Poison Maps Shows Points Of Interest Around You

This is a fantastic app with a terrible name. Poison Maps has nothing to do with poison; the POI stands for Points Of Interest, as in “POIs on maps.”

Poison Maps gets its data from the OpenStreetMap project. It shows every type of point of interest you could imagine. Just to name a few, it has shops, restaurants, hotels, museums, parks, art, banks, hospitals, hills, parking, restrooms, leisure, and many more.

Even though the watch app is limited by the size of the Apple Watch’s screen, it is surprisingly useful on its own. There is not a complication nor a glance, but Siri has no trouble finding and opening the app when you ask.

When you first open the app, you get a menu showing Amenities, Food, Leisure, Motoring, Shops, Tourism, Transport, Various, and My POIs. Tapping on any one of those brings up more details.  For example, tapping Tourism brings up a menu containing All, Major, Arts, Historic, Museums, Nature, Themed, Tourist Info, and Other. Tapping on any one of those brings up a list of local points of interest and an option to filter by type. I tapped Major and then Filter, and was greeted with the options Major Themed, Animal Parks, Aquaria, Fun Parks, Mini Golf, Planetaria, Planes, Ships, and Trains. Once you choose a point of interest you want to visit, tap it for further information, such as address, phone number, maps, and directions. This is just one example of drilling down into the menu on the Apple Watch. There is so much to explore.

There are more features within the app, such as the ability to create your own point of interest. This can come in handy for marking where you parked your car, for example.

The pricing structure is a bit different from most apps. This app, which only has information about North America, is free to download. Most of the information inside is free as well, but there is a $.99 in-app purchase if you want the expansion pack. The expansion pack is required for food & drink, shops, sport & leisure and driving. These are certainly important sections of the app, but you will have plenty to explore in the other categories before you decide if you want to purchase the rest. There are individual apps for every corner of the earth, and I will be downloading the appropriate ones as I travel outside of North America. Alternatively, you can download one app that includes the entire world for $1.99.