Best way to buy OS 1:25000 Explorer map data

Looking to buy the whole of the UK for use on a moble phone / tablet. I’ve used Viewranger a little bit, and you can buy the map data through them, but I’m not sure if the map data can then be used by other apps, or if it’s in a propriety format for viewranger? Buying it directly from OS feels like the right thing to do, but I don’t really understand their product lineup. I definitely do not want anything that requires internet connection to work. Ideally, I want all maps loaded all the time, on at least a couple of devices, with a mix of Apple and Android.

Sorry if this has been covered a million times before, I did a quick search but could find anything?

how about memory map? They have a sale on the 2015 1:50000 and 1:25000 full GB mapping

Memory Map are offering full UK for 1:50k for £65. 1:25k £200. Not sure if can load to multiple devices though. link

For online access OS Map (old Getamap) is £18 a year, I have beta test of phone/tablet app (note the full website works on iPad now) which are excellent for browsing, saving/printing maps and finding out where you are when lost. The iOS app cache’s maps so you can see where you are when signal is lost. I am not sure what the app map pricing is going to be.

Our new mapping application, OS Maps, will be launching very soon, and will be available across desktop, mobile and tablet.

As Jambalaya says above, it’s £18 a year, for the whole of the UK in your palm. You can also print out sections using the desktop version.

When the mobile version is launched, you will be able to save sections as offline maps. I believe (but please don;t quote as ultimately its not my area of work) that your £18 above also covers you for OS Maps mobile. The app itself will be free to download.

it’s going to be great. When its out properly I’ll make a post outlining some features and forthcoming features.

Mobile version sounds ace Plyphon!.

@plyphon that pricing is great news. I am loving the app, sent some more feedback today, ie landscape mode especially on iPad would be great. Will be using endomondo to log ride data and OS app to find my way.

Give Maverick a go….

I am loving the app,

teacher’s pet!

Has the tile icon been made visible yet?

Slight thread hijack but not massively far off target, has anyone used the custom map tool from OS? Was looking at getting a custom map but would like it laminated so its weatherproof, not sure if there is an option for it to be laminated!

Cheers!

@polo Yes for myself and as presents, just about to order another (fully signed up map geek 😀 ) I don’t think they do the semi water proof ones anymore though (I have one of those of course). BTW make sure you upload your own front cover photo and have a suitable title (large and small text on two lines)

The OS app sounds great……provided the offline cached element is easy to use and fulsome in the amount you can cache. Otherwise for me at least it would be a waste of time. If you don’t get about the equivalent of a paper map’s worth of cached map it would be of minimal use in the sort of areas where you’d actually want to use it where reliable 3G or wifi access are hard to come by. I currently use memory map but I only have a limited amount of 1:25000 and was considering the £200 offer.

plyphon – will this be available for Windows phones?

Thanks for the comments so far….does anybody know if the maps purchased for memory map / viewranger can be used in other apps, or just with the app it’s purchased for? I wonder if the data can be updated, or if it’s just a one shot download at the time of purchase.

memory map – there is usually a reduced cost purchase option of owners of pervious versions. You can’t to my knowledge use the map data on anything else.

Just spoke to Viewranger. Updates are c.£20 for full UK mapping. The maps can’t be used with any other apps. The full UK 25K map is c.2.8GB.

I don’t mind the £200 as a one off, but if Viewranger go bust, I wouldn’t want to have to pay it again.

memory map – there is usually a reduced cost purchase option of owners of pervious versions. You can’t to my knowledge use the map data on anything else.

There is a free android app which can open the old MM files…

https://sites.google.com/site/mmtrackerinfo/

MM have been trying to get it shut down, but it’s gone Open source, so you can’t stop it now….

Updates are c.£20 for full UK mapping

@lodious are you saying 1:25k maps for the whole of the UK are £20 on viewranger, that can’t be right ?

I like viewranger btw are do use it but not for OS mapping.

No, it’s an update cost to bring a purchased version of full uk mapping (c.£200) up to date.

Not sure if Viewranger maps can be used in other apps, but it can certainly be used on more than one device. I bought a DVD from Viewranger years ago, to have maps on my Nokia N95. I put all of them on a card in the phone, which worked after a fashion; utterly crap phone, needed a BT receiver to function properly.
When I finally changed to an iPhone, and Viewranger finally produced an app, I side-loaded all the maps, 1:50k, onto the phone, and I’ve just carried on using the same set of maps, with extra 1:25k tiles, ever since, currently on my iP6+, my old iP4, and the previous iP5, which I haven’t got around to selling, as well as on my iPad.
As the maps are on a DVD, in folders, it may be possible to use them in another app, I accessed them via a web URL.

Personally I would buy a geotif from a site like emapsite and use QGIS (open source GIS platform) to open it. At least you are not restricted to a certain piece of software and you can always duplicate, crop and print it from a normal computer without the GIS package

My experience with Viewranger is similar to CountZero , I bought full UK maps on DVD to run on a Nokia N95 , since then I’ve had 2 iphones and 2 android phones and it’s been easy to transfer the maps across

I currently have viewranger installed on an old iphone , a samsung s4 and an hudl2 tablet.

Great tech support too if you ever need it

That’s good to hear. I’m just a bit concerned that things will move on after a few years and I’ll end up buying the maps again. I need to grow a pair and get them ordered!

Have you looked at OSM maps at all? I’m a big fan of the OS, but the OSM maps are getting to be as good for most applications IMHO

Geoff, can you see contour lines with OSM maps?

Have a look here http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl
Options including contours are available