cloud" based service as opposed to native.

unhammer 13y ago

OsmAnd+ works great offline ;)

EvanAnderson 13y ago

My self-hosted apps work on my laptop when I have no network connectivity. That's a big win for me. Funny you mention Mappoint. It's exactly what I use when I'm navigating for my wife on trips. It works fine in areas with poor wireless data coverage. (We supplement with Waze to get traffic reports, but "self-hosted" Mappoint guarantees we won't lose map coverage because of radio issues.)