Blogs on Topo Lock Maps

Made with MapLibre

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 22:42:44 -0500

Topo Lock Maps has been featured on madewithmaplibre.com!

MapLibre is such an awesome open source project and we definitely could not have built our app without standing on the shoulders of giants.

We are honored they have our app on their list!

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 08:57:54 -0400

App Auto Lock is now available in iOS version 1.3.0 that was released to the App Store on June 21, 2024.

This allows you to configure the behavior of when the app locks and how often.

This mimics some of the behavior found in popular apps like Signal and Proton Mail.

You can read about the security of Auto Lock on the security page.

Here is a screenshot of the Auto Lock settings on iOS:

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:23:47 -0400

A USGS* Topo mosaic base map is now available for the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands!

The map uses the latest topo maps as of 2024 from the USGS.

This map is up-to-date with the latest topo maps offered by the USGS.

Read here for more information how we made the map!

Below are some examples of what the USGS topo looks like in the iOS app:

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:16:44 -0400

The Topo Lock Map iOS app is now generally available.

We had dozens of beta testers and we appreciate all the support!

Find all of our features here.

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:40:25 -0400

End-to-End encryption 🔒 (E2EE) is awesome … it’s one of the best things we can do to protect our digital lives.

E2EE is when data is encrypted with an encryption key that never leaves your control.

Therefore, even if the data was in someone else’s possession, they would not have the key to decrypt the data.

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 10:32:49 -0400

There is no substitute for a paper map in the woods.

The first time I hiked on the Appalachian Trail was in 2009 with my college buddies.

We didn’t really realize it at the time, but looking back none of us had smartphones and none of us had an electronic map.

All we had was a national geographic paper map.

It was an awesome experience leaving society behind, being in the woods with no electronic devices.

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 09:33:54 -0400

Putting together a mapping platform is no small feat.

What does our tech stack look like?

Backend:

AWS Serverless active-active architecture
- Deployed to Ohio (us-east-2) and Oregon (us-west-2)
- Cloudfront, API Gateway, Lambda, DynamoDB Global Tables, S3
Infrastructure as Code: CDK
AWS multi-account secured with hardware keys (YubiKeys)
CI/CD: Github Actions

Maps:

Data Engineering:

Mobile: