Magic Earth sat nav app (Android and iOS)

Thistle said:
I’ve been playing with it on my iPad, I put in loads of different destinations then toggled between car and truck to see if it uses a different route, so far not found a single one even though I know some of the routes definitely have annoying things like low bridges and I do not want a convertible van!

I even set the van height to 4.5M and it still wants to take me under the railway bridge at Tywyn!
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Bear in mind you'll need to download the map again if you're using offline mapping...

That just caught me out as I tested it!
 
I found three more bridges that were not recorded so I've added those too.

It's quite tricky updating OSM and it needs a bit of techie nous I've discovered. I shall make sure that future bridges that I encounter are recorded correctly...

Regarding Magic Earth, how quickly the updated information appears in the maps that you download depends on how frequently they update their map sets.
 
Not used OSM for years but I think you can make & additions to the maps on your phone too.
 
Canalsman said:
I'm doing it on a tablet but a phone is certainly possible but the smaller screen would make it awkward.
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I add all my POIs into Organic Maps via the phone screen, Osmand should be okay but I'm just installing it to check.
 
barryd said:
I've never found anything more reliable or better than my TomTom Start and it's about 12 years old so I need to really. I'll probably just buy a new Tomtom but I've not heard good things about them either.
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I have an old TomTomXL which I found while having a clearout, it is only 1GB so it will not accept European maps but I have installed the latest TomTom GB & Republic of Ireland map on it, the latest speed cameras and 9510 navcore etc
unfortunately, I don't have the windscreen mount, I would put a metal disc on the back and use a magnet mount
I don't know how good the battery is but the charge port is OK so it can be left plugged in, on the plus side Jane will tell you where to go:ROFLMAO:
I don't want anything for it so if you want it as a back up it is yours

edit:
I wasn't thinking clearly and forgot it has an SD card slot, if I can find an old 2 GB SD card I can put Europe maps on it, you can have it FOC either way
 
Tezza33 said:
I have an old TomTomXL which I found while having a clearout, it is only 1GB so it will not accept European maps but I have installed the latest TomTom GB & Republic of Ireland map on it, the latest speed cameras and 9510 navcore etc
unfortunately, I don't have the windscreen mount, I would put a metal disc on the back and use a magnet mount
I don't know how good the battery is but the charge port is OK so it can be left plugged in, on the plus side Jane will tell you where to go:ROFLMAO:
I don't want anything for it so if you want it as a back up it is yours

edit:
I wasn't thinking clearly and forgot it has an SD card slot, if I can find an old 2 GB SD card I can put Europe maps on it, you can have it FOC either way
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Very kind of you but I suspect it's maybe as out of date as my Start 20 which I think is maybe 4gb with full Europe maps. I never updated the maps as so many people reported issues.

I tried Magic Earth again today and it went reasonably well until the last few miles which of course is always the crucial goat track but and it just gave up. So I found myself on a single track lane getting all sweary. Had to switch to Google maps which seemed to work ok for once.

There are just too many variables and issues with apps for sat navs I reckon. Obviously way more likely to go wrong than a dedicated device. I'll persist with it because it has some good advantages but clearly they will never be as good as a proper device I reckon reliability wise at least
 
barryd said:
I tried Magic Earth again today and it went reasonably well until the last few miles which of course is always the crucial goat track but and it just gave up. So I found myself on a single track lane getting all sweary. Had to switch to Google maps which seemed to work ok for once.

There are just too many variables and issues with apps for sat navs I reckon. Obviously way more likely to go wrong than a dedicated device. I'll persist with it because it has some good advantages but clearly they will never be as good as a proper device I reckon reliability wise at least
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It doesn't matter whether you have a standalone sat nav or an app. Both are dependent on two things.

One, accurate mapping.

Two, some intelligence from the user not to turn down a goat track!
 
Canalsman said:
It doesn't matter whether you have a standalone sat nav or an app. Both are dependent on two things.

One, accurate mapping.

Two, some intelligence from the user not to turn down a goat track!
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Lol! Not quite what happened. I knew I was going down a goat track, I had planned it all and at the start of the journey the app showed the same route I had planned on the laptop previously. The problem was firstly the voice guidance packed up and then so did the navigation. Google maps has done similar. Now my two ancient tomtoms both drove me nuts at times but they would faithfully play out the entire route regardless of whether it was the best one or not. You just can't rely on phones in the same way. As I said, too many variables as to why it went wrong. A dedicated device does just that and nothing else and each device is identical.

I would just go out and buy a new Tomtom but I've heard they are not much cop these days either. Progress in 20 years? Well yes but as for reliability? I'm not so sure.
 
Even the TomTom app on a phone or tablet works better than a dedicated DumTom these day. I do still use a dedicated one though, but I certainly won't be replacing it with another one when it packs up.
 
I tend to use my 'phone for navigation all the time now. But I use Waze so I can't put in vehicle size or anything like that but I don't miss it.

When I did have a TomTom which could do that it still got me in all sorts of trouble.
 
barryd said:
<snip> The problem was firstly the voice guidance packed up and then so did the navigation. Google maps has done similar. Now my two ancient tomtoms both drove me nuts at times but they would faithfully play out the entire route regardless of whether it was the best one or not. You just can't rely on phones in the same way. As I said, too many variables as to why it went wrong. A dedicated device does just that and nothing else and each device is identical.

<snip>
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Even a dedicated device can hang (and may in fact do something else as well). I started to get that problem with my Garmin. It would still play music from the SD card but the screen froze and the vice commands ceased. It was also prone to ceasing to provide audio (music and voice commands) after use as hands-free for a phone call. I now use the CoPilot app on an Android head unit that replaced the Ford radio/CD.
 
TJBi said:
Even a dedicated device can hang (and may in fact do something else as well). I started to get that problem with my Garmin. It would still play music from the SD card but the screen froze and the vice commands ceased. It was also prone to ceasing to provide audio (music and voice commands) after use as hands-free for a phone call. I now use the CoPilot app on an Android head unit that replaced the Ford radio/CD.
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Maybe. Way too complicated though so that's probably why. My original TomTom one from twenty years ago and my TomTom Start were just sat navs and nothing else and never hung, stopped working or gave up. Their lane guidance was and is way better than anything I've seen since and now. Yep the battery goes eventually as do the connections sometimes but as a device they worked perfectly. At least technically. Whether they took you down a goat track and you threw them out the window is a different matter. They wouldn't simply stop talking to you or give up or have no volume at all as one user has found.

Magic earth is a good find but like all these Apps, it cannot be relied upon to consistently work like you could a dedicated device of old.
 
Well Magic Earth saved the day earlier. Google Maps messed up again on the bike and I got lost. No signal and despite the offline maps I have it just wouldn't work or let me find or start another route even in Airplane mode. Magic earth would though although I need to change my map layout as it's awful. It won't let you do that without a signal but a browny point there none the less.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
Have you tried any of these Barry?


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No I haven't Kev. Didn't know about them. The key thing I probably do different though is using headphones on the scooter so I don't see the screen. Nowhere to mount a screen on the Honda really.

I'm just about to leave Boscastle for Tintagel. Google Maps says the road is closed and it's 16 miles, Magic Earth says it isn't and it's 4 miles 😁 which one will be right. Place your bets now! 😂
 
I assume as they're for a bike you might be abe to put it in your pocket and listen to it, worth a look at least.
 
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