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Posts Tagged ‘Free Navigation’

Nokia: Ovi Maps With Free Navigation Averages A Download Per Second, 1.4M Total

I’m starting to suspect people like free stuff – a shocker, I know.

Nokia says the new version of Ovi Maps that includes free walk and drive navigation has been downloaded over 1.4 million times since its introduction on 21 January 2010.

Nokia says the 1 million mark was reached after just one week following the launch, and the company’s Executive VP Anssi Vanjoki adds that they’re currently seeing ‘a download a second, 24 hours a day’.

As of 31 January 2010 the top five countries downloading the new version of Ovi Maps were: China (!), Italy, UK, Germany and Spain. The top five most popular Nokia devices installing the download were: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97, Nokia 5230 and Nokia E72.

From next month, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra charge.

Nokia clearly wants a piece of the fast-growing market of location-aware applications, and is looking for third-party developers to fill the gaps when it comes to content, new services and additional features.

Also, as my esteemed colleague Greg Kumparak so eloquently put it when Ovi Maps with free turn-by-turn navigation was launched:

If Google didn’t kill the standalone GPS market when they announced free navigation for the Android platform, Nokia may very well have just pushed the knife that last inch.

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Nokia offering free turn-by-turn navigation on smartphones globally
Man, you thought Garmin and TomTom were in trouble when Google announced its free Navigation service… wait until investors hear Nokia’s news. Reuters is reporting that Nokia will offer free navigation on its smartphones. However, instead of just the US (the current Google limitation sans hacking), Nokia will be demonstrating its reach by offering free turn-by-turn directions in 74 countries in 46 languages — a move that should cover 20 million smartphones globally with Ovi Maps available in over 180 countries. Damn.

Update: The original San Francisco Chronicle report has been pulled but Google cache caught a bit more saying that Nokia’s navigation service is “capable of operating completely offline” unlike Google Navigation which requires data connectivity.

[Thanks, Jussi]

Nokia offering free turn-by-turn navigation on smartphones globally originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Achtung! Motorola Milestone now free on contract in Germany, sort of

Filed under: Cellphones

Achtung! Motorola Milestone now free on contract in Germany, sort of originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Waze for iPhone has a ways to go

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

Several of our readers suggested that we take a look at Waze, a free navigation app [iTunes link] that depends on other users for reports of traffic tie ups, accidents, and speed traps. It also functions as a turn-by-turn navigator with spoken directions, although it doesn’t have text to speech capabilities for naming streets or points of interest.

As a navigator Waze is fine, but it seems to be missing a lot of residential addresses. Waze had a nasty habit of jumping my vehicle icon to a nearby parallel street, and while it was nice to have both 2D and 3D maps, the software seemed to change the zoom factor without me telling it to. This erratic zooming seemed to happen when I went to a menu and then returned to the map.

The maps aren’t very attractive. There are both day and night views for the Waze maps, but even when set to ‘auto,’ the night map comes up no matter what time of day it is. The maps and POI data are all downloaded from the internet, so if you’re in a “dead zone” for data, you have no navigation.

As for the social functions of the app, they are a great idea, but in reality you’re only going to get information in a densely populated areas. Even then, you may not get much of anything in terms of reported incidents. If you go to the Waze web page and look at the national map for reported incidents, it is pretty lightly populated. Of course, that should get better as more and more people use Waze. A clever aspect of the app is that it keeps track of where you are while you’re navigating, and uses your speed to add to its database of road conditions.

I think Waze is promising, and if you don’t want to spend money on a turn-by-turn nav app, it’s a start. To be really useful some of the bugs need to be fixed, the address data needs to be more complete, and there need to be a heck of a lot more people using Waze so there is more incident reporting.

This app is free and implements some creative ideas. If you’re thinking about getting a nav app, but you’re on the fence, make the risk-free download of Waze and see if it enhances your driving.

TUAWWaze for iPhone has a ways to go originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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