Google maps to be available offline (including directions).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34770966

trail_rat – Member
“can’t understand why anyone would bother with a traditional GPS now though…”

Still find the larger screen , easier to use interface, Larger on screen keyboard , louder speaker , lane indicators ,speed limits , current speeds

all better than google maps – that and i dont hit the home button accidentily on the GPS.

Of course someone will be along shortly to tell me im wrong. – wrong but happy
I use Nokia Here, I’ve got CoPilot, GMaps and Apple Maps as well, but I find Here gives me three good alternative routes using motorways or other roads, and on my iP6+, the screen is more than big enough, I get all my directions via my car stereo, as the unit is plugged into it to keep the battery charged, and play music at the same time, it gives me lane indicators, shows speed limits, bongs loudly if I exceed a preset speed limit, shows upcoming roundabout, etc, and indicates which turning to take, in fact pretty much everything a stand-alone satnav does, and it goes into a night mode automatically.
I have tried Apple’s Maps, but the roads aren’t clear enough against the background colour. Here works pretty consistently, and will give route redirecting if you take a wrong turning, and that’s all with it set to run offline, having downloaded all the UK maps.
For Cougar’s info, I use a Nite-ize Steely, which is brilliant, it sits on the top of the dash, just above the vents, and doesn’t intrude into the screen area at all.
It does need a small, circular magnet stuck to the centre rear of the phone, though; mine’s stuck to the hard plastic inner part of an Otterbox, with a small hole cut through the flexible grey rubbery outer.

just resurrecting this thread rather than start a new one. maps was great for me in budapest a few months ago, i ‘saved’ all the places i wanted to visit on the pc beforehand, then just opened maps on my phone and got directions to them all.

doesnt seem to be working for me now tho. just been to zante and tried doing the same with the various beaches, bars etc that we wanted to visit. however, when i tried using them on the phone once over there, they werent there. all the budapest ‘golden stars’ were still there but no zante places, its as tho maps wont sync over the two devices now.

im looking at my pc now, the greek places are all there in ‘saved’, but only old ones on my phone.

any ideas why this might be?

thanks

bumpity bump on how to get my pc ‘saved’ places to my phone?

thanks

I use ViewRanger more than Google for this and also as I’m on 3 I have my free data abroad. Having said that they going into the phone app and deleting the saved offline places. Also note the offline areas aren’t available everywhere (eg we tried Laos when there).

I think saved places needs your google account logged in on phone and pc, should sync over the air (wifi etc)

I think saved places needs your google account logged in on phone and pc, should sync over the air (wifi etc)

yeah, both are logged in and it worked earlier in the year, so cant work out why its not working now :-/

thanks

I’ve just highlighted some places in Venice and there’s a link on the pc to send to phone. (Android) No idea if it will work whilst walking though.
Last week I went up to East fortune racetrack near Edinburgh and used the phone as a sat nav. It was not to successful as it lost data for a fair bit of the journey and ate up most of my data. Plus no sound.
My traveling buddy has a sat nav and it worked flawlessly.
After reading this post i have turned off the Satellite function but yet to try it out.

No idea if it will work whilst walking though.

this is what i did successfully in budapest, worked a treat whilst walking around.

frustrating that it wont sync now tho.

One thing it’s worth adding about Here is that the fairly recent update has introduced one new feature that’s rather nifty in that it’s no longer necessary to have to find a postcode for a destination, you can zoom into the place you want to go to, tap and hold on the spot, then you get a little arc of icons, one being the directions icon, then you get the regular map to your destination. Particularly handy if you’re going to a parking area near the coast or in rural areas well away from habitation.

got a hols in spain lined up shortly so testing the phone as a satnav again, make sure i can get it working with no signal/data but im struggling atm.

ive downloaded area to my phone for a month.
ive tried both ways of saving my route, getting the route from airport to villa up on chromebook, then sending to my phone.
also did a ‘share/embed map’ and emailed it to myself, so i now have an email with the link to the route.

switched me mobile data off on phone, tried both links and they cant connect, they need data.

what am i doing wrong? how can i preset the phone so i can get the route up abroad with no signal and just use gps to navigate?

thanks