Ordnance Survey launches its first maps app for iOS | Hacker News Reader

Ordnance Survey launches its first maps app for iOS

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27 pointspetrel21 comments

> It’s rather surprising that it’s taken this long for the OS to put its work on iOS, but the agency has at last come up with an official app.

Not so surprising if you consider that the Ordnance Survey focuses on other stuff, rather than the newest tech gadgets. Having maps on the phone is really nice for "casual" uses and navigation in towns, but this is covered quite well by the existing solutions. If I go trekking I much prefer a paper map which is larger and more robust to essentially all mishaps.

Just spent christmas snowmobiling and I much prefer a map on my phone with a GPS pinpoint of where I am. I'm not used to a snowy landscape so I couldn't reference were I am on a paper map, but my phone made that easy.

The main reason I use a map and compass in the mountains as a primary means of locating position is that I want to stay competent in navigation - being on foot in mountains in winter is risky enough and while I have plenty gadgets I don't completely trust them with my life and navigating in a white-out with a compass and map isn't a skill I want to re-learn when I need it (it is very difficult).

Worth nothing the OS maps for the UK are currently available through Bing Maps.

The OS also supports one of my all time favourite sites: http://www.geograph.org.uk/ this project "aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland".

I've been navigating using OS maps on my iPhone for over a year now using ViewRanger. To "download" an OS map you still have to pay - ViewRanger license the data from the Ordnance Survey. They charge you so that they can pay OS for the maps.

But it's all quite seamless and convenient - you "download" pack of a tokens from the App store, and then "use" them to download map tiles as and when you need them.

I'm not sure what an iPhone map written by OS themselves would give me that ViewRanger does not do already.

I wonder what their motive is? i.e. why isn't the current model of "licensing" the map data to third party app writers sufficient?

the extraordinary quality of Ordinance Survey maps suggests this was far from trivial, even if an iOS map app was a priority for OS, which i doubt.

Anyone from the UK already knows this but for those who plan to travel in the UK, these are the finest maps i have ever seen or used, and indeed have used them a lot. The 1:50,000 sheets for N Wales (Snowdonia), Isle of Skye, and Applecross, among many others, are treasures.

taking a casual walk with the family (e.g., around Langdale in the Lake District) with a OS 1:25,000 OS map is an interactive history less every step of the way--"oh look, says here there's a Celtic burial chamber just up ahead on your left"

I've been using the UKMap app for OS maps for a couple of years. It'll be interesting to see what (if anything) this offers over and above that one.

The fact you can get the app for free and then 10km square tiles for 69p as opposed to having to pay £7.99 for the whole country?

> 10km square tiles for 69p

The whole of the UK would cost £1700 at that price. Given that Bing has OS maps (which incidentally are very good) for free, I suspect the market for this will be limited.

But most people don't need the whole country, they want a couple of tiles near their home or where they're on holiday.

I agree the pricing is off but I think there's a model for something short of the whole country for £8. Sure there are people who will want the whole thing (for about the price of one paper map) but not everyone.

The problem with Bing is that you often need your OS maps in places that don't have internet connection. I'd rather have them already loaded on my device.

Is UK Map £7.99? I don't remember ever having had to pay for it, but maybe I got it in a sale.

The 1:25,000 maps, which seem to be the most detailed I can get (the UK Map one offers 1:25K and 1:10K) are £2.49. To cover Nottingham alone, that would be £9.96.

Do they really need the giant copyright on all of the maps?

Many other maps apps do the same thing, if perhaps less noticeably.

Probably. I don't think I've ever seen an OS map extract without one.

I don't see one on the iOS maps app and Google keeps theirs really small and it might be a contractual obligation since they license the data.

This is Crown Copyright. I don't know the rules but they may be different.

The Ordnance Survey are very big on the copyright.

Do they really need the giant copyright on all of the maps?

To be fair, it's "Crown Copyright," which may have different effects, at least far as UK law in concerned:

http://www.oqps.gov.uk/about/faqs-copyright

No idea if splashing "Crown copyright" across everything is a direct requirement, but for all I know it might it.

At first I thought it took Apple 232 years to approve it.

how come? Apple is not nearly that old.

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