Locus is a great program, the best map viewer I've found for android and I've just bought it. But I'm missing two things:
The ability to search the nearest OpenStreetMap POIs online. Either by category (fast_food, fuel, etc.) or name.
(At least I couldn't find that function; I know I can search "Google Places" and "GeoNames and GNS.")
(I'd also like some kind of night mode: Even at lowest brightness setting the phones screen is still unnecessary bright when looking at the map at night (e.g. while geocaching at night). So if you would just add a 30% transparent black square over the whole screen or better yet change the maps brightness, contrast etc., this would have two advantages: You aren't blinded by the map that much and it even saves some power on AMOLED screens.)
hmm is there any available description how to search in some OSM POI database? Do not hear about any, but I should add this into Locus if any API exist ...
I guess XAPI is the right one, at least the best fitting I could find in the wiki. //http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/XAPI
But maybe //http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Server_Side_Script or some other; guess you use //http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/API to get the MAPs, so you know that one.
[Edit]
//http://www.openstreetbrowser.org/ has a great way of showing/choosing the POIs. (Best not use OpenStreetBrowser as Base Layer, very slow (only at the moment?))
I also found this example:
map: //http://toolserver.org/~kolossos/qtm2/queryinmap.php?name=*&key=amenity&value=place_of_worship&types=points-areas&BBOX=13.5333,50.95,13.9333,51.15 plus list: //http://toolserver.org/~kolossos/qtm2/featurelist.php?key=amenity&value=place_of_worship&types=points-areas-infos&BBOX=13.5333,50.95,13.9333,51.15
Documented here: //http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Query-to-map but I still think XAPI is better suited for the task.
[/Edit]
Hi there,
for night mode you could also use an app like "Screen Filter":
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.haxor (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.haxor)
Cheers, berkley
Re: Night mode
Don't know anything about programming...so...how difficult would it be to simply display inverted colors on maps. Bing maps, for example, when color inverted, make excellent night mode maps. I suspect that's one reason they changed their color scheme a while back. In my car, I mount my phone right next to steering wheel. Placement is great during the day but at night it's almost impossible to use any type of mapping software no matter how much you dim the screen. Google has added a night mode to Navigation but not their maps. It would be a great plus for Locus to have this feature.
GrunG
night mode added
Wow...that's perfect. Locus has to be the best mapping program out there. You are by far the hardest working developer in Android Land. Keep it up. We all appreciate your great work.