Spring is just around the corner, and with it comes the urge to get outside—whether it’s for a bike ride, a hike in the mountains, or your first weekend trip with friends. And for everyone who loves to plan together, we’re introducing several important new features in the route planner web.locusmap.app. You can now share your planned route with anyone— simply, quickly, and without restrictions. We’ve replaced the map engine for faster and smoother performance. Plus, we’ve added login method management directly in your user profile. 

More major updates to our mobile apps are just around the corner, but we didn’t manage to release them before the start of spring, so you can look forward to them throughout April.

Share your planned route with a single click

You know how it goes—you plan a great route and want to quickly send it to your friends so they can take a look and tell you what they think. Until now, that meant exporting the route and forwarding the file. Now it’s much easier.

You can now share a link to a planned route directly from the web planner, even without saving it. Just plan the route and send the link. The recipient can open it in a browser or directly in the mobile app, view the route, elevation profile, and details—all completely free, with no Premium subscription required.

Important note: The shared link transfers the route points you’ve clicked on, as well as all router settings and selected profiles—including any custom adjustments. The recipient will thus see the route exactly as you planned it, with all parameters included.

Three ways to share

You can share your route in three ways — choose the one that works best for you:

• Shortened link — generate a short URL that’s perfect for sharing in chat, email, or on social media.
• QR code — Each planned route has its own unique QR code. Just scan it with your phone, and the route will open immediately in your browser or in the app.
• Full URL from the address bar — copy the link directly from your browser.

Who can benefit from this?

Route sharing is perfect for anyone planning group trips. All it takes is for one member of the group to plan the route—the others can simply open it via a link and view it, even if they don’t have a Premium subscription. No need to send files or deal with complicated settings.

Imagine a typical situation: you’re planning a weekend hike with friends. You open web.locusmap.app, plan your route, send the link to a group chat—and in no time, everyone is looking at the same map and sorting out the details. Simple.

Smoother map performance

A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes of the web planner—we’ve replaced the entire core of the map application and switched to the MapLibre platform. What does this mean for you, the users?

• Panning and zooming on the map is now much smoother and more responsive
• The app can handle much more user-generated content on the map—up to 100,000 points or 100 routes
• In the future, the system will allow for the addition of more maps—whether our own LoMaps or maps from other providers. We are currently developing a vector map and detailed terrain shading, and you may even see a 3D view in the future.

We've also adjusted the style of the planned route so that it's more visible on the map. Now you won't confuse it with the bike paths:

Manage login methods

The second update concerns your user account. You can now add or change your login method for your Locus Map account directly in your profile settings.

Do you sign in with Google and want to add email and password sign-in as well? Or would you like to add Apple sign-in to your existing account? Now you can—and it only takes a few clicks.

What exactly can you configure?

• Add a new login method — for example, link a Google or Apple account to your existing login.
• Change the email address for the account you're logging into using the email/password method.
• Manage existing methods — all in one convenient place.

You can find the login methods settings in user profile settings — click on your profile icon in the top right corner.

You'll especially appreciate this improvement when you switch phones, switch platforms, or want to be sure you can always access your account—no matter what service you're using at the moment.

Try out the new features today

Both new features are now available at web.locusmap.app. Open the route planner, plan your first spring route, and share it with your friends—either via a link or a QR code.

We’d love to hear your feedback—let us know what you think of the updates!

Článek Spring updates on the website – plan your routes and share them with anyone se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

After two months of intensive work, we bring you again the new version of your favorite outdoor navigation - Locus Map 4.24. In addition to a number of minor fixes and improvements, we of course have a few highlights for you. So let's briefly introduce them:

LoPoints - the most interesting places on the map

As you know, LoPoints are places on the map marked with icons. They are available online and offline and can be displayed on top of any map. LoPoints are clickable - if you click on them, you'll see lots of tourist information about the place, often including a description or photos from Wikipedia. Alternatively, there are photos from users who have visited the location and documented its current appearance. You can view the photos both in the app and on the web, including the user gallery. We continue to deepen this user interactivity with map data, as you can see in the following news:

Ratings and comments

You can now add a review to each LoPoint, consisting of a rating and a few words about what you liked or disliked about the place. The rating is similar to Google Play, that is, the highest praise is for 5 stars, the lowest for one star. You can comment on your rating, add recommendations, tips or warnings for others. Of course, all within the framework of civilized and polite attitude.

1 photo for LoPoint = 1 LoCoin to your account

Do you know what LoCoins are? Yes, that's right, our "virtual currency" with which you can buy maps in the Locus Store, and also purchase Premium features. Until now, LoCoins could only be obtained for money either directly in the Locus Store or on our website. Now, you can also earn them for photos of places you've visited.

The ability to add your own photos to LoPoints to document their current status for other members of the community of hikers and outdoor enthusiasts has been around since last year. From now on, we want to give back at least a little bit for your contributing to a good cause: 

For every approved photo you attach to LoPoint, we'll credit your Locus account with 1 LoCoin.

So for 30 photos of interesting paces you can get a LoMap of Croatia, for 225 photos you can get half of Germany, for 869 photos you can get Premium Silver for a year, and if you are creative enough, for 2099 photos you can get Premium Gold for a year! And that's worth it :).

Track recording just got a little bit better

Another topic for modification has become recording the tracks of your trips and training sessions, which we haven't touched on in a while. We've looked into it a bit more and made two major improvements based on your recommendations:

Lower battery consumption

We've optimized the recording process, cleaned up elements that were putting unnecessary strain on performance, and the result is significantly lower battery power consumption - you can save tens of percent if you use it all day. Even with the display on.

Attention, you are in motion, and you have a paused recording!

Many of you have expressed the wish that it would be good to have a notification in Locus|Map to alert you in the following situations:

• track recording is running, but you have interrupted the activity
• track recording is interrupted but you are moving

And because we're equipping the app according to your wishes, we've added the notifications. You can turn them on or off as needed in the settings of each track recording profile.

Share tracks with photos

Locus Map is bursting with ways to share your track with friends. With a link to the web, export to GPX, KMZ and other formats like HD JPEG with map and detailed stats... The only thing we were missing was a nice "Instagram" picture to share on your social networks.

So we added it, in three versions. You can share the track with the map in the background:

With an image based on the activity on the track:

Or with your own picture, taken during the ride:

Plus, something for geocachers and route planners

Log labs offline

Passionate geocaching players, specializing in lab caches, will also find something for themselves. We've taken Locus' capabilities up a notch again and added the ability for them to log their catches offline, i.e. without the need to be connected to the internet. 

And to save data, you can also set a maximum number of log downloads per cache.

More accurate time estimation on the route

Estimating time on the route is a pretty important factor for many people when planning hiking tours or cycling training trips. So far, time estimation has been very approximate based on general criteria and parameters. Now we introduce the possibility to adjust some factors according to one's own abilities, which makes the time estimation much more precise.

For the "walking" and "hiking" routing profiles, we have added the ability to adjust the default speed on the flat. This becomes the basis for calculating the time estimate, which incorporates other internal parameters such as elevation, gradient angle, and surface type. These are already taken by the application from routing and elevation data. The default speed can be set between 2 - 12 km/h, so even recreational runners can use it.

Road cyclists, on the other hand, measure their abilities mainly by power in watts, which they monitor with wattmeters on their bikes or trainers. When the personal power value is defined as the basis for calculating the time estimate on the route, we immediately get much more accurate results. There is a range from 60 to 240 W of average rider power:

Finally, something for geeks

It wouldn't be Locus Map if we didn't have something in reserve for the enjoyment of tech-savvy users. As you know, Locus Map can work with the BRouter offline router. This can be set up as an alternative to our LoRouter if you want to use your own routing profiles. We have now made it possible to set all supported parameters of these custom profiles in Locus Map. But how to work with them and how to get them into Locus is for another blog post, so another time.

Enjoy the summer!

Header photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

Článek New Locus Map 4.24: review your favorite places and take photos for LoCoins! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

Imagine every place on Earth has its own simple address. Any torn hut in the middle of a desert, a lonely yurt hidden in plains of Mongolian steppe. It's already been settled in developed societies - every house has its number, it stands in a street with some name in a town or village that is named as well. But what about the remaining 4 billion people who don't have an address? With growing population and need to transport more and more people and goods from one place to another even our "civilized" system becomes inefficient and confusing. You might add that each place on Earth has it coordinates, latitude and longitude. Yes, it does, but would you dare to remember such coordinates? Or even dictate them to a taxi driver on the phone?

An elegant solution is offered by what3words. Young, ambitious and above all ridiculously smart project of a London startup, lead by a former music band (!!) manager Chris Sheldrick. In his former job, all the time he tackled problems with suppliers who couldn't find the service entrances to concert halls, stadiums etc., musicians who couldn't get to the place of their gig on time because they got lost on the way from the hotel... GPS didn't solve the issues, it's too technical and complicated, what's more, in cities with high rise buildings there was problem with GPS accuracy. And so the main idea was born - realized later in 2013 in cooperation with other founders of the what3words team - genial mathematician Mohan Ganesalingam and linguist and quiz freak Jack Waley-Cohen. A short introduction to all the possibilities word3word may provide can be seen in this video:

As it goes with genial projects, the principle of what3words is quite simple - the whole surface of the Earth is divided to a network of 3x3 metres squares. Each square is defined by a unique combination of three words. In several World languages and the number is still growing. And that's all folks. At least on the user side. You need only one - an app  that can search the three word address location on a map. Or the other way round, it assigns some place the address from database.

Locus has recently become one of such apps.

How to find and share a what3words address?

1) shift the map cursor to the place you want to know what3words address of. For instance, this picnic site:

2) tap Share (in default settings in the main menu > more functions, the button can be added also to the main screen)

3) select what3words

Share the address via services available in your phone or tablet.

How to find the place with the what3words address?

1) tap Search (in default settings in the topbar or main menu)

2) select what3words from the search methods (next time will be set as default)

3) insert what3words adddress and tap the magnifier button

The place with the address appears on the map.

The feature can be used anywhere on Earth. How simple! Of course, Locus offers even more options - you can share what3words addresses of your own points, of starting points of your planned routes, points of interest on map, of geocaches etc. What3words addresses can be displayed not only in Locus but also on the what3words web map or in their native app. And more supporting apps are coming. However, one thing is interesting - global map servers like Google Maps or Bing haven't been supporting this project yet.

Článek What3words, the simplest global addressing system came to Locus 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.