Monday, January 31, 2011

Announcing: You Need A Map

I am pleased to announce the release of our latest app: You Need A Map


This one app covers the entire USA including Alaska and Hawaii. In order to fit into the 2GB Apple app size limit, it uses 90 meter data instead of the 10 meter data in Scenic Map. While the terrain is not as detailed as Scenic Map, it does have all of the roads, rivers, streams, lakes, buildings, polygons and other features.

You Need A Map also has a second complete road map from the US Census. The US Census map has more accurate local roads while the Open Street Map has more accurate primary and secondary roads. In You Need A Map you can switch between the two road maps by switching the "US Census Roads" option on or off in the map settings. In order to make room for the US Census Map, the natural Earth colors feature had to be left out of this app.

The best feature of You Need A Map may be its price. It is just 99 cents! This is a special introductory price for a limited time only. You Need A Map is an introduction to Scenic Map. I hope that if customers like this app, they will purchase Scenic Map which has over 80 times the terrain detail (3 or 9 times the detail in Alaska).

If you already own Scenic Map (thanks!) you may want to consider getting You Need A Map for the US Census Roads which are more accurate in many areas of the country. Several customers suggested that the four Scenic Map apps should be merged into a single app. You Need A Map does this by trading terrain detail for coverage area.

5 comments:

  1. I have try to install 'You need a map', an notice tell me that enough room to install the app.The notice wise me to delete most of my videos or pictures which I did but the notice still tell me that there stell no room to install this app.
    Tell me what more can I do?

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  2. You need at least 4.1GB of free space on your iOS device in order to install You Need A Map. iTunes will download a 2GB compressed file and then uncompress the app to its full 2.1GB size which is why 4.1GB is needed to install it. If you have freed up enough space and still cannot install the app, please follow the instructions in the "Download and Installation Fix" link in the Pages section at the top of this page.

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  3. Is this article describing the difference between the four individual Scenic Map apps and YNAM still accurate, or has YNAM adopted some more detailed terrain data? I've noticed that YNAM's download size has increased to about 3.3GB these days.

    Other than this five-year-old article, I haven't found anything else describing the difference between the two products or encouraging me to buy the Scenic Map app package instead of just sticking with YNAM. Some updated info in the online manual or something might be helpful (and drive some additional sales if it's worth the upgrade).

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    Replies
    1. The differences are mostly the same now as five years ago but you are correct that the article needs to be updated. You Need A Map got the ability to download higher resolution versions of the terrain data but the paid Scenic Map versions have the high resolution data built in. Scenic Map also gets additional features like automatic routing and feature searches. You Need A Map gets those features with the optional in-app purchase. I try to be as generous as possible with the You Need A Map features because I want people to use it.

      You can also get the free Scenic Map without any built-in data (it is downloaded on demand). Many users prefer the much smaller initial download size. It covers the entire Earth and you only have to download the data you need but you need an internet connection when you do. The data is cached for offline use. All the paid versions of Scenic Map and You Need A Map have the online data access feature as well now so if you go outside the coverage area, it will still work via the online data.

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    2. Excellent! I'll be doing the in-app purchases on YNAM, then. Thanks for the clarification!

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