Android map without the internet(offline)

Question

I hope this is not a naive question but is there any way to make an android application that uses a map without the use of google or the internet in general(as in not a google api)?Can a map be download from somewhere and merged offline in the code?I'm thinking in terms like having a street map,but not in your hand in this case.Thank you

Answer 1

Using google maps:

The google map application supports pre-caching, which does exactly what you want.

Now the bad news: it's not only impossible to do through the API (yet), it would also break the terms of service.

More details here: Downloading/Caching Google Maps for Offline Use

TOS section 8:

License Restrictions. Except as expressly permitted under the Terms, or unless you have received prior written authorization from Google (or, as applicable, from the provider of particular Content), the license granted to you in Section 7 is conditioned on your adherence to all of the restrictions in this Section 8. Under this Section 8, you must not (nor may you permit anyone else to):

...

8.2. copy, translate, modify, create a derivative work of, pre-fetch, cache, or publicly display any Content or any part thereof.

...

(Emphasis added by me)

Using other map services:

No idea...

Answer 2

Have a look at http://code.google.com/p/mapsforge/

It uses openstreetmap instead of googlemaps and allows for offline maps. The API is almost identical to the googlemaps api. If you're familiar with googlemaps api it should be very easy to switch..

Answer 3

You might want to try OpenStreetMap instead of GoogleMaps. While you're not going to have as rich of a dataset, it's FOSS you can still do a whole lot with it.

The OSM Android page is here.

I haven't dug too much into offline cacheing for it, but as you can see, a lot of apps have already been built using their kit.

Answer 4

You may have a look into OpenStreetMap and generate your own tiles using Mapnik. For mobile use I will suggest look into osmosis - crop different sections (bounding boxes) - to make smaller size packages. Here it's explained well how it can be done.