I registered as iPhone Developer on that Day the SDK was released. On the Day the iPhone 3G was released i bought one. 1+1=2 so on the same Day i started doing some Stuff with XCode and the Emulator but soon i wanted to try some real World testing on my Phone and not on the Emulator so i applied for the Standard Developer Program… Instead of dropping the Program into the Shopping Card i ended up on a Page that told me that i’ll shortly receive Information about my Enrollment Status. What?

I tried again. Same Result.

I contacted the ADC Support via Email. No Repsonse (except an automatic Confirmation Email letting my know they received my Request).

1 Week later i tried again. Again i ended up on that Enrollment Status Page…

Antoher Email to ADC Support, another automatic Reply, another no Answer.

I tried again, but this time not with my existing Developer Account, but creating a completely new Apple Account and “TaDa!” the iPhone Developer Program went into the Shopping Card.

Ain’t it strange? Existing Users get an Enrollment Notice but no chance to buy the Program and new Users can shop it directly? Tsk Tsk Tsk.

This weekend we did a little Trip to Groningen (Holland). Shopping, Coffee, relaxing… I thought it would be a good idea to use Google Maps “MyMaps” Feature and collect some “Points of Interesst” before starting the Trip. So i added some placemarks to the Groningen Map and sent the link to my iPhone.

… trying to open that Google Maps generated Link on my iPhone opened Google Maps but did not show any of the Placemarks i placed. Hmmm, ok, let’s try to export an KML File and open that… Error. Na, nothing, just the Map, but without any Placemarks. Diggin’ a little deeper i learned that Google Maps on the iPhone doesn’t support KML Files (even it did prior to v2.0). Even there’s a little Hack by changing the original Google Maps URL and redirect to the KML File stored on your own Webspace i could not make it work.

I ended up in taking a Screenshot and adding it to my iPhone Photos… but, well, as you maybe know they get scaled down, resulting in a pixelated Map of Groningen with no Chance to read a single Street Name. Lovely. So back to good-old printed Street Maps.

p.s.: i’m aware that Applications like Nearby allow you to create own Maps with Placemarks, but i was looking for a solution to access that Maps without any further Roaming Costs when accessing it in a foreign Country, something like a cached Map or even a static Screenshot one.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tim i now have a working Solution for the next Trip: http://adlr.info/mymaps-iphone.html