Here is a neat trick shown to me by my daughter, who has graciously allowed me to share it with the world. I've used it in several faraway places lately, so I know it works.
If you like to take walks in the neighborhood where you're staying, like I do, but don’t like carrying maps or map books this can help you to not get lost. Think about times when you are walking in residential areas or early in the day, where there isn't going to be wifi or people around to ask for directions.
The idea is to save a map showing your starting location to your photo stream. Then you can access the map in your Photos while you are walking in the area.
You just need your smartphone with GPS and wifi to start.
Here are the steps:
1. While logged on to the internet, make sure your GPS is on, open your favorite navigation app
and locate your position. On Google Maps you are the blue dot.
2. Pinch or spread your fingers on the screen to shrink or enlarge the map. I try to enlarge the map
just enough to show some nearby street names. Put your blue dot in a corner to give yourself
more map space and leave room to show the area you will be traveling in.
3. Take a photo of the screen-called a “screen shot”- to save the map to your photo stream.
4. How to take a screen shot:
5. On the IPhone: press the home button and the on/off button together at the same time for a
second or two until you hear a click or see the image refresh.
6. Go to your photo stream and you should see the photo of the map.
7. Now you can access this map on your phone without being on the internet or using cellular data
8. Just remember that the blue dot is a fixed point in the photo and isn’t tracking where you are
walking.
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| A Screenshot showing my location at the blue dot and surrounding streets. |
9. Have a compass app on your phone that will work offline. This is good if you do walk off your map.
Hope this works for you and happy walking!
