update to software - when?

matty2767 · Regular Visitor Joined: Jun 27, 2004 Posts: 85

does anyone have any info on when the maps/software might get updated for mapsonic?. a recent trip down south revealed loads of road alterations and arms onto roundabouts etc. that arent in the software.

cheers

proctog · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 28, 2004 Posts: 100

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

As there seems to be a new version of Mapsonic, called 'Navigation Europe', maybe those of us who bought Mapsonic should stop waiting for software updates. They've already posted an update to Navigation Europe, and it doesn't ship until mid November.

RayO · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2005 Posts: 2

Why are posters to this forum so negative about the Mapsonic product?
Having spent the last 2 days assisting a freind trying to get a brand new TomTom/Ipaq combination to work I can assure you that hardware/software problems are not unique to Mapsonic.
I have become very familiar with the TomTom web page and the situation as regards patches and map upgrades is identical to that with Michelin. Patches are available for download but any map updates are chargeable, what is more the pices for maps on the two products are almost identical.
Why do users expect their maps to be totally up to date? GPS mapping always lags some way behind paper mapping - because of the conversion process - and a review of UK road atlases I read in a magazine around 3 months ago revealed that those paper based products labelled as 2005 are by no means up to date with recent road changes.
I have been using Mapsonic 1.3.2 on a TE for around 6 months with very little trouble, the main uppgrade on my wish list would be the ability to enter via's.

RayO · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2005 Posts: 2

Why are posters to this forum so negative about the Mapsonic product?
Having spent the last 2 days assisting a freind trying to get a brand new TomTom/Ipaq combination to work I can assure you that hardware/software problems are not unique to Mapsonic.
I have become very familiar with the TomTom web page and the situation as regards patches and map upgrades is identical to that with Michelin. Patches are available for download but any map updates are chargeable, what is more the pices for maps on the two products are almost identical.
Why do users expect their maps to be totally up to date? GPS mapping always lags some way behind paper mapping - because of the conversion process - and a review of UK road atlases I read in a magazine around 3 months ago revealed that those paper based products labelled as 2005 are by no means up to date with recent road changes.
I have been using Mapsonic 1.3.2 on a TE for around 6 months with very little trouble, the main uppgrade on my wish list would be the ability to enter via's.

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

My dissatifaction with Mapsonic has nothing to do with Tom Tom, which I know nothing about.

I think Mapsonic has bizarre problems with it's software which they've had plenty of time to fix, but just haven't done it. I've given up waiting. One of my reasons for choosing Mapsonic was that it offers a 'Pedestrian' and 'shortest route' modes, which I thought would be useful when I'm on foot or on my bike. It was only after I parted with my money that I discovered that these are not available when it is in navigation mode; a pretty fundamental problem, IMO, because Mapsonic is presented as navigation software. In addition, there's a limitation on the speeds that can be assigned to roads that means they can't be set as low as walkers and cyclists need, I don't know why. So Mapsonic doesn't offer these users useful estimations of journey or arrival time.

I'm now looking at Mapopolis, which seems to be much more relaxing, as it does more-or-less what's 'written on the tin', I can easily tell it whether I want to go on, or avoid, major roads and, unlike Mapsonic, it doesn't crash my Palm.

Nickster · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 08, 2005 Posts: 7

Have you tried Digi Map? I downloaded the demo and I was impressed. There are a couple of features missing but there at least seems to be regular updates to both maps and software. The developers run a forum on their website and seem to give the impression of wanting to know the views of their users

Check it out, you might like it

http://english.digi-map.de/

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

I did look at the demo of Digimap, and it seemed ok. As I recall it is significantly more expensive than Mapsonic and Mapopolis because one has to buy each country separately. I paid £127 for Mapsonic and used it in three European countries in the first month; I think it would have cost significantly more to do that with Digimap. Are you Digimap forums in English?

As a follow-on the my previous post about Mapsonic. Last night I thought that as I'd been demoing Mapopolis for a couple of weeks I would use Mapsonic to see how it felt after building up experience with Mapopolis. I tried twice to start Mapsonic and twice it crashed my Palm. It was raining, and by then the windows of my car were getting quite steemed up so I started Mapopolis and it navigated me home.

It has happened before that Mapsonic crashed my Palm every time it activated Bluetooth, and Mapsonic tech support told me that the fix is to delete the Bluetooth Device Cache. This means all one's paired and set up Bluetooth devices disappear and have to be set up again.

Nickster · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 08, 2005 Posts: 7

Yeah, you're right it (digimap) is more expensive. It costs approx £170 for europe or £115 for a single region. Mapsonic is £140 for Europe or £90 or a single region (approx). However, I've found that you can pick up an old Digimap version pretty cheap nowadays and then upgrade it to the latest edition. By doing this you can get Digimap for the same price as Mapsonic. I'm running both Mapsonic and Digimap at the moment. I definitely prefer the look of Mapsonic but Digimap is far better at actually sending you on a sensible route Wink

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

Where did you pick up an old Digimap, Nickster?

I just checked, the prices for maps of europe are:-

Mapsonic £105 at Expansys.com
Digimap £171 (249 Euros)
Mapopolis £67 ($125)

I'd be interested in your experiences with Digimap, particularly in how you can express a preference between major and minor roads, how well it 'knows about' one-way streets, whether it caters to the needs of pedestrians or cyclists.

Nickster · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 08, 2005 Posts: 7

I bought it from Global Positioning Systems for £30. Its Digi-map 2002 but it can be upgraded to Digi-map classic free of charge on registration. It will then cost me 70 Euro if I want to get the latest version of the maps. So doing it that way costs a little less than a new Mapsonic license

However, I just checked back to give you the link and it says that they've stopped selling it:

http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/viewprod.php?product_id=2333&max_cat_id=14&vt=list

I must have only got it 10 days ago so it must be a recent change. Sorry

Nickster · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 08, 2005 Posts: 7

Digimap seems to know about the one way streets that I've tried. I'll try a route if you have something in mind if you give me a start and destination? Its doesn't appear to have a dedicated pedestrian or cyclist mode though. By default it uses the Navteq data for the roads, I'm not sure what that really means other than saying it choses the routes that I would pick, it works well. You can override to avoid motorways or city centres. There is also an option to set a sliding scales of preference to road types. The road types are defined as motorways and then '2nd, 3rd etc to 6th' level roads. Hope that helps..

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