Application Name: Maverick
Description: Basic GPS mapp app
Publisher’s website: Code Section
Cost: Free lite version limited to 5 waypoints and one track;$5.95 Pro version removes those limitations.
Version/date reviewed: v.1.6.1 / 7-5-11
Phone/OS: Droid X / Android 2.3
Android Market (mobile app only)
Android Market (browser)
It’s nice to have GPS map apps with lots of features and capabilities, but these massive feature sets can sometimes make these apps harder to learn and use. Maverick has a somewhat more limited feature set compared to other GPS map apps, but its streamlined feature set makes it very fast, and easy to use.
Default view when you start up is your current position, displayed in a Google Maps interface. Other map options include Google Satellite/Hybrid/Terrain, Bing Maps/Satellite/Hybrid, Wikimapia and Nokia/Ovi maps, accessible with the “Maps” button at upper left; you can also convert your own maps into a compatible format with the paid mapc2mapc utility. Online maps are cached for viewing when you’re out of network range. The zoom buttons (and zoom level) are conveniently located at the upper right, and are an improvement over the default zoom buttons for Google Maps.
The blue triangle represents the field of view ahead of you, as determined by the compass on your GPS. Unfortunately, this uses magnetic direction instead of true direction, so it can be a bit off (11 degrees for my location); I wish app writers would always use Google’s built-in function for correcting for magnetic declination.
If you scroll the map by dragging, a blue arrow will show up at left (visible above); tapping on that will bring you back to your current GPS location. This is a nice implementation of this feature.
Tapping on the icons below brings up a number of additional screen options.
The Binoculars icon brings up a search screen.
The green flag icon puts a waypoint at the center of the screen; it also changes into a pencil icon, which you tap to bring up the waypoint editing screen above. Waypoints are saved in KML format, and can be exported for use in Google Earth and other apps.
The “yellow” checkered icon turns GPS on and off, while the icon at lower right turn GPS track recording on and off; you can also turn on track management using the Menu button. The button at lower left toggles between Map mode (the default) and access to three alternate data screens:
Compass view shows the direction your phone is pointing in; if you have a waypoint set as a destination (as above), it also shows you the direction to travel in to reach that waypoint, and the distance to that waypoint.
The time/track data screen lets you start recording a track, and the total time/distance/average speed along that track. If you have an account at GPSies.com, you can upload the track there.
The final screen is a GPS info screen. Tapping on any of the data screens lets you choose between twenty different datasets for that screen (e.g. UTM coordinates, sunset, ETT, etc.), offering more flexibility in data display than other similar apps.
Final thoughts: Nice, clean, fast, simple GPS mapping app. The free version is definitely worth a look. However, I think the paid version is a bit overpriced at $5.95; apps like Locus and OruxMaps offer larger feature sets at a similar or lower price.