Re: Sygic Gps Navigation Amp; Offline Maps
Olegario Benford
I recently downloaded c:geo on my phone and loaded it with some nearby caches. My problem is: when I try to NAVIGATE TO one of the caches, it opens up Google Maps and tells me that navigation is not possible for my location (I live in Slovenia). Besides, I'd like to use navigation in offline mode.
I managed to download offline maps for Stygic Aura, by which the navigation per se works great (if I type in coordinates and so on), but I don't know how can I make it work with c:geo.? I mean -that it would change to Aura maps instead of Google and navigate me to the cache location. Is it even possible?
someone on this forum even recommended me the c:geo application when I was looking for free geocaching apps :/ I contributed to the website already by purchasing the premium membership. I didn't know this website has a grudge against free apps. Well, I hope I get a helpful reply before they take it down
I didn't know that. Thanks for telling me. But then again, if I switch to the official Groundspeak app (i think it's around 7 euros?), can I use offline maps with it? Because if it's only compatible with google maps, then I rather not complicate things more for me. Yesterday I finally got OSM maps to work on my phone and so now c:geo DOES switch to that app and navigates me to the cache (sort of - it seems pretty inaccurate for now). That Stygic Aura seems better, so if it's supported by Groundspeak, it would of course be great and well worth the purchase.
It is an ongoing myth that the program violates the ToU. While many still hold on to it, it does not. It is, however true, that there is bad blood between GS and the programs authors and it is bad from discussing it on these forums.
Having said that, you would probably get a better answer from the C:GEO support forums or the Facebook page anyway. I am doubtful since looking at this program and all it does, I would have thought someone would have jump on it and your answer would be out there already. Having said that, I am going to see if the program is compatible with my DROID 3 and, since I have both programs in question, will see if it works. Doesn't look like I'l regret owning Stygic Aura either way if it truly does work and has the listed features for the US side of the pond.
That said, this question is so surely specific to a third party application that it's best asked/answered in that product's primary suppor venue, so I'm closing it here. Please direct all subsequent traffic to whereever it it that c:geo's support dudes hang out.
If you are looking for privacy respecting frankly you don't have too many options anyway. If you really want to know whats best for you I recommend installing all of them and have a play around with each.
Magic Earth is not Foss but its privacy respecting and probably provides the best experience. OsmAnd has the most options but I didn't like the "feel" of it. OrganicMaps is a friendlier version of OsmAnd, but perhaps lacking in comparison.
I use OsmAnd+ for hiking and biking, because it has so many possibilities and tools.
Organic Maps for navigation driving by car.
Magic earth I just tried, when I experimented with /e/ OS, whre it is the default map app. I liked it, but I prefer FLOSS. Magic earth has crowd sourced traffic alerts. That's a advantage compared to OsmAnd+ and Organic Maps.
Realistically there is no better navigation on mobile device than Google maps. So I am searching a similar one. I care about privacy, that's why I'm here.
What is best in your opinion and what is similar to gmaps.
I find that Magic Earth search is pretty bad. If you search before GPS lock, it'll return results from thousands of miles away. Doesn't seem to remember anything about previous position. Also, if your search isn't exact, it doesn't prioritize closer fuzzy matches, and again your results list will be filled with better matches from thousands of miles away.
Organic Maps seems to find POI much easier. Also easy to search by street name alone.
dlb Realistically there is no better navigation on mobile device than Google maps. So I am searching a similar one. I care about privacy, that's why I'm here.
What is best in your opinion and what is similar to gmaps.
dlb Actually, I have no idea. I use it as you can buy a subscription outside Playstore direct from Sygic, the maps are offline and are way better than Magic Earth. Additionally, there is something going on with Magic Earth that makes my phone overheat. This does not happen with Sygic.
pdagenius How were you able to buy the subscription? I have Sygic on my GrapheneOS P7, nothing Google installed, and when I click to buy the subscription, I get an error message. I tried uninstalling Sygic, installing Google stuff from Apps and reinstalling Sygic, still no luck.
Google maps only allows an offline map for 1 or 2 weeks. After that you have to connect again. And when you do connect it uploads all the data it has gathered from you since it was last connected. It gathers your location and records wifi data as long as its running and uploads all of it when it reconnects to the internet. Just FYI.
I used the excellent and default public transit layer on OsmAnd to look up bus stop locations AND the routes they serve, and the bus stop numbers just a few hours ago. Then I entered a bus stop number into the front page of my city's public transit website and got realtime arrival information for the routes arriving at that stop.
I did this while significantly protecting my privacy and not having to look at ads that are always major clutter to me (Google maps). I did not even have to install a public transit app which is piled with a horrific number of trackers and ads, or being tracked by Google because I had to enable Play Store (GMS) to use the app.
User2288 You say it gathers locations and wifi data.
Is this connected to your profile, or just uploaded as part of their map/location database?
And what if you use Google Maps without a profile? I do delete my Google account, so I'm not logged in Google Maps. Is this mitigating some of the data tracking this way?
I also tried Organic Maps and OsmAnd, but neither of it comes even close when searching for places. It is actually so bad as to be not usable. If you search for a building name, it doesn't suggest as a search result, but when you zoom in on the address, it is showing that exact building name?!
If you use Google Play Store/Services, or Aurora Store to install Google Maps directly into this profile, remove them completely afterwards). In fact, best to have no apps at all but Google Maps (and the default apps) in this 'GMaps' profile to be sure, since we are being extra careful in this scenario. Though, of course if you want, you could have a VPN app that you trust running in this profile too, to hide your IP address in the next step.
Also to be sure your efforts aren't pointless, never use any other profiles that are running any google services, or apps with google analytics, etc. etc. that also have access to your location. Or best not to have any apps at all with location access running whilst that profile is open (except system apps of course, don't mess with them.)
Then when your Google Maps app tells you that your downloaded maps won't work and you need to connect to the internet, go into the Google Map app settings and completely reset the app by clearing cache and data. Then I am pretty sure it would be fine to give it internet access and download the offline maps again, without it uploading more than the immediate info it collected since it was reset.
One more thing to also bear in mind is keeping the Google Maps app updated (as in the app itself, not the offline maps) without letting any of your 'travel data' leak. I guess you could do this in a few ways but one is installing Google Maps, and keeping it updated, in another profile/user (let's call this profile 'G-Updates') with the Play Store, or Aurora store, if you want. You can leave your 'GMaps' profile off while doing this, as it will update the app in all profiles Google Maps is installed in, when updated in the 'G-Updates' profile, but it will be unable to access user data from your 'GMaps' profile. You can even keep the Google Maps app disabled in this 'G-Updates' profile and the Play Store still updates it, no problem. I think in aurora store there is a toggle for updating disabled apps, haven't used it in a long time.
there may well be far easier / less complicated ways to do that and I might have some things wrong, I am kind of tired and not sure why I started writing this long message as it's a fairly convoluted way to do things, but I suppose some people might want to do it...
ve3jlg You may be right. In truth I really haven't used OsmAnd much at all. I generally don't need and don't use navigation and maps at all. My extent of using OsmAnd was probably half an hour. When I first installed it I fiddled around with it for half an hour to figure things out. I'm a technical person and not easily put off by complicated things, but rather quickly I felt overwhelmed with all the settings and not knowing what the hell is going on. Couldn't "get into it" easily.
Just playing around, the map layer also felt rather heavy and sluggish. The color scheme of the map also put me off as things didn't "look" as clear to me. This may be a "google" syndrome that we have all developed, if it looks different you are thrown off by "feel".
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