Mapopolis for the Smartphone
Well I have been using Mapopolis for little over a week now, and I must say that it continues to amaze me with it's capabilities. Despite the lack of GPS support for the MPx200, it is still a great little utility for those of us who travel a lot, or just live in a big city. I have tested many aspects of Mapopolis and I have not been let down yet. What do you need? Well you need a phone or pocket PC, the software to read the maps (available on their site) and you will need to purchase a map pack (with a map pack you can download unlimited maps within the pack that you purchased, for a period of one year). I have the Platinum map pack because it is not GPS supported and neither is my phone and that is what I am reviewing.
I have used the navigation (non-GPS) to route out directions using Mapopolis and many popular Map/Direction sites wile doing this review. What I found astonished me. I downloaded the Major Road maps for the lower 48 states in the U.S. I also have the entire state of Virginia to include Washington, D.C., as well as San Diego County, Ca. and all of this only takes up 57.47 MB of space. The only complaint that I have so far is about the map downloads page. I had to download the major road maps state by state, which took a little while but it was no big deal.
How it works...
Lets say that you have 200 maps on your phone, but you only want to see your area, well then you will have to "choose maps" and make sure you are in multi-select" mode and select only the maps you want to see in high detail. With the Major Road maps, it will show all the city/county locations, but will not be in any detail unless those city/counties maps are selected as well. I have the Northern Va and Washington DC area selected on mine, but as you can see I have had the entire country selected.
The gaps in the map are due to the lack of detail when zoomed out to the max when so much is selected, the holes filled in as I zoomed in...
After I became more familiar with the program I decided to put it to the test. I loaded all the major road maps, the map of my area, and the map of San Diego, Ca. I then pin pointed the location of the last place that I lived and named it Barraks (it is in Camp Pendleton, Ca). I then had Mapopolis route a trip from where I live now, to where I lived before, all the way across country.
Mapopolis vs. Popular internet directions service.
• Internet provided directions with fewer more confusing steps
• Mapopolis provided about 12 more steps, and was more clear and easier to follow.
• Mapopolis also provides the feature to view the map with the directions in a pane along the bottom of the screen.
• The internet also provides a similar, but would be 8 pages that you would need to print off and take with you.
• Mapopolis is always with you, and gives you the ability to save and recall routes in the event you are somewhere that you would like to do some sight seeing along the way. Just save your route, then you can do whatever you need and always go back to where you originally left off.
• Mapopolis will TELL you the directions. Could be useful when driving, Mapopolis will recite the directions step by step (prompted by user). This feature must be activated in the Menu, Settings, Route/Navigation.
Mapopolis has a pretty extensive search feature allowing you to search for anything and everything, including but not limited to stores, malls, theatres, banks, ATM's, landmarks, restaurants, places of interest, a specific address, etc. You also specify the area of the search. For example, Anywhere (All Locations you have maps selected for), within 25 Miles (of where your cross hair is, unless from fav. is specified), etc.
You can save locations in your favorites so you can get to them easily. You can create "landmarks" for let's say, your house, or work if it isn't already on the map. You can use all these features quickly and easily using the menu.
Menu
Menu-Find
Menu-Navigation
Menu-Info Pane
The Members Have Spoken
Ultimately I consider this to be an awesome product because it is always with you. But you don't have to take my word for it. The following are some quotes taken from several MGN members and subscribers.
•"I have actually been using Mapopolis for quite some time and have a paid subscription to the maps so I got the full fledged set up, All in all just to throw my 2 cents at you guys is that the phones and directions are very well made, the landmarks with auto programmed phone numbers is a tremendous feature and if someway they could incorporate an actual location it would be amazing. Currently I have a Pocket Pc with Mapopolis and I have Mapopolis on my Palm Tungsten T3 both connecting with my belkin bluetooth gps unit, Mapoplis clearly owns the market when it comes to Navigation units creating nothing but solid products, this being right there with it" -FungFlex
•"Wow!!
It actually works pretty good, even without the GPS data. The navigation is intuitive (I could figure it out!) and works very well. Inside of 5 minutes I had mapped the route from my home to the office. Turn-by-turn instructions scroll with a touch of the nav-key. I’m sure I’ll be using this product more as I get used to it. I travel quite a bit around the Chicago area and I’m looking forward to trying this product out in the field!" -deavod
•"this is an excellent program. it is very convenient for me to have exact directions to any address at any time. i was slightly interested in purchasing a gps unit as well but i think i will wait until the mpx220 because of bluetooth. this way i can keep the receiver in my car and just take it with me in my pocket if needed without the hassle of cables. however, one problem i do have with the program is that the directions it gave me were not optimal, meaning it told me to make a right then a left then another left, where i could have just gone straight and met with the exact same road. although it is not perfect it will be useful to me when i have to find an address i am unfamiliar with and i am cenrtainly looking forward to gps." -Alchemist
•"I love Mapopolis! I've been using it for a week now and it's always given me good directions. Ocationally it makes small mistakes (like saying an address is on the wrong side of the road), but it always gets me to my destination. I paid for the platinum map bundle (w/o GPS), so I'm downloading ALL of the state maps now. It has almost replaced my desktop mapping program (Streets & Trips)." -sanbornn
•"I haven't used it in a serious way yet, but I am definately planning on buying the platinum maps without GPS. I am pondering whether to get my two locals, or the map pack and download em all. This is my first experience with a pocket PC mapping program, but its great. I can't believe how much data they store. I wonder how responsive they will be to user suggestions and such. Like if I wanted to plan a cross country trip from Florida to California, I don't think you can currently map that route even though it would most likely be only a handful of highways the whole route. Maybe like a country navigator type thing." -stiletto
As I demonstrated cross country mapping can be done, if you have the maps for it.
Mapopolis