[OSM-talk] Vector maps for Android

[John F. Eldredge]

Mike N <niceman at att.net> wrote:

> On 11/27/2011 4:30 PM, yvecai wrote:
> >> Unless you are talking about a very small area, say just a
> kilometer
> >> or so across, I don 't think you are likely to get good results
> trying
> >> to render maps directly on the phone.  Phones are rather limited in
> >> memory and CPU speed compared to even a low-end desktop or laptop
> >> computer.
> >>
> > John, you would be very surprised by the vector rendering on some
> phones:
> > You can load 1GB pbf of your country in a phone, and browse the map.
> As
> > simple as that !
> 
> I've been playing with the new PocketEarth, recently released for IOS.
> 
> It browses very smoothly between max zoom and min zoom - progressively
> 
> removing or adding details. 
> http://www.geomagik.com/en/pocketearth.html
> 

I played around a bit with the vector-map mode of OSMAND today, and found that it worked better than I had expected.  Whatever rules it has for deciding what to draw at a given zoom level work well.

I had mixed results with searching for POIs.  None of the restaurants near me that are in the OSM database were found if I search for restaurants, but they are found if I search for them by name.

-- 
John F. Eldredge -- john at jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria