QuickAdvice: Get Beautiful Vintage Maps On Your iPhone With The Cartographer
The Cartographer ($1.99) by A Tasty Pixel is an app that brings back vintage maps and allows you to plan trips or mark spots on these beautiful maps.
In The Cartographer, you have the choice of two different map sources: the popular Google Maps, or OpenStreetMap, which is a Free Wiki World Map, with included offline mode.
The Cartographer brought to my attention a Google service that is useful but I haven't heard much about - My Maps. Usually, we just use Google Maps to look up stuff or get directions, not plan trips or mark off spots to remember later. Thanks to The Cartographer, I have found My Maps to be pretty useful and I will continue to use it since there aren't many other alternatives.
Now that I've talked about that, those with Google Accounts should be able to log in to The Cartographer and have all their maps synced with their accounts. If you never used the service before, don't worry - once you check out the My Maps feature on Google Maps web interface, you should see the ones you create in Cartographer appear there as well. As long as you don't use the Offline mode, your maps will be synced across the cloud.
Before you make any maps though, you may want to take a look at the in-app Settings. From here, you can toggle the Offline mode, Map Source (Google Maps or OpenStreetMap), choose between kilometers or miles for distance units, and manage various accounts. Pretty simple stuff, so once you get all that straightened out, it's time to head back to the Map Room.
The Map Room is the main screen that will display the Cartographer map and any of your custom maps. To create a new one, just tap that + button. From this point, you'll enter the title, an optional brief description, and choose from one of four kinds of maps: Offline, Public, Unlisted, and Private.
Offline maps are only shown on your iPhone. Public maps are online and indexed. Unlisted means that the map is online and accessible but only with the URL. Private maps are online, but they can only be accessed by invitation.
So pick your map type, save it, and the fun begins! You'll be taken to a vintage looking world map, where you can zoom in on your location (blue dot) by tapping the GPS button. From this point on, you can start marking up your map by dropping pins on the vintage map by tapping a button. You can move these pins around and drop them on specific locations you want to mark up.
Once you drop a pin on the map, it gets a general placeholder name (City, State). You can just tap on the arrow to fine tune the details, such as the name and description, and even change the appearance of the pin. There are plenty of gorgeous looking pins to choose from, and each one adds a very nice touch to the overall "vintage" look of the map. If you change your mind, you can find a Delete button when viewing the details of a pin, as well as Navigating (this opens the real Google Maps app) and Sharing your pin.
Since using the Navigation option will take you directly to where your pin is, it is important to make sure that your pin is as accurate as possible, if you plan on using that option. If not, then simply marking up your map with various spots should be no problem at all.
Just like with the regular Google Maps app, you can also view Satellite and Hybrid views as well as the traditional Map view. It just won't look as vintage-y.
Going back to the Map Room, you can create as many maps as you want. This is great for planning out trips, marking off certain types of places you've been to and keeping track, or making a public map for other people in the area to check out. The possibilities are endless for the uses of Cartographer. If you ever feel you don't want a specific map anymore, feel free to delete it or even just edit it with the Edit button in the Map Room screen.
At first I was a bit sketchy about using Cartographer since I didn't use the My Maps feature. But now I have a feeling that I'm going to be using it a lot because it's just useful to have. The old vintage look of the entire app makes it unique and just beautiful to show to other people. The Cartographer really brings a new meaning to 'analog meets digital.' When editing details of anything, the app gives you an old-time book interface, complete with that sleek ribbon 'bookmark.' Love it!
If you haven't checked it out already, this app is a definite must try, especially for iPhone 4 owners. The beautiful graphics are just too good to miss.
