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Hi, Menion.

It has been a while since I touched android development, and I've never really looked at the maps APIs, so I don't know how crazy this sounds, but I've been wondering recently about something.

Is it thinkable to develop a layer that uses the Locus app engine as an alternative map provider for Android? That is, have locus load instead of gmaps in all apps that use gmaps to display maps, and use offline maps instead of staying connected? I expect this to involve modifying some android classes, patching a rom and whatnot, but what's your insight or guesstimate on how hard would that be?

Cheers,

I keep getting licensing errors (cannot connect to app store to validate or somesuch) if I am offline for a short period of time. This is pretty annoying - I don't see much need to report to Google where I am every couple of days.

And, naturally, this annoying check always happens in the worst possible moment. While there isn't much of a usability lost while I'm offline with the device, it would be better if the app assumed I'm a nice guy and wait for the next connection to validate itself instead of showing me the finger while I'm 10 hours away from the next wifi hotspot (and a week away from having any desire to connect to Google's validation server).

I've tried to contribute in the past ot OSM, especially in areas with little data. The problem is when I'm there I usually have less than ideal environment - no computer, intermittent net access, etc.

I've grown to like the Locus interface to create POIs and paths on the map very much, and I think the google's mymaps integration is pretty useful. Something similar for OSM -- a plugin that would allow authentication against the OSM user database and have the ability to upload/download and edit OSM map fragments would be immensely useful.

It will be a win-win if I can have better OSM in Locus, and use Locus to improve OSM.

Since my second upgrade today, I cannot make Locus Pro save settings.

Here is what I did:

1. Some days ago, I upgraded to 1.5.2 without reading the notice. Some maps went missing.
2. Yesterday, I uninstalled 1.5.2 and restored 1.5.1 from backup via ADB.
3. This worked for awhile, until I suddenly got a "Your application isn't licensed" error.
4. Subsequently, I installed a custom provider.xml and upgraded to 1.5.2 from the market.
5. The "Your app isn't licensed" error disappeared, but Locus pro doesn't save any settings now.
6. Uninstalling and reinstalling or downgrading the app doesn't fix the problem.

Every time I restart it, I get the "Basic info" screen, the app starts with the default settings, and I have to redo all my preferences (e.g. full screen, tracking distances, GPS preferences, etc.) by hand. I assume this is a permissions problem resulting from the multiple installs/uninstalls - any ideas where to start looking to fix it?

Thanks,