Mapomatic – Applications of Mapping

In keeping with our commitments to regular free updates, we’ve released new updates to all 3 of our Garmin Maps, covering the original UK Garmin OSM Map, the UK Garmin OSM Cycle Map, and the new UK Garmin OSM Canal Map which we launched only last week.

Head off to the download page to pick up the latest versions…

It’s a while since we’ve heard anything from SatMap, but, according to Pocket GPS World, they’ve just released a new update (v1.3) for their device. The Changelog states this update includes:

Map Features

• OSGB: the grid reference in the UK is now in 10 figure format (e.g. TQ 1596257240)
• European Datum: now included to support international mapping (e.g. UTM)

User Interface

• European Languages: Swedish, French, German and Italian are now supported.
• GPS Position: now has a new icon featuring a Direction of Travel Indicator.
• Planning Screen: now shows the blue GPS position circle and the brown planning position circle on the screen.
• 2D GPS Data Indication: if the GPS signal is poor, the unit will display position but not elevation data. This is shown as a “2D” icon.
• Map Scale: this is now displayed continuously during zooming.
• Trail Up / North Up: the switch between these two options is now instant.
• Live GMT (UTC) Time: now added to the GPS Status screen.

Functions

• Button Lock: now available on double press of the Power Button (indicated by the padlock icon).
• Power Off Confirmation: two key operation to close the unit down to prevent accidental power off.
• Press & Hold Backlight On: in the Power Control setting it is now possible to select an “Always Off” option on the Screen Turn Off function. This allows users to save power by having the backlight always off: to turn it on, press and hold the backlight boost button.

Settings

• Map Title Screen: this now auto cancels after 5 seconds.
• One Button Press: this is now the default setting, but the double press option can be restored in Button Control settings.

Routes

• New Data Box Options: total ascent, total descent, max and min elevation have been added.
• Trip Log Screen: the ?Stop? button now stops all data recording until re-started, including the height profile graph.
• Distance To End: now measures the distance to the end of the route, along the route itself.
• Knots & Nautical Miles: now available as an option.
• Waypoint and POI Names: now displayed when the cursor is over them.
• POI Naming: when POIs are entered there is a prompt to name them.

This update is available from here, with a warning that you must be running v1.16 or higher else you risk corrupting the device; story courtesy of Pocket GPS World. [Via UK Gadgeteer]

With the New Year brings new ideas, and today we would like to announce we are launching our OSM Canal Map for Garmin GPS units.  As with all our maps this is initially UK based only, although we are looking to expand and offer more countries during 2009 (if you have any particular requests, please create an account in the forums and ask for your country).

The Canal Map is a little experimental at the moment, and we would welcome feedback good and bad in our forums.  We started with a similar profile as our UK OSM Cycle Map for Garmin, and de-emphasised the cycle routes (although they still appear on the Canal Map to show our Canal Map users easy routes into town centres), and added a number of very specific canal / river POIs (Points of Interest) as well.

Most of the additional POIs are self-explanatory, using the standard Garmin symbols for Marinas, Boatyards etc. but we discovered Garmin did not have a symbol for locks, so we have used the White Navaid symbol for this.  If any Canal Map users can find us a more appropriate symbol, we’ll happily change over.  Also, as OSM maps each individual lock gate, we often find at least 2 occurrences of the lock name in close proximity, which can make the name look blurred.  We’re looking into whether there is anything we can do to improve this, but do let us know whether it’s a real issue or not.

Of course, if you zoom in sufficiently far, you can actually see the individual lock gates…

We believe this is the first UK Canal Map for GPS devices created using OSM data, and hope it proves popular.

As always, this is available for download alongside our other OSM Maps for Garmin here.

route-me is a slippy map library for the iPhone. Allowing application developers to include slippy maps withing iPhone applications.

Currently OpenStreetMap Microsoft Virtual Earth and Cloudmade are supported as map sources.

Head over to their website for a more information. [Via UK Gadgeteer].