This is the only method that finally worked for me.

Google's cartography is rediculously accurate and that's what I'll need in the near future. So when I noticed that the default settings for this sample didn't work, I started poking around here.

Google maps has proven to be safe enough for me. Maemo Mapper however, has not.
Do not archive the map DB on the boot disk.
Do not layer POIs in the map repository.
At least put everything in MMC2 or something large or things are going to get very slow and ugly. As far as the map storage goes, basically there's two ways to go about this.
Legacy: Fast downloads, maps load fast, the DB is HUGE and appends quickly.
SQL: Very SLOW downloads, maps load fast, the DB is tiny but appends about as fast as a 233 Intel running MSDE.

Depending on what you're like the tradeoffs could be the difference between sink or swim. Personally I'm going to use the SQL method until I can add a large memory card to my shopping list. Also, I'm noticing the GPS tracker gets a lock much faster now. I wonder what I was doing wrong in the beginning. :\