Maps local to the Playbook !!!!!
It just keeps getting better! We get a nice update, with a great suprise and now this evening while look in AppWorld for new apps, there suddenly are a bunch of new GPS Map applications that do not require download of the map data from the internet via Wifi or Cell connection and will thus continue to work while disconnected from the net! Very cool. These are city maps available from Skylab MobileSystems Inc. Kind of expensive, but very useful for travelers I think.
Anyone buy yet and can provide a review?
Is not limited to the mapset you purchased???
When I saw France was $0.99 this morning I figured for that price I would purchase the app. It took about 30 attempts (seriously) to get the darn 435mb to download but finally about 40 minutes ago it downloaded and installed.
I did not expect much in the way of mapping for that price. It apparently uses OpenStreetMap.
I opened "France" and started zooming in using Pinch/zoom. I was fairly amazed as Paris streets came into focus. Zooming gave more and more detail.
But what really surprised me was that when I pressed on the "thumbtack" type icon on the lower left (second from left) it found MY CURRENT GSP location and drew the maps for my surrounding blocks and I could zoom out and see the surrounding area.
I closed the app and opened again and I was looking at an overview of France. But if I panned to Warsaw, I was able to view a detailed map of Warsaw and could zoom it.
I'm not sure if this was an intended consequence of the "France-centric app" or totally UNintended.
But so far it seems that you are not limited to the locale you may download.
Oh, France is now back up to $9.99 (but I've got my receipt for $0.99 from both appworld and paypal). We shall see if they honor that price.
edited to add:
I guess I'm slow. I gather that you purchase certain LOCAL maps and those are loaded locally on the pb. If you then zoom in, additional tiles are then loaded. If you pan, similarly, additional tiles are loaded. But they are probably not stored on the playbook.
There is no search facility - you cannot search for a street name. Nor is there any routing. But it can provide maps and it appears that it can work over the Bridge as I futzed with my mac address throwing the pb off my network and it did load tiles albeit more slowly then wifi.