Morning all.

I’m new to Android and smart phones in gereral.

What good (free/cheap) apps are out there for GPS tracking and generally not getting lost on a bike?

Any other apps that I shouldn’t be able to live without? I’d like something that would make the camera work better and make glossy pictures.

Regards.

Mapdroid is very good. No tracking but if your out and have no signal its the only one that will let you keep the maps on your phone.

For tracking I use Endomondo.

MMtracker. Costs a fiver but you can put OS maps on it. You can make routes and waypoints in app and it does tracking. Don’t think I could do without it any more.

MMtracker

Oh – it’s for remote Spain – I’ll have no signal – just GPS from available satellites.

I am a complete newbie to this technology. I have no idea what is capable on these things. Is it possible to download a map from maps.google/similar before hand and then use a GPS in the middle of nowhere using said map? That would be cool.(!)

Mapdroyd will let you do that, but it’s not a lot of use for off-road as the maps don’t have OS style detail. It will help you get back to civilisation if you get catastrophically lost though.

Mapdroid can use open street map (OSM) which is almost as good as OS explorer probably better than what is available in remote Spain.

I use viewranger and MMtracker. Viewranger is a great app, you can buy OS maps and equivalent foreign ones or download free maps like opencyclemap or bing aerial photos (which is great for finding un-mapped trails). MMtracker reads my old Memory Map maps. Both work without mobile signal

if your out and have no signal its the only one that will let you keep the maps on your phone.

No it isn’t

If you want something that works “off network” then viewranger would be your best bet. The app is free but you’ll pay £7 ish for maps.

Mapdroid can use open street map (OSM) which is almost as good as OS explorer probably better than what is available in remote Spain.

It really depends on how much data they have gathered about a particular area. In many rural areas it’s a sprinkling of nondescript lines on a blank grey background. No contour info either which is rather unhelpful when cycling.

Google maps lets you cache, not sure how well or badly it works yet…

if your out and have no signal its the only one that will let you keep the maps on your phone.
No it isn’t

only free one I found.

It really depends on how much data they have gathered about a particular area. In many rural areas it’s a sprinkling of nondescript lines on a blank grey background. No contour info either which is rather unhelpful when cycling.

If you set it to ‘opencyclemap’ rather than ‘openstreetmap’, you get the contours. And bike / footpaths drawn nicely etc.

Works pretty well in rural France and UK in my experience (and have used it fine in Canada and various parts of the USA, New Zealand etc.).

Not as good as OS or IGN (in France) or NZTOPO (in New Zealand), but good enough for most things and you can’t argue with free.

Joe

Maybe its opencyclemap I am thinking of as I get contours. New Forest and IOW is very well covered.

I use viewranger in “remote” Spain. You can download the maps and use them offline. The free bike topo maps seem pretty good.

Ah, cheers for that. I use OpenCycleMap with Cyclestreets and it’s a heck of a lot more detailed.

remote Spain

How remote? Most of the Spanish roads are correctly mapped (in my experience, Google Maps and Tomtom only really fail on new construction), trails obviously are a different matter.

For really remote areas I’ve had a little success with bing aerial photos which is free on Viewranger (and probably others). Tracks stand out pretty well and you get a reasonable idea of where the hills are but you do need to tie it in with a real map for longer journeys. With Viewranger you can flick between map sources

For really remote areas I’ve had a little success with bing aerial photos which is free on Viewranger (and probably others). Tracks stand out pretty well and you get a reasonable idea of where the hills are but you do need to tie it in with a real map for longer journeys. With Viewranger you can flick between map sources

That works on Google maps, too – assuming you have a signal.

Okay.

Downloaded Mapdroyd – seems great but I can’t seem to find a way to change the map view from ‘standard’ to ‘cycle map’ so at present have no contours.(?)

Still playing with Viewranger – any tips?

assuming you have a signal.

Not required on Viewranger if you download them before you go out.

Still playing with Viewranger – any tips?

menu/organiser/maps/on-line maps. Also under menu/settings/maps change the cache size to something bigger and it will keep more maps in memory for off-line use.

Downloaded Mapdroyd – seems great but I can’t seem to find a way to change the map view from ‘standard’ to ‘cycle map’ so at present have no contours.(?)

Me too. Is it a case of downloading the areas you want, then manually copying the maps over to your SD card?

It’s worth your time reading this article….
http://www.mcofs.org.uk/navigation-gpsandsmartphones.asp

GvSig has downloadable OS maps. I have only had a quick look at it though so can’t rate it.

Another reason to use viewranger is the on-line route planner. Ridiculously easy. A few clicks it’s planned online. Save. Sync routes on the phone and then you’ve got something to follow on the your phone screen.

Just found about this for anyone who’s interested in Spanish topo maps. Worth a play…

http://www2.ign.es/iberpix/visoriberpix/visorign.html

Mapdroid is very good. No tracking but if your out and have no signal its the only one that will let you keep the maps on your phone.

Tosh. – There are several options that let you save maps.

My favourite is Maverick – also free.

You can save maps by just panning around an area, but if you want to get a large area at a range of zoom levels you need to be cleverer.
This might help – http://owtbutwork.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/creating-storing-maps-on-your-phone.html

I use oruxmaps – it supports lots of different map providers (including OS) when you’re online, and also allows you to download to the phone so it works when you’re out of coverage. Also supports tracking and following GPX routes etc. It’s quite complicated, but probably does everything you’ll ever need.

Oruxmaps seconded.

Bastards. The lot of you! Minor rant here at a slight lack of detail in the above viewranger advice – which overall is sound but –

It started of simple:

Another reason to use viewranger is the on-line route planner. Ridiculously easy. A few clicks it’s planned online. Save. Sync routes on the phone and then you’ve got something to follow on the your phone screen.

Yep – that seems true – BUT that just downloads the route – on a blank background. No map / contours / anything. You / me have to “view / browse” the whole route in advance, and it’s goddamn SLOW.

SSSLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW.

I’m guessing I could walk the route quicker than viewranger’s servers can download it. I started at 4 this afternoon and I’m still waiting for more tiles!

And its not my broadband (I checked that 10 times – 13mbps) or the devices.

Anyway – it’s free – but its not exactly what you want to be doing a few days before a holiday.

End rant.

Bastards! 😉