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Description:
Psi-Mapper (or just 'Mapper') is a project for Psion palmtops and Symbian smartphones. The Psion version has been on hold since 1999, but there's now a new version for Symbian UIQ smartphones like the Sony Ericsson P800 and P900 and one for the Nokia Communicators (9210/9500/9300).
What is it?
Mapper is a Geographical Information System (GIS), with basic maps and systems of overlays which can be browsed around and searched. Importantly for use on a handheld, the use of vector overlays throughout (hardly a bitmap in sight) means that it's extremely frugal with your precious memory and disk space. A typical installation would be only a few hundred kilobytes, with a similar amount needed for the running program in RAM.
What about other countries?
The Psion version is available for several countries (and languages), with hard-won data sets produced by myself and a couple of other enthusiasts. The Symbian UIQ and Series 80 versions are a new venture. In theory, it's quite possible to open the application out in the same way as the Psion one, but this will depend on the support I get in terms of registrations and practical help with digitising.
Is it freeware or shareware?
Mapper has variously been both at different stages of development. The Psion version went freeware a long time ago, as I felt I'd been rewarded sufficiently for my efforts and I wanted to give something back to the EPOC community.
The new Symbian versions have been quite a lot of work to produce and are currently (fully working) shareware.
What can Mapper do?
With the appropriate country broken down onto a 1000 by 1000 grid (in the UK's case, this is simply a sub-set of the National Grid), up to 1000 towns and all motorways and primary routes, dozens of overlays of interest, you can draw a map with any centre, add in roads or railways or county boundaries, overlay points of interest, perform distance calculations, search for specific information, and much, much more...
What can Mapper not do?
It can't perform automatic route finding or voice navigation, in the manner of the excellent TomTom products for all handheld computing platforms. Mapper isn't meant to compete with the likes of CityMaps or Navigator. Mapper is a GIS, implying huge amounts of geographical information, presented efficiently and quickly.
How to install
Once grabbed and unzipped, please read my README.TXT file to help you install the program and to guide you through other issues. Note that due to screen and menu size limitations, the UIQ version has slightly fewer functions than the traditional Psion and Communicator versions. Changes from v7.0 to v7.1: Fixed missing version number, fixed shutdown error, fixed road colour problem, fixed half a dozen small cosmetic and functional problems. Please be patient when installing new version - the UIQ removal of the previous version takes around 30 seconds 8-)
If you haven't already done so, you'll also need to install the OPL Runtime patch, which gives your smartphone the ability to run games and applications written in the OPL language.
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