Completely confused about Anquet
Recently I got an email from Anquet telling me about Outdoor Map Navigator Pro (OMN) and the ‘cloud’, which came as a bit of a shock as I had no idea what was happening to my digital maps. I use Anquet v06 but apparently it’s on the way out, although they say it will be supported but for how long I don’t know. I already have maps in the ‘cloud’ bought from their map store so I don’t know why they’re saying the new maps will move to the cloud. As far as I’m concerned they’re already there as they’re not on my computer. Apart from a couple of ‘local’ maps on DVD, the UK 1:50K and Cairngorms National Park 1:25K. However, apparently these DVD format maps are not compatible with OMN ‘cloud’ format and I’ll have to download the updated versions from the ‘cloud’. On a 1Mb connection? I don’t think so. But apparently the 1:50K is in ten sections so I can download them as and when required, so I don’t go completely over my bandwidth limit for the month and have to pay extra to my ISP.
The cost of this is 50 pounds if I do it now. That includes the v06 plugin that converts my v06 maps to OMN maps. That’s 50 quid to keep my maps from disappearing down the support toilet. Plus whatever extra charges my ISP lands me with if I go over my modest limit trying to get my DVD ‘cloudified’ maps back.
The next discombobulation I experienced was www.anquet.co.uk no longer exsts. It redirects to www.anquet.com and they are touting an iPhone app. But I was under the impression another outfit were doing all the Mac stuff. Their site was so bad I gave up early on trying to get Anquet for OS X, especially when I found out I’d have to re-buy all my maps. So my head is spinning like a compass needle on a magnetic table. There are just too many options.
When there’s such a major perturbation in service such as this, it’s good practice to have a scenarios page. This allows users to identify their particular mess, such as having a mixture of online and DVD maps and having no idea what to do and the scenario takes them through a likely upgrade process. Instead I’ve been relying on their support email. It’s slow but friendly as ever and I am slowly reaching some sort of understanding of how to upgrade. I do think Anquet are by far the best map company. They have good deals from time to time and are always friendly and responsive to support requests. The support is rather slow but they do reply and the fact they’re always friendly keeps my business with them.
But I don’t need all the stuff OMN is touting. All that 3D gubbins and split maps and blah this and blah that. I just want maps and to be able to print them out. The GPS communication works just fine so I don’t need an improved one. In short, I’m not a ‘power user’. I’m just a lover of maps who needs to print them out now and again and upload a route to the GPS if I can be bothered. But I do love the cut your own Harvey 1:25K service. Those maps are just beautiful. The 1:40K ‘magic scale’ paper Mountain Maps don’t quite float my boat as the detail is small for ageing eyes but the Harvey’s are just superb. So for those alone, plus the sheer convenience of buying 1:25K chunks of far flung places such as the Cotswolds, not to mention having my lovely maps available from my phone, I’ll prolly part with the cash and upgrade.
Now if only they had a Mac version of OMN…
March 23rd, 2012 at 5:48 pm
I saw this coming, Anquet have have been operating this cloud-based preference for some time. While they have offered DVDs of certain map collections with a manual method of activating them, they really didn’t like it, they always want the software to communicate directly with their servers (it goes poking around all over your system drives and reports everything, locking you out of your online account if it finds anything it doesn’t like). It’s all about control, i.e. theirs.
I’ve posted about the dangers of this sort of thing before but it always falls on deaf ears. More and more people are sleepwalking into this arrangement whereby your purchased data is in the cloud, be it music, ebooks, maps etc.. They say you can always download it again if your system gets screwed. What if the company goes bust?. Thereafter you upgrade your computer and your existing maps don’t work.
Anyway the only media you truly own is that which you can hold in your hand, be it a DVD, pen drive, hard disk, and which you can install on any computer you buy in (forseeable) future. If that’s not the case I’m not interested, no deal. I haven’t yet investigated whether OMN maps can be bought on DVD.
Fortunately I have all the extensive mapping I need, archived on DVD and installable on any Windows system (including the nice Harvey maps!). I don’t have Smartphone or GPS, no worries there.
March 23rd, 2012 at 5:59 pm
Yes, it is looking rather ‘vendor lock-in’ type stuff Geoff. I specifically asked about DVDs and they said OMN doesn’t support them. There’s also no way to upgrade a v06 DVD to an OMN version. You have to download the content from the cloud, which is ridiculous if you’re on a rural 1Mb connection. TBH I haven’t used printouts in ages as my regular stomping grounds are covered by Harvey paper maps in some form or another, be it 1:25K or 1:40K. I’m still dithering on whether to upgrade or just go back to paper maps.
March 23rd, 2012 at 8:20 pm
I’m a long-term Anquet user (10+ years). I theink the product has generally been great and whenever I’ve needed support, it’s been quickly forthcoming. I still think the Anquet route handling and storage is the best there is. The “downloadable map” thing seems to have worked fairly well. I’ve bought a few areas at 1:25K and even a chunk of old map. It’s all there, on my PC when I want it.
I’ve looked at OMN and I’m still not sure what benefits I would get from upgrading. Yes – V06 slows down a bit with lots of routes open. Yes – it would be lovely to have an Android for my phone (or tablet). I might even be willing to pay the £50 upgrade charge.
However – I’m now very confused. I emailed them to confirm that any maps I downloaded from the “cloud” would be the most up-to-date available from the OS. Nope – they’ll be the same version I already have on my PC. Now – I think that’s a bad marketing decision, but I also don’t quite understand how that is going to work. Perhaps they’ll run something on my PC which does something to the files I already have? In that case, where would my Android get its cloud maps from? Are they keeping some sort of register of who had each version? Technically (as an ex-IT consultant) it sounds like a nightmare.
Anyroadup, I’m bow looking at alternative solutions – one of which is the OS getamap site. I suspect my Anquet will be relegated to “archive” mode.
Colin
March 23rd, 2012 at 8:22 pm
PS – I’ve already told them I won’t be upgrading due to the map issue.
No response forthcoming.
Perhaps they need a little more user feedback
Colin
March 23rd, 2012 at 9:15 pm
All sounds a bit of rip off. Fortunately I have Tacklogs and I have a DVD which I can install directly on my computer and doesn’t need to communicated with a server other than to check for software updates.
Anquet seems to be part of the trend of regarding customers as an endless “profit opportunity” . Profit seems to be the main driving force rather than the result of a mutually beneficial relationship. Perhaps I’m too old fashioned?
March 24th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Robin – Anquet works like that too (buy/download the files on to your PC). It all works in “offline” mode, so there is no regular communication going on other than to check for updates.
March 24th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
I don’t use Anquet and never have. But your post is very interesting. I was thinking about cloud. I use Dropbox to store things like maps etc etc which is basically a cloud, is it not possible to download from cloud onto a facility such as dropbox or indeed a flash drive so that you have a personal copy?
Just a thought.
I might be way of track here.
March 24th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Yes it’s all getting a bit much I think. Just had a fantastic day out in the Cuillin. Stuffed grub in the ‘sac, stuffed paper map in too and just went. No computer, no printouts.
March 25th, 2012 at 12:32 am
I wouldn’t trust Anquet further than I cold throw them.
All my experiences with them have been disastrous.
Currently trying out Routebuddy – which I *do* like. There a re a few glitches but they are over-comable.
I’ll write more about it in a few weeks time.
March 25th, 2012 at 7:14 am
That would be handy Alan. I’ve heard about Route Buddy, most from Andy Howell but I’ve never tried it. As most folk say though, they have their maps archived off. At least I have the UK 50K DVD. Shouldn’t really need any other digital set than that.
March 29th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Hi All
Ed here from Anquet.
I hope no-one objects to me posting. I stumbled across this and thought I’d do my best to clarify a few things. Here goes…
There is capable free version of OMN for PC which has the features that most people will need.
There’s also a Pro version of OMN for £40 which includes GPS connectivity, 3D maps, A3 printing etc.
Any Anquet maps bought in 2012 and onwards will work in both OMN and Anquet v06.
If you have maps on disk or download that were bought before 2012 that you would like to use in OMN for PC then you need a the v06 Map Reader Plug-in to convert them to OMN compatible downloads. This costs £30, no matter how large or small the map library.
There’s also an Early Bird offer which gives the Pro version of OMN for Pc and the v06 Map Reader Plug-in for £50.
Also, just a note on the continued support of Anquet v06: It’s here to stay. If any of you used Anquet v1, back from 2001, you know we mean it when we say we’ll continue to support a product.
With the above, we have tried to provide existing v06 with some options, they are:
1. Stick with v06, re-assured that v06 is still very much supported and that any new maps they buy will be OMN compatible. We hope this means that customers who are happy with v06 can carry on using it knowing that should they wish to convert in the future, they can.
2. Convert v06 maps to OMN compatible downloads. Here we charge a one off fee to convert all v06 maps, no matter how large the map library. This, we hope, provides a fair way to give existing v06 customers access to new software without asking them to re-buy their maps (which, incidentally, until very recently, was the only option under OS regulations).
What we have tried to do is provide a fair way for existing v06 customers to use their maps in new software if they wish or carry on with v06 knowing that it’s not a dead end.
Finally, with regard to local transfer of data from v06 to OMN…We’re looking into it. Some of the people testing our Android app have said how useful that would be.
As I say, just an effort to clarify things where I can. Hope it helps.
March 29th, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Thanks very much for that Ed. As I said I’ve always found Anquet support really good and this just proves my point. Does seem a bit steep though, 30 quid to migrate to a new platform but at least v06 will still be supported. OMN not supporting DVD media does disadvantage those on slow connections though.
April 4th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Hi Alistair
Thanks for your kind words about our support. We don’t always get it right but we do work hard at it and it’s nice to get some feedback.
On the pricing, a lot of development has gone into OMN and for someone who uses Anquet a lot or has a lot of maps we hope £30 will turn out to be very good value. On the other hand, v06 is very able, award- winning product which you might want to stick with and save the upgrade fee. And anyone can of course, download the fee version of OMN first and see what they think before parting with their hard earned.
Any way, thanks again.
April 4th, 2012 at 11:00 am
Interesting blog. Many of the comments, thoughts & concerns expressed echo my own sentiments.
My broadband connection is 0.5Mb/s (we are in a rural community served by a small BT-only exchange that is not being updated). I have a collection of v01 and v06 discs, which I paid extra for because of the appallingly slow download speeds, not to mention reliability (eg line breakages in bad weather).
v01 & v06 discs are incompatible with each other, and now with OMN. Why?
It’s still not clear to me whether the v06 Map Reader Plug-in converts existing maps, ie those already stored on the local hard drive or merely provides the ability to download the relevant maps (ie those already purchased). Why have v01 maps been left out?
The only reason I’ve been considering a migration to OMN has been the promised future ability to port maps across to Android devices (phones, tablets, etc). Today, for the first time, Anquet have announced that the Android application will cost £6.99 (will this include updates?). That means I’ve got to spend £56.99 to use, on my phone, some of the small collection of maps I’ve already paid for. That’s totally unreasonable.
Finally, it’s not at all clear to me what the Cloud is offering. Is it merely a tool to keep all routes, etc, synchronised with one’s own devices (multiple home computers, lap-tops, tablets, phones, etc) or is it necessary to have a permanent connection to the web in order to use maps on OMN?
All in all, I’m very disappointed with Anquet and shall be looking for a different solution to placing OS maps on my Android phone.
Has anyone been able to “read” Anquet’s v01 or v06 maps on different software?
By the way – excellent blog, thanks for providing this platform to express views.
April 4th, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Hello Charles
OMN maps are in a different format, which allows for quicker map movement and a better performance on mobiles. But it does mean, I’m afraid, that you need to download your maps in the new format rather than simply copy them across locally. Alas, providing old map data in the new format, on disks made to order is not really an option right now. There are simple too many possible permutations of data over the last 6 years, probably millions and millions. (I’ve not done the sums)
But I certainly can sympathise with those who don’t have a reliable broadband connection who might not relish the idea of downloading large areas of mapping. It might change in the future, but for now my best advice is to download the areas as you need them, leaving the rest on Anquet Cloud until needed.
On the pricing around Android…
£6.99 for the Android app covers updates to the app. And to be clear, you’ll not need to pay £56.99 to use you maps on your Android device.
£56.99 will get you the Pro version of OMN for PC, the v06 PC Map Reader Plug-in, the v06 Android Map Reader Plug in and the OMN for Android app itself. That will certainly be all you need but you could do it more cheaply if you felt you didn’t need all that it included.
For instance, just the OMN for Android app and a v06 Android Map Reader Plug-in would let you use your v06 maps on your Android phone. We have yet to set a price for the v06 Android Map Reader Plug-in when sold separately but I suspect it will be around £10. So that would give you all your maps on your Android phone for £16.99.
The other option, if you don’t have so many maps is to buy updated ones. As an example, a new 2012 OS 1:50,000 map for North West Scotland will cost you £15 (or £7.50 if you’re updating an old one). You can use the new map in OMN for PC and in OMN for Android (and in v06 if you like). Add £6.99 for the cost of the app and you’ve got new maps on your PC and your Android Phone for around £20.
To sum up, if you have a large collection of maps and you use the full feature set of the Pro version of OMN for PC, the Early Bird Pro Upgrade will prove to be good value for you.
On the other hand, if you don’t have so many maps, or they’re in need of updating, or you don’t expect to use the Pro version of OMN for PC, there are other options which might work out better for you.
On Anquet Cloud…
You certainly do *not* need a permanent data connection. Anquet Cloud, as you suggest, is a place to store maps and route data and a way of keeping devices synchronised. You can download maps from Anquet Cloud and synchronise route data with when you are at home with a data connection and then take off anywhere you fancy with the maps and route data stored locally on your device.
On a general note, what we’re trying to do is give new and existing customers choices. But I fear we might be failing to communicate the options clearly, which incidentally, is my job. But I’m working on it as you can see!
In an earlier post, a kind of options page was suggested. I like that idea and we’ll get something together.
I hope the above helps in some way. And yes, great blog!
Ed (Anquet)
April 5th, 2012 at 10:40 am
The Emperor’s New Clothes
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IMO I think that the waffle from Ed above is a confusing mélange of pure marketing fluff and babble, and designed to lock customers in to Anquet in the worst possible way for their own pocket.
But, even though I do understand the technical smoke-and-mirrors that’s going on here, please don’t take my word for it; Instead read this veritable summation which neatly exposes what ‘is’ going on…
The illuminating comment is at the bottom, in the responses, from ‘Adam Dawson 2′:
tinyurl DOT com/c6whh5h
Adam can see that the Emperor has no new clothes on and, technically reviewed, I certainly agree with him. Being charged extra for something you’ve already had in an older version though is vile and repugnant.
And then there’s the extras on top…
-neil
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CEO RouteBuddy Ltd, Guildford, Surrey. UK
April 5th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Well that’s one person’s impression and one point doesn’t make a line, especially in the world of PCs. I’ve never had a v06 crash but I’m not a power user and haven’t heard of any of those customisations as I just print and upload to GPS.
Vendor lock-in is driven by the OS who demand that I, myself, pay for the same map multiple times. Take the farce of the Anquet OS X stuff. That was so confusing it was appalling and the company involved never replied to support questions. The main reason I didn’t go near them though is because the OS demands I must pay twice for the maps I bought even though the name Anquet was used by both companies. That is still a mystery to me.
Taken to its logical conclusion, the OS would have me buy 7 maps of the same area, one for each day of the week, or perhaps even 365?
What would drive the market to innovate is the OS treating customers as human beings and not money dispensers. If I bought the UK at 1:50K from the OS, would map companies compete to get access to my data and provide services on top of it?
As soon as you buy map data from any mapping company you are in effect locked in to their system as the OS forbid you to use the data you have bought in anyone else’s system. I say ‘in effect’ as unless you’ve just won the lottery you’re unlikely to buy another fecking DVD of the UK at 1:50K.
April 5th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Alistair,
Yes, you are right, it is one person’s impression; But Adam has considered his findings and, from a technical view of someone actually in the industry, then I would say his opinions do have clear authority. Forget that though, just look at the facts; add up what was in v06, look at what’s been taken out in Anquet OMN basic (and now charged for at £40 for the ‘Pro’ version – which in essence was the original v06) and make up your own mind.
(As for the rest – lipstick, new frock, smoke-and-mirrors.)
Vendor lock-in
Vendor lock-in is not, I repeat “NOT” driven by the OS, it is driven by the vendor. Anquet and Memory-Map have always used the Ordnance Survey as a convenient scapegoat to hang expensive map upgrades on. When the map vendor charges you, the user, a high-price for a map, then you as the customer want to hang on to it, even though it can be way way out of date.
The ‘trade’ data prices for OS maps have not changed over these many years, which means that when most of you bought your maps you could easily have paid these other companies well over a 1,000% mark-up over the trade price on some maps, sure there are processing and eCommerce costs to consider – but on a high-price map buy?? Read my article on Darren’s whitespider1066 about high map prices (OS Map Data Portability Part 2). Are you happy about that? Do you want to continue trusting a company that happily emptied your wallet back then? And would they do it again now if they possibly could?
RouteBuddy pay the same raw data prices too, but have pushed to bring the retail map prices down to acceptable levels, for a business to run, and for the customers pocket. That and we like to be clear and frank about our pricing policy, so there are no catches.
Anquet on Mac OS X
This was a poor PC port, but no matter what, all of your map licenses could still have been used in it; Yes that’s true, but of course that didn’t make Anquet any extra money, nor make any money for VPMaps, the third-party who built the app. Ergo you were made to pay twice over by Anquet for duplicate maps, do you think that was fair?
How do I know that? Because RouteBuddy offers identical Windows and Mac OS X digital map software, as well as our mobile software; Buy an Ordnance Survey map from RouteBuddy and you can use it on all three platforms with the same licence, not only that but the licence we sell you for our software works in either the Mac or PC version, or both at the same time – and that ‘is’ very fair.
We also are unique in making all of our software, for all platforms and from the ground up.
Ordnance Survey map data from Anquet
- This was old, as Andy Howell’s blog ‘mustbethisway’ showed, very very old, c. 2007 I’d guess – and even if you bought maps in those ‘sale’ prices last year you got old maps – so was that really a good deal when the maps on offer were already outmoded?
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Think again
Start asking yourself what you want out of software in the future and from your maps, check out all of what’s on offer, and maybe it’s time to move, or otherwise stay with very old software and save your pennies for now.
Also ask yourself if you want to buy from a marketing company, or from RouteBuddy, a small British map software business that’s truly passionate about great maps and good quality software, just as you are.
-neil
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CEO RouteBuddy Ltd, Guildford, Surrey. UK
April 5th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
That hadn’t sunk in when I went to the RouteBuddy site Neil, that you can use the same maps on multiple platforms. I also assumed RouteBuddy was an American company as the prices are in dollars and the pictures on the front page look like US landscapes. I only spotted the pounds by looking on the far right of the page, a place I rarely look at. This is normal behaviour for web users. Important content on the left.
I don’t know why Anquet would say I’d have to buy my maps twice to use them on Windows and OS X but I presume there is a reason.
I too have industry knowledge, at the developer level and I really wouldn’t read too much into one person’s PC problems.
Here’s something to consider though. I downloaded RouteBuddy and created a very simple route on the demo uk map. I chose properties and the application hung, monopolising the CPU. I had to force quit it. I reopened it and did the same thing, tried to view route properties and it hung again. So I can’t use it.
One thing I like is the cut your own map. Anquet and Viewranger support this but RouteBuddy doesn’t seem to. Also going by the reviews on the AppStore the Atlas app is a little byzantine in how you get maps onto it from the mac. They mention virtual drives, mounts etc.
So lots for me to chew over.
April 7th, 2012 at 6:32 am
Speaking of support…
I went to look for a new walk using the ‘get route from web’ on v6.
It takes me to the home page of the anquet website & I can’t find any routes.
Put ‘route’ into the search bar and none are found.
April 7th, 2012 at 7:12 am
Wonder if that’s anything to do with the .co.uk domain being binned in favour of the .com one. In my experience when something like this happens, existing URLs are redirected to the new home page rather than porting the existing structure to the new domain. That is worrying as Anquet explicitly say that v06 will be supported indefinitely. Is this the first evidence that it’s not?
As for RouteBuddy, apparently my inability to use a route is down to a ‘little bug’. It’s a pretty big bug I would say. Also, wonder why RouteBuddy comes with American demo stuff rather than more UK demo stuff. Also found the display of the demo map very blurry when zoomed in. So blurry that forest roads become unusable. Curiously, they tout having your maps on your Mac and iOS device as a major selling point but have no way of their own to do this. They rely on you doing it yourself with third party apps rather than an inbuilt function of the RouteBuddy software. But as they say, they seem to be the only company that have an OS X/iOS presence.
You can get lots of routes from the Viewranger site, download them as .gpx files and load them into Anquuet to transfer to your GPS.
April 13th, 2012 at 6:09 pm
OMN blurb says “PC Map Reader converts your treasured Anquet v06 map library into Outdoor Map Navigator compatible maps. Pay once and all your Anquet v06 maps will work in Outdoor Map Navigator forever” oh no they won’t. I have ‘Navigator Britain’ on DVD and when I click on the button, it checks the DVD and does add NavBrit to and says they’re ‘downloadable’. BUT, when I click on download, it comes up with a message “Navigator has no available formats in v12″.
Seems I’ve just wasted £50 on upgrading to pro with the ‘early bird’ Map Reader add-on. Plus, some of my ‘Great britain on DVD’ maps report the same error.
I want a refund please. NOW! How do I get that?
Ed. Can you help? Thanks.
April 13th, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Oh, the message is a bit garbled as I used some characters in the text that this blog doesn’t support. Here’s what it should’ve said:
OMN blurb says “PC Map Reader converts your treasured Anquet v06 map library into Outdoor Map Navigator compatible maps. Pay once and all your Anquet v06 maps will work in Outdoor Map Navigator forever” oh no they won’t. I have ‘Navigator Britain’ on DVD and when I click on the ‘Convert v06 disk’ button, it checks the DVD and does add NavBrit to ‘My Maps’ and says they’re ‘downloadable’. BUT, when I click on download, it comes up with a message “Navigator has no available formats in v12″.
Seems I’ve just wasted £50 on upgrading to Pro with the ‘early bird’ Map Reader add-on. Plus, some of my ‘Great Britain on DVD’ maps report the same error.
I want a refund please. NOW! How do I get that?
Ed. Can you help? Thanks.
PS: Will the French maps package be offered on DVD? – that’s what I’m reaally after.
April 19th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Hello Captain Kephart. Sorry to get to this late.
Have you been in touch with our support desk? If so, please let me have the ref number and I’ll take a look.
If not, please drop us a note at support@anquet.com
Bye for now
April 19th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Hi Alistair,
Regarding the link to routes in v06.
I’ll take a look. A year or so back, we directed to outdoorsmagic for routes rather than our own site. I expect that redirect has gone missing in the move from .co.uk .com
April 30th, 2012 at 9:23 am
GeoffC is right. If you dont have it in you hand you dont have it at all. I replaced a hard drive that has my Anquet v6 maps on it. I copied some maps to the new drive but left it downloading the rest. It was only when I went to plan a holiday later that I found large areas of some maps had not downloaded. The program says they are fully downloaded but they are not. Support, who I have always found very good since I bought the first issue of v1, (#7014) say ‘The technical team are trying to track down the specific issue you are seeing which may take a little time as it’s not something that happens consistently or effects most users on most systems.’ I wonder how many users have the problem but dont happen to have needed that bit of map…yet. Time has passed and it still doesnt work, I dont care about most users it affects me. Typically a 1:25k map that I found on a backup is 133,622KB claimed to be fully downloaded yet was only just over 3,000Kb and so almost all of it blank, well needs downloading messages. I did try the Outdoor Map Navigator. It is just as bad only the maps that fail to download are different and as said above it DOES NOT convert your DVD it checks which map it is and then downloads from The Cloud or in my case fails to download. The question I didnt yet ask is if I buy a new map and it fails to download what then?
April 30th, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Hi Alistair,
Sorry about my belated posting; Your comments certainly raised a detailed response but we’ve had to concentrate on getting 300 new IGN France maps out on release: http://store.routebuddy.com/maps/topo/ign
I’ve responded as per each item number on your blog.
neil
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April 30th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
Comment 19:
Yes RouteBuddy is unique, in that you can use the same maps on multiple platforms; And additionally unique in that you can view multiple-maps on the same desktop platform!
Company origins
No RouteBuddy is a British company, although our web commerce provider is based in the USA (and we have international customers) hence having to choose one currency, which has been dollars thus far (though this is changing).
- As you have an interest in the origins of the key map software players, here’s a list of who and where:
Memory-Map – American, sold through a UK distribution company.
Mapyx Quo – Slovenian, sold through a UK agency.
RouteBuddy – British.
Tracklogs – British
Website images
FWIW – The images on the Home page are USA -Tre Cime of the Dolomites-Globe-Tenerife-Globe. However we sell maps from around the world and will, over time, be expanding our catalogue even more so – therefore it’s hard to choose as to what image we should/could use! Does the image really really matter though, should not our range of maps encourage exploration?
Paying twice for Anquet maps
The only reason you have to pay twice to use your Anquet maps on Mac OS X and Windows is for Anquet to make money twice-over – There is absolutely NO ‘technical’ reason as to why Anquet cannot offer the same map licence key for both operating systems…
(I’ll get on to the problem you encountered later, as it is repeated in the next post.)
Map cutting
“Cut your own map” came about because of the high-map-prices vendors were charging. When RouteBuddy starting making waves on the UK map sales scene Memory-Map were charging £260 for a 50K map of GB, closely followed by Anquet and Viewranger, but now you’ll find that they’ve all started to ape our competitive pricing model.
- Of course pricing is still higher for 25K OS map data and it’s an easier ‘sell’ to offer tiles, or cut-price maps. From RouteBuddy’s POV we’d rather best-price the maps and offer more value to the user. Speaking frankly, loaded map tiles, or a cut-out map, looks a real mess on the screen, so it’s better to look for maps with added-value.
iOS map loading
Byzantine is probably extreme, it’s a simple process of drag and drop. (Note that we can’t answer incorrect comments on the iTunes store to set people right – and some are put there by competitors anyway.) However we do have a good manual for the answers users need, it does have a lot of detail in it (as a good manual should) because we have to cover the many avenues that different people approach our software from.
[Personally speaking I have a love/hate relationship with manuals, much preferring the approach taken by writers like Robin Williams and David Pogue to their audience in introducing people to new software. Though those books are never able to extract the whole manual into their 'missing-manual' guides - and to write concise pictorial copy in their style takes longer and would fill up more pages. There really is no 'ideal' option.!]
neil
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April 30th, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Comment 21:
Anquet v.06
I don’t know why you ask if Anquet will really support v.06 indefinitely? That approach would’t make them any money in the long-term, I don’t think there’s anything to wonder at, it will be a commercial decision when to let it die – or how to compel a move to OMN.
Demo maps
RouteBuddy comes with three demo maps, a vector road map based in the USA, an Ordnance Survey map sample of Afan Valley in Wales and a USGS Topo map of Yosemite. (The Afan Valley map is the only one the Ordnance Survey allow vendors to use.) Why should that be a problem? What it does show is that RouteBuddy is far more advanced and ‘can’ show more than one map, mix vector and raster maps, layer online satellite imagery, all on a worldwide scale and, as such, it is unique.
(We used to get a similar complaint from US customers complaining ‘”just why isn’t the sample map in my own city? – but one develops a tough skin in this business!
Map zoom
I’m surprised that you have said the maps are blurry when you zoom right in; Of course they would be!
Ordnance Survey’s scans of their maps are scans of ‘paper’ aka ‘raster’ maps. Hold a paper map too close and it’ll look blurry, hold it away from you and the map will look mushed. What we do do is offer our users ‘Overzoom’ so they can enlarge to see and more easily place markers or plot a route, easily flip between satellite imagery and get more from their map use – it can also save on having to whip out reading glasses too often for those of us who need them. If you don’t like Overzoom then don’t zoom in so far.
RouteBuddy Maps on Windows, Macs and iOS
Using an app to drag and drop maps onto iOS devices is really irrelevant and, once understood, it’s an absolute doddle to use – and how often do you plan to take maps in and out of your iPhone anyway. The reason this method of loading came about was to do something where we could better our competitors, which was and is loading large maps onto iOS devices, of which the GB 50K map is one of many, and load on all platforms. (Memory-Map and others claimed there was a 2Gb limit set by Apple, that was tosh, as long before then we had both the GB 50K (3Gb) and GB 25K (10Gb) maps loaded and running on my old iPhone 3G.) That’s not to say things won’t change with our map transfer system, but as a developer you know there’s more to engineering work than often meets the eye.
A bug
No. The “big” bug you’ve mentioned in your post about RouteBuddy above is not a big bug, it is per-se a little one; It is though part of a Route-Model and (as you know from the developer-level) engineering should never be done by jumping all over the place, and dealing with little bits. The way to do the work is a planned-approach for set-releases of the software. (This bug came about because of some recent work we did for the revised rendition of the outdoor Route-Model and, when we revisit this work, we’ll not only be tackling this small bug, but also making substantial changes to the outdoor Route-Model.)
As Jannion said to you in response to your support ticket, it is an easy enough bug to avoid if you don’t place a waypoint ‘directly’ on top of another and, for a better experience, you could consider using Places files, and Places folders (for different routes) and for a better, tidier, experience; (Remembering also to set your Preferences for ‘Direct Routing’ [off-road] rather than ‘Vehicle-Routing’.)
neil
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April 30th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Alistair,
let’s put the small bug you mentioned into perspective:
RouteBuddy
- From the first release of RouteBuddy 3 last summer (for both Windows – and – Mac OS X) we’ve gone on to release six substantial updates.
That’s 6 substantial tranches of work. (Oh, and a release of 300 new IGN France maps from around the world.)
(Not little bug fixes, but real new-feature updates that changed RouteBuddy and moved it closer to the idea of advanced perfection we have for the outdoor community.) But to get a better picture what does the overall timeline look like for competitive software?
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Software timeline
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Anquet
- Anquet v.06 was launched on the 10th November 2005 (that was six months before RouteBuddy was launched).
- That was 6.5 years ago.
RouteBuddy
Was launched on the 25th July 2006.
- Less than 6 years ago.
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The bottom line:
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Anquet – In over 6 years since its release in 2005 I’ve searched for major new feature-releases, and big-fixes, but came up empty-handed.
RouteBuddy – in over 5 years has:
Debuted on the Mac, then rebuilt completely from the ground-up for (all) desktop platforms, then launched on Windows and Mac OS X, the first to launch Ordnance Survey maps on iOS, offer mixed raster and complex vector maps from around the world, offers inbuilt satellite imagery overlay, can view all the maps in the same window, has sophisticated GPS connectivity and a superior UI. RouteBuddy is the only modern digital map software and, per se, six years technically in advance of Anquet’s latest software re-brand.
Clearly which map company you choose to invest in is up to you, it’s all down to what you get in return – now and in the future.
Neil
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CEO RouteBuddy Ltd, Guildford, Surrey UK
May 1st, 2012 at 3:31 pm
How about offering a discount for new Routebuddy users ditching Anquet? (I recently switched online backup providers in a similar offer.)
I’m not happy about having to effectively pay to keep using maps I bought less than 6 months ago. I’m equally unhappy about the thought of throwing away what I’ve already bought and signing up with a new company. The grass isn’t always greener…
May 2nd, 2012 at 11:38 am
Hi Craig,
Yes that’s a good idea.
Actually the grass really is greener… The maps you bought six months ago from Anquet were already c.5+ years old at the time of your purchase.
In stark contrast RouteBuddy’s maps are new.
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Of course you weren’t to know you were buying very old maps at the time, but let’s move on:
- If we could come up with a reasonable discount to upgrade your historic Anquet maps for the latest Ordnance Survey maps from RouteBuddy then you’d be happy?
- On our side we still have to pay the Ordnance Survey for the new map data we sell to you, and of course make a margin so that we can invest in future development. Is that fair?
Now I don’t know what maps you own, the scales, or the area covered… So what to you would seem reasonable discounts to get new maps for old?
Neil - – – – – – – – – – – – – – -
CEO RouteBuddy Ltd, Guildford, Surrey UK
May 3rd, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Neil
When I bought my maps from Anquet there was nothing (that I could see) to say how old they were. I assumed they were the most up to date at time of purchase. What do they say about making assumptions?
They also promised an Android App was due for release and as an Android user wanting to use my phone in the field (along with paper maps) I finally jumped on the digital bandwagon.
Fast foward just 6 months and I’m having regrets.
My considerations now are price and being able to use the maps on my Android phone. I appreciate the offer to negotiate on the former, but it’s RouteBuddy’s stance on the latter that worries me.
Regards
Craig
May 4th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Craig,
There is no stance and it would be wrong to assume, however at RouteBuddy we never make any pre-announcements on any in-depth work we are doing, or have planned. (We don’t want to fall in the trap of announcing vapourware…
Clearly there are other providers currently on the Android platform but none of them are able to provide the capabilities that RouteBuddy offers.
So, for now, your choice is maybe one solution for Android mobile and one for Windows or Mac OS X maps on the desktop. Though maybe the new iPhone 5 will change that…
Neil - – – – – – – – – – – – – – -
CEO RouteBuddy Ltd, Guildford, Surrey UK
May 5th, 2012 at 9:16 am
I appreciate your reluctance to announce possible/planned future software, but I have read posts on other blogs and forums that suggest to me that RB don’t think Android has a future and will ultimate fall foul of other companies’ patents. It’s this ‘stance’ that prevents me from switching to RB.
May 5th, 2012 at 9:18 am
Oh, and as for the next iPhone – let’s not go down that road.
May 9th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Craig,
Oh it has a future, but how that may pan out long-term is another matter entirely. The Patent troll wars are in their infancy…
Here’s one of many articles about the ongoing litigation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/technology/apple-wins-partial-victory-on-patent-claim-over-android-features.html?pagewanted=all
But this is something for the developer to worry about, not the consumer.
Neil
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CEO RouteBuddy Ltd., Guildford, Surrey UK
May 14th, 2012 at 8:58 am
Hi Craig,
*Latest data:* To put your mind at rest, the maps you bought 6 months ago would be the latest available maps. The OS typically provide us with new 1:25,000 data every 6 months and new 1:50,000 data every 12 months and the maps you buy from Anquet comprise the most recent data. Should anyone tell you otherwise they are either poorly informed or happy to lie to you in the hope of attracting your business.
*Android:* Thanks for your patience so far. Android has been a big project – roughly two years in development. The aim all along has been to build something that is very robust, reliable and easy-to-use – to give us very good foundations to build on. It’s often the case that getting the foundations right takes the time. Anyway, we are very pleased with the results. The Android app is now available to try as a Beta so you are most welcome to come and try it for yourself.
The best place to start is here:
http://community.anquet.com/entries/21323017-new-to-the-omn-for-android-beta-please-read-this
You’ll find a link to install the app and a friendly and active community of testers who have helped us shape the app. If you can email me at support@anquet.com (FAO Ed) with your Anquet log-in details, I’ll make sure your account is set up for testing.
*Anquet v06 support:* You can expect us to continue supporting Anquet v06. Ask any Anquet version 1 customer and they’ll tell you we mean it when we say it. More to the point, it would make no sense for us to withdraw support from such a popular product. The other important fact to know is that the Anquet v06 maps you buy now work in OMN for PC and OMN for Android too. This means you can carry on using Anquet v06 knowing that the maps you buy from now on will work in OMN if ever you want to use it.
Hope the above helps.
All the best
Ed
June 8th, 2012 at 7:34 am
Anquet fail trades description and trading standards. Anquet’s email and web site says “It doesn’t matter how many v06 maps you have, how old they are or whether they are on disks or as downloads, the v06 Early Bird Pro Upgrade converts the whole lot”. This is not correct. the ‘Navigator’ series of maps won’t convert, Anquet no longer support it. After a small battle, I have got a refund from Anquet for my ‘early bird’ upgrade.
Despite this, they have not changed their web site or emails. I now consider this deliberately misleading and that they are laying themselves open to prosecution. Be warned.
PS: I hate the ‘ribbon bar’, hated having to re-download all my maps again, and could see little benefit for all the effort. I’ll stick with v06.
July 8th, 2012 at 12:38 am
I really wish I had chosen MemoryMap (or anything else) rather than Anquet. It was a toss up, prices were equivalent. I wanted to use my maps on a pc and a mobile device. I haven’t had a problem with Anquet on my PC (although the software isn’t the best), but the mobile is a completely different story. The software didn’t work on my Pocket PC at all, and I now have an Android device…
I contacted Anquet who assured me an Android app was in the pipeline. What they failed to tell me was that it would cost me £30 to convert my maps. Yes, Ed, I know you said you will be releasing a converter for £10 – but when? It has taken Anquet a lot longer than the other map companies to produce a mobile app already.
Additional Anquet declared when I purchased my maps that I was buying the map data – that I could use it as long as I wanted and the software (for pc and mobile) was free! Anquet are now forcing users to buy a new app and pay to convert any existing data they have bought. I could cope with paying for the Android app, clearly there is some development work associated with this – but forcing me to pay to upgrade my maps? Perhaps I should think of it as the most expensive Android app ever produced!!
As I understand it MemoryMap have released a FREE android app that will work with maps that their customers have already bought. Sounds like a company providing customer service rather than looking for ways to rip off their existing customers in the hope that they have already spent so much on maps that they will keep pouring money into the Anquet coffers.