bizzybody
02-28-2009, 10:15 PM
Since the death of Mapopolis, which was self inflicted by their failure to update most of their maps (which had plenty of errors and missing roads) past 2002 and failure to make Navigator play nicely with NVRAM Palms like the Treo 650 and Tungsten E2...
I've been on a quest to find a replacement for Mapopolis.
What the replacement needs:
1. Does NOT require GPS, but may use it.
2. FAST! Able to run at an acceptable speed on a TE2.
3. Up to date maps.
4. Able to pinpoint any USA address on any installed map.
5. Able to fit on a 1gig or smaller SD card.
6. Does NOT require internet access, but may use it if available.
7. Search for addresses in 'natural' USA format- just like on a letter, house/building number first, then Street, then city then ZIP. In other words like Mapopolis and unlike most GPS software that forces the user to enter searches in backwards order. (Localization! Amazing concept! Allow users to input address searches in exactly the same way they address a letter or print them in advertisements.)
In other words, a portable atlas with integrated address data that doesn't need a 'tether' to outside data sources.
I've tried Google Maps, there are ways to use it offline but without net there's no way to search for anything. It also relies on the outdated IBM Java for Palm OS and it's SLOW.
Earthcomber coulda been a contender, except it uses the same crappy 2000 US Census data that Mapopolis used. If current maps were available for it, I'd use it.
DeLorme Street Atlas 2009. It has acceptable speed, it has great maps that are up to date, it has an absolutely useless 'search' function that can only pick addresses out of the Palm address book and will only tell the user (after a very long wait) which city the address is in. It'll center the map on the city. It has a pointless 'infinite' search radius option that only serves to make the user wait an infinite time for results. (It requires poking the reset button to get out of it.) It's like that joke about the guy in the hot air balloon and Bill Gates. In other words it tells the user perfectly accurate but useless information that the user already knows.
If there's a way to make it export PDA maps with the address data integrated, I haven't yet found it.
The Windows part of SA2009 does have the ability to pinpoint an address, though actually finding where in the UI one may enter an address to search for is a PITA, and it digs through its own data rather than doing something stupid like only looking in Windows Address Book .wab files.
TomTom. Slow on the TE2, barely fits on a 1gig SD card. Looking up addresses is backasswards. Able to work without GPS but is quite inconvenient to use as just a map program.
Those are the ones I've tried. What others are there?
What'd be really slick is if someone could figure out how to export vector map and address data from OpenStreetMap.org to Mapopolis 4.2 maps, cut up by counties. Alternatively, convert it for use with Earthcomber.
Even better would be for DeLorme or Rand McNally or any other company making map/nav software for Palm OS and the various versions of WinCE to copy all the *good* features from Mapopolis.
I've been on a quest to find a replacement for Mapopolis.
What the replacement needs:
1. Does NOT require GPS, but may use it.
2. FAST! Able to run at an acceptable speed on a TE2.
3. Up to date maps.
4. Able to pinpoint any USA address on any installed map.
5. Able to fit on a 1gig or smaller SD card.
6. Does NOT require internet access, but may use it if available.
7. Search for addresses in 'natural' USA format- just like on a letter, house/building number first, then Street, then city then ZIP. In other words like Mapopolis and unlike most GPS software that forces the user to enter searches in backwards order. (Localization! Amazing concept! Allow users to input address searches in exactly the same way they address a letter or print them in advertisements.)
In other words, a portable atlas with integrated address data that doesn't need a 'tether' to outside data sources.
I've tried Google Maps, there are ways to use it offline but without net there's no way to search for anything. It also relies on the outdated IBM Java for Palm OS and it's SLOW.
Earthcomber coulda been a contender, except it uses the same crappy 2000 US Census data that Mapopolis used. If current maps were available for it, I'd use it.
DeLorme Street Atlas 2009. It has acceptable speed, it has great maps that are up to date, it has an absolutely useless 'search' function that can only pick addresses out of the Palm address book and will only tell the user (after a very long wait) which city the address is in. It'll center the map on the city. It has a pointless 'infinite' search radius option that only serves to make the user wait an infinite time for results. (It requires poking the reset button to get out of it.) It's like that joke about the guy in the hot air balloon and Bill Gates. In other words it tells the user perfectly accurate but useless information that the user already knows.
If there's a way to make it export PDA maps with the address data integrated, I haven't yet found it.
The Windows part of SA2009 does have the ability to pinpoint an address, though actually finding where in the UI one may enter an address to search for is a PITA, and it digs through its own data rather than doing something stupid like only looking in Windows Address Book .wab files.
TomTom. Slow on the TE2, barely fits on a 1gig SD card. Looking up addresses is backasswards. Able to work without GPS but is quite inconvenient to use as just a map program.
Those are the ones I've tried. What others are there?
What'd be really slick is if someone could figure out how to export vector map and address data from OpenStreetMap.org to Mapopolis 4.2 maps, cut up by counties. Alternatively, convert it for use with Earthcomber.
Even better would be for DeLorme or Rand McNally or any other company making map/nav software for Palm OS and the various versions of WinCE to copy all the *good* features from Mapopolis.