Scenic Map 1.4.3

Scenic Map and You Need A Map version 1.4.3 have been released. 1.4.3 has the ability to display an existing track while recording or playing back a new track. The existing track will be displayed as a bright green line while the track you are recording or playing back will be displayed as a white line. You can use this feature to retrace a previous trip or hike.

GPX file import has been improved. It should be compatible with more apps and has its name set to the one saved with the GPX file instead of the name of the GPX file. Multiple tracks in the same GPX file will generate multiple tracks in Scenic Map. Routes are also converted to tracks. It should be possible to create a route in a third party app and then display it in Scenic Map to represent the boundary of a polygon on the map.

The Open Street Map data has been updated. OSM has had a recent change in its license agreement that forced them to delete a small amount of data that was still licensed under the old agreement. You may find areas in the map that are missing roads and other features in this version. You can report these issues on the Open Street Map forums or, better yet, download the Java Open Street Map editor (JOSM) and fix the problems yourself. This is actually quite easy and fun to do and seeing your improvements show up in the map is very rewarding.

In Scenic Map Alaska and You Need A Map the US Census Tiger data has been updated for 2012. This is the best version of the Tiger street map data I have seen. Most of the major highways and freeways have been updated. I also did not notice any small roads set as primary roads in this version. The Tiger data already had more accurate local roads in many areas than Open Street Map but this version makes it usable for primary and secondary roads as well. Open Street Map still has more up to date primary and secondary roads than Tiger. For example Tiger is missing the new ring road around Las Vegas that was completed a few years ago.

A bug that prevented Scenic Map from running on an iPad 2 with iOS 4 has been fixed. As part of this bug fix and to prevent future issues, the Large Map option is now available for all of the more recent iOS devices. This will allow you to opt for a smaller map which renders faster and uses less memory in cases there are any compatibility problems in the future. Some users may also prefer the faster map updates. Large Map defaults to On in the Settings menu. It is near the bottom so you will need to slide the menu upwards to see it.

As always, your reviews of my apps are greatly appreciated. Whenever a new version is posted, the App Store hides the existing reviews by default so a few good reviews would really help after an update.

Special note for owners of the first two generations of iOS Devices (the original iPhone, the iPhone 3g, the first and second generation iPod Touch):
The next version of Scenic Map and You Need A Map will require iOS 5 and will not be compatible with these earliest iOS devices that cannot run it. Apple's development tools no longer support those early devices. In order to support the new iPhone 5, I must use the latest development tools and so must also drop support for those devices. Please back up Scenic Map and You Need A Map version 1.4.3 using iTunes because this is the last version that is compatible with all iOS devices.