Using Google Maps off the grid?

Google maps works great when you have a cellular data connection, but once that's severed it's fairly useless. Apparently there's a way to download maps so that it can be used without a data connection from the built-in GPS.

Does anyone use their iPhone with google maps off the grid? Any better (easy to use) options? Basically I'm looking for something I can save a GPS coordinate to before hand, that will work without a cellular connection without reinventing the wheel.

TIA,
Brian

It's referred to as 'offline' mode, and it's easy to setup...

Click on the 'hamburger' menu in the upper left...the one that looks like three horizontal lines, i.e. a 'hamburger'.

Go down to 'offline areas'.
You probably want/need to define a 'custom area' for your usage.

Download the map.

That's it.


mike

Mike thanks, I'll play around with it. Nothing worse then getting your site plugged into google on your phone and then learning there's no GPS at the site as you hike into it

Also: For anyone still reading this, can I shamelessly piggyback of Cal-Cobra's post and ask what is a good GIS website, to deduce private vs public land boundaries. I have one for CA (a subscription one for hunters on my smart phone). But it appears to only do CA. Is there a desk-top 'puter website where G.I.S. info (assessor's office info) can be pulled up for various western states ?

Hi Tom,

In my experience, it varies from State to State, county to County, and even down to a local city level. (I'm actually the GIS professional for my town). Google earth pro used to show parcel info, with ownership, but they don't offer it any more. There are apps, mostly designed for hunters, that will give you parcel data with ownership, at least public agency vs private. But these cost money, generally. I'd say your best bet to viewing good, accurate, up to date data is to Google the state and or county your interested in and search for parcel viewers. Most counties, if they have a GIS person on staff have something. Good luck!

kammerer1 Wrote:
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..... But these cost money, gene
> rally. I'd say your best bet to viewing good, accu
> rate, up to date data is to Google the state and o
> r county your interested in and search for parcel
> viewers. Most counties, if they have a GIS person
> on staff have something. ....

thanx for chiming in kammerer1 ! Yes, for those companies that have gone through the trouble of rounding up all the data (which is never in uniform formats) county-by-county, they charge for the service. Like onX hunt: I think statewide is $29, and $99 if you want all of the USA. I find that smart-phone app. difficult to navigate though (where's a 12 yr. old when you need one ? haha). But yes, once mastered, is a great tool to have when driving around. It even has an "x" that can follow you around by GPS that tells you *exactly* where you are standing , overlayed on to a satellite image. So you can tell which side of an imaginary line you are standing, etc.... Kind of cool.

And you're right that in this increasingly digital age, most all counties have now made their assessor's office info available on-line. It just means having to learn each one's idiosyncrasies of how they host, how clear it is, where to click, blah blah. But beats the heck out of the old days where you had to physically walk in, and leaf through volumes and volumes of binder books, giant wall-maps, etc....

I go out of state infrequently enough that it turned out I was able to simply go to the counties themselves, and each of the two I checked into had it available to the public there.