Yes, it's true, you can do it. 1:50k maps, actually on the phone, none of that 'cloud' nonsense. Maps are available in regions, ie Wales, SW England, SW England, etc, and the licence is for life, so once you've downloaded your maps you get updates for as long as you have the maps on your phone.
National Parks are £12.99, all other regions are £24.99.
http://roadtour.co.uk/iphone/iphone_outdoors.php
is the site to check out, and if you go into the App Store, under Navigation, look under release date, scroll to the bottom where it says next twenty five, they're four pages in, or search 'Outdoor'
I can't download any 'cos my phone is almost full so I've got to clear out some music and other stuff, but anyone with a 32Gb 3Gs is laughing. Just wait til I get a 64Gb in July…

Are there only some areas available just now? the area of most interest to me was not listed in the Apps store

why pay? I heard the UK Gov were going to open source the whole OS??

why pay? I heard the UK Gov were going to open source the whole OS??

Not sure what value you place on your time but writing a GPS app for an iPhone to use the free maps will take a while. And you'd need a mac, and the dev licence.

Which area is missing, just out of interest? Wales and the South West are the two that are of most use to me and are there, but I couldn't see any missing bits during my cursory examination of what's there. As far as open source maps are concerned, there seems to be some confusion as to what maps are going to be available, and TBH I don't mind paying a reasonable amount for quality maps. To buy paper maps of the area covered by the South West app would be a lot more than the app costs, plus you get lifetime upgrades. Can't see 'owt wrong with that.

Maps won't become open source under any circumstances. You can get access to them via the web, but downloading is strictly forbidden. Caching is permitted though.

yeah, as mentioned, the opening of access to the OS maps data is certainly not going to make mapping free any more than it is now in reality.

the app. looks very interesting though – might download the national parks which is half price at 12.50 at the moment. seems a bargain. the other regions are 25quid, which I think covers everywhere having just glanced through it all.

now just need a decent waterproof case/bar mount for the phone and jobs a good un 🙂