12th April 2013
In this update:
Note that the 1:10,000 maps have not changed in this update.
The app should notify you that the new edition is available soon. In 2D mode, if you touch the Maps button (the rightmost one of the buttons at the bottom of the screen) and select "Update", you can select areas of existing maps to replace with the new edition. The coloured overlay will indicate which tiles have and haven't been updated.
Please let us know if you find any glitches or have any other comments about the new maps.
15th February 2013
Updated versions of the detailed maps are available. In this update:
The app should notify you that the new edition is available soon. In 2D mode, if you touch the Maps button (the rightmost one of the buttons at the bottom of the screen) and select "Update", you can select areas of existing maps to replace with the new edition. The coloured overlay will indicate which tiles have and haven't been updated.
Please let us know if you find any glitches or have any other comments about the new maps.
14th February 2013
Updates in this version include:
The iPhone 3G and the 2nd generation iPod touch are no longer supported, but note that the previous version of the app will continue to work and be able to download maps.
20th May 2012
Updated versions of the detailed maps are available. The changes include:
The app should notify you that the new edition is available soon. In 2D mode, if you touch the Maps button (the rightmost one of the buttons at the bottom of the screen) and select "Update", you can select areas of existing maps to replace with the new edition. The coloured overlay will indicate which tiles have and haven't been updated.
Please let us know if you find any glitches or have any other comments about the new maps.
2nd December 2011
This update makes the following changes:
17th May 2011
This update has now been approved by Apple. It should fix a number of crashes and freezes that have been reported on various device.
25th April 2011
This update, which fixes a bug that could cause the app to freeze on the iPad 2, has now been approved by Apple.
20th April 2011
I believe that I've now identified the cause of the freezes that some users have reported on the iPad 2, and I've submitted a fixed version to Apple. Hopefully they will approve this soon.
If you don't have an iPad 2, there is no need to update from 2.0 to 2.0.2.
18th April 2011
Updated versions of the detailed maps are available. These use revised versions of the Ordnance Survey base maps and OpenStreetMap footpath overlays.
The appearance of the 1:10,000 maps has not changed in this update, but the 1:25,000 maps have been revised. The new versions have slightly more detailed building outlines, use a distinct colour for the foreshore, and have removed the blue symbols for schools that were used in the previous versions. Most obvious is a change in the colour scheme; the Ordnance Survey data has a very pale appearance which you can see in their online viewer. I have increased the contrast and shifted the colour balance to make the background, text, and in particular minor roads more visible. Another effect of this shift has been to make the crag and rock textures more prominent.
The app should notify you that the new edition is available soon. In 2D mode, if you touch the Maps button (the rightmost one of the buttons at the bottom of the screen) and select "Update", you can select areas of existing maps to replace with the new edition. The coloured overlay will indicate which tiles have and haven't been updated.
Please let me know if you have any feedback about the new maps.
11th April 2011
I'm pleased to announce that UK Map version 2.0 has just been approved by Apple.
This is a major update that adds a 3D mode. As well as this new feature, much of the existing functionality has been re-implemented for improved speed and appearance.
If you currently have an earlier version of UK Map, when you first run the app after upgrading to version 2.0 it will download a small amount of 3D data for each of your existing map tiles. This will take less than one second per tile using a typical WiFi network. In testing, sometimes the download had completed before the user had acknowledged the informational alert that is shown when it starts. You can check whether there are any tiles for which the 3D data has not been downloaded by touching the new "maps" button (in 2D mode only, it is the rightmost of the buttons at the bottom of the screen) and looking for tiles that are coloured black.
Because much of the app has changed in this update it is quite possible that some new bugs will have been introduced. Do please get in touch if you encounter any problems.
One user has reported that the app freezes on an iPad 2 after upgrading; if you have a large number of maps already installed and you have an iPad 2 (or possibly iPad 1) you might like to wait for clarification before upgrading. If you don't already have large numbers of maps installed, I suggest upgrading anyway; if you encounter any problems you will probably be able to simply delete and re-install your maps to resolve it.
Note that a new edition of the detailed maps will be available soon; you may prefer to wait before installing large numbers of maps. The new app will inform you when the new maps are available.
With the release of this update, the iOS version of the 3D Lake District app has been withdrawn. This app was intended as a demonstrator of the 3D functionality that is now included in the main UK Map app; it used an early version of this code which suffered various issues with newer versions of iOS.
22nd January 2011
A new Android app, "UK Map 3D", is now available.
This app has different functionality than the iPhone/iPad app: it doesn't have the detailed 1:25,000 and 1:10,000 maps, but it does have a 3D mode.
Feedback about device compatibility would be very much appreciated; there are lots of Android devices on the market, all slightly different, and I've not been able to test on many of them.
8th December 2010
The Android version of the 3D Lake District app is now available from the Android Market.
Note that the app has limited hardware compatibility, depending on the device's 3D graphics chip. Your feedback about which devices do or don't work will be much appreciated, as we've not been able to test on many devices ourselves.
26th November 2010
There will soon be an Android version of the 3D Lake District app, and I'm looking for people to help test it. If you have an Android phone or tablet and would like to help, please get in touch.
18th - 21st November 2010
I'm going to be in Kendal this weekend demonstrating UK Map, 3D Lake District and my other apps in the trade tent at the Mountain Festival. You'll also be able to get a "sneak peek" of my next project. If you're going to be in the area, do please come along and say hello. If you've never been to the festival I can thoroughly recommend it - a packed weekend of films and lectures, all excellent. No armchair mountaineer should miss it!
8th November 2010
The next major update to UK Map will feature a dramatic new feature - 3D maps! To give a taste of what's coming, a new app, "3D Lake District", is now available. This contains 1:25,000 maps covering the Lake District National Park, using the same OS OpenData and OpenStreetMap footpaths as UK Map. It's available now and costs only £1.19.
13th September 2010
This version, which may be called 1.2.1 or 1.2.2 depending on where you look, is primarily a bug fix release. It should resolve some crashes that can occur if map or other data has been corrupted for some reason, and a bug that made maps uninstallable after a large area had been selected. It does not fix the issue with the layer selection switches described below.
It also makes minor changes to avoid confusion when "map info" is enabled unintentionally or when the GPS has been turned off.
8th September 2010
A nasty bug has been detected in the way that the layer selection switches work. If you touch the switches too quickly, you can end up in a state where the 1:25,000 switch is OFF and the 1:10,000 switch is ON. Once in this state, both switches are disabled and neither layer of maps is displayed.
If you find yourself in this state, you can reset the switches as follows:
This will reset the map layer switches and shading settings, but won't erase any maps or anything like that.
Please get in touch if you have any problems with this.
23rd July 2010
This update adds important new features and fixes compatibility with the iPhone 4 and iOS 4.0.
The main new feature is the addition of 1:25,000 maps as an intermediate step between the 1:250,000 road atlas mapping and the 1:10,000 street maps. When you install maps you can now choose to install only 1:25,000 or both 1:25,000 and 1:10,000. If you install only 1:25,000 you can later upgrade the map to include 1:10,000 as well.
The maps also now include footpaths. These are not included in any of the OS data, so instead they come from OpenStreetMap. Since OpenStreetMap is a volunteer project the coverage of this data is not complete, but it is good in many areas.
Other new features include:
24th June 2010
Good news and bad news. Bad news first: it seems that the app does not work correctly on the new iPhone 4, due to its high-resolution screen. This will be resolved in a future update; I don't yet have a timescale for when that will be available.
The good news is that apparently when the app runs on an iPhone 3GS with iOS 4.0, the compass-crash problem is cured.
31st May 2010
Version 1.1.1 of the app is now available as a free upgrade from the App Store. This update fixes a bug that only affected the iPad and caused it to crash on startup.
If you don't have an iPad and are currently running version 1.1, there is no need to upgrade to this version.
18th May 2010
Version 1.1 of the app is now available as a free upgrade from the App Store. However, if you already have version 1.0 installed, please read the following before upgrading:
The main new feature is the addition of contour lines and hill shading to the street maps. This makes them much more useful for countryside navigation.
The 3D hill shading effect can be controlled from the new settings screen, which is accessed via a new button with a "map and gear" symbol at the bottom of the screen. You can change the strength of the slope shading and the direction of the simulated sunlight, and turn the height tinting on and off. Note that when this effect is not useful, e.g. for urban navigation, you might prefer to turn it off as that will make map display slightly quicker.
There is also a co-ordinate display at the top of the screen, which is enabled by touching the arrow button at the top right. The format of the co-ordinates can be changed via the new settings screen.
In addition, you can now search for postcodes and road numbers. Postcodes down to the sector level (e.g. "M14 6") are built in to the app, and the more detailed postcodes are downloaded with the street maps. Note that you must type the space in the middle of the code when searching. Road numbers (e.g. A1304) are only included in the street maps, not the built-in national maps.
Finally, if your device has a compass (i.e. the iPhone 3GS and iPad), a new button allows you to rotate the map to face North.