Recently, besides never ending improving of features and fine-tuning of Locus UX, we've been focusing on enlarging the portfolio of maps. Let's remind - in a few recent months we added terrific trail maps of the USA by NeoTreks, satellite images by USGS, Great Britain maps by Ordnance Survey, European maps by Kompass, Polish hiking maps by Compass or very detailed maps of Belgium by IGN. The map offer, therefore, grew significantly and besides the Locus Store where you can view and purchase these maps we haven't presented the maps much. It's about time to change it - we're introducing a new web page with  Locus premium maps.

Premium maps for free

When you call something "premium" it usually means that the thing is pricy and has some extra value high above the standard. We took a slightly different point of view at this term and among the maps we'd like to present we included also the basic maps of the OpenStreetMap project that we offer for FREE both for online viewing and downloading for offline use. OSM maps have come through a great development over its short history, they are growing in detail and are very accurate. Locus Map has offered them since its very beginning, they are still widely used and we don't see a single reason why not to include them in premium maps too.

FREE are also first three packages of vector Lomaps, that we generate from OSM data. LoMaps are the only maps fully optimized exclusively for Locus Map application - their content can be changed according to the user's activity and they contain offline addresses and a vast database of points of interest.

Old friends

Besides the news mentioned at start, the web page, of course, presents also already introduced map makers. Maps of the German Outdooractive, Austrian Freytag-Berndt, Czech SHOCart, French IGN or Swisstopo can be found in Locus for quite a while.

Each map producer or provider is presented by a large graphic depicting the map on a mobile and tablet screen, and an article informing about coverage, available scales and content of the map. All maps can be obtained in our Locus Store that is an inseparable part of Locus application.

We hope that the new web page will help you find the map you need for even better experiences with Locus!

Článek Brand new page introducing premium maps in Locus is on se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

Not long ago we teased you about the Christmas giving by the 50% sale of the best outdoor navigation in the World - Locus Map Pro. We promised that it would not be all these holidays. Despite the promises should be fulfilled on the Christmas Day, we would rather fill them now, a few days before the feast. New Locus Map 3.21 is just coming. And what awaits us? There's a big lot of it, again, but let's go step by step:

And again the maps!

Ordnance Survey

We're beginning with the icing on the cake of this year: it's made of great hiking maps of the largest British cartography publishing house, Ordnance Survey. Their paper alter ego is supplied as Landranger an Explorer series. Landranger in original is in 1:50 000 scale and it's very suitable for long track cycling, multiple days on a hike, vacations or car tourism.

[caption id="attachment_10048" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Sherwood in Landranger[/caption]

A bit more detailed Explorer is in 1:25 000 scale and you'll welcome it on your running workouts, hiking, mountain biking or horseback trips. In such a large scale you'll miss no path.

[caption id="attachment_10049" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Sherwood in Explorer[/caption]

We in Locus team have prepared more than 400 map packages with the same mapsheet layout as Explorer maps, containing also Landranger and a few more overview zooms. Maps can be purchased in our Locus Store and used offline without internet connection.

IGN Belgium

The mosaic of the European countries coverage by premium maps has been enriched also by Belgian Institut Geographique National and its accurate and detailed topographic maps. After purchasing monthly or annual subscription the maps are available both for online viewing and for unlimited downloading of any area of Belgium for offline use.

U.S. National parks by NeoTreks

Awesome trail maps by NeoTreks, known also as AccuTerra maps, have been available in Locus since October 2016. We wrote about them when we were releasing the version 3.19. Until now the maps were available in so called free selection mode. It means you defined the map crop yourself. Now, for your better comfort, we've prepared 89 ready-made packages with maps of National parks and other recreational areas (national recreation areas, rivers, shores and preserves) in the United States. And if you would want more, we'll broaden the offer even more.

[caption id="attachment_10052" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Národní parky Kalifornie[/caption]

I share, you share, we share

Sharing is a mantra of today. Everything is shared, beginning with music, videos, funny gifs, cookies recipes, newborn babies photos to GPS location. And that's our domain. There are loads of sharing options, you know them from your smart mobile phone. Locus offers even more, and on the top, all in a new design and under one button:

Quick share of my current location

Tap the first item and all icons of your installed sharing apps appear. Locus can send a message through them, containing free Geohash.org link, displaying your location in several services at once, among others Google Maps, OpenStreet maps or Geocaching map:

Text message

This option can share location of your map cursor and of course also your location if it's the same (i.e. you have GPS fix). It offers more options of the text editing, it inserts your address and coords automatically. You can add your altitude, direct link to Google Maps or your GPS accuracy.

Facebook

You know well, sharing belongs to Facebook from the core of its definition. Locus can enhance the Facebook post by your address and a map and you can attach also description. We've also improved the track sharing:

What3words

Have you ever heard of What3words? If not, you'll hear soon. It's the newest coordinate system in the World, utilizing a network of 3x3 m squares. Each square is defined by three words and the network covers the whole World. Any place on Earth, therefore, has its own simple three-word address. And not only in English. Also Arabian, Russian or Mongolian and others are available. It's simple, genial and very quickly growing system and we couldn't stay behind with its implementation.

Screen sharing

You know this from before. Locus removes all buttons from your map screen and creates an image of it that you can send anywhere by mail, via messenger, Twitter or whatever sharing you've got installed on your mobile.

Sharing a KMZ file

This is  a bit geeky stuff. All you can see on your display, i.e. map, points, tracks, caches, all of it is packed in a file with KMZ suffix and can be shared. KMZ files can be visualized in other map tools, for instance in Google Earth.

Obligatory question - and that's it?

And an obligatory answer follows, of course not. The list of changes, modifications, improvements and fixes takes quite a lot of lines today.   Anyway, have a look yourself in Menu > About app. Just at random - a completely new 3D skyplot with satellites above your head:

Plus option to import GPSies.com routes directly to your own route folders and many minor things.

And finally, find a Christmas surprise in Locus and win 1000 LoCoins!

At midnight CET from 24th to 25th of December a Christmas surprise activates in Locus. Who is the first to find it, takes a picture of it (by screeenshot or a camera) and sends the picture to pr@asamm.com, wins 1000 LoCoins! That's  quite a bundle of maps under the tree isn't it?

The whole Locus team wishes you all beautiful and merry Christmas amongst your most beloved ones. And if we don't see each other then because we'll be also having rest during the Holidays, we wish you also a happy New year 2017!

Článek And finally, the best gift under the tree – Locus Map 3.21! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

You know we didn't hang around in summer - your mobiles and tablets were given several new Locus versions since last "big" update. However, they weren't versions in the main 3.X line but in the subsidiary 3.18.X line and those we call just "additionals" or "revisions". In order to issue the new 3.19 we waited for something really special. And as it is a tradition in Locus team, again there is quite a lot of it.

USA: maps, maps, maps!

We must boast a bit... we are happy to announce we have partnered with the provider of NeoTreks maps(ex-AccuTerra) that belong to the best you can get for your outdoor adventures in the area of the United States. You can find them now in our Locus Store - NeoTreks Land Cover maps and NeoTreks Land Use maps. While the first one depicts in detail the character of the terrain  and vegetation coverage of the land and provides a clear and easy-to-read background for your further mapping, Land Use displays a layer of land property owners and managers. That might come in handy in many situations. Both maps, of course, contain detailed network of trails for all possible outdoor activities, counting more than a quarter million miles. American National parks with their amazing nature and landscape await you and look forward to being thoroughly explored now with Locus. And don't worry about the internet connection -  NeoTreks Maps can be used offline only.

[caption id="attachment_9854" align="aligncenter" width="800"] NeoTreks Land Cover[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_9853" align="aligncenter" width="800"] NeoTreks Land Use[/caption]

After saying goodbye to MapQuest we had to solve quickly the demand for a quality satellite map for U.S. users. We found it in the aerial map of  USGS agency. The map is available online in zooms up to 18, it can be cached and also downloaded for offline use within the limit of 10000 tiles a day. You can find it in the online tab of your Locus map manager.

[caption id="attachment_9857" align="aligncenter" width="350"] The Golden Gate bridge in USGS Satellite map[/caption]

Brotherhood with BRouter

We've written about BRouter routing service a few times here - it's officially the only one offline router working with Locus (not mentioning geek-friendly GraphHopper) and your offline navigation and fast route drawing can't live without it. Its interconnection with Locus has proceeded to another level - we succeeded to implement much more BRouter profile setting options to Locus. And right the amount of options of navigation profile settings is BRouter's most appreciated property and that's why many users had the route calculated on the BRouter website and then imported it to Locus which is quite complicated. There's no need for this any longer - Locus offers a whole range of navigation profiles that can be selected when navigating  by BRouter:

Another improvement of navigation

Many of you wished Locus navigation displayed not just one but two navigation commands at once - two voice commands weren't enough. Therefore, we inserted another small box with navigation command, its distance and junction shape under the main "arrow" box. The navigation is smoother now and you know about the direction changes in proper advance.

Improvement in track recording

As you probably all know, Locus records tracks within pre-defined recording profiles. Each profile has different parameter values depending on the activity it represents - recording of MTB track is different than of walk, hike or morning run. Quite often there was a mess in the records when users forgot to switch profiles and the track wasn't recorded as they wanted or it was stored in a different folder or a wrong training scheme started with the recording. That's why we simplified the approach to switching profiles.

If you use the sliding record panel, now a selection menu appears before recording start, offering selection of profiles and other options - now you 'll never mess up your records:

Many of you start the track recording by the widget. From now on you can see your actual active profile on it. If you need to change the profile, tap the icon and you'll get into the settings part.

Users of the compact bottom control panel got better view of their profile too - just tap the tool button and they see the icon of the profile on the place of settings button. Tapping it, again, gets you into the profile settings.

Items Tab is dead, long live the Map items screen!

Management of the Items, i.e. autonomous files KML and KMZ that can be visualized above a map in Locus and also in Google Earth, has always been a hassle. And not only for our users but also for ourselves. As a result we abandoned the original solution in the data manager tab and implemented a brand new Map items screen that manages items much more intuitively.

[caption id="attachment_9867" align="aligncenter" width="350"] New Map items screen can be found in menu > Functions[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_9871" align="aligncenter" width="350"] The Map items button can be inserted also to the function panel on the main screen[/caption]

Files are sorted into folders, they can be easily visualized or hidden or added from your phone memory, from SD card, from Dropbox... In the previous version we introduced Active items in the left action panel that cooperates with the new screen:

[caption id="attachment_9869" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Files in folders sorted by their origin and meaning[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_9870" align="aligncenter" width="350"] You are well aware of your items and their details. "Home" button puts you quickly on the main screen, "plus" adds new items[/caption]

And, of course, that's not all yet...

We can't end the new Locus version blogpost otherwise. Again, we fixed a lot, revised a lot, improved a lot... Locus Map is a very complex software and the Android environment provides much space for its development but also it brings a lot of threats in the means of thousands of makes and sorts of devices and also versions of the OS itself, on which Locus must run flawlessly. And that means really loads and loads of work for us.

By the way, we added an option to measure distance really fast on the screen with two fingers (settings > Maps > Map objects > Quick measurement):

[caption id="attachment_9855" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The Golden Gate is cca 1.2 miles long[/caption]

What else? It is possible to edit style of multiple tracks, to display absolute time of sunset and sunrise in the topbar, guidance displays also ETA and time to target etc. etc. The complete list of changes is available as always in menu > About application.

Enjoy the new Locus, the autumn is here in full scope!

Článek NEW maps, NEW improvements, NEW Locus Map 3.19 se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.