An Interesting Advance For Google Maps

[flakmagnet]

This is something that used to be on individual gps apps, now it's coming to Google Maps as well;

the ability to download specific maps and then seamlessly move from service to no service with no loss of navigation ability. Cool.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/10/offline-navigation-comes-to-google-maps/

[vanursepaul]

That would help when I run out of service area..

[Norvic]

Lovely, that is a powerfull feature for prospectors.

[Quick]

Good stuff Flak thanks for posting I have been looking into getting a GPS but it seems if I hold out it will soon be just as good on our phones.

What do you think?

[Steve Herschbach]

I do think phone GPS with replace most handheld dedicated units. They are well on the way. With a dedicated unit what you buy is what you get. With the phones there are more apps all the time and a better screen in most cases. Why pack a phone, camera, and GPS when these days a top end phone does it all?

Speaking of which just yesterday I was using the Basecamp software for my Garmin GPS. It has a "view in Google Earth" option. Recently I went to Google Earth Pro instead of Google Earth, and now the Basecamp option does not work any more. I may have to reinstall regular Google Earth to get that functionality back.

All this new mapping tech is one of the best things to happen in prospecting in the last few years.

And by the way Flak, there is only this one active forum for all subjects related to detecting and prospecting. The Archives are closed to active posting. I like that there is only one place to check for new threads.

[flakmagnet]

Thanks for the info Steve, I'll post all the for-detecting subjects here.

 

Root, if you look at a couple of apps you will see there are already great ones available on (iPhone).

The ones I like are:

iHikeGPS  I like this (at the moment), for "back country" and detecting,

Maps 3D has some cool map options. 

MotionX-GPS is maybe not for back country but it is a very thorough GPS program worth looking at.

[Steve Herschbach]

MotionX http://gps.motionx.com/does a great job at producing tracks and saved location information. Better yet, they can easily be exported to Google Maps or Google Earth just by emailing them to yourself. My only complaint is the zoom is limited so you can't get as much detail on screen as I would like.

 

An excellent topo map application is PDF Maps. Tons of free topo maps and all work offline. https://www.pdf-maps.com/

[Quick]

I have a Samsung. Will these apps work on my phone?

[Steve Herschbach]

MotionX will not work on Android (cant figure why some companies support one platform and not the other) but a very good option that works on Android and iOS is Gaia GPS at https://www.gaiagps.com/apps/android/It is actually better than MotionX when it comes to mapping.

 

An Android only app that is highly regarded is Backcountry Navigator https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crittermap.backcountrynavigator.license&hl=enIt is so highly regarded I got a Nexus just so I could check it out.

 

I am evaluating all sorts of GPS options in the next couple months (just got OziExplorer) and with winter here now will post about all of them in the upcoming months.

[jasong]

The problem with cross platform phone development, at least when I was looking into it in the early stages, is that Apple is completely proprietary. To even start experimenting with programming for iPhone at the time I would have had to buy a Mac and an iPhone and learned their weird properietary language. Then Apple polices their app store far more rigidly then Google so I had no way of knowing if I could even distribute my app once I made it. Maybe things have changed now, but that used to be a reason some apps were only available on 1 platform.

 

With Android anyone can use any computer and program for any Android phone using Java which is a globally used and standard language, it's what they taught all the CS classes in when I was in school too so most people already know it. I can go around the Google store if I want and distribute my app even if they choose not to. There are benefits and drawbacks to both - you get more wheat and less chaff with the Apple method, but you get far more ingenuity with the Android method via crowdsourcing.

 

So it's easy to port from phone to phone, but it's not so easy to cross the Apple divide so to speak, it used to be a complete reprogramming. And a lot of smaller developers don't have the time or money to do that. Whereas with Android, ensuring that your app works on a Samsung phone is no harder than ensuring it works on a Motorola phone (generally), it's all compatible already.

 

I still use Backcountry Navigator myself. I haven't found another single app solution that provides everything I need as a prospector in a better package for less money. Actually for most guys the free version will do just fine. Though I highly recommend the surface ownership add on layers. I had intended on creating a WMS server for claims mapping data and seeing if BCN would add it as a mapping layer, but living in the field in a camper with marginal phone internet wasn't cutting it for as much data and updating as it required. Still, someone could pursue that route possibly if they had the resources and motivation and it'd be an awesome prospecting layer to have.