MapDroyd

MapDroyd
Author:	CloudMade
License:	Proprietary (free of charge)
Platform:	Android
Status:	Broken
Version:	v1.1.6 (2012-05-23)
Languages:	English and German
Website:	http://www.mapdroyd.com
Offline vector map viewer for Android. Compact one-off data downloads
Features Feature Value Map Display Display map yes Map data vector Source offline Rotate map yes 3D view no Shows website ? Shows phone number ? Shows operation hours ? Routing ? Navigating Navigate no Find location ? Find nearby POIs ? Navigate to point ? Navigation with voice / Voice guidance ? Keep on road ? Lane guidance ? Works without GPS ? Navigate along predefined route ? Tracking Make track no Customizable log interval ? Track formats ? Geotagging ? Fast POI buttons ? Upload GPX to OSM ? Monitoring Monitoring no Show current track ? Open existing track ? Altitude diagram ? Show POD value ? Satellite view ? Show live NMEA data ? Show speed ? Send current position ? Editing ? Rendering ? Accessibility ?

MapDroyd (mapdroyd.com) was an offline vector map viewer app for Android. It was free but closed-source, created by German company OneStepAhead, which was later bought out by CloudMade. The programme is no longer functional as it depends on a server (mapdroyd.com) to provide the initial map downloads; without the map files, the .APK is useless. The last map update was in early 2013; as of 2016 the app has been removed from the Google Play Store and abandoned.

There is a nice video OpenStreetMap, from the Kabul Airport to Jalalabad which described OSM in general and using MapDroyd to view maps.

MapDroyd was an early example of OpenStreetMap redendered with vectors for a regular useable map display.

Pros and cons:

• - No longer exists! Development ceased around summer 2009, and later the map server disappeared.
• - The code was never open sourced
• + It was free
• - The maps for MapDroyd could only be compiled by the vendor
• + Worked with very compact offline maps. For example, the map for California was 154Mb, while the full osm data in PBF format can only compact down to no less than 300Mb.
• + The maps could be downloaded per country directly from the app
• - The maps didn't show some of the OSM features. They lacked e.g. pubs and tourist attractions.
• - The map rendering for rivers was poor. See e.g. the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany. Installing coast lines does not improve this.
• - Some large lakes like Lake Mälaren were not displayed

A sister app called NavDroyd offered navigation features, also offline, but paid for. Both apps have been discontinued.

Getting the maps working in the emulator

1. Create an emulator image with enough space for the image you want to download.
2. If downloading within the app does not work (didn't for me) then
   1. Create a directory /sdcard/GeoMapData
   2. Download the index and find the file name you want (e.g: Europe/Great Britain.smd)
   3. If this doesn't work first time, change your browser user agent to "MapDroyd"
   4. Download the appropriate SMD file (e.g: Great Britain)
   5. Put the SMD file into the GeoMapData directory
3. Load the app and use the "geo" emulator console command to set your position.

History

In its heyday, the MapDroyd app was very popular. It was an early example of OpenStreetMap rendered with vectors for a regular useable map display. The compact data files allowed it to work reasonably efficiently offline, and it showed the way for other apps that followed such as MAPS.ME.

The retired application TourIST seems to be a precursor to MapDroyd. They both used the same set of icons at the bottom, and the same scale bar at the top of the screen. The "osa" in the package name com.osa.android.tourist probably stands for OneStepAhead.

Gallery

• MapDroyd 0.9.8.6d
• 
  Map with scale bar
• 
  Map with menu
• 
  Settings screen
• 
  Map download screen