[HN Gopher] Magic Earth: OSM based map and routing with crowd so...
___________________________________________________________________
Magic Earth: OSM based map and routing with crowd sourced traffic
data
Author : executesorder66
Score : 181 points
Date : 2023-08-08 11:21 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.magicearth.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.magicearth.com)
| ohadron wrote:
| This is how Waze started.
| reboot81 wrote:
| So I can go places, without the oogling.
| dghughes wrote:
| Isn't this basically the Traffic part of Google maps? Google Maps
| > Layers > Traffic (enable)
| pbmonster wrote:
| Well, yes. But not from google or from apple (which also has
| live traffic), but instead on top of OSM.
| atbpaca wrote:
| Seems like not available to download in the US (for iOS).
| xorl wrote:
| Same issue.
| leokeba wrote:
| If the developers are around, I would like to ask a simple
| question : Does this app only use realtime data for calculating
| ETA and routes, or does it learn some statistical regularities in
| the traffic patterns to make predictions ?
|
| I'm asking because this is the main weakness of all similar apps
| that I know of, they always give you an estimation using only the
| current state of traffic on the whole journey, so if you are
| going towards a busy city at peak traffic time it may add one or
| two hours to the ETA even if you are still 5 hours away and
| everything will be gone by the time you get there. Obviously the
| reverse situation is even more annoying, I live in the Paris
| area, and when I leave home around 4pm and ask google maps an
| itinerary, it may tell me I'm only 30 minutes away, but 15
| minutes later shit hits the fan and I end up an hour late on my
| schedule.
|
| Obviously after a while you start learning the traffic patterns
| and plan accordingly, which is okay I guess, but we're in 2023,
| how can google not be up to the task of correctly predicting a
| traffic spike when it's regular on a daily or weekly basis ? Is
| that just too much data / compute for them ? If anybody has a
| clue, I'm curious.
| PcChip wrote:
| I thought the "arrive at" feature of Google maps took into
| account usual traffic patterns at that time of day?
| leokeba wrote:
| Well that's also what I used to believe, kinda makes sense.
| But drawing from my own anecdotal experience I had to
| conclude that's not the case. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's just
| VERY bad at it, or it doesn't work where I live.
| matsemann wrote:
| Gmaps give me a different estimated time if I ask for a
| route tomorrow afternoon ("normally 35-45 minutes") or
| tomorrow evening ("26 minutes").
| beardyw wrote:
| Well you can set a departure time and it gives "Typically
| ..." so it must have some information like that. And their
| Waze gives a graph of journey times by time of departure.
| alistairSH wrote:
| In theory.
|
| However it appears to underestimate traffic delays for
| DC->OBX beach traffic. On a summer Saturday morning, that's a
| 6-7 hour drive. Or worse. Apple Maps has it closer to 5-5:30
| for most of the day. Google gives a range from 4:45-6:30 -
| 4:45 is basically impossible any time of day and year but
| 6:30 is ballpark-ish if you don't hit a major traffic jam.
|
| But maybe that's a worst-case route.
| hedora wrote:
| Here We Go is frighteningly accurate for SF bay area
| traffic predictions. (E.g., within 2 minutes, driving
| between south bay and north San Francisco, with traffic).
| It must be using statistical models to predict future
| traffic.
|
| It is often pre-loaded on European car console units so you
| may be using it without realizing it. It's free for iOS and
| Android, and works offline (offline support is the killer
| feature for me).
| eredengrin wrote:
| How long have you used Here WeGo? It used to be my
| primary maps application but a couple years back they
| updated it and broke everything (offline address search
| stopped working, no route choices anymore, I think they
| removed the TTS options which made the voice directions
| much harder to follow, etc).
|
| The reviews for the app tanked after that disaster and
| practically all of them mentioned the update as the pain
| point, do you know if they ever recovered a semblance of
| what it used to be? Maybe I'll have to check it out
| again, I've been using Magic Earth ever since then and
| it's pretty solid but there are a few minor things I
| still miss.
| hexmiles wrote:
| Off-topic question from non-native English speaker, on the
| website is present this phrase; "We agree that the worst person
| to be stuck in traffic, is you.", I instinctively read it as them
| calling me the worst person, which is clearly not the case, and I
| understand what they mean, but I still feel like this phrasing is
| off...
| mminer237 wrote:
| The biggest problem is that random comma.
| dave881 wrote:
| As a native speaker, this is awkward phrasing.
| hardlianotion wrote:
| It is correct, but phrased to be surprising.
| mnky9800n wrote:
| I suppose it is supposed to be tongue in cheek but as a native
| english speaker i also find it awkward even though it might be
| correct.
| foundart wrote:
| If the intent was to communicate a pause, I think an ellipsis
| would be the way to go.
|
| "We agree that the worst person to be stuck in traffic ... is
| you."
|
| One source for this is item 7 at https://www.merriam-
| webster.com/grammar/ellipses-definition-...
| prmoustache wrote:
| One would argue that there is no such thing as being stuck in
| traffic. You are the traffic and thus part of the problem. So
| it is not that badly phrased. ;-)
| dtgriscom wrote:
| Not a fan of that comma, but it's probably there to make the
| best of an awkward sentence structure.
| admaiora wrote:
| A product using free and open-source data generated by the OSM
| community plus crowd sourcing traffic and keeping the code
| proprietary does not sit well with me. You can have a paid
| product but open source the project.
| ho_schi wrote:
| Describes Komoot and "social" media.
|
| I recommend Brouter instead of Komoot: https://bikerouter.de/
|
| Best thing. Your planned route isn't stored there, it is your
| actual link to the website. Incredible simple and reusable.
| jeffreygoesto wrote:
| Using BRouter together with OsmAnd for convertible (small
| roads) and bike (i.e. gravel paths) trips. Works like a charm
| and completely offline.
| Zak wrote:
| While I'd prefer something completely community-driven and open
| source, the fact that this app is on the OSM wiki suggests the
| project is generally OK with it.
|
| I was just wishing for a Waze alternative last night, and here
| it is. It's proprietary and commercial, but it's not from FAANG
| or a company subject to the Chinese or Russian governments.
| I'll take that as an improvement.
|
| https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Magic_Earth
| pietervdvn wrote:
| Being on the wiki does not necessarily indicate "official
| endorsement". However, as long as the app holds onto the
| official copyright guidelines (see
| https://openstreetmap.org/copyright - more or less equivalent
| to CC-BY-SA), a closed source,commercial app is perfectly
| fine.
| OfSanguineFire wrote:
| > A product using free and open-source data generated by the
| OSM community plus crowd sourcing traffic and keeping the code
| proprietary does not sit well with me.
|
| This is already common. For example, Komoot which is now big in
| the bicycle-travel world, uses OSM data but keeps its code
| proprietary and even locks community-generated content down.
| [deleted]
| rglullis wrote:
| Is there a just-as-good FOSS alternative? Or at least one that
| could catch up if it receives more support?
| friend_and_foe wrote:
| It doesn't sit well with anyone familiar with OSM. This doesn't
| really have a good market fit; people who don't care about
| these things just use google, anyone that would use this won't
| use proprietary software, and especially anyone that uses OSM
| exclusively such as myself.
| nerdponx wrote:
| The problem with crowdsourcing data is that you need a crowd,
| the bigger the better.
| Aachen wrote:
| > It doesn't sit well with anyone familiar with OSM.
|
| Please speak for yourself :) OSM contributor here: I'm
| already happy if there's a great mapping product that uses
| open geo data, might not use it myself if it's closed source
| but it's better than google keeping everything to itself or
| behind a paywall. I understand it costs them money to keep
| their map up to date, but they could also collaborate with
| the rest of us and have free geo data for all. Apple taking
| OSM data for their devices, for example, is to me exciting
| rather than "not sitting well". I'd be ten times as thrilled
| if they'd open source it, don't get me wrong, but still
| lucideer wrote:
| I think this would have been true in the past, but it may be
| changing. Google are fast degrading their maps UX as part of
| their maps monetisation efforts, to the point that backlash
| has even reached normal users. I was listening to a very
| mainstream commute-time FM radio talkshow yesterday that
| brought up Google Maps' UX degradation - that's an extremely
| non-tech audience. I can see a new space growing in the
| market for people wanting a Google alternative for reasons
| entirely removed from ethics.
|
| In addition to all of the above, Maps.me has had a pretty
| ample userbase for a long time now - while it is technically
| an open-source codebase (to the extent its even been forked &
| put on FDroid), its privacy policy & general Russian links of
| the company behind it still leave a lot of red flags for your
| typical OSM users.
| ho_schi wrote:
| May check Organic Maps? A fork.
| OfSanguineFire wrote:
| It's not really a matter of "Russian links". Maps.me was
| sold from its original founders to a payment-processing
| company that hasn't been developing the app further. That
| was the reason for the fork of its open-source codebase as
| Organic Maps, which is very actively developed.
| amne wrote:
| "to a payment processing company". Ok. Now it makes
| sense. I just launched maps.me on my phone for the first
| time in more than 2 years I think and I was wondering why
| it's asking me to log in and also inviting me to use the
| Maps Wallet? What? A wallet? In a maps app? Haven't
| uninstalled an app faster in my life.
| matkoniecz wrote:
| Also, Organic Maps is run by (some subset of?) original
| founders.
|
| Interesting case of why developers may prefer open
| source: company was sold, but code was open to legal
| reuse under a new brand.
| tuukkah wrote:
| Users may prefer for the same reason.
| verve_rat wrote:
| Surely a non-compete was involved?
| lucideer wrote:
| Depends on the region you're in but non-competes vary
| wildly in enforceability. They mainly survive on the
| threat of incurring costs of a legal fight rather than
| likelihood of actual follow through enforcement.
| lucideer wrote:
| It's had 3 separate forks over the years: I was mainly
| basing my comment on the 2 predating the sale as I
| haven't actually tried Organic Maps (yet) - good to hear
| its actively developed. I had given up on the other two
| due to various challenges with the tile hosting. Must
| give this one a try.
| Accacin wrote:
| I run GrapheneOS, and have Magic Earth installed for car
| navigation.
|
| The reason for that is it's search actually works, it
| displays live traffic info, and they have a simple easy-to-
| read privacy policy: https://www.magicearth.com/privacy/
|
| Would it be better open source? Yeah, for sure. However, as
| far as I can tell, they abide by all the licencing terms for
| OSM, etc.
| joshvm wrote:
| I find OsmAnd to be OK in a pinch. I use it a lot abroad
| with full offline maps (the fee is less than $10 a year,
| bargain). You're right that search is bad. Often an exact
| search for a POI doesn't work, and it only shows the
| "increase radius" option. Generally search is very viewport
| dependent, which makes sense because there isn't a massive
| caching/index server managing geo requests. But, for "where
| am I" when Google refuses to cache anything, it's
| invaluable and there are nice plugins for tracking/logging
| trips.
|
| I was in remote NZ without reception and we used it for
| navigation/routing. It wasn't the most efficient and Google
| disagreed when we finally got signal back, but it got us to
| where we wanted to be and the map was up to date enough.
| gspencley wrote:
| I also run GrapheneOS. Did you have to install Google Play
| to be able to install and use Magic Earth?
|
| I'm trying to keep my phone as de-Google'd as possible.
|
| That said, the one thing I miss from proprietary Android
| land is Google Maps so I am very interested in a comparable
| alternative. I'm trying Organic Maps at the moment, and had
| played with OsmAnd~ but found it lacking when I tried to
| use it for real-time navigation while driving.
| morserer wrote:
| F-Droid - Aurora Store for all your Play Store needs. No
| login needed.
| gspencley wrote:
| Thanks!
|
| Do you get many apps that complain about not having
| Google Play Services installed? Just had one (not Magic
| Earth). Seems to work fine after I hit "OK" to dismiss
| its message. I'm assuming it only requires it for auto
| installing updates.
| flangola7 wrote:
| I do but ordinarily for services that are not anonymous
| in the first place. Banking, ride-sharing, so on.
| womod wrote:
| Google Play Services implements a lot of increasingly
| vital features and interfaces on Android. Not having it
| kills a good number of things people consider important,
| like push notifications (some apps are designed to still
| send push notifications like Signal, but it's kind of a
| hack and does drain the battery). If you're looking for
| almost the same functionality without google play
| services, MicroG[1] is an open source implementation of
| Google Play Services and its' associated components. I
| don't think it works on GrapheneOS unfortunately, but
| GrapheneOS already sandboxes all the Google Play Services
| components, so you should be fine as is. "Normal"/stock
| Android roms aren't set up the same way however, so you
| pretty much need either Google Play Services or MicroG
| for push notifications, location services, etc.
|
| [1] - https://microg.org/
| flangola7 wrote:
| Here is a crazy fact... Google Maps doesn't require Play
| Services to be installed. About once a week it will popup
| a message about no services installed, but it still
| functions (other than logging in).
| the_third_wave wrote:
| In my experience this goes for most - for me actually
| 'all' but I don't tend to use much from the Play store -
| apps which insist on having _Google Play services_
| installed. They blatantly tell you to 'Enable Google
| Play services' because (e.g.) _BankID won 't work unless
| you enable Google Play services_. Just click outside of
| the dialogue to make it disappear and use (e.g.) BankID
| as normal, it just works as it should.
| mmaia wrote:
| > This doesn't really have a good market fit; people who
| don't care about these things just use google
|
| Counterexample: Mapbox [1]
|
| 1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapbox
| notpushkin wrote:
| Which used to be mostly open source until 2020.
| KoftaBob wrote:
| Yet surprisingly, the majority of the iOS apps that OSM
| themselves list on their wiki are closed source:
|
| https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iOS_applic.
| ..
| GoldenRacer wrote:
| I use it. It works substantially better than other OSM based
| map apps imo. My big use case for it is I frequently travel
| places without cell service and like having a mapping app
| where I can download whole regions worth of maps to use
| offline.
| PinguTS wrote:
| Google Maps can download whole regions of maps to use
| offline.
| friend_and_foe wrote:
| I use osmand and have all my maps saved locally.
| smcleod wrote:
| Apple Maps lets you download maps offline, also check out
| Organic Maps which uses OSM -
| https://apps.apple.com/au/app/organic-maps-offline-hike-
| bike...
| PinguTS wrote:
| Apple Maps lets you download maps offline? How?
| aeontech wrote:
| It's a new thing in iOS 17 -
| https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/07/ios-17-offline-maps-in-
| apple-...
| smcleod wrote:
| Oh maybe it's iOS 17 only? I've got the option there in
| maps to download any area offline and have the city I'm
| in downloaded.
| foooorsyth wrote:
| They're not violating the OSM data license. Why would it "not
| sit well" with you that they keep their client closed source
| and try to earn a real living?
|
| >you can have a paid product but open source the project
|
| And you'll instantly create 10 competitors overnight. If you
| use the GPL, those competitors will just be Chinese or from
| some non-western jurisdiction that doesn't care about GPL
| enforcement.
|
| Man, rms followers are annoying. Stop trying to GPL the entire
| internet. Magic Earth is a great tool. A big part of why it's
| great is probably because its authors were motivated by profit.
| dspillett wrote:
| While your main point, that in this case no license or other
| agreement is being broken and there is no evidence to suggest
| that the OSM project is unhappy with the situation...
|
| _> If you use the GPL, those competitors will just be
| Chinese or from some non-western jurisdiction that doesn't
| care about GPL enforcement._
|
| This is true - some in China will use GPL code and not stick
| to the license and that may be a competitive advantage over
| companies that do play ball1. _But_ other people ignoring the
| license should not be considered a reason for anyone else not
| to, and that shouldn 't stop people choosing the GPL if that
| is what they want for their software.
|
| _> Man, rms followers are annoying. Stop trying to GPL the
| entire internet._
|
| Man, anti-GPL people are annoying. Stop trying to have
| someone else's cake and eat it. :)
|
| --
|
| [1] Onyx and their Boox range2 being one example, last I
| heard the company was trying to play the race card and make
| it an anti-China-sentiment issue instead of a blatantly-
| disregarding-a-license-agreement matter.
|
| [2] Not the only issue that puts me off those devices,
| apparently hidden call home code is present and always active
| on at least some of them.
| foooorsyth wrote:
| I'm not anti-GPL. I'm anti-FSF-fanatics-applying-GPL-dogma-
| to-non-GPL-projects. OSM doesn't use the GPL or a GPL-like
| license for their data.
| OGWhales wrote:
| An open-source alternative is Organic Maps:
| https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps
| kzrdude wrote:
| Does it have live traffic information? It looks quite
| polished but for an offline feature set OsmAnd~ has a lot
| more and is more established. OsmAnd does not (to my
| knowledge) have any live traffic info.
| JeremyNT wrote:
| Compared to OsmAnd, Organic Maps is quite basic.
|
| The advantage is that it does have a very streamlined UI,
| so if you just want to get to a map and navigate it's far
| more straightforward. You really need to spend some time to
| understand the "quirks" of how to use OsmAnd (a downside of
| its long feature list).
| benoliver999 wrote:
| No
| hk__2 wrote:
| > It looks quite polished but for an offline feature set
| OsmAnd~ has a lot more and is more established
|
| OrganicMaps is a fork of Maps.me, which is very well known
| among the general public: 55k ratings on the Apple Store
| and 50M downloads on the Play Store for Maps.me vs. 1.8k
| and 10M for OsmAnd.
|
| Unfortunately a lot of people who use Maps.me/OrganicMaps
| don't know that maps come from OSM, whereas with OsmAnd
| it's clear right from the name.
| matkoniecz wrote:
| > Unfortunately a lot of people who use
| Maps.me/OrganicMaps don't know that maps come from OSM
|
| OM has quite clear attribution, as required by ODBL
| license of OpenStreetMap data.
| kzrdude wrote:
| OsmAnd feels like an app for a map nerd, and I like it.
| OGWhales wrote:
| Unfortunately it does not have live traffic data like the
| app it is forked from, maps.me.
|
| Hopefully they add it, but there aren't many good open
| traffic projects that exist, so they'd need to rely on
| crowd sourced data like Magic Earth is doing and I'm not
| sure how well that would work.
| mdaniel wrote:
| > Receiving objects: 100% (556180/556180), 5.88 GiB | 3.33
| MiB/s, done.
|
| What the holy hell is going on with that repo? do they `git
| add local.osm.dump` or something? I mean, I was kidding but
| evidently not that crazy far off: https://github.com/organicm
| aps/organicmaps/blob/master/data/...
|
| I was expecting to find `git add release/organicmaps-1.0.apk`
| which is a super common "I've never used git before"
| antipattern
|
| ---
|
| since I already paid the price, some `git archive HEAD | tar
| -tvf - | sort -k3 -n` coughed up -rw-rw-r--
| root/root 1854526 2023-08-07 05:45
| android/src/fdroid/play/listings/en-US/graphics/phone-
| screenshots/1.jpg -rw-rw-r-- root/root 1863096
| 2023-08-07 05:45 tools/shaders_compiler/linux/mali_compiler_e
| s3/openglessl/libMali-T600_r11p0-00rel0.so -rw-rw-r--
| root/root 2583640 2023-08-07 05:45 tools/shaders_compiler/l
| inux/mali_compiler_es3/openglessl/libMali-T600_r12p0-00rel0.s
| o -rw-rw-r-- root/root 3017640 2023-08-07 05:45 too
| ls/shaders_compiler/linux/mali_compiler_es3/openglessl/libMal
| i-T600_r13p0-00rel0.so -rw-rw-r-- root/root 3155104
| 2023-08-07 05:45 data/06_code2000.ttf -rw-rw-r--
| root/root 3451900 2023-08-07 05:45 data/02_droidsans-
| fallback.ttf -rw-rw-r-- root/root 3676527
| 2023-08-07 05:45 data/packed_polygons.bin -rw-rw-r--
| root/root 4696613 2023-08-07 05:45
| software_renderer/default_font.cpp -rwxrwxr-x
| root/root 6131664 2023-08-07 05:45
| tools/shaders_compiler/linux/glslangValidator
| -rwxrwxr-x root/root 6498904 2023-08-07 05:45
| tools/shaders_compiler/macos/glslangValidator -rw-
| rw-r-- root/root 7315682 2023-08-07 05:45
| 3party/opening_hours/opening_hours_integration_tests/opening-
| count.lst -rw-rw-r-- root/root 8384030 2023-08-07
| 05:45 data/kml_test_data/test.kmz -rw-rw-r--
| root/root 8757104 2023-08-07 05:45 data/WorldCoasts.mwm
| -rw-rw-r-- root/root 20,461,104 2023-08-07 05:45 tools/shader
| s_compiler/linux/mali_compiler_es3/openglessl/libMali-
| Gxx_r3p0-00rel0.so -rw-rw-r-- root/root 43,812,962
| 2023-08-07 05:45 data/World.mwm -rw-rw-r-- root/root
| 50,994,390 2023-08-07 05:45 data/dictionary.slf
|
| and then, as I feared $ git log
| --format='%cs %s' -- data/World.mwm 2023-07-13
| [planet] New data from 230710. 2023-06-05 [planet]
| New data from 230602. 2023-05-08 [planet] New data
| from 230503. 2023-04-02 [planet] New data from
| 230329. 2023-03-01 [planet] New data from 230227.
| 2023-02-13 [planet] New data from 230210. 2023-01-24
| [planet] New data from 230121.
| [deleted]
| executesorder66 wrote:
| I tend to agree with admaiora. And Organic Maps is a cool
| project. However I shared this post because it's the first
| OSM based map/routing project I've seen that actually has
| traffic data. I thought that was interesting. It is
| disappointing that the traffic info isn't open as well.
| striking wrote:
| I ended up in the winding mountain roads near Saratoga
| without cell service, and though I had SF downloaded on
| Google Maps, I hadn't added the rest of the Bay. We decided
| we wanted to change our destination and realized we wouldn't
| have any further navigation only after canceling our current
| trip.
|
| But then I remembered I had Organic Maps tucked away, ready
| to go, with a highly detailed map of California for offline
| navigation use.
|
| Big thanks to Organic Maps for making me seem prepared and
| allowing me to recover gracefully from what could otherwise
| have been a somewhat annoying situation.
| wildzzz wrote:
| I had the same thing happen to me once while driving in
| very rural West Virginia on some mountain highway. Google
| Maps crashed or something and cleared out my route. This
| place was so desolate that I was concerned I wasn't going
| to find any gas station nearby to even ask for directions.
| I had just enough EDGE cell service to make a phone call
| but couldn't get any app to download data. I called up my
| friend, gave her my GPS position from a GPS Status app I
| had recently installed (Google maps wasn't giving me a lat
| and long), and wrote down the route. I downloaded a map
| covering the entire route home when I got to my destination
| and have been doing that ever since for long drives.
|
| I almost miss the days of printing out MapQuest directions
| seanw444 wrote:
| I just have the entire US downloaded on OsmAnd+ now. I
| feel so much more relaxed knowing that I've got
| directions pretty much anywhere, always.
| Zak wrote:
| I always keep Organic Maps in reserve. Waze and Google Maps
| provide better navigation when they're working, but I've
| had them fail in places lacking mobile data even when I had
| offline maps downloaded to Google Maps.
|
| I've never seen Organic Maps fail.
| hedora wrote:
| Here We Go's (previously, Nokia Maps) offline support is
| as good as Organic Maps, and the routing is as good as
| Google/Apple. It runs on iOS and Android. CarPlay support
| is good. Haven't tried android's car ui.
|
| I use it on my iPhone, but I'm rooting for OSM, long
| term.
|
| I'd happily pay a bit to a company that put the money
| towards an open source, privacy preserving OSM app, and
| towards improving the upstream map data.
| richiebful1 wrote:
| How is address lookup? That's the only bad thing about
| OSM based apps vs Google Maps in my region (rural
| Kentucky)
| troyvit wrote:
| It worked well when I used it. It was bought by Microsoft
| and is suffering the usual degradation that comes with
| that, but it's still a good app.
| Accacin wrote:
| Odd, because in reality they can do whatever the OSM licence
| allows.
|
| I still find it very odd that people have problems with
| projects using open source projects as the licence allows.
| StockHuman wrote:
| The displeasure is the the same as that from "not returning
| the shopping cart;" it isn't illegal to do so and no one will
| punish you, but the community as a whole is collectively
| taken advantage of when you do so.
| foooorsyth wrote:
| Terrible analogy. Returning the shopping cart is expected
| behavior of user as expressed by the grocery store.
| Expected user behavior as expressed by OSM is that you can
| use the data as you please, even for profit, and if you
| alter the data, you need to share that data back. That's
| it. YOUR desired behavior for users of OSM's data (open
| sourcing any app that uses it) really has no bearing. You
| aren't the licensor and you have no say. Why do you feel as
| though you should get to impose your dogma on OSM's data
| product?
| mark_undoio wrote:
| I think the key thing with OSM is that the data is open.
|
| It would be nice if this app had more open code and it's nice
| if people contribute back to the data set too.
|
| But the database is the open source artifact here, not the
| software - as long as they're respecting that then it feels ok,
| even if more would be desirable.
| doodlebugging wrote:
| Thanks for the link to this app. I had not heard of this one and
| normally don't use navigation apps because I don't like
| distractions while I'm driving. I do run into situations where it
| would be great to have current traffic information so that I can
| avoid getting caught up in someone else's malfunction though. I
| usually ask a passenger to check traffic if it looks dicey down
| the road or just wing it if I'm driving alone.
|
| I read through each of the pages and found the website to be easy
| to navigate and found descriptions of features to be pretty good.
| I did find a couple things on one page that I think could be
| clarified. Both are on the "AI Dashcam" page.
|
| The text in one of the subheadings should be changed since there
| is a pretty common grammar error in one sentence.
|
| Under the subheading "Forward Collision Warning" where the
| sentence reads - "When a vehicle that is driving in front of you
| breaks abruptly, a quick response may be required."
|
| Change "breaks" to "brakes" and I think it makes more sense.
| English homonyms got you there. It's very common to see breaks
| used when the writer means brakes.
|
| The other thing on this page is just something that reads funny
| to me.
|
| Under the subheading "Advanced Driver Assistance notifications on
| Apple Watch." there is a sentence that really puts the whole app
| situation in context.
|
| The second sentence is great - "First, install Magic Earth for
| Apple Watch and add a Magic Earth complication to your Watch
| face. "
|
| I wonder whether "complication" should have been "application" or
| whether the developers actually see this app on an Apple Watch as
| a complication like I do.
|
| Pretty funny stuff.
|
| I sent a link to one of my kids who is currently traveling to see
| what they say about it. They are in the US and from other
| comments the app may not be available here on iOS today but they
| will check it out when it is available.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| > homonyms
|
| homophones
| doodlebugging wrote:
| Got me! Thanks for that correction. Too late to revise the
| post though.
| heystefan wrote:
| Complication is not a typo here btw.
|
| "A complication is an element on the watch face that displays
| information or allows you quick access to an app by tapping on
| it."
| doodlebugging wrote:
| Thank you. I obviously did not know that but it makes sense
| and certainly fits.
| ddalex wrote:
| To be more specific, in traditional watch making, a
| complication is the display of a calculation - the
| traditional clock is a complication, the date display is
| another complication, a chronometer is another
| complication, the displayed phase of moon is another
| complication, an additional time indicator for a different
| zone is another complication, etc...
| doodlebugging wrote:
| That makes perfect sense now. Each additional feature
| complicates the original design and adds to the
| complexity of the finished product. Each complication
| requires a level higher skill set for the maker. I had
| never dug into watch or clock making but I see how the
| term fits the situation for this app.
| fredsmith219 wrote:
| Not available on the iOS app store in the US, according to my
| iphone..
| raybb wrote:
| Does Magic Earth contribute data upstream to OSM in any way? Like
| making it easy for users to report issue?
| filleokus wrote:
| I wonder how many users you need in a given metro area to get
| resonable accuracy? Probably not that many, but seems like a
| tricky problem to boot strap.
|
| Is the point to be an non-google alternative to Google Maps on
| Android? (On iOS as well of course, but there I guess you have
| almost no option but to trust Apple, and can use Apple Maps).
|
| Little bit weird that the App Store listing says they are not
| collecting any data when they have this crowd sourcing of data?
|
| Is this the same General Magic as the one publishing the app?
| https://www.generalmagic.io
|
| EDIT: Probably not the same: This seems to be the company behind
| it https://www.magiclane.com/web/about/ if you sleuth round a
| bit. Then the pricing model of free makes more sense at least.
|
| EDIT2: Or maybe not at all, the street addresses don't match up.
| Enough playing internet detective for this coffee break, back to
| work.
| NGRhodes wrote:
| You are right, on the about page:
|
| >Team > >We are a team of 46 - young yet experienced. The
| founders of Magic Lane also build the very first route planner
| which ran on the Mac and PC in the 1990, formerly known as
| Route 66. Route 66 was also the first to release navigation
| solutions for Nokia, Samsung and HTC mobile phones. With over
| 30 years of experience in the Maps, Location & Navigation
| industry, the founders decided a few years ago to rebuild the
| entire software from scratch. The aim was to do this without
| compromise, with privacy and three other basic principles in
| mind: the platform must operate on minimal hardware, be fully
| functional offline, and be easy to integrate. The development
| project was carried out under the name General Magic, with the
| navigation app Magic Earth as a testing ground for Android and
| iOS
| V__ wrote:
| No one likes to sit in traffic, but I do wonder if such tools
| don't create too many additional problems, by increased traffic
| on minor roads [1]. Suddenly small roads, have heavy traffic,
| because it's 1-2min faster. Leading to more road wear,
| circumventing road hierarchy etc.
|
| [1] https://citymonitor.ai/community/neighbourhoods/google-
| maps-...
| rompic wrote:
| two things come to my mind: - use a capacity / slot based model
| to avoid heavy traffic on small roads - work together with
| cities / police etc. to define traffic strategies especially
| for events.
|
| that's what we do at graphmasters with NUNAV:
| https://www.nunav.net/trafficStrategies
| munhitsu wrote:
| [dead]
| oh_sigh wrote:
| It's strange that they're making a default feature in Google maps
| for like 10 years seem like a magical idea they just invented.
| stevehawk wrote:
| That's the cycle of software. Remember when Google Maps was
| about the mapping and finding places? Now it's about reviews,
| photos, online ordering, the menu, price point, and everything
| else. Less feature filled apps will now move in to replace the
| void they left. Rinse repeat. (see: every note taking / todo
| app ever)
| tamimio wrote:
| Not available in Canadian app store either.
| rompic wrote:
| Shameless, but related, plug for NUNAV (I work for the company
| behind it, but not on this product): If you are located in Europe
| you might like to try NUNAV Navigation as well, which uses a
| collaborative routing based approach to distribute traffic.
|
| iphone: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/nunav-
| navigation/id1193133974?...
|
| android:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nunav.play
| rsolva wrote:
| Hey, this looks great! The only thing I miss is an option to
| add multiple destinations or search for gas stations, shops etc
| on an ongoing route.
| rompic wrote:
| It's on a very long list. Afaik it does exist on ios, but
| via-routing has low usage so it's not a high priority atm.
| btzs wrote:
| Is NUNAV based on OSM data?
| rompic wrote:
| yes. we are also (of course) a quite active contributor: see
| https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Graphmasters
| exikyut wrote:
| Mild expression of curiosity, since I'm not sure if this'll be
| useful for me (I'm in AU): this is listed as "requires Android
| 6+", yet shows "Does not work on your device" for every single
| device listed, including my main phone which definitely isn't
| _that_ old. But it 's not showing "not available in your
| country".
| rompic wrote:
| thanks for the feedback. I'll check with the developers.
| [deleted]
| the_third_wave wrote:
| Somewhat off-topic but why oh why do nearly all app developers
| who have things on both Android as well as iOS insist on using an
| iPhone to show their app and also insist on saying the app is
| available 'on iOS and Android' instead of ordering these
| alphabetically? Does Apple give some incentive to do so or some
| punishment if it is done the other way around? This is a free app
| on both Android as well as iOS, it targets those who know what
| OSM is and as such feels like more of a fit for those running
| AOSP-derived distributions than closed-source walled-garden iOS
| yet still they advertise Apple-first. I realise that Apple is
| bigger than Android in the USA but the world is so much bigger
| than the USA and Android is so much bigger than Apple in most
| other locations. Android devices also offer more opportunities to
| show off the product with their bigger screens and less prominent
| or absent notches, so much so that seeing the Android version
| next to the iOS one - they show one Android device on the bottom
| of the screen, hidden behind an iPhone - makes the iOS version
| seem rather cramped and cluttered.
|
| I can understand this when they're specifically advertising to
| the paying iOS crowd but it just seems out of place elsewhere.
| jasonlfunk wrote:
| My iphone is telling me that it's not available in my region
| (USA).
| OGWhales wrote:
| I emailed them last week to ask about that and they said it's
| currently only available in Europe, but they'd hope to have it
| released in the Americas this week if all goes well. This is on
| iOS.
| KoftaBob wrote:
| Did they say why it's not available in the US? I installed it
| a year or so ago before it was removed from the US app store,
| which is why I still have it on my phone.
| richiebful1 wrote:
| That's strange. It works well on Android in the USA
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