>> All this talk about "map apps", has brought a question!
>>
>> I am using an iPhone5 on Verizon, and wondering is the app continuously using data the whole trip, or just when first put the addresses in to it?
>>
>> Wow that could use a lot of data!
>
> Apple and Google maps use data to update the maps. TomTom stores the maps
> on the phone. It is about 1.4GB download. It only uses data fro some functions like traffic if you purchase that option.
Mapping apps fall into 2 basic categories:
There are apps that, as part of the app, install on the device all of the mapping and point-of-interest data (e.g., for all of the USA and Canada). This obviously makes for a large, and (relatively) expensive, application, but one that never has to go online to get mapping information. Every 6 months, or every quarter, they will offer an upgrade (free, but still 1.5 GB or so) with updated data.
And...
There are apps that contain the mapping logic and verbal- and graphical-directions software, but no more mapping data than perhaps a very crude, large-scale US map. The GPS location ability is built-in to your device, but being able to place that location on a map means having to download the map data.
Yes, continuously while your are changing your location.
2 caveats:
1. Apple and Google presently do this differently. One of the great advances with the introduction of Apple Maps was using *vector* map data. This is smoothly scaleable. Google is still using bit-mapped data, which scales poorly. Practically, this means that to present the same detail when you re-size the map on the device, Google has to download about 5 times as much data as Apple's Maps does, and often scales jerkily, in patches.
2. MotionX has found a middle ground. They provide no mapping detail built-in to the app, but they DO allow you to download and cache map data -- from a varity of sources, including topographic maps -- at home, over wifi, before leaving on a trip, by simulating the trip to determine the maps needed.
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Jim Saklad mailto:jimdoc@icloud.com
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