Hello all, after some info on mapping software for an Iphone, so I can use it for navigating and pinpointing where I'm at. what's the best app out there

There's been previous threads on this; I use Memory-Map for detailed maps, it uses full OS maps and seems to work well.

Yep you might want to hit the search as there have been a few discussions.

I use "MotionX GPS", which does not have true OS maps, but does offer maps from OpenStreetMap and OpenCycleMap which are pretty good and can be dowloaded onto the phone for free. It also has the usual streaming maps from Bing and Google.

Does navigation by waypoint, has a good track recorder and multitasks on iOS4.

Oh and there is a free fully-functional Lite version, if £1.79 seems like too much of a commitment.

Graham – I started using Motion X on hol last week to try it out instead of my usual TrailGuru. I reckon it's great but for one flaw – Sharing – I don't want to upload to either facebook or twitter (since effectively it's got my home address where my rides start) but would rather upload to a site directly (á la trail guru) where you can control the privacy settings. Am I missing something or is it really restricted to just fb, twitter or emailing (which then means having to manually upload)

Viewranger. Can use it with free openstreetmap and opencyclemap and then just buy your local paths in OS.

Yeah, they don't have a trail sharing type website behind it AFAIK.
I generally just email myself, which gives you a GPX file and a link to view it on Google Maps.

If it is a feature you'd like to see the suggest it using the "Submit Feedback" link in the help of the app.

I did regarding another feature* and got a personal response.

* I'd like to set up a route as a list of waypoints, so when I get to one I can just press "Next Waypoint".

If you have Viewranger maps from a previous phone then you can buy their app and get the licence changed for the new iPhone. Memory Map Free is good, you get the base maps and 400Sq Km free, then it's £12/700sq km. Anquet have a complete new Mac compatible series for desktop and iPhone in beta at the moment, check out their site for news.

Sorry to dive in but is there anything like this for Android?

No, no apps for android 🙂

Kidding – there are loads – viewranger certainly is one.

I'd say ViewRanger at the moment after some fairly extensive comparative use, though I'll be interested to see what Anquet comes up with. Their Mac software is decent, but slightly non-intuitive. Hint – if you expect a menu command along the line of 'create new route' you're in for a disappointment.

Battery life on the iPhone with GPS running isn't great btw.

Yeah, 3hrs on mine from fully charged brings up the 20% warning which stopped it working though I think now that with multitasking (eg iOS4) that should be solved giving a little extra. I also think that Motion X is better at that because you can lock the screen and dim the display, again saving battery.

I did have a look at some solar chargers though as I reckon the mapping would work well on the road (I wouldn't want my phone strapped to my mtb which I have a habit of crashing 🙂 )

For those who just want to look at OS maps from the sofa is there any way of using something like Multimap without having to pay for Memory Map or somesuch? You can technically use Multimap through Safari but it's a bugger as you have to use the little pan and zoom buttons instead of just dragging the map around. Are there any apps that use the OS get-a-map thingy or something like that?

Phil – you could use 'GoodReader' (available in free Lite version) to download a big OS map image file (which you can find online if you look) and then view that – it's what I do – I found the app useful enough to buy the full version (only 59p)

(note – it's really useful because the standard 'save as image' will only save images in the gallery to a maximum size and it's also a good way to hold other documennts (pdfs, web pages, etc) that you want to be able to reference without having to download them each time.