• Survey. What are the best maps for iPhone? "Yandex.Maps" offline and how to install your maps on iPhone

    Now we will not consider the maps that are installed on the iPad by default from Google - we will look at maps from their direct competitor in Russia -.

    You can install them for free from the app store - to be honest, I would be surprised if I had to pay for an analog product that was already pre-installed upon purchase. And the standard cards are by no means so bad that they need replacement.

    Well, first of all, we have a choice of how to look at the map. There are two modes from Satellite and a schematic mode. This is what the center of Rostov-on-Don looks like from space. In the left top corner we see a traffic light - it functions as a button with which we can turn off or turn on the display of traffic jams.

    And this is how the same place looks on a schematic map. That is, Yandex maps on iPad work exactly the same as their online version on a computer.

    A good search on maps - it finds not only cities, but also streets, villages, stations, train platforms, etc. True, searching in foreign places is an order of magnitude inferior to searching in Russia. But Yandex maps are not aimed at residents of some New Guinea.

    If in Rostov traffic jams are recorded only on a few central streets, then Moscow is simply entangled in a “traffic jam network”.

    You can also get directions, but there is a big disadvantage. If for Moscow it is easy to do this, then for Rostov (and Rostov-on-Don is a city with a population of over a million), the application notifies that it is not able to do this. Also, if the program plots a route, it says the distance from object A to B. But here the phrase in the program seemed very incomprehensible to me: 13.4 km, taking into account traffic jams. That is, the creators of the application think that the distance somehow depends on traffic jams!?.

    You can virtually walk along the mapped route—it’s very convenient to use this in a car when driving in the city.

    I will also say that the program stores open cards in a cache and, the second time you access the same place, it opens it without access to the Internet.

    Evaluation of this program - if it were useful throughout Russia, there would be no price for it. As it is, it’s a must-have for residents of large cities; for others, it will only be useful as a map. It is basically useless to me abroad now.

    In the navigation category App store Store contains a very wide range of applications. There are highly specialized auto trekkers and programs for sea trips, and even for pilots there are several applications. But there is general tasks that he regularly encounters large number iPhone users. Let's try to collect the most relevant programs for such cases...

    Simple maps for iPhone

    Not yet native app Apple's Maps doesn't work very well in our latitudes.

    It is replaced by two popular programs s:



    Offline maps for iPhone

    The above Yandex programs Maps and Google Maps support the ability to create offline maps with the ability to use them without the Internet. This is described in detail at the end of the article. But it is not always possible to do this. So, Yandex has a very limited set of maps, and not everyone will mess with Google’s cache. Therefore, there are specialized applications that greatly facilitate this work.

    There is also a service that is gaining popularity.



    Car navigators for iPhone


    Maps guides


    You can make your guide this way.

    If you have created your own tourist route, then you can transfer it to your smartphone like this.

    Offline maps Yandex and Google

    Yandex Maps program

    IN latest versions The program now has the ability to save city maps in the phone’s memory, i.e. Now you can work with the card without connecting to mobile network or the Internet. This significantly speeds up working with the application and will also save traffic for those who are not subscribers of Megafon, Beeline or Kyivstar.

    Cities whose maps can be downloaded for offline viewing:
    Angasrk, Artem, Barnaul, Belgorod, Berdyansk, Veliky Ustyug, Volzhsky, Vyazniki, Glazov, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Yekaterinburg, Zaporozhye, Yoshkar-Ola, Izhevsk, Ilyichevsk, Kazan, Kamyshin, Kemerovo, Kiev, Kramatorsk-Slavyansk, Krasnoarmeysk, Krasnoyarsk , Crimea, Kurgan, Leningrad region, Lvov, Magnitogorsk, Melitopol, Minsk, Moscow, Moscow region, Nezhin, Nizhnevartovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Odessa, Orenburg, Prokopyevsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, St. Petersburg, Sarapul, Saratov, Sumy, Surgut, Tambov, Tomsk, Uglich, Ulyanovsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye, Ussuriysk, Ufa, Kharkov, Cherepanovo, Chita.

    There is also the opportunity to make maps of the desired area yourself.

    Maps program Google map

    Instructions on how to make google map work on iPhone without using the Internet.

    Theory.

    When you start the program, the necessary map fragments are loaded from the network themselves, using the one available at that moment wifi method or gprs. The loaded areas of the map form a so-called cache, a temporary file. This cache is used for quickly redrawing the screen and in case of no connection with the server, i.e. for working offline.

    This cache file is called MapTiles.sqlitedb and is a set of square tiles. Each level of detail has its own set. Fragments are not scaled. Likewise, satellite photography and a hybrid, each have their own independent set of fragments.

    It would seem that if you look at the desired part of the map once, you can refer to it constantly. However, the program is designed in such a way that when the cache reaches a certain size, old areas of the map begin to be erased to free up space for new data, and it is not possible to assemble a full map in this way.

    To get around this problem, you need to set a ban on overwriting the cached map by first loading the desired area of ​​the terrain into your phone.

    One more feature. With the change of firmware, the principle of card caching also changed. For iPad/iPhone4 fragments are used - 256x256 pixels, for iPhone 3GS/3G with firmware 2.2 - 128x128 pixels, for older firmware 64x64 pixels. In addition, the cache in different versions firmware is located in different places file system phone. Therefore, cards from old firmware do not fit the new ones; they need to be converted.

    The map itself consists of 3 files:

    • map in the form of fragments - MapTiles.sqlitedb
    • bookmark file - Bookmarks.plist(street names and pins you placed)
    • launch coordinates - com.apple.Maps.plist

    All 3 files are independent of each other. The main one is MapTiles.sqlitedb, the rest can be downloaded from different sources or may be missing altogether.

    To install a ready-made card you will need:

    • 1. Phone passed Jailbreak
    • 2. File manager for iPhone with the ability to change file permissions (I recommend iFile from Cydia)
    • 3. The cards themselves are for your firmware version. You can download them on torrents.

    By using file manager you need to upload the map files to the appropriate folders on your phone

    For firmware 4.x.x.

    • MapTiles.sqlitedb - private\var\mobile\Library\Caches\Maps\MapTiles\.
    • Bookmarks.plist - private\var\mobile\Library\Maps\.

    Set folder permissions:

    • private\var\mobile\Library\Caches\Maps\MapTiles\

    Set file permissions:

    • private\var\mobile\Library\Caches\Maps\MapTiles\MapTiles.sqlitedb remove the "Record" option for the user.

    After installing the card, you need to reboot the phone.

    If you want to make maps for iPhone yourself you will need

    1. Program SAS Planet, to create a map file.
    2. Converter Mapv4v5Converter.
    3. If you want to use multiple cards on your iPhone, then Cydia has free program iphone offline maps which switches between them on demand.

    List of maps for iPhone 4 firmware 4.x.x. :

    • Moscow - 659 Mb.
    • St. Petersburg - 614 Mb.
    • Kharkov - 249 Mb

    Probably one of the most popular navigation programs for iPhone is the Yandex Navigator program. Today there will be a lot of information about Yandex Navigator.

    Yandex.Navigator - what is this program?

    If you are a happy car owner and you know the city very poorly, then without such a program as Yandex Navigator you just can't get by.

    There is also the Yandex.Maps application, but under no circumstances confuse these two programs. Maps can also be used, but the Navigator is made with voice prompts and other details like on devices designed for navigation in cars.

    In order not to write long and tediously about the program’s capabilities, it’s enough to simply make a list of its main functions:

    • construction optimal routes;
    • voice prompts;
    • ability to view traffic jams;
    • places as bookmarks;
    • changing the route depending on the situation.

    So if you have a car and mobile device, this application will come in handy more than once.

    You don’t need to do anything special to have this program appear on your device. You just have to check a couple of nuances before installing.


    The first nuance is the device itself. If you have an iPhone lower than 4, then look for older versions on the Internet and download them. You must also have iOS no lower than 7.0.


    How to use Yandex Navigator?

    Some details about use will be mentioned in the following paragraphs, but I will tell you in general how to use this wonderful program.


    So, when you launch it, you will see four tabs: Search, Map, My Places and Menu. Search use it when you need to assign new point for the route.

    On Map we are during navigation, you can also see if there are traffic jams ahead. My places are a kind of bookmark of the places you will go to most often.

    AND last tab- This Menu, on it you can go to your Yandex profile, change the navigator voice, disable night mode and other details.

    Let's say you have required address and you need to somehow create a route there. The program is running and now you should go to the tab Search.

    On this tab below we see a selection of different establishments that could be useful to you. This could be the nearest gas station or just a place to grab a snack.

    So, at the top we see the Search line, where we actually write our goal. Once you start writing, hints will appear at the bottom, which will speed up the whole process a little.

    You will be offered several of the most optimal routes, which will show the time and distance that will have to be covered.

    Select the one you want and click Let's go. Sometimes it happens that we need to go through a certain place, but we want to build a route straight to the end point.

    To do this, there is a blue plus sign, which we drag to the desired road and the route will be rebuilt.

    How to enter coordinates in Yandex.Navigator?

    The question is very similar to the previous one, and in fact, to complete it, we also go to the tab Search and enter the addressee you need.

    Quite often there is a situation where you have completely looked through the entire route, started driving using the navigator, and suddenly you see that the places do not coincide with the previously viewed route.


    If suddenly there is a traffic jam on your way and there is an opportunity to get around it, then the navigator immediately changes the route and takes you along a completely different path.

    At first it was even a little scary, but then you begin to understand how much time you save by not standing in traffic jams.

    Yandex.Navigator does not detect location

    If you have launched the program, but your location is simply not detected, then first of all we check whether you have turned off geolocation on your iPhone.

    You can find where to find it and turn it on in the material. But there is also a possibility that you cannot find the satellite.

    This happens if you are far from the city center or simply out of reach of a satellite.

    If you drive using this application very often, then there is a chance that the voice may sooner or later get boring.


    There are two voices: Dima and Oksana. To change it just go to Menu — Sound — Voice.

    Yandex.Navigator does not work without the Internet

    Even if you download maps of the desired city in this application and want to use it without the Internet, nothing will work.

    Your location is not enough for these maps. A lot of data is downloaded from the Internet and therefore at least Edge must be turned on. But you can see the desired address on the map.

    There are many programs for offline navigation, but they are very specific and can only recommend the optimal route.


    We all go or go somewhere every day. We all have some purpose. Whether we go to work, on a visit, go on business to the other end of the city, or even travel - we all want to get to the place we need with maximum efficiency and minimal time expenditure.

    Navigators come to our aid with this. Finding ourselves in an unfamiliar place or city, we can ask locals how to get where we need to go, or simply use a navigator. Navigation makes any journey easier.

    And what could be better than a navigator that you can install on your iPhone! In order not to carry a bunch of unnecessary gadgets with us, it’s easier for us to download the application. There are a huge number of navigation programs for iPhone. They can be paid or free, and can be both offline and online.

    Types of navigator applications

    There are navigators with maps built into the program, and there are individual applications. All of them are equipped with voice prompts to ensure that motorists or cyclists do not get distracted from the road.

    Built-in and separate

    • Built-in ones are navigators that are located inside the map program, i.e. standard application Cards from Apple and
    • Standalone navigation apps are completely standalone apps. Among the popular ones it is worth noting Navitel, Yandex.Navigator, 2GIS And Sygic: GPS.

    Paid and free

    Navigators, like any programs from App Store can be paid or free. There are two types of paid ones:

    • First view. You bought the application and paid only once when you purchased it.
    • Second view. The application is shareware. Conditionally because you need to pay for a subscription. Subscription can be for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.

    Offline and online

    • To plot a route, some navigators require a constant connection to the Internet. The advantages of such iPhone apps are that they require significantly less device memory space and are slightly more accurate.
    • Offline navigators the better that an Internet connection is not needed, only the GPS module your iPhone. But for such navigators it is necessary to load maps into the device’s memory in advance.

    Review of existing applications

    Let's take a look different types navigators in order to understand their pros and cons.

    There is also interesting feature: route can be created using public transport. Here the navigator will show you which bus, trolleybus or tram route to take. Where to change to metro or minibus. Google Maps has a nice and intuitive interface. An Internet connection is also required for navigation.

    There is a choice of means of transportation from the metro and electric trains, to river trams and funiculars. There is also an interesting feature called “Shopping Center Navigator”. Since shopping centers these days are small towns, this feature is very useful in order not to get lost in a giant store.

    Let's summarize. If you travel a lot and it is not possible to use the Internet everywhere, then you should choose offline navigators. Navigation in offline mode is less accurate, but not much inferior to applications using the Internet. Ideally, for the most precise navigation, you need to use the Internet and the GPS module built into the iPhone.

    Another detail is Night mode. On at the moment This mode is implemented in almost all navigators in order to make it easier to read information at night. Whether you prefer paid or free is your choice. It is best to have applications like and Maps.Me. So, you will have both offline and online navigation.

    But keep in mind that in navigation mode, the phone's battery will be consumed quickly. Don't forget to charge your iPhone often and good luck on your travels!




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    @iLexa, I wonder what merits you would vote for Apple for if you didn’t live in Belarus? Maybe they have better coverage? Interface? Is search more convenient?

    If there had been a void where my country was on the map, I would never have thought that in any other scenario I could have voted for these maps. I would be filled with sacred hatred towards them. Therefore, I find your position extremely surprising.

    @Igemon80, it's very simple. I think one level higher - how it is really organized. And in fact, it turns out that our country is just a bottom with politics, bureaucracy, dictatorship and almost terrania, so even the same Google put it quite recently (around the end of last year), but detailed it at the beginning of this year. And all the time since 2007, I saw absolutely the same picture of the main roads of the country and that’s it! Well, because I don’t think and think completely soberly, and I don’t feel sacred hatred, because in their place I would, with a high degree of probability, do exactly the same thing, based on calculations of economic efficiency. And I absolutely understand the map supplier (Apple essentially has nothing to do with it), even all the map suppliers who do not want to put the CIS countries on the map, because it will never pay off for them. At the moment, only Navitel is profitable, this is their market, they are working on it, updating the maps and improving the software.

    More specifics, their coverage suits me quite well and for me they are absolutely usable, it’s just that first of all they ask me to go to the Moscow Ring Road, and from there they lead to Europe. The interface is clear to me and suits me (unlike Google maps, I still haven’t figured out what I need to press for it to start leading me and telling me where to turn. Search... hmm... Google is better, but not the previous built-in application, but the current one.

    @iLexa, okay. Thanks for the detailed answer!

    I’m also not at all a hypocrite. It's all about personal convenience. When the almost perfectly covered Ukraine in Google maps is replaced by extremely weak coverage from Apple, this is, to put it mildly, upsetting. And if you dig deeper and evaluate the economic aspect from the manufacturer’s point of view, an even sadder picture emerges. Besides the fact that everything is bad now, there are also no prospects for improvement in the near future. It is clear that Apple will first finish the map of the United States, then work on Western Europe, and get to Ukraine and Belarus when we are already babysitting our grandchildren.

    Therefore, I consider all your arguments (certainly correct) as another reason to treat Apple cards negatively, and not try to justify them.

    @Igemon80, you can also understand, but I just know what I’m comparing it to, because I was in NYC in July and I terribly missed the functionality that is now in the new maps. For the US, I still think they're chic. And I’m glad that there will be no more Google, otherwise it’s not fun to type in Guitar Store, then walk 10 blocks on foot and find out that you came to an ordinary residential building in which there is nothing and NEVER was. Well, no one canceled cutting back either.
    But the situation can easily change for the better, Apple has a ton of money, they may well invest in the development of cards, since they launched them raw, so I think by the end of next year all the largest markets will be satisfied, therefore in another year they will think about smaller markets.

    By the way, another thought, again Apple is the engine of progress, if they had not drunk Google maps, their application might not have seen the light of day, and we would not be at the same level of functionality and implementation as we are now. So we got it anyway good app from Google, which they will support and cut, the situation is the same as with YouTube.

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