Nokia Maps - Putting the World's Maps In Your Pocket
Written by Glenn Letham
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Nokia Maps puts free, downloadable maps and routing in your hands, in an earth
browsing experience that allows you to zoom in from the globe to the
destinations of your choice. With free maps for more than 150 countries, and
with 15 million points of interest (POI) pre-loaded, Nokia smartpohone users
(select devices) can plan your route street by street, city to city.
There are also optional extra features available such as a fully-fledged
navigation system. If your Nokia device doesn’t have built-in GPS, you can also
use an external GPS module. Another attractive option, users can buy
information-rich city guides from Berlitz, Insight Guides and many more, with
expert advice on where to go and what to do that becomes an integrated part of
your browsing experience with Nokia Maps.
Using "Maps" is a breeze, particularly if you have integrated GPS... for the
purpose of this spotlight I'll focus on users of the way cool N95 (which is
romored to be officially rolling out in the US very soon - my guess is
mid-Spetember 2007... stay tuned on that one! Simply click the Maps application
icon to load, the application fires up and brings up a map, then zooms-in near
your locale in "Google-Earthish" fashion! Activate and wait for GPS positioning
to kick in, the application then functions based on your current position.
Search results, navigation, mapping and routing are all then available to
you.
Save POIs Nokia Maps helps you remember where you’ve
been, and let your friends know where you’re going. Tagging lets you save the
spot on your map as a landmark and then send it to your friends. You can swap
hotspots with your favorite contacts, and get the inside track on your city. You
can also take a screenshot of the map – Save location > As image. The image
is saved in your device’s default gallery folder.
Share
Once you’ve found and tagged your favorite places
you can share them with your favorite people. Whether you are meeting up or
recommending a restaurant, when you’ve found the desired place on the map you
can send it quickly and easily, via MMS, SMS, email, Bluetooth or infrared. The
information about the location is sent as a geocode and text (except in SMS,
where it is sent as text only).
Routing - Finding a route from A to B has never been easier. With Nokia Maps
you can easily plan a route to your destination. Simply indicate your starting
point, and your destination, and Nokia Maps will plot your course with
easy-to-read directional arrows.
Guides ($): Did you know that there are more than 3000 city
guides available for Nokia Maps? You no longer need to carry heavy, outdated
guides and large maps with you, its all in your mobile device – when you want them,
and where you need them. The branded city guides in Nokia Maps from Berlitz,
Insight Guides and many more, include useful and interesting detail on tourist
sights, business essentials, restaurants and hotels. Note - Guides are for
purchase via Nokia
Search: Nokia Maps helps you discover the most interesting
sights, restaurants, shopping and accommodation in cities all across the globe.
Whether you’re looking for a taxi rank, railway station, or the airport, Nokia
Maps can locate it for you. With 15 million places pre-loaded, you just need to
choose the best way to find what you want. Not sure where to go? Search for all
the restaurants near where you are
Navigation ($) The powerful navigation capabilities of Nokia
Maps guide you along the shortest or quickest route from A to B, with voice
guidance and 3D map views. Navigation is an extra service which needs to be
purchased prior to use and is valid for selected regions and periods of
time.
Get Started
Nokia Maps needs either a built-in or external GPS receiver for real-time
navigation or finding your location. Even without GPS you can use Nokia Maps to
browse maps, locations, points of interest and to plan a route. If your mobile
device has a built-in GPS receiver (such as the Nokia N95), you are good to go
as it is with Nokia Maps. For a good GPS experience, make sure that you have the
latest firmware for your mobile device with A-GPS (assisted GPS). Whenever you
browse to a part of the world which you haven’t visited with the application
before, Nokia Maps will download the map data on demand and save them to your
phone or memory card if you have one
inserted - Note: an unlimited data plan from your carrier is suggested!
Of note: I've been using Nokia N95 and Nokia maps
for about 2 months now. The coolest things I find about the device and this
application to date is:
- maps available and automatically updated on my
device as I move around - eg. I can follow my position in real-time on a map
when I'm in a new city.
- POI search - automatically generated based on my
location, if I search for pizza the hits are returned in order of proximaty to
my location. Address and contact info is provided.
- storing my own POIs.
Whenever I'm at a location that I frequent (the ballpark, gym, office, mall,
CSU, etc... I store a point)
- never lost... I can always easily locate a
place when I'm driving around town in search of an address
- it's free!
- a wish... since I grab a ton of photos and geoclocate them all
using either tagzone (yahoo! labs) or locr, I'd like to be able to quickly view
MY photos on my device on the maps using the Nokia maps application... that
would be cool! Sahring them with other N95 users would be icing on the cake!
Supported Devices: 90, 61 61i 65
N Series: N95, 73, 76, 93i, 80, 72
E
series: 61, 61i, 90 "communicator"
Also: 6110 Navigator and 6120
'classic"
No GPS? No Worries, the application is compatible with users of the Nokia
Wireless GPS Module LD-4W and Nokia Wireless GPS Module LD-3W.
To download Nokia maps and the Nokia Map downloaded jump HERE. This
application works with most Nokia N series and E series devices - GPS is
suggested!
Do you have a location-aware application, social location service or other location-sensitive service that you'd like to share with us? Please browse this growing directory of Social location Services and feel free to leave a link to your favorite service! See the Directory HERE
The 3rd annual Navigation Day @ CeBIT conference will pull together the top execs from the huge CeBIT exhibition in one room at one time. March 5, 2010
2010 ESRI Federal User Conference
February 17-19, 2010, Washington D.C. Walter E. Washington Convention
Center - The FedUC is the largest geospatial conference for federal
agencies. Connect with other leaders, decision makers, and GIS
professionals.
Nokia Maps puts free, downloadable maps and routing in your hands, in an earth
browsing experience that allows you to zoom in from the globe to the
destinations of your choice. With free maps for more than 150 countries, and
with 15 million points of interest (POI) pre-loaded, Nokia smartpohone users
(select devices) can plan your route street by street, city to city. 
