On my Windows CE PND, I use oziexplorer.
Using Mobile atlas creator I can use Google or OSM maps, and at the same time it has features like "as the crow flies navigation" to a waypoint, or load upto 5gpx tracks and show on screen, and navigate by gpx track.
It also writes tracks, with a new track for every day(useful over multi day trips).
I was looking at similar android apps.
I came across the following
1. Locus
This is the most popular, but gpx writing etc., has just been added, and is basic
2. Trekbuddy - Very old app, I am not sure if any current dev is going on
3. Big Planet tracks - Looks very promising, and feature set advertises "waypoint navigation etc,m'
4. Oruxmaps - Again very popular, can load gpx track
All the above maps do not split tracks by day.
I also found some quirks. For example in oruxmaps, there is no way of telling whether its writing a track or not. the button does not change shape on pressing play pause etc.,
All the above are great apps, but from an offroad navigation standpoint, I am not aware which is the best.
Of course there are paid apps like Maverick etc., but currently I am looking only at free apps.
Oziexplorer for android is under alpha stage, and many features are missing, but since I have already purchased a license long time back, I presume, I should be able to use it once it comes(nobody knows when), if the licensing terms are same.
What do you guys suggest? Any offroad navigators here?
any other apps which I may have missed?
thank u very much
Have you tried Brut Maps?
Brut maps are good for offline mapping. For this purpose orux/locus etc., all are excellent solutions. I am looking for a good off road gpx and navigation system. similar to oziexplorer. All the apps I mentioned are somewhat capable of what I need, but not every feature is available.
I think the Big Planet tracks is the most promising, since source is open, and with more developers joining in, things can get better!
I'm on the same hunt, a good off road gps navigator. I go off road a lot (have jeep, will travel) and the trails i go on do not exist on conventional maps. they are on topo maps as dotted lines or "jeep trails". I used to use GPS Tuner when i was on windows mobile. Loved that program. best thing out there in terms of off road navigation. hopefully they'll port it to android soon.
I'm currently trying Maverick, OruxMap, and Gaia GPS to see how they compare.
Maverick seems to be the best so far. Easy to learn and use. And has a lot of map options. Plus with the newest version they finally allow custom mapping, which means you can use a program like MapMaker to create a downloaded map with your choice of a source. I also like its interface and how it responds. Also love the one click ablity to drop a waypoint.
OruxMap seems like a good program, but it gets on my nerves a bit when you can not search around on the map, by dragging it, without it doing that "distance to target" crap. My other complaint about it is that it seems you can't just load a bunch of waypoints in without a track. wtf? hopefully i'm just missing something, but so far i can not load my already existing kml file (and yes, tried as gpx as well) full of waypoint markers without a track in progress or from the past. I do not like that. When I go off roading, i would like to load the markers, and have it track where i go. mainly because my "markers" are more like virtual notes to me on forks in the trail and what each one does. plus some of my markers are POI along the trail, like a nice rock climb or deep mud bogg, and I'd like to be able to just click that and have it point me in the direction of it without having to already be on my way.
Gaia GPS is nice and simple. nothing really fancy about it, except the price you pay for such a simple app. It is great if you want access to the old topo maps that it seems no other gps program can get without importing them via MapMaker. Its very easy to use, simple to follow and does its main job perfectly. show where you are ontop of topo maps. this is good for someone like me that wants to see where the old jeep trails are because like i said earlier, seems no mapping company marks these anymore.
And I've tried testing these all as best as i can. Right now I'm grounded to roads only due to the fact my off road ability is shot due to a bad transfer case. but hopefully i'll be able to do a true middle of no where, no cell service, off road test off these apps and any others i can remember to install before leaving the network.
But right now, if i had to pay for one, it'd be Maverick.
I am finding androzic quite nice too. Currently trying orux and androzic, will finalize about one of them
tsk1979 said:
I am finding androzic quite nice too. Currently trying orux and androzic, will finalize about one of them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I on a similar hunt - how did u get on?
Androzic is the way to go!
Oruxmap is almost there, but Androzic is totally Oziexplorer like. And guess what, Oziexplorer truly rocks.
I think orux maps would be close if it auto saved waypoints you created manually, and did not have so much confusing screen clutter.
I love androzic for the "look ahead feature", where I can look ahead a set percentage towards the direction I am travelling.
If you do try androzic, do not forget to download img2ozf from the project page(version 2) as newer version of img2ozf from oziexplorer website will create ozfx3 format maps from mobile atlas downloaded maps, which is not supported by androzic.
Awesome!
Thank you!!
I too have GPS units that I get in for myself & friends and we all go 4x4ing deep in the aussie bush.
Since the tablets have come along way I have been thinking about trying one with off-roading to compare to our current GPS units. However, if I can get a good tablet with GPS, and GPS software that I can port my 6gig worth of oziexplorer maps... I am set!!
I am going to look in to Androzic asap - currently I have masses of CD's with rooftops maps & that is the main thing I want on the droid tablets!
Thanks again for this thread!!
Guys, no question...
I mean it seriously. Menion (the dev of Locus) spends several hours a day in making Locus the best offline map app ever. If you have some suggestions or missing features, why don't you put it on his wishlist?
I looked at locus, but as things currently stand, oruxmaps has kind of come out on top for me.
It can write tracks, read tracks, navigate as a crow flies to a waypoint, or navigate a track.
Now I need to ask the devs to work on the trip computers.
For example, multiple odometers, with individual reset etc.,
Related
Something that records distance, average speed, total height climbed/descended, graphical outputs of speed v distance etc?
I've found a few different programs, but nothing that's amazing.
Anyone have any ideas? Cheers.
Lemme know if you find one u like, k?
Have you tried Memory Map. I use for hill walking and provides everything you ask for. Needs to be on Windows Mobile device.
Have you tried RunGPS?
I tried VisualGPS, TurboGPS and some other free ones and they are all kinda lousy for tracking stats while jogging. But RunGPS looks like it will work well. I downloaded it but I haven't taken it on a test run yet.
Yeah, Memory Map is good, but it doesn't do everything that I'd like. For example, I don't think you can get an graph of your speed v time etc, or elevation v time (like the application on the N95). It is very good for navigation though.
I'll have to try RunGPS.
James, have a look at TerraTrack, it's reasonably good. It gives you a colour coded route depending on speed etc. Not quite perfect for what I'm looking for though, but probably the best so far.
Hi,
Memory Map is okay. It will provide a track of where you have been, average speed, total ascent/descent, distance travelled etc. However, it is fairly limited in that it is not really designed for that. It is primarily a navigation tool.
The best thing I have found and use (only recently though) is RunGPS which Andy suggests. It is specifically designed as a training tool with a bit of navigation bolted on. It basically has a few main screens. They are
Recorder:- this is split into 8 areas where you can display speed, distance, altitude, calories, av speed, max speed etc. There are quite a lot of choices here to display so it is very customisable for your needs.
Navigation:- shows a map with a cursor following your route. You can import Google Maps or use open maps (mainly show roads so not great for off road navigation). Like memory map it will allow you to follow pre planned routes. It also has a compass on this screen.
Map:- basically a full screen map.
When riding you can record laps (ideal for timing yourself up your local favourite hill) and you can even set it up to race yourself over your favourite routes. Each run can be imported into Google Maps if you want to share where you have been with friends. There is even a web site where you can upload your routes.
A good feature of it is that you can produce a training report for each run you do (produced on a web page). It gives you a breakdown of the run based on
Speed
Calories
Altitude
Map of your route
The main recording screen has large buttons for starting and stopping your training and a split/lap button. You can set it to give an audible report of your speed, distance etc every 5, 10, 20 minutes (I use this on the road bike as I have my phone in my pocket).
Certainly for anyone riding competively it gives you most of the info you would ever need to analyse you training. The only thing you don't get is heart rate. However, you can sync you heart rate readings with this software.
Basically this software gives you all the info you would get from a cycle computer or one of the Garmin devices on your phone.
Have a look at their web site, it has screen shots and you can trial the software for 14 days.
Regards
matheprat said:
James, have a look at TerraTrack, it's reasonably good. It gives you a colour coded route depending on speed etc. Not quite perfect for what I'm looking for though, but probably the best so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll take a look at it, thanks.
spangelsaregreat said:
Hi,
The best thing I have found and use (only recently though) is RunGPS which Andy suggests.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am just floored on how well the GPS works with rungps. I ususally am stuck waiting for a minute at least while in clear view of the sky to connect to GPS with google maps, Microsoft Live, visualgps, turbogps, and a few other free ones I cant remember the names of,,,,,but with RunGPS is connects in a seconds even if I'm not outside............
I cant wait to take it out for a jog tomorrow.
Thanks for the detailed post! I've had a play, and it looks perfect for what I want, thanks for the suggestion! Do you know what the difference between "cycling". "mountainbiking" and "race-biking" is?
matheprat said:
Thanks for the detailed post! I've had a play, and it looks perfect for what I want, thanks for the suggestion! Do you know what the difference between "cycling". "mountainbiking" and "race-biking" is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could pretend to be all knowledgable here however to be honest I had not noticed the other options!!
I would hazard a guess they are linked to the calorie side of things. I was actually thinking about that today when I was out on my mountainbike slogging up a muddy track at 3mph. Obviously riding up a similar hill on the road would expend less calories so I am guessing the formula that works out the categories allows for this.
I guess cycling is perhaps for general leisure riding and race biking is for going a bit harder.
Regards
spangelsaregreat said:
I could pretend to be all knowledgable here however to be honest I had not noticed the other options!!
I would hazard a guess they are linked to the calorie side of things. I was actually thinking about that today when I was out on my mountainbike slogging up a muddy track at 3mph. Obviously riding up a similar hill on the road would expend less calories so I am guessing the formula that works out the categories allows for this.
I guess cycling is perhaps for general leisure riding and race biking is for going a bit harder.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought this too at first, but surely calorie count is basically very similar regardless of the bike used? Sure, the bike's weight and efficiency will have an effect, but not enough to warrant 3 different cycling settings? You would use more calories pushing harder, but that would be reflected in your speed readings from the GPS?
Either way, cheers for the info about the software. Just what I was looking for
Hi,
Yes between cycling normally and racing on the road their should really be no difference.
However, you go considerably slower off road because of the conditions, so unless the program knows this it will think you are going less hard than on the road. Without a heart rate input (like on a Polar or similar) the program can't really know how hard you are pushing based purely on speed and altitude gained or lost.
Regards
I use Vidaone's (www.vidaone.com) MY Sport Training, this is quite an indepth program, with GPS / Polar HRM plugins also with a Windows Synchable desktop part.
I believe that they also do a diet app that also interfaces with My Sport Training.
SC
Or sportypal, almost the same type as Rungps, but with more options, and easy way for setting up goals.
I'm interested in using sat Nav for cyling on road and perhaps a little off road cannals etc.
Any recommendations for good options?
I notice copilot has a cycle mode
other threads
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-294512.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3710059
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=328736
I'm very pleased with Run.Gps and would definitely recommend it. It allows you to plan a route in advance and they guides you around it with spoken instructions.
I cycle with my bluetooth headphones on listening to music, and it directs you at each junction, as well as giving you any data you want and pre-set intervals.
Its a bit complicated to start with, but it does have a free trial to play around with for a bit.
Igo has cycle and pedestrian modes as well.
I have not used the cycle mode though. I've used tomtom in the past, but I'm liking the Igo alot.
Thanks I'll take a look at both of these options. I know the dedicated Garmin cycle devices are also very good
If you want off-road, I use Memory-Map, which allows you to view OS maps. You can plot your route, if you wish, and then use GPS to track - or just track anywhere! One good thing is that it gives you a profile (heights) of your route - so you know when that uphill stretch is coming! Unlike road navigation software, you don't have to stay on a road and it give you all the OS information too. Best I've seen.
I use BikeDashboard.
It's free and has all the stats, and will link up to a heart rate monitor if you have the necessary connection gubbins.
You can create your own maps in GE and import them so you can have that on display or the stats. It also offers download and upload fatures so you can analyse your performance, and will allow you to race a previous trace.
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-bikedashboard.html
It does everything I want it to, but I'd imagine all these GPS enabled software will be limited by battery life - mine will give me about a morning's use.
-Jonny- said:
If you want off-road, I use Memory-Map, which allows you to view OS maps. You can plot your route, if you wish, and then use GPS to track - or just track anywhere! One good thing is that it gives you a profile (heights) of your route - so you know when that uphill stretch is coming! Unlike road navigation software, you don't have to stay on a road and it give you all the OS information too. Best I've seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that memory-map is very good for walking and hiking, but haven't found it much use for cycling other than using the pc part for planning routes and reviewing afterwards.
It is also very expensive, and we're not allowed to recommend looking for warez.
Looking at switching from an IPhone to a Winmo device (Touch Pro 2 to be specific) but need to know if some of the applications i use everyday are available. and at what price (if not free)
Shazam:Music Identification. real simple.
Pandora:found a few Cabs around, but no mention of compatibility with WVGA screens.
Urban Spoon: basically a program that uses your current GPS position to locate nearby restaurants.
Fandango/I.TV: shows local theaters, play times. allows purchase of tickets through the program.
Units: quick and easy unit converter.
now, are all these available with a nice finger friendly interface?
thank's for taking your time to help me figure out what all is available.
crazy talk said:
Looking at switching from an IPhone to a Winmo device (Touch Pro 2 to be specific) but need to know if some of the applications i use everyday are available. and at what price (if not free)
Shazam:Music Identification. real simple.
Pandora:found a few Cabs around, but no mention of compatibility with WVGA screens.
Urban Spoon: basically a program that uses your current GPS position to locate nearby restaurants.
Fandango/I.TV: shows local theaters, play times. allows purchase of tickets through the program.
Units: quick and easy unit converter.
now, are all these available with a nice finger friendly interface?
thank's for taking your time to help me figure out what all is available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience with WinMO, simple apps that do only one thing are rare. The iPhone developers are more on that path. With WinMo, you are more likely to find full featured apps. For instance, instead of having an app that will just find the info for a song, you will more likely find a music player with that ability. I think Pocket Music Player (?) can do that. Think more like what kind of apps are out there for windows, you tend to get clones of those for the mobile platform. That is good and bad. For a power user, it is good.
I do know that a good unit converter exists. I for get the name. For a good list of apps, lookup the 2008/2009 smartphone magazine winners and runner-ups for WinMo apps (search google for "best pps apps") and you will find it. It lists a lot of good apps. Also, look up "ppc freeware" for some other good sites.
Shazam exists, do a Google for MusicID, i have a feeling it is only available preinstalled by the carrier but i may well be wrong.
Don't know about the rest.
2- if it is not compatible the graphical layout will be smaller (but in most case it's all right)
3/4- Google maps or the Web do it
5- to many app on the web
D'rath
Yup...
As it's been said, Shazam, and Pandora already exist. I have Shazam MusicID running on my Kaiser on T-Mobile, and it works just fine.
For the other two, why not just use Windows Live (or Bing). Same things all in one app.
http://www.discoverbing.com/mobile/index.html
if you're in love with the iphone UI, then that's one thing. But I'll be real... damn if I understand why one would want to install multiple apps that do simple tasks, when you can have one that does multiple tasks.
To each his own, I s'pose.
Sean D. said:
As it's been said, Shazam, and Pandora already exist. I have Shazam MusicID running on my Kaiser on T-Mobile, and it works just fine.
For the other two, why not just use Windows Live (or Bing). Same things all in one app.
http://www.discoverbing.com/mobile/index.html
if you're in love with the iphone UI, then that's one thing. But I'll be real... damn if I understand why one would want to install multiple apps that do simple tasks, when you can have one that does multiple tasks.
To each his own, I s'pose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the Shazam Application is free? i believe i had heard somewhere it was pay per use.
i believe you underestimate the capabilities of both the Movie application and the "where to eat" application i am asking about. unless Bing can make totally random suggestions about restaurants wherever you are by taking your current GPS location and looking around.
i feel like i will get Smited here for posting this, but this is what i am talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTTIpM4L12s
also has reviews, menu, etc. i understand you can find places to eat with a simple google search. but that doesnt work when you have no idea where to start.
with the movie application you have the ability to read reviews, watch trailers, find show times at each theater, location and buy tickets. also has a normal TV guide. but i do not use that often. or can you easily do all this through the internet browser or other means?
i fear i may sound like a "Fanboy" for the IPhone, but i really am tired of the phones lackluster hardware and generally slow performance, and the less then appealing battery life.
but i do like these applications VERY much. they may only do one thing, but they do them extremely well. that's why i want to know if they are available on this platform because i am very interested in getting a Touch Pro2 when they become available.
As is typical with iphone vs WM, the iphone apps are going to look prettier. But the same things do, or can exist on WM.
I got Music ID here in the development & hacking section, for free. And it works fine on my Kaiser.
I *think* you can get movie reviews on Bing... I THINK! But I know you can find them, and get info about them, and where they're playing.
But it can get you random restaraunts from around you based on your gps, or cell tower location. You can find "restaurant" by typing, or speaking it.
for movie showtimes at nearby theateres, you can lookinto "flix" or "cinemo." flix is for the uk, franc, germany and soon to be for italy and spain too. Cinemo is for the US and Canada. They don't let you buy tickets, but they provide useful info. Both are hosted on this site, so look for it in the development and hacking forum.
orlandojumpoff said:
for movie showtimes at nearby theateres, you can lookinto "flix" or "cinemo." flix is for the uk, franc, germany and soon to be for italy and spain too. Cinemo is for the US and Canada. They don't let you buy tickets, but they provide useful info. Both are hosted on this site, so look for it in the development and hacking forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the info!
finger friendly is rare in winmo as of now...
one more question, when using google maps, (or TomTom, etc) can the program pull address information from contacts?
say im in google maps can i just start typing "current location" in the "start" and have it figure out i mean where i am now? and for the "End" can i just start typing my contacts name and have it automatically enter my contacts address?
and when viewing a contact, can i just click their address and have it automatically pull up Google maps (or any other navigation application) and show me that location?
crazy talk said:
one more question, when using google maps, (or TomTom, etc) can the program pull address information from contacts?
say im in google maps can i just start typing "current location" in the "start" and have it figure out i mean where i am now? and for the "End" can i just start typing my contacts name and have it automatically enter my contacts address?
and when viewing a contact, can i just click their address and have it automatically pull up Google maps (or any other navigation application) and show me that location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do the former, though not quite as you describe. You click the menu, go to Options and choose "Look up Contact". It then lists your contacts that have address info and will pop up the map to them and give you several options.
The latter you can't do with the built in Windows contact manager, but their might be a 3rd party one that can interface with Google Maps, I don't know.
crazy talk said:
i believe you underestimate the capabilities of both the Movie application and the "where to eat" application i am asking about. unless Bing can make totally random suggestions about restaurants wherever you are by taking your current GPS location and looking around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're underestimating the Bing app. It's not just a web search. The Bing mobile app uses GPS or cell towers to locate you, and then offers local search for restaurants, gas prices, theatre / showtime listings, local businesses. It also gives local weather and traffic reports, AND has a GPS mapping app to give you directions to anywhere you find. And it can even do location-based web searches, pulling up wikipedia articles or news items about places you're near. And the whole thing is built with a finger-friendly interface (although it's still rough around some edges). Heck, it's even got voice-command -- click the "speak" button, say "sushi," and it'll list the nearest sushi places.
Bing might not have every last feature of Urban Spoon or the showtimes app you're talking about, but it certainly has a lot of power of its own.
FloatingFatMan said:
You can do the former, though not quite as you describe. You click the menu, go to Options and choose "Look up Contact". It then lists your contacts that have address info and will pop up the map to them and give you several options.
The latter you can't do with the built in Windows contact manager, but their might be a 3rd party one that can interface with Google Maps, I don't know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using the standard contacts app and have options for locating in Google maps, Bing (formerly live search), and Garmin XT. Garmin has a sub menu with locate and route to.
If you are running Google maps and you don't have 'locate in Google maps' in the menu for contacts let me know. I would like to find out what put it there.
By the way, as floatingfatman said, you can look up conacts in your mapping app. I can do this in Google maps, Bing, Garmin XT and Destinator.
Midomi is alot easier on the eyes than Musicid. As far as UrbanSpoon I wish there was an app for Winmo, but Bing is the next best thing. With emulators and all is there anyway to get it working on Winmo devices?
I have the touchpro2
midomi is a seems to be a really good app and it's free. it gives you the option to listen to a sample of the song, search youtube or buy the song. you could also hum or sing the song to start the search.
This is much more finger friendly than past versions of winmo. I'm sure it's still not up there with the iphone as far as that goes but it's getting a lot closer.
What's the best app for finding and navigating hiking trails?
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
Search the market for everytrail. A lot of trails posted but of course could always depend on your area. Its pretty nice because it can just pull your location and show the nearest hikes to you.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
You might also look into mapping programs that will let you load arbitrary maps into the phone, such as scanned trail maps or topo maps. None of the options are particularly quick to set up, as you'll have to get maps into them.
If OSM has good enough maps, you could use something that'll cache offline maps of it. Often there are decent trail maps there, although I honestly don't see how people have the time to create them given the tools OSM gives.... Anywho.
Backcountry Navigator, Maverick and Orux are a few I found googling.
BackCountry Navigator is damn nice, I've been playing with it all day.. You can pre-cache maps from a bunch of different sources and it has a specific offline mode to use the maps later, all very easy to do. I have a question out to them about calibrating and importing a custom map, something that I'm not seeing in the program but maybe I'm overlooking it.. Like there's an area where I mountain bike and the topo maps are REALLY hard to read the trails as they seem to blend right in with the contour lines, but I have several great high level trail maps that I'd love to be able to use.
OruxMaps is the most useful up to date. The essential feature is offline navigation, i.e. maps can be seen when there is no cell tower in sight. It is essential in the mountains (too high) in the forest (too far) and in high sea. Additionally one can switch the cell receiver completely off that gives more juice to GPS and actual navigation without recharge.
The tracks can be uploaded to pop track sites including google maps. The only deficiencies I know of: UI requires some learning, stats charts can't be exported (particularly important for high profiles)
I'm just downloading it right now. Really excited about TomTom app. This was the only app I really missed on my Infuse 4G
Great app. Offline maps finally.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2
I got Navigon on iOS and now I am switching to Android I still like it. TomTom is alright.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium
I haven't used TomTom.
Hope you don't mind me jumping in. Off-line navigation is a subject of great interest to me as I do have a cross country road trip coming up in January. As a result I've been trying out programs.
I have three programs installed in my phone and I have been testing/comparing all three to try to settle on which one I will stick with for off-line use. I've got a spreadsheet of notes... might post it as a review at some time. The three programs are:
Locus Pro (paid $7.00 )
OsmAnd (free)
NavFree (free)
Locus Pro has a ton of features. Complicated but useable. Requires you to be on-line only for as long as it takes to calculate the route (the other two don't require on-line at all). Road labels are small. Road labels disappear when zoom out using vector maps. You can overcome that by downloading tile maps for specific area down to a high zoom level... but if you're looking to cover a wide area such as you night encounter during a cross country trip the tile files would be ridiculously huge.
OsmAnd has somewhat of an elegant interface with lots of features (not as many as Locus, but they're easier to access). But it chokes when you ask it to calculate a route more than 200 miles or so. And road labels are small also.
NavFree is somewhat bare bones. It has the fewest features of the three and missing some features I'd really like.
And yet it is my favorite because of 2 great features:
1 - most readable display. Really striking and easy to read, in both day and night mode.
2 - When zooming out to use the program as a map (for example to see what's 20 miles down the road), the names of the most important roads remain easily visible no matter what zoom level. And you can tap any road to see it's name label. (Locus and OsmAnd don't show most road names if you zoom out to level 13 or beyond... so you can see city names and highways without any names.. and no tap to see name feature.). As a result I can very easily/quickly scroll around while zooming in/out to get a feel for a route/trip/area with NavFree... that's much too frustrating with the other two programs where the road labels disappear when zoomed out.
NavFree has some major missing features:
1 - no ability to force north=up while navigating !!??!! The only choice is that "up" corresopnds to the direction you're driving.
2 - no compass displayed while navigating in the only available mode (up=forward).
Combine 1 and 2 and you are at the mercy of the program while navigating. Tough to get your bearings.
3 - When not navigating, we can force north up. But in this case there is no feature to use the phones compass to tell you which way the car is aligned. I really need that feature when getting started in a strange city from a large parking lot with several entrances... need to orient myself with respect to the map. No tools to do that in NavFree. It only uses car movement and route to orient the car on the screen.
4 - No display of "scale" (one inch = how many miles). Kind of a basic feature for a map.
I have actually built myself a program in Tasker (call it "floating pointer) that displays a pointer floating over the screen to somewhat compensate for deficiencies 1 thru 3 above of NavFree.
The pointer has two user-selectable modes
A - it can point in the direction that my car is pointing on a north-up map (to help me find my way out of parking lots for example). A useful feature same as provided in the other two programs.
B - When navigating in up=north mode, it can figure out which direction is north on that map and point that way (like a compass rose on a rotated map). This compensates slightly for 1 and 2... at least I can mentally figure out what direction I'm traveling in when the phone is navigating in the up=forward mode. If the N arrow points to 9:00 direction, that mean I'm traveling East. If N points to 3:00, I'm traveling West. If N points to 6:00, I'm headed south. Or else just look at the screen and mentally rotate the whole thing so that north arrow is pointing up. Then again it might just be easier to use compass mode (A) as a direct indicator of which direction I'm headed. Then I don't have to mentally rotate the map or reverse East and West... I just have to remember that the direction the compass is pointing acts like a compass indicator of heading and not a compass rose on a rotated map. Either way works. Neither is as good as being able to force north=up.
My floating pointer program is similar to the "floating battery monitor" app that I posted about in the sense that it floats on top of the screen of another program. Unfortunately this one would be tough to turn into an APK for sharing because it uses Python and SL4A which don't get captured in the APK generated by Tasker. So user would need to have Tasker, Python and SL4A installed to run this. (and I'm not sure it's worth all the trouble... still a little clunky... a program that only it's mother would love).
have you looked at sygic, its a good offline gps program. the one thing i dont agree with is the initial app download from the store is free. then you have to buy a license from thier website.