Thursday, December 18, 2008

Maps on the Kindle?

I'm not sure I see the market here. The display on the 1st-generation Kindle is somewhat limited; probably not particularly well-suited for displaying maps. But at a $1.99, maybe these will sell like iPhone apps. I just ordered the free sample of the Northern California map - will post screenshots later. Rand McNally Offers First Digital Road Atlases for the Amazon Kindle
Rand McNally, America's largest and most trusted map publisher, today announced the launch of the first family of digital atlases for the Kindle™, Amazon's wireless e-book reader. The first available titles -- offering comprehensive and searchable road atlas data for Northern California, Southern California, and Washington State -- can be downloaded from The Kindle Store at Amazon.com for $1.99 MSRP.

2 comments:

Tomlin said...

I heard the samples show nothing
I ordered Washington
which is clear
but just an overview
Will serve basically
for me to look up geographic
location of towns
mentioned in the news
O yes Port
Townsend Brem
erton and Port
Angeles
The three most important
places to me
are all chopped in half

Unknown said...

I've reported in emails and a phone call that several items were not working in this Northern California one, so I'm wondering what your experience is after 2 weeks time?

The 'search' process described in the "How to use" chapter doesn't work within the map book - it searches all the books of the Kindle but doesn't catch city names that ARE listed in the indexes of the McNally atlas.

It doesn't see "Berkeley" in a search. Nor 'Albany' ... Clicking on Index for Monterey I just get the No.Calif map with a circle letting me know where Monterey is.
Going 'back' one 'page' I get a street-level map of Modesto.

The chapter says the indexes or searches allow you to get individual city maps but the customer service person and I couldn't get those.

I will see if Rand McNally uploaded a fixed version.

Other than the above, the graphics are done very well for the Kindle and the maps are very clear.

Using the Northern California map was fine, though with a screen this size one may want to use a magnifying glass. Resolution is good though on those map sections.

I didn't want a refund, as what is there is worth the $1.59 charge for the piece. But I'm hoping they fix the functioning of this.

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