Offline gps maps on your java phone using openstreetmap

This is the most brilliant piece of free software made for a traveller. Its called GPSmid and it can turn your lowly phone into a super powerful gps navigator with all the bells and whistles including even voice navigation!

What it does:
It converts map data from the openstreetmap project and compiles it into a compressed java midlet application that would run on pretty much any java enabled phone (there's an android version now, but not sure how stable it is). All the map data resides on your phone as vectors and are rendered on the fly in your screen. Which means unlike google maps, you dont need an internet connection and the file size is drastically reduced. The entire India map comes to 30mb (with the current data) and is fully routable. You even have fancy stuff like live map rotation and perspective views. Add to that POI search capability and multiple navigation modes like bicycle or foot.

GPS:
GPSmid gets fully unleashed only when paired with a gps unit. It can be configured to use your internal phone gps or an external devicce via bluetooth. Since my phone doesnt have gps capability i use a holux m-241 data logger which works absolutely brilliantly and is a super travel accompaniment. Mainly because it works on AA's which is easily available anywhere, and it wont drain away your phone's battery unlike internal gps. And usually one doesnt require continous navigation, so i can pair it up with the phone only when required, again saving battery.

If you dont have a gps device, your other option is to use the opencellid database with which it can determine your approximate position using cell towers, although im not sure how much data it has for india. Your last option is to use it without a gps, which is a bit more cumbersome but still useful. its like having a pocket digital reference map of the country with you at all times. You never know when it could be handy

How to get it:
There are a bunch of precompiled midlets that are already available on the site (http://gpsmid.sourceforge.net/prebuild/) that are updated every week with the latest data from the openstreetmap project. Copy the .jar and .jad files into your phone and run!

Alternatively you can customize the midlet to your requirements, like the styling and map area, so that the midlet is not bloated with data you arent going to use. Doing this is a slightly more complex job for which you need to download the latest gpsmid library and read a bit of the documentation. You basically need an .osm extract of your area and punch in a few lines of code. More instructions here


Map data and how often its updated:
All the map data is taken from the openstreetmap project. If you havent heard about it yet, its the wikipedia equivalent of geographic data. Anyone can add and edit data using various sources like satellite imagery or gps tracks. But unlike any other map service, this data is opensource and downloadable for free for a wide range of uses without restrictions, which makes projects like gpsmid possible. But ofcourse, like wikipedia data and data integrity is dependent on the number of contributers, so start contributing!

OSM project homepage http://osm.org/go/y9dHn-
OSM through mapquest http://open.mapquest.in/link/1-dlbKGvb8
Openstreetmap Wiki/Help/Documentation http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/

GPSmid Precompiled map downloads

If you have a Nokia GPS-equipped phone, then Nokia (Ovi) Maps covers India. At least, it covers Urban India: the detail soon runs out at the city edges.

there's a certain advantage to having offline maps. you never know what kind of network situation you are in while travelling, gpsmid saved my day on a remote trek in himachal as well as an emergency situation in srinagar, both times without any network coverage.

Nokia maps is offline. I don't even have a data plan for my phone.

Just saying that if you have a Nokia GPS-equipped phone you have this already.

Not disputing that there are others, both free and charged, and that you might find one of those better coverage, or easier to use, or superior in some other way.

My N82 gets me around India, UK and Singapore. It came with India maps, and I had to add the other two countries. The non-urban coverage in India is dismal. Of course, it works as a GPS regardless, although I don't find it the easiest thing to get simple lat/long readout, not that I have a map to plot it on anyway.

Of course, there is waypoints. I can get distance and direction. Is that what you used in the hills, or do you have better map coverage?

ok... just looked at Chennai and Alleppey on the Openstreetmap online pages. Looks interesting. Might give GPSmid a go

I did give this a go. Downloaded the ready-built India 'package' and installed on my phone.

Regrettably, it was slow to the point of unresponsive, and I completely failed to get any fix at all. Had to restart the phone a couple of times.

Pity: I was interested to see what better coverage it would give me, but, on my current phone it isn't going to happen, I'm afraid.

too bad. on phones with smaller memory the all india map can cause things to lockup since its a 40mb file. i plan to compile custom midlets for smaller areas soon. i'll post the links when i do that.

PS: There's a smaller India(south) extract cleverly hidden in the region downloads of the ready to go maps page. you can try that, or else you would need to wait a couple of weeks for my version

I didn't see the Southern-only option, although I saw that it is possible to define the exact area that one wants and download just that area. Next time I feel like playing with this, I'll try he South-only option. Or even get the software, and define TN/Kerala only, just to try.

Although I expect some of the coverage to be better, which is what maps are all about, what I have now is fine for city work. With Nokia maps, I have whole of India, UK and Singapore loaded.

The thing with Nokia maps is not to use their software to add maps, because, due to the whim of some moronic software designer (Nokia stuff is sub-microsoft) when you pick a new map it deletes the ones you have already. Don't understand how anyone could even have that idea! However, direct links to the Nokia map sources are available, so it is not so difficult to grab them and just add them to the directory tree.

If Nokia programmers would just spend a little less time concentrating on making their software their version of attractive to teenagers, it might improve a bit.

Ho... Nokia rant offtopic. But the bit about finding the map links might be useful to someone!

if you are not in a big city, get a GPS that can use regular AA batteries so you always have power.

You can freely download openstreetmaps in garmin format, that is what I use and it works fine.

@planeMad: do you also map the bangalore region on osm?