Delorme Earthmate App for mobile

alanb

I got an email ad from Delorme on this today:
http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtdItemDetail.jsp?item=35408&promotion=10127&section=10900
The Complete GPS Navigation Solution for Smartphones and Tablets
Earthmate is a mobile, full-featured GPS navigation app that's as unlimited as your adventures! As the best value in mobile GPS apps, Earthmate comes complete with unlimited access to all North America topographic maps for storage on your device, unlimited cloud storage of all your data, unlimited online routes and waypoint planning, and much more!
Includes North America Topo Maps, Public Lands, and U.S. NOAA Charts
Online Trip Planning
Route Navigation and Waypoints
High-detail GPS Trip Logging
Location Sharing and Tracking
Unlimited Maps and Cloud Storage
Designed for iOS (7.0 and later) and Android (4.0 and later) mobile devices
Regular Price: $29.95

Boyd

Glad to see DeLorme getting into the app market. But there are already a number of other similar apps. I suppose this will especially appeal to people who have used their Windows software and like the style of their maps. I didn't see any mention on their site about being able to download your own maps, and that is a must-have feature for me.

Have just spent awhile evaluating apps, and chosen Galileo ($3.00 for the pro version) on iOS and Oruxmaps (free) on Android. I am developing new versions of my own maps for both of these platforms and will make them available for free download.

Tim

A little strange how this is being offered-- seems to try to circumvent Apple's in-app purchasing requirements and I've had that app installed on my devices for a couple of years now.

alanb

I used to be a fan of Delorme Street Atlas USA. In fact it was my first nav system using my laptop with the LT-20 USB puck. But over time I lost interest as it seemed they weren't keeping very current with map updates and didn't add features such as lane assist to their navigation software.

I hadn;t thought about Delorme for quite some time until I got this email, It kind of rekindled some interest for me in what they are doing. Then I see Tim's post that he has been using this app for a couple of years? They sent out the email ad like this was something new?

So I logged into their forum (which I hadn't done for several years) to see what was being said. about the app. Sure enough ... nothing recent that would indicate a new product.. They do have a section for the Earthmate app ... and the posts do go back to 2013. But it is in their forum "InReach" section and they identify it as "Pairs your device with a DeLorme inReach 2-way communicator".

So my question to Tim (and others) is this: Is the email promo I got for "New Earthmate App for Mobile" really something new ... or just a way of renewing a marketing effort for something they have had for a couple of years?

Tim

I think what is new is the ability to register/pay for an account and gain access to the map within the app. Previously the app did nothing unless you had an inReach. That's my guess right now anyway.

By the way, DeLorme is basically the same DeLorme they have always been, for the good and bad. In other words, they never did ground truth verifications on most of their maps and relied on government organizations, forestry services, etc for mapping changes.

Therefore things like lane guidance are not really possible given their map collection and update methods. However credit must also be given for the fact that they fall into a small number of companies who actually have their own map data rather than licensing it from someone else.

Boyd

My first GPS was also from DeLorme. I had their topo software that came bundled with the yellow EarthMate serial receiver. I ran it under Virtual PC on my big black Mac Powerbook G3. Got it at CompUSA in May 2000 for $173! Remember driving around the backroads with the laptop sitting on the passenger seat and thinking it was way cool. B-)

alokeprasad

Too little, too late and too expensive (given all the free or low-cost options available on smartphones)

PS: I am not including the Garmin Viago ($70+ and now discontinued :-S ) in the list of low-cost alternatives