[OSM-talk] Still interest in an Android POI collector?

[Andrew Chadwick (email lists)]

(Argh, let's try that again from a subscribed email address)

Nick Whitelegg wrote:

> The other thing I have in mind to do is a POI collector for Android 
> devices. I seem to remember there being an interest in this before 
> Christmas when the Mapzen collector for the iPhone was launched - and I've 
> just got hold of an Android phone (HTC Hero) and fancy having a play. 
> Would there still be interest in this? What I'll probably do is work on 
> both apps - time permitting - but prioritise the one which has the most 
> current interest.

Other people have mentioned Vespucci and BTC Mapper, which are closer to
what you're probably thinking of. I think they're both incomplete and
buggy though, and release very infrequently for Android 1.5. I tend to
work with GPS export traces and photos, and I've dug around a bit in the
marketplace for stuff that seems to work (for me): mini-reviews:


For offline data gathering, I'm using GPS Logger for Android <
http://gpslogger.codeplex.com/ > most right now, which allows text
annotation and produces GPX that plays quite nicely in JOSM. That plus
my Hero's camera app. It's said to be comparatively frugal with battery
use if dialed down to infrequent polling. Under fairly enthusiastic
development and release, good stuff.

OSM Tracker for Android[tm] <
http://code.google.com/p/osmtracker-android/ > is looking good too, and
gets updates about as often: it's recently grown the ability to make
photo records as well as voice notes, and seems to have some hardcoded
presets. Faintly funky WinMo-esque UI that seems to be improving :)

I'm hoping that Open GPS Tracker <
http://code.google.com/p/open-gpstracker/ > will show OSM background
layers in a future release: currently it only displays Google Maps maps,
so it's of no use to OSMers. But it behaves very nicely, it's open
source, seems to be updated fairly frequently, and I'd really quite like
to use it for the task of -seeing where I've been- when out mapping.
Looks like a good project to hack on, or at least to vote up wishlist
items you want on :)

RMaps < http://code.google.com/p/rmaps/ > can show various OSM layers
including the public transport one, but doesn't seem able to cache
downloaded tiles. Open-source. Annoying bug that sometimes crashes the
app when tapping around in the map display.

Maps(-) (no source URL; think it's just freeware) can cache downloaded
tiles on the SD card for offline use, but can't be worked on publicly
(AFAICT), and has had "ad releases" in the past without any warning,
behaviour which I dislike intensely.



And, erm, that's what I actually use.

-- 
Andrew Chadwick