What Is The Best Topo Map App For iPad

[surf110]

I've tried Motion X and Gaia. Not really impressed by any os them.

[spressomon]

I have several topo "off-road" map apps on my iPad, including MotionX HD. All of them are very "light" relative to my needs for off-road nav'ing. The biggest issue with all of them...without exception...is the shear amount of time it takes to download hi res map tiles.

Its not unusual, on a 2-week on/off road foray, to need 2-3 if not more western states. Just for most of Nevada, NorCal, southern Idaho and southern Oregon its a weeks worth of downloading 24x7 just to get the data (v 15.0).

Benchmark Map Co. is getting close to their beta test for their iPad topo map app; however based upon the discussion I had with them they too will be relying on the cloud and/or downloading maps...kinda futile for how I use an off-road nav/map system.

So far, like you, I am far from being impressed with the iPad apps being a home run for our needs. But to answer your question I'd say MotionX HD is the best of the lot. And FWIW they do have excellent customer support.

[Scott Brady]

I use Topo Maps

[dinoevo]

Tried a lot of different apps, but I found Motion X HD is still the best app you can get for this purpose right now.

[F5driver]

Topo maps works great on or off network.

[mattmainster]

I use Gaia and am thrilled with it. Offline topo maps are a breeze and it's full of slick features. Emailing your track after a trip is super easy too. Takes a little getting used to, but all in all I think its one of the best out there.

[Jeep or Tacoma]

I used to have a baja lowrance gps it was fast had topo and more detail than any other unit i have ever come across. Sold it with my h-3 but man i wish i had it back now look into it for what you want to do.

[cactusjk]

Any topo updates?

[The BN Guy]

Ok I'm not really knowledgable of the iPad but both Gaia and Topo Maps look good. I'm curious how this thing works though. There's no external GPS receiver? How does the iPad know where it is if you're in the middle of the desert with no wifi service?

I'm planning a trip in July and am thinking of letting my wife use my Garmin. I will be taking hardcopy maps but I'd like to get some of our money's worth out of the iPad..other than just playing games!

That Panoramascope app looks pretty cool too. Reminds me of the tool they used in the movie Red Planet!

[off-roader]

Ok I'm not really knowledgable of the iPad but both Gaia and Topo Maps look good. I'm curious how this thing works though. There's no external GPS receiver? How does the iPad know where it is if you're in the middle of the desert with no wifi service?

Either wifi or a GPS is required. wifi will only get you into the neighborhood while a GPS will be far more accurate depending on the unit. there are a few gps units that work for a non-jailbroken wifi ipad (bad elf, dual, etc.). There are many more that work if you jailbreak the ipad first.

Personally, I'm also still trying to decide which software I want to use. For a gps I'm going with one of the non-jailbroken ipad gps units. There's another thread that discusses which gps units will work for that.