We set off from Beijing in early April, travelling south and visiting destinations by train and bus. We will pop over to Taiwan by ferry from Xiamen. Further south, we brave the bustling metropolises of Guangdong and HongKong, before turning west into Yunan. Our hope at this stage is to pass through Burma into Tibet. From Lhasa we climb the plains and take the high pass past Everett base camp into Nepal, before descending down into Kathmandu.

Passing through Delhi, we head by land to Leh, catching one of the first buses through the freshly snow cleared pass from Srinagar. There we will spend some time, learning a little about Buhddism and reflecting on a life simpler than our own. Finally, we fly out towards Pune to reconnect with old friends, before finishing the trip in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Our trip will take us around three months. Well, that’s the plan anyway

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View this in a larger map

Lets face it, iOS Maps uses up too much of your data package. If you don’t believe me, try this:

• Check your data usage in Settings -> Usage -> Cellular Usage
• Reset it, or take a note of the value
• Go to Maps, and search for a city youve never viewed before in map
• Zoom in a few times, and pan around for 30 seconds
• Check your data usage again
• That’s right, 2-3 MB for that small privilege!

The problem isnt just the amount of data itself, but the fact that it gets deleted soon after you download it! Why? The maps app on the iPhone has a very small, ~22MB cache. So even if you use your home WiFi to pre-download all you need for your week away to Paris, it’s likely you can only access a tiny bit of your previously viewed maps before you need to download again. And for that you need cell access, to drain more data from your monthly allowance (or force you to sell your house to pay for roaming fees), and patience.

The Solution

1. First you need to jailbreak. Luckily this is possible on all devices, including the iPhone 4S (at time of writing).

2. Now there are a number of existing solutions you can try. However, I found (at time of writing), some are difficult to understand, and none of them work with Google Maps or iOS5. In case this changes, and because it’s likely my solution will one day fail, I’ll list some of them here:

• OffMaps - http://www.offmaps.com/ - Doesn’t need jailbreak, but uses OpenStreetMap not Google Maps and costs money
• OMaps - http://omapsiphone.com/ - See above.
• iphoneofflinemap - http://code.google.com/p/iphoneofflinemap/ - Supposed to enable your Maps app to save for offline use, but doesn’t work in iOS5
• Maps Enhancer - http://moreinfo.thebigboss.org/moreinfo/depiction.php?file=mapsenhancerData – See above.
• iMapsManager - http://imapsmanager.ru/mapConverter/mapConverter_eng.htm - Converts maps downloaded with the google maps downloader tool. Doesn’t work with iOS5
• Try the below (with iOS 5.0.x)…

We are going to modify the cache database to stop it deleting old map tiles, thereby allowing it to increase in size indefinitely. Don’t worry, its not as hard as it sounds.

1. Find and Copy the /private/var/Library/Caches/Maps/MapTiles/MapTiles.sqlitedb file to your Mac / PC (you can do this using a file copying program such as iExplorer [http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/], or using ssh).
2. Open it with an SqlLite database reader. I used MesaSQLite [http://www.desertsandsoftware.com/?realmesa_home] for Mac.
3. Add the following trigger to the database by executing the following query:- “CREATE TRIGGER prevent_delete BEFORE DELETE ON image  BEGIN SELECT raise(IGNORE); END”
4. Quit Maps on your iPhone
5. Copy the MapTiles.sqlitedb back to the same location on your phone, replacing the original
6. Ensure the file has the correct permissions, owner: mobile, 775. You can use terminal, ssh, or even iFile (an app available in Cydia) to do this.
7. Restart your iPhone.

Now try it out! It’s best if your on a wifi network, but 3G will do. Pan and zoom around the map all you like, and after a few minutes check the size of the MapTiles.sqlitedb file. It should grow beyond 22Mb, and when you go back to previously visited places, it will load instantly, and without need for network.

PLEASE NOTE:

• You may have to be connected to the internet for a second or two when you first load the maps app after a phone restart in order for them to work offline. After that you should be able to close and open it and view all tiles without being online and not using any data.
• GPS does NOT appear to work at all without a network connection in the Maps app or any apps that use Google Maps API in iOS, even if you have perfect line of sight to the sky and the area you’re in is definitely cached. I have no idea why this is. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
• Your maps will eventually become outdated if you live in a fast changing country like China. You may want to delete the cache file at this point and repeat the process above to make sure it’s not limited to 22MB
• Your Maps may eventually have problems, after all this is a hack, though mine hasn’t yet with my cache file at 150mb.
• If your very geeky like me, you can discover the location of the MapTiles database for all the applications other than the official Map app, that use the maps api. One of my favourite such apps is called cartographer. By creating a symbolic link from your modified MapTiles database to the common location for the other apps, you can use the same cache for all your maps related apps!
• One day the tool iMapsManager [http://imapsmanager.ru/mapConverter/mapConverter_eng.htm] will hopefully be updated to allow you to create maps using the google map downloaded toll and load them onto your iPhone.

View this in a larger map

Ah, how lucky we are to live in the technology age. Personal Electronics just keep getting more convenient, faster, cheaper, and dare I say it, more Star Trek-like. About a year ago I indulged in my first stereo Bluetooth headset (which was an MW600), which have recently started hitting the market. A year on, with the addition of Siri, I now find myself regulalrly tapping my breast pocket, where the device susually sits, scheduling appointments and making calls, rather like I remember Captain Piccard tapping his lapel ‘communicator’ to communicate with crewmates or the computer.

Anyway, without further ado, I’d like to offer a brief review of the Sony MW600 and the Samsung HS3000, along with my overall experience of using such devices day-to-day, to help you decide if they’re for you.

An Introduction

To give a bit of background, both of these devices are a little larger than a pen-top, and clip onto your shirt, lapel, or top pocket. Both have a standard headphone socket on the top, and come with short length wired headphones if you want to use them (In fact, the Sony headphones bundled with the MW600 are excellent in themselves). Both have an inbuilt microphone for wireless calling. Both can pair with multiple devices. Both have play/pause, forward, back, and volume controls for music. Both work with the iPhone (the Samsung is better). Both contain small, irreplaceable batteries which charge in 2-3 hours and last 2-3 days depending on how much music and calling you do.

If you’ve never tried a stereo Bluetooth headset and you’re a bit of geek like me, I strongly suggest you try. It’s quite a liberating experience to have all the audio interfaces of your phone (sound effects, full quality music, videos, and calling functionality) ‘outsourced’ so you don’t need to have a messy cable tugging all over the place when you pull out your phone to make a call or respond to a text.

Why am I very familiar with both of these devices? I first bought a MW600 to try it out last year in 2011, and was thrilled with the experience. I was so thrilled that after leaving it in my jeans pocket and putting it though the wash thus destroying it (but not the earphones, most earphones are surprisingly resilient to being washed, I’ve found), I went straight out and bought a second one. After that one was lost during the new year festival in Edinburgh (I have a slight problem about being careless with even my favourite things), I decided to see if there was something even better in the same class I could try, and thought id give the Samsung HS3000 a try.

Sony Ericsson MW600

Having had two of these, I’m quite familiar with it. It’s rather badly designed. The screen is nice, but the buttons are hard to find, and the volume control is completely terrible. I heard Sony is releasing a other version of this class of device this year, and I hope they manage to sort out the volume. The touch sensitive sliders only works with practice. The device itself is ok to handle and wear. The battery isn’t bad, lasting longer than the samsung. The sound quality is great, especially with the included earphones. However, it does have a problem with distortion and noise at high volume ranges. It includes a radio which I’ve never used. The device sometimes has problems pairing and needs to be reset, but the signal is very strong. It has a rather convoluted way of pairing to different devices which took me a while to get use to. The microphone is not great, causing me to use the phone most of the time rather than the headset when making calls, partly because the background noise cancelling system of the new iPhone 4 is so good. The microphone is not good enough to use with Siri reliably.

Summary

• Design – 5/10
• Usability – 4/10
• Bluetooth Reliability (with iPhone) – 5/10
• Stereo Sound Quality – 7/10
• Microphone Quality – 5/10
• Sound Volume – 6/10
• Battery – 7/10
• Included earphones – 8/10
• Price – USD 30-40

Samsung HS3000

After doing some research on alternatives to the Sony Ericsson, I put the Samsung HS3000 on my shortlist and decided to give it a try. Overall, I like it more, and it’s further increased my usage of headsets. The main reason is that it’s more usable! At first, the lack of screen and smaller battery worried me, but I have quickly learned to love this device, even though it’s still lacking the polish of a mass market device. The design is much better. Its smaller, and fits more neatly on my lapel. The buttons are not that accessible but they’re better than the MW600. It pairs easily with the iPhone, faster and more reliably than the MW600, and works with multiple devices. The signal strength is not as good, and will break if you are more than a few metres from the phone and turn your back. The sound quality is about the same as the MW600, maybe a touch poorer. The microphone is quite good, and even while mounted in a shirt pocket it works with Siri. A luxury. The bundled earphones are not great. The battery is probably 30-40% smaller capacity than the Sony Ericsson, and it’s frustrating not knowing what the level is because there’s no screen (there’s only an audible warning). Overall, it’s a joy to have.

Summary

• Design – 6/10
• Usability – 6/10
• Bluetooth Reliability (with iPhone) – 7/10
• Stereo Sound Quality – 7/10
• Microphone Quality – 7/10
• Sound Volume – 5/10
• Battery – 5/10
• Included earphones – 5/10
• Price – USD 30-40

Conclusion

I’ll keep this short. This kind of device, wireless earphones, microphone, connected to your smartphone, is going to hit mass adoption in the next few years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple even got in on the act. I’ve had such fun in the last few months trying a few early attempts out. In terms of these two devices, until we get a better integration of both of their advantages and improve on their disadvantages, it’s really about your preferences. Bigger battery, integrated radio, better earphones – MW600. Better, slicker all round device, with neater pairing and good microphone – HS3000 (just remember to charge every few days). Either way, happy Star Trekking!