
Google Maps for Android lose offline Maps - seriously? - DoubleMalt
http://www.droid-life.com/2013/07/09/new-google-maps-7-0-0-goes-live-in-google-play-here-is-the-new-ui-we-saw-at-google-io/
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xlevus
I suspect this might be down to the 'dynamically generated' maps feature in
the current maps.google.com preview.

Either way, unless Google has somehow managed to bypass extortionate data
roaming charges, spotty local coverage, and absurd latency It's pretty much
made maps useless for me.

At least before, when my phone has decided to not connect to the network, or
latency has spiked up to 30s I could still look at the map and get places.

~~~
Pxtl
Yup. It's frustrating for me since I used a winmo device 7 years ago with
TomTom that provided flawless offline maps. There doesn't even _exist_ a
comparable offline maps program for newer Windows Phone OSes... Google
abandoning offline maps in the Android OS is another reflection of this trend,
but the world's infrastructure just isn't there yet, especially when you leave
California - here in Southern Ontario, coverage is good but the cost of data
plans for all is prohibitive once you've got a family full of people with
phones.

Of course, Google has been eschewing offline support throughout Android - like
the anemic and non-expandable storage on their entry-level Nexus devices,
pushing their cloud-based music service instead of the traditional "just load
songs onto the device" approach, and so on.

This massive technological regression on disconnected mobile software is
really disappointing.

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sequence7
Windows Phone 8 has offline maps via Nokia Here, you can also use Nokia Drive
to get offline navigation. Both are free and have helped me navigate without a
data connection in Europe, Asia and North America.

~~~
Pxtl
Oh, right. I forgot that Nokia had made their exclusive thing. My phone is
just a Samsung WP7 device that's getting really long in the tooth.

~~~
sequence7
Yeah unfortunately for WP7 you needed a Nokia device to get the Nokia apps,
all WP8 devices get them though.

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adhipg
You can cache the current map area that you're looking at by searching for 'OK
Maps'. [1]

[1] - [http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2013/07/a-new-google-maps-
app-...](http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2013/07/a-new-google-maps-app-for-
smartphones.html)

~~~
hellerbarde
Does that strike anyone else as a weird thing to do? They write

"Instead we’ve created a new way for you to access maps offline by simply
entering “OK Maps” into the search box when viewing the area you want for
later."

err.. Simply?

~~~
przemoc
Weird is an euphemism here. It's totally incomprehensible change.

My wild guess it's targeting voice commanding, which I practically never use
as voice recognition is still not reliable enough (and I'm not always
comfortable with shouting at my phone in public).

~~~
Lewisham
The "ok" prefix is the one that Glass uses. I wonder if there's some implied
integration there. That the feature is hidden from the UI makes me think this
was supposed to not be in use until Glass is out, until someone internally
kicked off and said "WHAT DO YOU MEAN OFFLINE MAPS WON'T BE AVAILABLE UNTIL
GLASS IS OUT?!"

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gdelente
It is a very useful feature when you're abroad. To uninstall the update : open
the launcher -> drop the maps icon on the "App Info" label -> Uninstall
updates

~~~
grumps
I 2nd this...

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jimktrains2
Osmand for android will let you download the the OpenStreetMaps maps for
states or countries for offline use.

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milliams
I've found OsmAnd to be a great app and it being powered by OSM just makes it
better.

(btw, it's OpenStreetMap, not OpenStreetMap _s_ )

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mrleinad
There are tons of alternatives to Google Maps, maybe not as complete but
decent enough. Just switch to one of them and that's it. I'm using MapsWithMe.

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DigitalSea
Did anyone use offline maps really anyway? I know I never have. I bet the
number of people that actually used the offline feature was a small percentage
anyway.

~~~
mcepl
Just use OpenStreetMaps (aka
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand)
) and download half of Europe if you wish. Just works, and the navigation was
for me (at least in Italy) better than with Google Maps.

~~~
mtts
Thanks for the tip!

~~~
hnha
also check out Oruxmaps. not free software but free of cost and very feature
heavy and fast.

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contingencies
Perhaps this update was launched by a conscientious objector within the
Googleplex.

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_pmf_
It never occurred to me to even try using Maps offline.

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Piskvorrr
Meh. The only useful thing (for me) in there is the navigation; for everything
else (offline maps, route recording, geocaching, tens of map providers),
there's Locus ;)

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brandonb927
Type 'OK Maps'

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wwhitman
Couldn't they just cache some ads as well instead of limiting features. They
could also log GPS and send it back later so they don't lose location data.

