Maps Take 3 Hours to Download? Japanese Map Text Is Wrong? Is This A Joke?

[Greybrook]

Hello,

I was initially impressed with the Demo version of PocketEarth and so decided to purchase the full version. The main draw of this application for me is the ability to download full maps for offline use, to avoid large data roaming charges whilst backpacking in Asia.

I am using a brand-new iPhone 5 with 32GB capacity, and a fast internet connection. It has taken me 3 hours to download the map of Japan. Japan is only the first of a number of countries I need to download for offline use, and so I am concerned. Is this a normal length of time for download?

The fact of the matter is I have paid money to buy an app for offline map access. It then takes me 3 hours to download my first map (Japan). I then find out that half of the Japanese map is written in Chinese, rendering it practically useless.

I was going to ask about Japanese language support but the forum suggests it will not be released until v1.6, and I need the Japan map to be functional from March onwards, which I assume is not nearly enough time to fix the issue.

I appreciate your team has taken a vast amount of time and resource on PocketEarth, and I do appreciate your efforts in this regard, but I feel cheated by my purchase.

Grey

[GeoMagik]

Hi Grey, 

I am sorry to hear you feel cheated!  You can request a refund from Apple if you like.

I understand your frustration with the lack of proper Japanese support, we are working hard to resolve this as soon as possible.

Map downloads absolutely should not be that slow – I am bit confused as you say you have a fast connection!  We have carefully selected some of the fastest and most reliable, internationally located data servers possible to serve our data. For example, from a pretty slow connection where I am now in Thailand, I am able to download all of Japan in less than 20 minutes. From the US or Europe it should be much faster than this.  Where are you located?  Could you verify your connection speed in general using a service such as this one: http://www.mobilespeedtest.com  Maybe with this info, we can figure out why its taking so long.

Best Regards

[ragnakore]

I downloaded the whole map of China, and it took no more than 30 minutes on my end. Maybe there is an internet connectivity issue in here that caused 3 hours.

[Greybrook]

Hello,

I have tested my internet connection using the website link you provided: The speed of my connection was 544kbps (between 400 kbps (3G) and 768kbps (Broadband)). I am located in mainland Europe.

I will not request a refund from Apple because I think your app *could* become very useful for any trips I need to make to Japan in future years. I appreciate you are working to resolve the Japanese language support issue, and I understand it will take time. In addition, thank-you for taking my complaint seriously, I appreciate this good customer service.

I look forward to the Japanese language-support update in the future.

Grey

[Marcello]

Hi all,

I’m using pocket earth for a couple of months now and found it very usefull.

In downloading maps, I have the same experience regarding very long download times. I also noticed different download times on my ipad3 and iphone 5 (far slower!). France and Germany takes several hours. My Internet connection is avg. 2-3 MB/sec. I also noticed strange Wifi drops during downloading with the latest (1.5) version.

Marcello

[Author]

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