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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

Essentially retro-chic.

Some may have also discovered some utility in being able to have a big picture view of a destination. However, I wouldn't impute too much utility to the explanation. I'd be pretty surprised if younger generations are suddenly discovering that it can be really useful to have a physical backup in case their phone battery dies.

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This, and while no small device can easily replace a large physical map, but map developers aren't helping here either. I find more often then not, in map apps the 2nd you zoom out even a little, you start losing half the details. Even on a larger iPad. Especially the topo map apps, which also tend to forget most devices are HighDPI, so the topo image is also blurry.

I just wish I could set the map level to it's best, then zoom out as far as I want without jumping to a worse level map.

I agree with the big picture utility. A good project would be a map where you can choose to display all Best Westerns, Shell gas stations, etc at state zoom level so you can visualize a day's worth of travel including food, gas and lodging destinations without needing to repeatedly search GMaps. (i.e. it looks like there's a Shell station in 15, 65 and 128 miles along our route...)

My physical backup in case my phone dies is my other older phone with offline maps installed. I wonder why more people don't do the same.

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