Contribute to OSM with an iPhone 3G

Hello all !

My name is David, I’m french and I want to contribute to OSM with my new iPhone 3G.

As you perhaps know, this phone is sold since less than 1 month in France.
But I don’t know which application I have to download (even if it is not free) to contribute to OSM very easily.

I’m a beginner within the projet. I have to read all the documentation.

If a guide already exists or something else, let me know. Thanks

I very excited to join this kind of projet…

Hope to read you soon

There are several apps for the iPhone that you can store a tracklog with, e.g. iTrail and GPS Tracker, just search the App Store… I haven’t used any of those but iTrails looks like it’s the best one. If you are talking about mapediting applications for the iPhone then I suspect there will be none… iPhone uses a programming language no Openstreetmap editor is using, so we are not going to see a port anytime soon.

An editor on the iPhone would be the best thing, entering names and turn restrictions should be perfect for that phone. I think you should buy one of them and try them out be aware though accroding to this review of iPhone GPS capabilities for geocaching, the GPS is pretty inaccurate.

No I don’t want to edit a map within my iPhone but just collect GPS points and photos. Then, I want to upload these traces into my computer in order to generate an OpenStreetMap map. Am I right ?
My iPhone can be considered as a basic GPS device - it is my gaol

Thanks, I will try these 2 applications and give you my feedback soon …

That’s good, I hope it works out! Apparently iPhone applications can’t be used for navigation. They limit this in their SDK.

Today I tested the app “Path Tracker” and it worked quite well. After tracking you upload the track from the iPhone to the website. From there you can save it as *.gpx. Actually it will be saved as *.gpx.xml, but you can delete .xml and upload this file to OSM.

Good to hear! Care to make a small review, it sounds like quite a bother to upload tracks to OSM?

I found a blog post with lots of GPS iphone loggers listed if someone wants to make another review, extract:

I use Path Tracker as well, and I’m quite pleased with it. Easy to use and not very expensive.

Hi all,

Currently I’m trying iTrail (in “Fitness” category) but it’s more expensive.
iTrail lets you store your path with 2 frequencies (10s or 30s). Once stored, you can saw it in Google Maps directly on the iPhone.
I have a Google account with Google Documents activated. Thus, I can store my paths in to KML or GPS format from iPhone in Google Docs.

Then, these files are ready to be traced through Google Maps (GPX) or Google Earth (KML).

I carry on my investigation with this tool and will give you more information next time…

Are all application “limited” to 10s frequencies? I know you probably want to use that kind of low frequency if using the GPS software draws lots of battery…

I tried Track’n Trail and I think it’s the best application for use with OSM and iPhone. You can deposit your OSM account into the settings and be able to upload your track directly within the app. No need to export to GPX or something like that. Very snappy!

That’s cool, I saw that this has made it to the wiki in Making GPX Tracks

Track’n Trail was brilliant, and I purchased it having read great reviews here. But now it has stopped being able to email or upload files. IÂ’ve tried emailing the developers, but no answer. It also is no longer available on the UK iTunes App store. Any idea whatÂ’s going on? OSM is a great idea btw. Thanks, Tom

I’ve tried Trails, OffMaps and MotionX GPS and I’ve found MotionX GPS the best so far, mainly because you can manually reposition waypoints. OffMaps isn’t really suitable. The iPhone isn’t the best for GPS, while it’s quick to get an initial satellite fix it’s slow to keep the position updated i.e. it doesn’t keep up with you.

MotionX GPS

  • supports street and terrain maps (as well as google street, satellite and hybrid maps)
  • manually reposition waypoints and attach photos to them
  • record tracks
  • email tracks and waypoints to yourself as GPX files, though each waypoint has to be emailed individually

Trails

  • supports street and terrain maps
  • create waypoints from your current position and take photos within the application though they are not attached to the waypoint
  • record tracks
  • email tracks and waypoints to yourself

I have used trails to export the tracks and then import them with OSM but keep getting an error: Found no good GPX points in the input data. At least 75% of the trackpoints lacked a tag.

Now I have tried this with OSMTrack and Trails, same error with both, using my 3G iPhone and there ARE valid points and timestamps on the files…Not sure what to do :S

Just figured it out, it appears that OSM doesn’t like the a.m. ending of the timestamps, so I removed all of those and it loaded properly. In addition, I have spoken to the creator of OSMTrack in regards to an issue that I’ve been having, and he mentioned that on a future release, he will include support for exporting gpx files through e-mail or such.

Apple just accepted my “Little OpenStreetMap Editor” in the iTunes Store. It is version 0.9, so a lot of things can be improved if there is demand for it. You can edit or upload nodes on the fly with the iPhone. I think over about ways.
This link should bring you to the app: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=333224774&mt=8
Or search for: “osm editor” in iTunes or look at:
http://eiseler.de/iphone/Johannes_iPhone_Site/iLOE.html
where you find the description.
Have fun,
Johannes

As a first try, I “shared by email” my MotionX GPS tracks, which have GPX in attach, and then manually uploaded them.
I also written a support message to MotionX to ask if direct upload on OSM.org would be possible.