offline android maps

[fij]

Hi,

Do you happen to know for the android offline (1) basic street maps of 北京 and 郑州 and (2) educational full-country maps ? (provinces, rivers, cities, etc)

Thanks

[cababunga]

Mapdroyd is a great offline map application.

OsmAnd can be configured to use offline maps too.

Both are based on Open Street Map project, which covers whole world in great details. For the offline applications you choose which regions to download.

[icebear]

Suggestions for a similar offline mapping program for iOS?

[cababunga]

Summary for iOS apps is here:

http://wiki.openstre.../wiki/Apple_iOS

Not all of them offline and not all of them strictly for mapping.

Similar list for Android is here:

http://wiki.openstre...rg/wiki/Android

[Silent]

Both are based on Open Street Map project, which covers whole world in great details.

Don't know what you mean by the whole world in great detail, but plenty of area's are barely covered or at best mainroads only. If you get off the beaten track there's a good chance your map won't be more then sketchy. Openstreetmap is great for citydwelling and main tourist area's and few (electronic) maps can beat it. I found however that off the beaten track, at least for roads, googlemaps is better. For hiking off the beaten track I've not found any electronic map suitable however, I admit that openstreetmap is the only one that at least has some tracks. Off the beaten track also old fashioned paper maps tend to fail so can't really blame them. For western Madagascar I went as far as creating some sketchy maps myself by drawing them in google earth based on google's satelite imagery (and a large scale paper map). Not what you call fail safe, but way better then a blanc map.

I've no ground experience (yet) with OSM maps for China. I'm pretty sure the larger cities are covered (fairly) well. However on a provincial level I'm not convinced they offer that good of a coverage. Compare OSM with google (also way from perfect for less mainstream places) and see the differences. I suspect that for China you should look for a Chinese mapping site.

I hope something better then OSM comes up preferably something that includes hiking trails and can be used offline (and transferred to a garmin device).

[djkasumi]

Silent,

Never tried it myself, but can't you convert OSM data to Garmin GPS compatible data?

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin#Installing_the_map_onto_your_GPS

[Sarevok]

You can download Baidu maps for Android from the Google Play Store. This app has offline maps for a lot of Chinese cities (second and third tier cities included). You can download them individually via menu button > 更多 > 离线地图. After the latest update, they don't even take that much space on your SD card. Don't know if they provide English interface though, I have my phone switched to Chinese, so the app automatically runs in Chinese).

[Silent]

Never tried it myself, but can't you convert OSM data to Garmin GPS compatible data?

You can download the data from http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ No conversion is needed. I feel it's not the best possible rendering, but it's good enough. The issue is that not al area's are covered very well. I suspect if you find a good chinese source you're better off then with OSM data. But again, that's without ground experience with chinese maps.

[djkasumi]

Right, OSM is definitely lacking in a lot of places. I just wasn't sure if you were implying that it also cannot be used on GPS's as well.

I'm looking forward to being in Chongqing because I'll have about 2 months of complete free time and (being a geography nerd) am hoping to add as much data as possible Chongqing during that time.