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Nokia Keeps Quietly Mapping The World
LucidBeast writes "Mapping the world isn't easy as our friends in Cupertino have found out. Google's maps seem ubiquitous, but there is a less known real heavyweight still mapping the world. Nokia acquired Navteq in 2007, and five years later they are still reading fleet data and scanning cities with LIDAR and 360 degree cameras."
After losing pretty much all of its traction in the mobile space, Microsoft has been trying desperately to build some buzz for the new Windows Phone and upcoming Windows tablets - and here we have a story about Nokia's mapping efforts.
While possibly interesting, I expect the timing of this story is, shall we say, not completely a matter of happenstance.
#DeleteChrome
A good friend of mine works in this department as a product manager; he has been there since they were NavTeq. You should take a look at Nokia's financials before busting out the "M$ evil" conspiracy theories. The navigation unit is the only part of the company that is profitable right now. They have excellent data (probably the best available, mention is halfway down the page) and they do a lot more with it than put it in phones. Basically, anybody who needs to have vetted data (ie, when salesmen need to tell clients that the data is better than what they can get online for free) to put in a product use Nokia maps. Many high-end cars with built in navigation are using them for example.
The higher-ups at Nokia know this. They are trying to leverage this to position the company for growth. Their internal mantra is that "Google is what, Microsoft is who, and we are _where_". Hence, the publicity: this is the only bright spot for Nokia and they need to milk it. If you ask me, they are grasping at straws; but the I can see the logic.
I really wish people would stop focusing on the iOS 6 Maps fiasco. It's getting old.
Plus, it's distracting from things like:
* The music app is now buggy as all hell. I've had it play one song while saying it's playing another song. Not to mention it randomly forgetting where in a playlist it was, pausing randomly skipping back to the beginning of the song, and other general wonkiness.
* If you had paused a podcast and receive a call, hanging up the call will suddenly start the podcast playing again. Surprise!
* The podcast app can't update podcasts. You can tell it to - but it won't. The only way to get new episodes is to sync with iTunes.
* Photo syncing is just hilariously broken. Rather than replacing existing photos, iTunes will just copy a new set on, leaving you with all the old photos as permanent "extra" storage. Solution: Do a factory reset. Hope you don't need any of your *other* data!
* Just try and set an alarm to 2 o'clock.
* Battery life is worse.
* Apps are just generally slower - animation is noticeably "jerkier" in iOS 6.
And I'm sure other iOS 6 users can expand on this. iOS 6 is just laughably bad - even if you completely ignore the maps!
Some cars have forward facing cameras already for lane keeping systems or lane departure warning. Some of these cameras can read signs and let you know if you're speeding, etc. Ultimately it may be the car companies who have the best maps which might be updated continuously by tens of millions of cars. Hmmm time for me to transfer to the driver assistance systems part of the company....
This may also explain why Google wants driverless cars, so they can fully automate the data collection.
Offline maps. When I got rid of my Nokia N8 and bought a Samsung SIII, there were two things I missed, one is the camera (the N8's was far better in several ways), the other is the maps. With the Nokia you got offline maps for the entire world and the app itself was excellent (though it had teething problems to start with). Turn by turn directions that don't sound like a robot (I'm looking at you Google), were as good as or better than most commercial Sat Nav devices, accurate (looking at you Apple), regularly updated and, I'll say it again, offline maps! In Australia at least you can be quite often out of range of a decent data connection.
The commercial Navigon app that I got bundled with my SIII is definitely inferior and you only get maps for Oceania, I have to buy the European/US ones if I need them.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Around the 5800, mapping, including directions and navigation, became free again.
Then MS introduced their mole, and Nokia died. Everybody who was good left back then.
What's left is everything you disliked about Nokia, led by the "spirit" of MS. (As in: On the very day where MS's probation officer for their last crime went away, they introduced that IE on the new Nokias could not be replaced, and you couldn't install any other browser [Like Opera]. *Again*)
I loved Nokia... from the tiny 8210, over the first “full computer” smartphone 7650, those with the full keyboard like the 6822, the whole early N series, and of course the glorious N900. The 5800 was the first one I didn't like. Too Apple. Too dumbed-down. Too little freedom and power.
But I *hate* everything about the MS Nokia "phones". It's like MS, as usually, imitated the worst parts of Apple, and then added their own FAIL (think Zune) to the mix. The worst of both.
Why anyone likes that, is beyond me. I would need to receive so many electric shocks, I'd be physically incapable of not drooling all over myself, *and* become a real masochist, before I could even stand that.
I'll continue to watch what that team that left Nokia is doing. I hope they're not ignoring the high-end market too much...
Quick, Steve died so nobody's looking...let's do a Bain Capital on this bitch and rape its corpse! Bonuses and golden parachutes for all executives!
And they're saying that the iPhone 5 is going to singlehandedly rescue the American economy! PfffffHAW!
-- Ethanol-fueled
Regarding the alarm bug... I notice that user is in Australia, and we started daylight saving at 2am last night... related?
Damn, that joke never gets old. Neither MS nor Apple can figure out how to handle time in 2012? Wow.
alias dst='zdump -v Canada/Mountain | grep 2012' /home/keeling_ dst
(0) kiak
Canada/Mountain Sun Mar 11 08:59:59 2012 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2012 MST isdst=0 gmtoff=-25200
Canada/Mountain Sun Mar 11 09:00:00 2012 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2012 MDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-21600
Canada/Mountain Sun Nov 4 07:59:59 2012 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:59:59 2012 MDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-21600
Canada/Mountain Sun Nov 4 08:00:00 2012 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:00:00 2012 MST isdst=0 gmtoff=-25200
"ImBECiles. Ultra-maroons!" -- Bugs Bunny.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Which just shows how petty they are. They would rather switch to an inferior mapping system and screw their customers than have a Google logo in the app. It isn't like the contract runs out until next year either, so they had time to improve the app before forcing it on customers.
Apple will be forced to buy someone to help with their maps. It isn't just a case of doing bug fixes. Google has Street View and vast experience gathering metadata from the web. Nokia is using LIDAR, and presumably taking photos along the way too. It takes years to develop that kind of technology and then map large parts of the world with it, so unless Apple is willing to wait that long for a half decent maps app they will have to pay someone for the data, and currently Google and Nokia are the only people who have it.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC