Add Subway maps to your iPod

I don't like those big subway maps that you get for free when you visit cities like London, Paris or New York. They are big, they tell everyone that you are a tourist (attracts criminals) and not that handy if you need a quick answer about a certain subway you need to catch.

The guys from iSubwaymaps may have felt the same way about the maps as they decided to publish subway maps for select cities for Apple's iPod (currently 24 are supported including Hong Kong, Moscow and Washington next to the ones mentioned in the first paragraph).

Adding those maps (as images) to your iPod is relatively simple. Download and unpack the maps of your choice to your desktop. Open up iTunes and connect the iPod to your computer. Left-Click your iPod in the left pane (labeled source), click on Edit and choose Preferences.

Select the iPod tab and click on Photos. Activate Synchronize Photos from and choose select folder. Browse to the folder that you unpacked the map to and open it. This should be the last step (besides clicking ok) unless the unpacked map has a subfolder. If that is the case activate copy selected folders only. Click on OK afterwards and the pictures are transferred to your iPod.

Update: The server the subway maps were posted on are no longer available. You may find apps on the official iTunes store that add subway plans to the iPod Touch, but not to older versions of the iPod. You can however download the maps from third party download portals such as Chip Online where they are still available.

Update 2: If you have a smartphone, you can instead install an app that provides you with access to subway maps from all over the world. One of those apps is aMetro for Android devices. Just install the app on your device and you get offline access to transit maps from all over the world.

Apple iOS users can install one of the many metro apps available for the operating system.

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