Toward the end of the interview we filmed with Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian last night, there was brief discussion about Nokia Maps. Rafe is obviously a rather big fan of it. Ben Smith — normally the quiet, implaccable and relaxed thinking man on the team (”come on Tim!”) went nuts. Nuts in the context of Ben. If you would like to see this, have a watch of this semi-outtake. Oh, and Rafe also briefly joins the MIR Show team…
We’ve just seen a live demo of a favourite location being added to Ovi maps, where a local is added on the web version then updated over the air to a series 60 device.
Over at the Google Mobile blog, Adel and Arunesh have just updated us with some great info about a new feature added to Google Maps upcoming version. According to the entry, finding your location is going to be even more precise with the addition of the ‘My Location with Wi-Fi’ feature.Â
This addition comes right after the location team released new optimizations that enhanced the abilities of Google Maps to calculate your location even more accurately.Â
My Location with Wi-Fi works pretty much similar to how your location is calculated based on Cell tower information. In this, information transmitted by Wi-Fi access points is used to calculate your location. Theoretically, since the range of the routers are very small compared to that of a cell tower, the location info calculated is more accurate.
However, they go onto mention that even though WiFi based location is available in many of the major cities in the world, the coverage and accuracy may vary.Â
I’ve been playing around with Google Maps Mobile Streetview. Just brilliant.
In Portugal this weekend, I flicked out my E90 (running an older version, alas) and watched my taxi journey from airport to hotel. There’s something rather reassuring to see your little blue dot heading along unfamiliar streets and highways on the way to your destination.
I caught Google’s latest Maps update from the main Google Blog (although there’s more detail on the Google Mobile blog).
Streetview was, for quite a while, only relevant if you lived in America. In San Francisco this year, I thoroughly enjoyed — and hugely valued — the ability to view actual streets and doors from Google Maps.
Now you can get it on your mobile.
Genius.
The Google Team have made a swish little video demonstrating how it works. Have a watch of this to appreciate just how near-Nirvana the experience is:
So, you’re searching for something, you want decent and quick results, you’re wanting geographic-centric results, you want a bit of reassurance/familiarity with Streetview. Excellent.
This is exactly what I’ve been wanting for a while. Google Maps Mobile is one of my ‘required’ mobile apps on whatever handset I’m using. Streetview upgrades it.
Now I’d like to see the entire world Streetviewed. Particularly the UK.
You can see an example of Streetview in action in San Francisco (on your desktop) with this link. It’s the Moscone West Center, where CTIA September 2008 was held.
I’m sure you’ll agree with me over the fact that Google Earth is a remarkable software. The ability to virtually find and browse to any point on the earth has been implemented exceptionally well. However, being an iPhone user, I particularly miss Google Earth on the phone, more so for the sheer simplicity that the iPhone can add to it.
It turns out, there exists an app that can take Google Earth’s place until Google rolls up their sleeves. Presenting, Earthscape. Earthscape is an application available for the iPhone that gives you a globe to play around with, much like Google Earth. You can browse using your fingers and zoom using two fingers. The application also has the ability to point to your location on the globe using the iPhone’s location feature. The globe can be viewed in Satellite view, or you can tilt the map to view it ground level.Â
The application uses its own set of imagery and hence, is nowhere as advanced as Google’s. If you’re in a city that’s not known for something, expect some non-detailed images. It features the ability to highlight locations with Wikipedia entries and users can add their own photos to the database.
For a limited time, the developers have made the application completely free through iTunes, bringing it down from the usual price of $10. So grab it while you can. It doesn’t get better than this.
The team behind Google Maps for Mobile have just announced a new version of the popular mobile application and brings along a couple of features that certainly add the boost to the application, which arguably the application lacked.
Most of our readers will be familiar with Street View, Google’s Magic technology that sends out little dwarfs out to the corner on a map with handheld cameras so you can view the place in 360 degs as if you were standing right there. Okay, I might have over exaggerated a little, but you get the idea. Street is presently only available in a few places, but it’s an useful addition nonetheless.
If Street View doesn’t excite you, the new version also adds Walking Directions to your phone. Though in beta, the feature gives you foot walking directions. Also, there are minor tweaks along with faster search results.
Both these features are already available on the Desktop version of Google Maps, but this is the firms time they’re being rolled out onto Mobile Phones.
If your phone is compatible, head over to http://m.google.com/maps and start playing. I tried the new version on my E90 and I’m quite impressed.
Nokia has teamed up with Lonely Planet in a deal which will see the travel guide giant’s content distributed via Nokia Maps. Travellers can get their hands on the Lonely Planet guides via Nokia Maps for €7.99, with over 100 destinations already available and the pair promising more guides on the way.
Users will get all the usual recommendations on hotels, restaurants and bars as well as tips on tourist attractions and nightclubs.
Hopefully there’s some thought been put into the integration between the two - combining turn-by-turn street navigation with Lonely Planet’s guided walks, for example, would be a rather handy match.
With the market saying 'no' to Nokia's Ovi Store, what do you think can be done to change this?
