I have loads of early memory map maps from 2003/2004 era, will these transfer and open OK in the iphone memory map app? I tried the free version but couldn't transfer maps with that and want to check my existing maps are compatible before I shell out £20! How does it run with the large 600MB regional maps?

Cheers

Try here for more info

Thanks,
Doesn't directly answer the backward compatability issue (though there seems to be lots of other issues looking at the poor rating they have!), not sure its worth it if I have to spend another £100 on maps I already own.

the maps won't be compatible. though i, err, understand it used to be possible to hack the map files to make them readable in later version of mm. i think this was really quite straightforward. i'm told. cough.
dunno anything about iphones or the file formats or owt though. sorry.

Yes, i'd managed to keep my maps upto date with the later software by a bit of hexediting, and it used to run fine on my old pocketpc (on freely supplied pocketpc version), but memory map seems to have turned into a **** our existing customers type of company, so I won't give them more money for data I've already bought from them at great expense.

The way I see it, we tax payers paid for the maps to be made in the first place, so buying them is just another tax really….

I find that Google Earth along with a mapping software on my iphone does fine. Think the memory map stuff is overpriced

I find that Google Earth along with a mapping software on my iphone does fine. Think the memory map stuff is overpriced

I think you'll find Google Earth doesn't come close to Ordnance Survey for the quality of the mapping. In any case, try using Google Earth or OpenStreetMap somewhere where there's no signal, or data connection. There are plenty of places around where I ride where there's no data available. Doesn't matter how whizzy your mapping 'ware is if you have to rely on non-existent data connections to show the maps. Personally I like to have a nice detailed OS map with the GPS showing me exactly where I am, especially in the middle of a forest, or somewhere out in the open where ROW aren't clearly visible on the ground. I certainly won't argue that MM are damned expensive, and their licencing is pretty restrictive, but at the mo' they are the only OS mapping on the iPhone that allows actual trail recording; Outdoor, sadly, doesn't which is daft. I've got both, but 'cos I don't have a PC, I use MM Free, which gives me 1:1000000, 1:250000 and 1:25k, the first two free, and I can then buy in 700sq Km chunks and just select bits as I need them. Works a treat, and gives me exactly what I've been wanting map-wise since I got my iPhone sixteen months ago. I've actually been using it in the car as a moving road atlas when I've been driving in unfamiliar places, being able to zoom through the layers of detail is excellent. If only they'd be less restrictive on older maps people have paid for.

The license problem is with the OS, not Memory Map. Unfortunately the OS don't see fit to sell you a perpetual license for the maps hence old maps don't work out of the box. I'm not against paying for the public sector to make maps available in a format not everyone would want (and therefore can't expect it to come out of tax funds) but I wish they would do it in a fair way.

These licencing issues are a con/poor excuse though, if I bought a digital music track from itunes/amazon, and it wouldn't play on later versions of the software I'd be outraged! why should it be any different for other digital data? I fully agree that I cant expect extra functionality added in later versions of memory map, but the ability to view the data I already own should be no problem at all.