Before Malfreemaps (MFM or MySgFreeMaps) was formed, Malsingmaps (MSM) had the best Garmin GPS map for Singapore. It was even much better than Garmin official map, the City Navigator Singapore/Malaysia. In fact, MSM was the best Garmin GPS community map making for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
Late last year, MFM was born, and it was started without the Singapore map. So for GPS users in Singapore like me, MSM was still the only choice. Unfortunately, after the MSM-MFM split, there was no further significant update to the MSM map for Singapore. The only users who can get further updates were those who had donated to Jerome’s donor version of the map.
Not too long later, MFM started to incorporate Singapore into its map. It was removed at some point of time due to some copyright infringement alleged by Jerome but it has been reinstated since. And to be frank, I’m very happy with the progress of MFM in rebuilding the Singapore map, and have been using it since. I’m currently having both maps (MFM and MSM) loaded into my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, although I set the MFM map to take precedence over the MSM map. Therefore, all routing will be done using the MFM map, the display will also show the MFM map, while I’m still able to search POIs contained on the MSM map. This is because in terms of number of POIs, the MSM map is still more complete and MFM would still need some time to catch up.
Some reasons why I chose MFM to take precedence over MSM for routing and display, at the moment:
- MFM map has all the HDB polygons being drawn, while the public version of MSM map doesn’t have. Only Jerome’s donor version has similar HDB polygons, and it’s not free.
- MFM map is being updated on a weekly basis. New versions of the map are always released every Monday and so far they haven’t missed it. :)
- The MFM mapper for Singapore is very accommodative in accepting my contributions and error corrections, and most of the time, any contributions or corrections would be implemented immediately on the next version release.
This is the current situation now and it might still change. I heard that MSM will release their new map this month, and I’m looking forward to it. I also heard that MSM will distribute the maps for free to all the users and contributors. The map might still be locked but the unlock codes will be given for free, as long as you are an MSM registered user.
So, back to the original question, which map is the best for Singapore, MFM or MSM? I would say, both. Yes, both. :) At the moment, we need to have both maps loaded into our GPS devices so that we can make the best out of both maps. That would be the best combination to form the best Garmin GPS map for Singapore, at least for the moment.
