Good Free App, Great For a Few $ More

This is a great app, don’t worry about the critical reviews and here is why.

1) With no in-app purchases (free) you get topo data for the entire USA. Yes it is low resolution, but, it is good enough for general browsing. If you are going to use the app for planning a hike or navigating on the hike you will want the hi-res maps, but, they are pretty cheap, see #2

2) In the in-app purchase are very reasonably priced because of two great ways that the developer handles in-app purchases (a) in-app purchases are not auto renewed, so, you don’t have to worry about forgetting you subscribed and racking up months worth of subscription fees you didn’t need. (b) everything you download you get to keep after your subscription ends. The way I look at it for $9.99, about $2 more than a *single* paper map, I can get all the maps in my area I ever wanted and then never subscribe again. But, let’s say I go to a new area of the county and I need some new maps, again I’d be paying $9.99, about $2 more than a single paper map, for multiple electronic maps.

As you can see I’m a fan of the app, and I just purchased it a week ago. I hope that the developer continues to refine and improve this app. I have run into some minor bugs.

a) When downloading maps sometimes the app will complete the download, but, not change the tile to the, “tap to delete” with red circle. To get the tile to update I have to tap the tile again. Thankfully on the second tap it seems to know that it already has the file and the “download” only seems to take about 2 seconds.

b) I wish the sync would happen in the background automatically.

c) I wish there was a way to hide map types I don’t use.

d) I wish there was a may to edit and merge tracks. Sometimes I forgot to stop tracking.

Eric-B about Topo Maps+, v3.5