Mapopolis MUCH better than Ostia

BigBit · 08-20-03, 09:26 AM

I have had my Pharos Ostia for about two years. The original software was poor, and I awaited my upgrade with great anticipation, which I got a few months ago.

It ain't much better. Hardly any POI's, slow to define routes and re-route, hardly worth the upgrade.

I shied away from Destinator because of the inability to automatically switch between maps, even though the individual maps cover relatively large areas.

I gave Mapopolis a try, and it is well worth the price. The only negative that I ran into is that silly 20 million population limit that prevents the loading of further maps. This should not be a problem for those living in less populous areas, but it can create frustrations for those of us living in highly populated areas like Southern California. My workaround was to create two folders on my CF card - ESSENTIAL and OPTIONAL, and I would move the county maps between the two folders as I needed them, putting the ones I needed for my day's driving in the ESSENTIAL folder, which I had Mapopolis point to.

Other than that, the software performs flawlessly, with quick route calculations and recalculations, a good set of POI's and, most importantly, CURRENT maps. Example - CA-210, a major Los Angeles/San Bernadino county freeway which has been opened for close to a year, still does not appear on the OSTIA maps, but was there correctly in Mapopolis. In over 1500 miles of driving in California last week, I only saw one map flaw in Mapopolis, where it tried to send me the wrong way on a one-way street in San Francisco (Hyde where it intersects Geary). Otherwise, it was flawless. This compares to Ostia, where my vehicle was often shown "lost in space" due to lack of highway alteration updates or improperly plotted roads (the worst being route 395 between Ridgecrest and Mammoth Lakes, CA, where half the time I found myself theoretically driving through fields parallel to the highway, with the voice reminder telling me I was "off route").

If you've made the mistake of purchasing Ostia, I highly recommend the Mapopolis product. There are many other features that make it better than Ostia - I have simply highlighted the key ones above.:p

joemike60 · 08-20-03, 12:30 PM

I also purchased the Pharos GPS with the Ostia software, and am seeing the same issues. After reading your comments about Mapopolis, I am considering buying that.

Question: Can I continue to use the Pharos GPS (CF) with the Mapopolis maps? Or do I need new hardware?

Thanks!

08-20-03, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by joemike60
I also purchased the Pharos GPS with the Ostia software, and am seeing the same issues. After reading your comments about Mapopolis, I am considering buying that.

Question: Can I continue to use the Pharos GPS (CF) with the Mapopolis maps? Or do I need new hardware?

Thanks!

From all the posts that I read and viewing the support GPS devices for Mapopolis, it should work. I have seen other users using Pharos GPS units with Mapopolis.

jadavison · 08-20-03, 12:59 PM

I use Mapopolis as well with great results. In fact, I live in a new community in Oceanside California; my neighborhood only came into existence last year and it is included in the Mapopolis maps. When I first got Mapopolis, my street wasn't even on MapQuest yet!

Also, I have found that the routes are near perfect, and have guided me home via "back roads" to avoid Friday afternoon traffic flawlessly. I have used roads I never knew existed.

Mapopolis is a great product and I highly recommend it to anyone with a GPS or interested in mapping software in general.

BTW, joemike, you should be able to use your Pharos with Mapopolis, it is not GPS vendor specific. It just looks on a specified (or auto-detected) com port for your hardware.

joemike60 · 08-20-03, 01:33 PM

Thanks for the advice. I will give it a try...