I have long wanted to start a series of articles in which I will review ultra-useful applications for the iPhone. I value my audience and always share with you the most valuable and useful things that I know. Today I will tell you about the best, in my opinion, free GPS navigator for iPhone, which I use every time I find myself in an unfamiliar city. The application is called maps.me and I am ready to bow deeply to its developers for the work they have done. So why is maps.me a special app? I'll tell you now!
As you already understand, today we will talk about a GPS navigator for iPhone, which falls into the section MUST HAVE for your iPhone. Download maps.me you can follow this link.
Let's look at all its functions in order, but let's start from the very beginning - installation.
Step 1 Installing maps.me is NOT different from any other app in the App Store. Follow the link above and feel free to install it on your iPhone.
Step 2 Uploading cards. This is where the fun begins. maps.me uses maps OpenStreetMap, which are located somewhere on a server on the Internet and are open for free access and editing. It is this small nuance that makes the maps.me application a working and at the same time free GPS navigator for iPhone ( just what we need). So, without diverting from the topic... Maps are open for free downloading from the Internet, and this is done directly from the program interface. You can download maps of your region, sometimes a city, or the entire country at once. The whole world is available! To access the map download menu, click on the right icon in the bottom line (three horizontal bars), and then on “ Download maps". Everything is clearly visible in the screenshots below. 
Step 3 Card management. On the page " My cards” you can Download, Delete or Update already downloaded maps. Oh, by the way, the maps are updated periodically, so don’t forget to check them on this page. 
Step 4 Navigation. If the required map has already been downloaded, you can zoom to that area, city, street even without access to the Internet and mobile network. For example, while driving around Greece by car, I turned on airplane mode, completely cutting off communication with the mobile network... and everything worked fine. 
Step 5 Planning a route. Let's now try how maps.me works as a navigator. Let's say we need to plot a route from Fiumicino airport before Colosseum in the center of Rome. To do this, click on the starting point on the map (1)
and at the bottom of the screen click “ From here” (2)
After that, find and click on the destination point (3)
and press “ Here” (4)
The program will plot the optimal route, taking into account the chosen means of transportation (car, bicycle, foot). After which all you have left is Begin following a route, during which the program will voice prompt you about upcoming turns. 
But it is not necessary to use this application as a navigator; very often I just look through the streets and alleys to understand where I am and where to move in an unfamiliar place. To do this, just enlarge (zoom in) the map with two fingers and simply move it around your location.
MAPS.ME is truly a magical application, but not without its shortcomings. I consider the main ones to be the following:
* It is not possible to add intermediate points to the route
* Not all cities display house numbers
*No routing option for public transport
* There are no warnings about traffic jams and congestion on the road
But despite the listed disadvantages, this application has three main advantages: free use, availability of maps of the whole world, possibility of off-line use. These advantages outweigh all the disadvantages and make maps.me the best offline navigator for iPhone.
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If I haven't convinced you yet, go ahead and try it yourself. The application is really worthwhile and if you even sometimes travel outside your city, you simply need it. Don’t think that this little review was paid for... no, I’m not like that (well, maybe sometimes a little bit). Starting with this article, I am adding a new tag “ bestapps”, by clicking on which you can find many useful applications whose existence you had not yet realized. If you use any application that you can’t “imagine your existence” without, share with us in the comments and I will definitely write a review article for everyone else.
GPS navigation on modern mobile devices is used quite actively. This is despite the fact that when the option is enabled, the phone's battery drains faster. Next we have to figure out how to enable GPS on the iPhone 5s. Why is this option needed at all? How is it useful? Even an inexperienced owner of Apple smartphones will be able to bring the idea to life.
Description
Before you turn on GPS on your iPhone 5s, you need to understand what we're talking about. This option allows you to use maps and determine the location of the phone. It helps to find an iPhone if it is lost, for example.
If this option is disabled, the user will not be able to use maps and navigation on the smartphone. Therefore, most often people think about how to turn on the GPS receiver on the iPhone 5s and set up location detection in applications. It's easier to do than it seems!
Switching on via menu
Let's start with directly connecting the option. Initially, GPS is disabled in all Apple smartphones. To start using it, you will have to follow a short instruction.
How to set up GPS on iPhone 5s? To do this, you will have to enable so-called geolocation services. They allow you to use GPS in certain applications, but only if you have an Internet connection. Navigation will not work without it.
Turning on GPS is done as follows:
- Open the Settings menu when the iPhone is turned on.
- Go to the section called "Privacy/Confidentiality".
- Click on the "Location Services" line.
- In the window that appears, set the switch to the "Enabled" state. Next, you are asked to select the GPS operating mode. For example, "Always".
You can close settings. After these steps, GPS navigation will be fully enabled. But that is not all. Now you need to configure it in certain applications. As a rule, if the program works with GPS, then when you first launch it will require access to geolocation services. Just click on the “Allow” button to use all the options of a particular software.
Using Maps
Now it’s clear how to enable GPS on iPhone 5s. Next we will talk about how to work with this service. For example, about setting up location detection in the Maps program.
To bring your idea to life, you will need:
- Go to the iPhone main menu. To do this, click on the "Home" button.
- Find the Maps application on the screen. Click on the corresponding icon.
- Click on the folded map screen. A menu with settings will appear.
- If you press the "Satellite" button, a map image from the satellite will pop up on the display. The blue pointer is the subscriber's position.
- Select "Hybrid". This function overlays street names and house numbers on satellite images.
- If you click on the arrow button in the lower left corner, a compass will appear. The orange "nose" points north.
- How to set up GPS on iPhone 5s? Please note that when using the Maps application, the map rotates in the direction your mobile device is pointing.
That's all you need to know about working with Maps. The main thing is to turn on the Internet and geolocation services. After this, the GPS navigator will work without any problems.
"Compass"
But that is not all. It's clear how to enable GPS on iPhone 5s. And how to use location tracking too. Another technique is to work with the Compass program. It also requires GPS to function.
To determine your location using Compass, you must:
- Open the main menu of your Apple phone and find the appropriate program in it. It is located in the "Utilities" folder.
- Turn on GPS and Internet on your phone.
- After starting the program, a compass will appear on the screen, on which the coordinates of the user’s location will be written.
To go to "Maps", you need to click on the button with a small arrow in the lower left corner. How to enable GPS on iPhone 5s? Answering this question will no longer be a hassle! By the way, when you go to the “Geolocation Services” section, you can see a list of programs that have access to this option. By clicking on the corresponding lines, the subscriber is able to manage the GPS settings in a particular software.
Yandex.Navigator helps drivers get to their destination faster. The application plots a route taking into account the situation on the roads - it knows about the speed limit in different areas, as well as about traffic jams, accidents, repair work and cameras. There are up to three travel options to choose from, starting with the fastest. If the route passes through a toll section, the application will warn you about this. During the trip, Yandex.Navigator prompts maneuvers by voice and shows them on the screen. In addition, you can always see how much time is left to travel - in minutes and kilometers.
Yandex.Navigator will easily help you find the object you need. It will indicate nearby hotels, cafes, restaurants or gas stations. The application works online, using a minimum amount of traffic, constantly updating sections of the maps, storing them in a cache. It is possible to download the desired section of the map to the device, use both two- and three-dimensional modes, as well as a satellite view to view the desired object. The application can be used without the Internet. Yandex. Navigator is a completely free application that can be installed on your device and used as needed.
Yandex.Navigator developers offer two ways to plot a route: offline without a stable connection to the Internet, or online. In the first case, the global map partially fades and loses information about current road events - accidents, traffic jams and half-hour traffic jams. But even in this case, you can get to the address without any problems - GPS accurately determines the position of the vehicle on the map and accompanies you from start to finish. Tips related to speeding violations will also remain in effect (sometimes you will have to download additional maps for increased accuracy), and even information about places nearby - offices, restaurants, cafes - you can find out about opening hours and prices for some items at any time .
Features of Yandex.Navigator
You can communicate with Yandex.Navigator by voice without touching the device. You say “Listen, Yandex” and, after the application responds with a special sound, you give a command. For example: “Listen, Yandex” - sound signal - “Let's go to Lesnaya, 1.” Or: “Listen, Yandex” - beep - “Route to Domodedovo Airport.” You can also inform the Navigator about traffic events (“Listen, Yandex” - “I see an accident in the right lane”) or search for objects on the map (“Listen, Yandex” - “Nikulin’s Circus”).
For even greater convenience, Yandex.Navigator remembers the history of destinations. You can, for example, enter an address and estimate a route in the evening, and the next morning simply select the purpose of the trip from the list. History and favorites are saved in the cloud and are available on all your devices so you don't get lost.
The Yandex.Navigator application works in Russia, Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
First, I wanted to do a big comparative review of all available navigators for iPhone. I put together a collection of 10 pieces, but realized that I personally would never use most of them. Or there is no economic sense in buying such programs. Well, for example, why do you need Navigon Russia for 5290 rubles if you can buy a separate device for that money. Therefore, I left only those applications that I use myself. From my point of view, these are the best navigators for iPhone in Russia and neighboring countries. If I left something out, please explain it in the comments...
Yandex.Navigator
For large cities in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg), Yandex.Navigator will be the best navigator. He is practically unrivaled. And taxi drivers are proof of this. They appreciated this application, which is installed on almost everyone’s tablet.
There are many useful functions for traveling around the city. The main thing is “traffic jam service” and planning a route taking them into account. In order not to waste Internet traffic, it is possible to download maps to work offline. And recently I began to notice that many people use voice typing. Even with a Tajik accent, the navigator understands where to go. And all this is absolutely free!
There is no similar functionality for free anywhere else in the world!
Navitel
If you live further than the suburbs of two capitals, then welcome to the world of Navitel. This is a navigator for the entire main part of Russia. I have a lot of complaints about this application: it is inconvenient to use, it is designed for the military, the necessary buttons are hidden somewhere, it quickly drains the battery. But you have to put up with this for one reason - here are accurate maps of dirt roads, along which you can even go to the forest to pick mushrooms.
The software shell itself is free, but you need to pay for each downloaded card. Navigation in Russia will cost 1,790 rubles. Former CIS - 2150 rubles. Russia and Europe - 2390 rubles.
Sygic Europe and Russia
A full-fledged car navigator for iPhone that uses Tom-Tom maps. It is very useful because in addition to Russia there are all maps of Europe including Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and the entire Baltic states. If you buy these cards separately in Navitel, it will be much more expensive.
A very useful function that is available here is assistance when driving at difficult junctions.
The navigator shows the required lane to change lanes correctly. So far there is no such thing in either Yandex.Navigator or Navitel. The need for such a function in the city can be judged by one interchange on Leningradka, in the Gidroproekt area. The signs here are hung incorrectly, and out-of-town drivers have little chance of choosing the right lane without a hint from the navigator.
The cost of the application is 1490 rubles. You can additionally purchase a traffic congestion service and cameras for recording violations for 599 rubles per year.
I’ll add that this is so far the only navigator that works more or less normally with the Apple Watch and shows the nearest turn.
ViaMichelin
For those traveling to Europe and planning to rent a car, I recommend installing the free ViaMichelin app on your iPhone. This program is very common in European countries, and its popularity can be compared with our Yandex.Navigator. By the way, it also works in Russia, but the cards leave much to be desired.
A special feature is the cost of travel from point A to point B, which is calculated based on the distance, the cost of the toll road and the price of fuel.
With a consumption of 6-7 liters per 100 km, the information is very close to reality.
If you come to Europe and suddenly need to go somewhere by car, but you don’t have a navigator, then here is a very useful link:
m.viamichelin.com
This lifesaver link has helped me more than once in Italy, Spain, and France. There is no need to install the application, just open the web version of the navigator in your browser. Of course, this is not a turn-to-turn, but it will help out in difficult times. And strangely enough, WebApp has more functionality than an application. This version has added speed measurement posts, which will greatly help fans of fast driving.
Briefly about the rest
TomTom
It produces excellent maps for car navigators, and many consider them the best. The same Sygic uses them. But the price is somehow not very humane. The cost of the application is 4290 rubles.
In this article, we talk about the 20 most useful iPhone apps that will come in handy when traveling.
We also bought an iPhone, which at that time seemed like a beautiful toy - convenient, pleasant, nimble, but a toy - with the ability to make calls, send SMS and check email.
Gradually, while traveling around Asia, the iPhone acquired various applications, becoming more and more functional - we selflessly installed dozens of “useful” applications and mercilessly deleted 9 out of 10 as unnecessary, so in the end, bit by bit, like golden grains of sand from ore, we We've filtered out 2 dozen truly best iPhone apps for traveling.
One of the most important tasks when traveling on your own is navigating the terrain. Previously, in Europe we used a very good IGO program, but in Asia there are no good maps for it, so at first Google maps helped us out, since mobile traffic there is cheap.
But still, you don’t want to depend on the Internet, because from experience, it has a tendency to disappear at the most inopportune moment, and Google doesn’t want to cache its maps. In this regard, we looked for good offline maps and found them. Well, in general, due to the instability of the Internet, one of our main requirements for most applications is autonomy.
In this review, we share our impressions and experience of using these useful iPhone applications. We use some of them every day, some very rarely, but nevertheless, each of them successfully solves specific problems.
Another one of the most useful iPhone apps, indispensable for traveling. In fact, it is a very convenient “cloud” notepad in which you can store text, photos, audio and video information. We use it primarily to store text data. Information about cities and countries, notes for the blog, plans, interesting ideas and thoughts, recipes, etc. – all this is successfully stored in Evernote.
Be careful, offline notepads do not work in the free mobile version. Those. if they are downloaded, then you can access them for some time, but at some point they may disappear, so in the mode of limited access to the Internet you need to be extremely careful with storing the data necessary for the trip in Evernote.
In the information age, we are surrounded by a lot of data that one way or another we need to have in our heads or at hand - bank card numbers and PIN codes, logins and passwords for online banks and personal accounts, and many other alphanumeric combinations. You can write all this data in a notepad, store it in mail or services like Dropbox/Evernote, but if we are talking about confidential data, then all this is unsafe.
1Password is specialized software designed to store all your passwords. All data stored in the application is protected using 256-bit AES encryption, which eliminates the possibility of accessing the data, even if the smartphone is lost or stolen (of course, if you do not use the qwerty password or your date of birth).
This is an excellent cloud service for storing offline copies of website pages. Until some time we did not attach any importance to it and only recently appreciated it fully. Saving pages for further reading is implemented very conveniently - for major desktop browsers there are extensions that allow you to send pages to Pocket with one click; in the mobile version, you just need to copy the desired link to the clipboard and you will be automatically prompted to save it. In addition, you can send a link to a specific e-mail and it will be saved in pocket.
Mobile application of one of the largest dictionary developers. The basic version includes 54 dictionaries for 27 languages, which is more than enough in most cases, and if you need terms on a specific topic, you can additionally purchase specialized dictionaries. Dictionary developers often approach their work with humor and provide very original examples ( climb: “I need a climb to set me straight” – “I need to smoke a marijuana cigarette to come to my senses”).
This simple English-Russian dictionary does not have a very large volume of dictionary entries, but it is quite suitable for those who do not plan to use intricate words and expressions or translate specific texts, and also do not want to spend money on purchasing useful applications for the iPhone.
This application is quite specific, and is unlikely to be so necessary for most iPhone users, but nevertheless, we sometimes need it. VelaClock allows you to find out the time of sunrise/sunset of the sun and moon, the current state of the moon, as well as full and new moon days anywhere in the world, at any time.
This information is sometimes needed for photography in, or just to know when you can. Also, the application may be useful in some countries, for example, where the full moon is a sacred and officially a day off, on which many shops, markets and all government agencies are closed. institutions.
This is a cross-platform messenger that allows you to communicate with other participants registered in the system. WhatsApp is considered one of the best iPhone applications for simplifying the communication process and therefore it is very popular all over the world, and it becomes especially useful when you come to another country for a short period of time and do not plan to connect to the local cellular operator.
To send messages you need an Internet connection, so, sitting in a cafe with free wi-fi, you can send an unlimited number of messages to your friends around the world, without worrying about international tariffs and roaming. This works especially well in countries with developed Internet - in Hong Kong, etc.
In fact, the application has only one fundamental feature that distinguishes it from analogues that allow you to exchange text messages (icq, mail agent, skype, etc.) - it is linked to a phone number, and not to a login. The app will integrate with your iPhone's address book, making it easy to find people you know who use WhatsApp.
In this review, we talked about the best, in our opinion, iPhone applications needed when traveling. Of course, we also have other useful applications installed for other tasks, but we’ll talk about them next time. If you know good analogues of the above programs or other useful applications for the iPhone, tell us in the comments!
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