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Nokia Releasing Maps for Competing Devices
another random user writes with news about Nokia's Meego/Winphone mapping application being ported to other systems, including Mozilla's Firefox OS. From the article: "Here Maps will initially be released on Apple iOS devices offering downloadable street plans for offline use, and audio-based directions for pedestrians. Nokia is also developing a version for Mozilla's forthcoming Firefox operating system, and will release software tools to allow third parties to make use of its data on Android devices. The move is designed to help the firm compete against Google's rival product."
I keep hearing about how great Nokia's maps are, so I'll be interested to try it. Having more users means more data sources, which means that the product should be able to improve more than if it were limited to Nokia phones. I just hope it has a better interface than their website, which is way behind Google's in usability.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
When I'm driving through the rockies, sometimes I just cannot get a phone/data signal, so having maps available offline is very valuable
Nokia is too late to the table to grab the most delicious morsels; the easily picked fruit.
Are there going to be apps for Android/iOS? I checked Nokia's and Here's sites and found nothing.
For those who aren't aware, Nokia sources its mapping data from FedEx and a number of other couriers. As a result, the maps that they're using are not only more up-to-date, since the couriers need to keep them updated in order to stay in business, but they're also more able to work in data such as traffic patterns and the like, since the couriers put in FAR more time and miles on the road than the technology companies.
To put it in perspective, UPS drives 3.3 billion miles each year. In contrast, Google's cars have driven "only" 5 million miles in total. So, roughly a thousand times more in a fraction of the time. Google's mapping data isn't insignificant, but it's dwarfed by the amount being produced by UPS, FedEx, and the like, and Nokia has access to all of that.
Nokia maps are great, I downloaded the entire country on my old phone while it still had service, and I use it as a GPS unit now that I have a new phone. No updates or traffic, of course, but it makes a quite capable device remain in service instead of thrown in a drawer and forgotten.
Nokia maps are by far the best in the mobile space. It is one of Nokia's biggest selling points. Now that they are making their maps available to everyone, what "killer exclusive feature" do people have to move to Nokia/WP8? Are they resigned to becoming an app developer, a sideshow, for the biggies?
Nokia has a WebGL version of their web maps which has a Google Earth like functionality to it. While they don't label many places initially the search seems to recognise names of towns which are then labelled on the map and there are things like 3D buildings in certain locations (e.g. London). The regular Nokia Maps offers a more complete solution at the moment but it's surprising to see a web mapping solution that isn't Bing or Google especially using new web technologies (to the best of my knowledge Google are the only other ones using WebGL to serve up their maps).
Annoying bugs with their web UI. For example, when you click and drag, it often things you've flicked when releasing the mouse, causing further map panning. It's nowhere near as solid as Google or Bing. Also, their tile loading latency is a bit high. Sounds like they need to throw more hardware at it. Otherwise, it looks like a really solid entrant, complete with street level views, 3D, and really nifty features. I particularly like the shopping / restaurant heat maps in major cities.
AFAIK, there's no offline maps for maemo (Nokia N900), how about supporting your own OSs first? You know; to give something to the people who actually pay for your products.
Having used all major mapping technology, Nokia's is the very best.
I use google navigation some times and it has never succeeded in pronouncing any non-english street names remotely correct.