The Scenic Map logo like you have never seen it Before!

Last August I visited Horseshoe Bend Arizona with my drone and was able to capture this video. The terrain from this location was used for the Scenic Map logo due to its S shape.

Version 1.8.4 Available Now

Scenic Map and You Need A Map version 1.8.4 is be available for download or update via the App Store. This version is mostly a stability release with fixes for the occasional crashes experienced by some users, jumps in the GPS tracking line, and errors in the map data. The map itself has been updated to the latest version of the Openstreetmap database.

There is one new feature in 1.8.4, the grid overlay:

US Civil Air Patrol Grid in Humboldt County, California

You can enable the grid in the Settings menu. Tap the cog icon and scroll to around the middle of the list and you will find the Grid option with None, Degrees and US CAP choices. Degrees show the latitude/longitude major lines with 15 minute sub steps. US CAP shows the US Civil Air Patrol grid for the continental USA and Alaska.

There is also one feature that has been removed from 1.8.4, iAd support because Apple has discontinued iAds. This means that the stand alone Scenic Map is no longer ad supported. You Need a Map will also gets access to the online maps option as a free feature in 1.8.4.

Unless a serious bug is encountered, 1.8.4 will be the last version that will run on older devices that are not compatible with the latest version of iOS. If you have an original iPad, you will still be able to download version 1.8.4 of the apps even when later versions are released.

Scenic Map 1.8.2 Now Available

The 1.8.2 version of the paid Scenic Map apps and You Need A Map is now available for download on the iTunes app store. This version uses Apple's high resolution satellite map data to make the map look amazingly real. To see the satellite maps for yourself, first enable the Online Map option at the top of the Settings menu (tap the cog icon in the toolbar) and then tap preset 2 or 4 in the tab bar.

Here is a slightly extended version of the app preview for Scenic Map Grand Canyon to give you a preview of how the satellite maps look in motion. This video was recorded live from an iPad. There are a few frame drops due to the way the video is recorded but in actual use the animation is perfectly smooth 60 frames per second.

Scenic Map 1.8

The free online only Scenic Map app has been updated to version 1.8. Since this app has no internal map data it is a small fast download. This allows it to be updated more frequently than the apps with offline maps. 1.8 will be coming to all the apps after it has been well tested and all the major bugs have been fixed.

The big new feature is the Satellite Color option. This replaces the Natural Color option when Online Map is enabled (it is always enabled in the Scenic Map app). The satellite image maps are cached just like the vector maps which allows you to use them when offline. They can be combined with the vector features or displayed on their own over the terrain mesh.

There are also new settings menu options to control the size of the cache. You can select 2GB, 4GB, 8GB or Max. Max will use up to 80% of the available storage on your device for the cache. If the cache gets too big, you can either select a smaller cache size or clear it to zero by selecting Clear Cache.

There are new Land Cover and Large Parks options to let you hide these polygon types. This lets you see the terrain or satellite images when driving through areas which would otherwise be solid green due to parks or forests but still see other polygons.

The Terrain setting has an Auto option which only shades the terrain when using the Satellite Color mode and zoomed out. When zoomed in, the satellite images are naturally shaded. When zoomed out, the terrain shading enhances the detail of the satellite images.

Search And Rescue Review

Powerful tool for Helicopter Search & Rescue ★★★★

by jpavionics - Version - 1.7 - Jul 1, 2015

I’ve been utilizing this app as a back up to the onboard navigation equipment. Its helped with identifying names and locations of local landmarks, roads, and popular trails such as the Pacific Crest Trail which is well marked within the app. The only downside to this app is that it requires around 2GB of memory on your device to store the 3D maps. But for what I do, I’m more than willing to give up that space on my phone/ipad for that. It would be nice if maps could be downloaded in sections, like maybe by state or region to take up less space. The only reason I give it 4 stars is because there is always room for improvement. I’d like to see an option that lets you calculate distance between two points. Right now it only has the option to calc distance from present position to your objective. For the price of the app and In-app Purchase, this is the best tool for the SAR community that I’ve used so far. I’ve paired my phone with a Bad Elf GPS Rx’r for better SAT reception when the phones onboard Rx’r just won’t cut it. The app eats up battery quick so when using it for extended searches/Nav, make sure you’ve got an external battery.

-Thanks jpavionics! This type of feedback is what inspires me to continue to develop and improve my apps. You may like the new Scenic Map app which downloads the map data by degree and caches it for use when offline.

To calculate the distance between two points while recording a GPS track, tap the info button to activate the compass rose. Move it to the first point. Tap the Waypoints tab and then tap the + button in the toolbar to create a waypoint. Name it whatever you want. Tap on the gold star next to the new waypoint you just created. It will turn red indicating it is the selected waypoint. Tap on a map preset tab to return to the map. Move the cursor to the second point. The bearing line will now stretch between the selected waypoint and the point under the compass rose at the center of the map. The top info bar will display the range and distance to that point. You can optionally create another waypoint for the second point which will allow you to go back to that point again or mark it as the selected waypoint if you want to find the range and bearing to other points. Don't forget to deselect the waypoint if you want to use your current GPS location as the start of the bearing line again.

Scenic Map 1.7.2 and 1.7.3

New GPS Center Lock Options

Scenic Map 1.7.2 is now released on the iOS the App Store. As the screenshot above shows, you can now choose Stop Recording Track by tapping on the lock icon in the toolbar. This allows you to start tracking, lock the center of the screen to your current location and stop tracking all from the same button.

The other new feature is in-app documentation. This feature was requested by several users so that they can look up how features of the app work even when they are not online. The in-app documentation is still found at the top of the Settings menu (tap on the cog icon in the toolbar and select Help). This feature is only available in iOS 8 and later. It is a snapshot of the online documentation and will be updated automatically when your device is connected to the internet via WiFi. You can now search the documentation for keywords and then step through the results by tapping the Search button on the keyboard. You can still access other online features such as the tutorial videos.

The two finger 3D map tilt gesture has been reversed to match the one in Apple Maps. This may be confusing at first but consistency of gestures among apps is important. Swipe up with two fingers to tilt the map from 2D into 3D mode. Swipe down to tilt the map from 3D into a vertical 2D mode.

Several of the items in the Settings menu have been renamed to make them easier to understand. Manu bugs have been fixed and the Online Map should load faster and more reliably.

Scenic Map Grand Canyon was updated to 1.7.3 to fix the Alternate Roads option which appears when you enable the Online Map (available with an in-app purchase). Otherwise it is identical to 1.7.2.

Scenic Map 1.7 Adds Worldwide Online Coverage

Pierrefitte-Nestalas, France. Pierrefitte-Nestalas is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.

Scenic Map version 1.7 is beginning a rolling release beginning with Scenic Map Grand Canyon. The big new version of this version is world wide coverage via cached online data. Grand Canyon and You Need A Map will get this feature via an in-app purchase while all other versions get it for free.

The online map data is hosted by Apple using their CloudKit feature introduced in iOS 8.0. The bandwidth and usage of CloudKit will need to be managed so as not to exceed Apple's quotas. This is the reason for the rolling release. Apple gives a larger quota as more people use the data service so the first two apps will be Grand Canyon and You Need A Map which have a very large number of users with relatively few who have the in-app purchase. The rest of the Scenic Map apps will be next as Apple approves them.

There is one more thing: A new app named simply "Scenic Map".  Scenic Map only uses the online maps so the download is small, quick and easy. Scenic Map is free and will be supported by iAds. There is an in-app purchase that upgrades all the features to match those of the other Scenic Map apps and also disables the iAds.

About iAds: There is now an option in the Settings which allows iAds to be turned on in any of the Scenic Map apps. It is off by default but if you want to support Scenic Map or are curious about iAds, feel free to turn it on and off as you wish. iAds are disabled and hidden when there is no connection to Apple's servers. This means that if you don't have a cellular data connection or have cellular data disabled there are no ads. I am encouraging Apple to make better use of the iAd bar to present useful information in addition to ads in future versions of iOS.

Other new features of Scenic Map 1.7:

• Updated maps with more features, most notably woods and forests are visible in many areas as in the screenshot above.
• Multiple track display. You can display one track and when you display a second track the first is no longer hidden automatically. You can display as many tracks as you wish.
• Nautical distance and speed units (requested by airline pilots).
• Support for iOS8 and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
• Seamless worldwide 3D topography maps based on the recently released 30 meter Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data.

Notes:

• The Online Maps option is off by default in Scenic Map apps. It is on by default for Grand Canyon and You Need A Map when you buy or restore the in-app purchase.
• The Cities Locations search defaults to North America cities. Tap the folder icon in the toolbar and select the area of the world and population size you are looking for.
• Online Maps indicates that data is being loaded with the spinner in the top left corner of the status bar. When the spinner stops, the map is fully loaded.
• The first time the Online Maps is turned on, it may not redraw the screen after the map has been fully loaded. Just use the zoom in and zoom out icons to force the map to redraw. This bug will be fixed in a minor update and should only occur once.
• Up to 2GB of online maps are cached automatically. This size will likely become a user option in a future version however even 2GB is enough to cover a huge area of the world.
• Scrolling adds all visible parts of the map to the download requests. The parts of the map closest to the center of the screen are loaded first.
• Zooming using the + and - buttons in the toolbar resets the map requests. If you want faster map loading, try zooming in.
• Don't try caching the map by zooming all the way out. That only loads the low resolution thumbnails. For best detail, cache the map while zoomed in.