Nokia Delivers Free Downloadable Maps to the Mobile World, Windows Mobile Included

[Kris Kumar]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1103306' target='_blank'>http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1103306</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Nokia today announced that it is making its smart2go mapping and navigation platform, available for free download (<a href="www.smart2go.com">www.smart2go.com</a>), enabling millions of people to use the most comprehensive map coverage offered on a mobile device. The platform allows for mapping and routing in over 150 countries and has support for full turn-by-turn satellite navigation in over 30 countries. The application allows people to view where they are on a map, search for points-of-interests (POI) around them and create routes to get them there free of charge. Nokia plans to start offering the smart2go application for free, on Saturday, February 10th, for selected Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices initially and has plans to roll out support for most of the major mobile OS platforms including Nokia S60, Series 40, PocketPC, Linux and other Windows Mobile devices."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Kris-2007feb-smart2go.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />Nokia has surprised the mobile world by releasing FREE mapping software for not only its own Nokia S60 devices, but also for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. 8O This unexpected gift for the Windows Mobile world has got some blogs speculating that Nokia might be interested in Windows Mobile and planning to launch a device with it. In fact I believe the IDC or Gartner has even recommended that to Nokia. Getting back to the mapping software, Microsoft and Google both offer similar applications, the unique feature of Nokia's application is that it an <i>hybrid application;</i> it allows the users to download the maps on to the storage card and also access the maps real-time like Google or Microsoft. I like the ability to have the maps available on my phone instead of downloading it always, not everyone has an unlimited data plan. The thing that bugs me is that this free download was supposed to become available today but Nokia's <a href="http://www.smart2go.com">smart2Go</a> Web site still says <i>"Coming Soon."</i> :roll: Oh, forgot to mention the one and only catch. The free mapping software offers only viewing locations, for turn-by-turn direction with voice prompts you will have to <a href="http://www.smart2go.com/en/upgrade/">pay a fee.</a>

[Kris Kumar]

This application is now available for download.

My advice, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME.

Google Maps and Microsoft Live do a great job. In fact Microsoft Live is great.

[Mike Temporale]

I'm really enjoying Windows Live on the device. It's great!

[davea0288]

On my T-Mobile SDA. I like smart2go MUCH better than Windows Live Mobile.

The quality and detail of the maps is FAR superior. I tried 3D mode and that was very fast and very detailed. Zoom in and out is one key (* &amp; #) stroke, route planning seemed to work fine. Worked with my GSM Edge data service and my Bluetooth GPS device with no setup or tweeking. Has the option of pre-loading maps to save on data charges. Saving favorites and using the in Route planning worked as it should. Searching for places of interest seemed to be complete and comprehensive for Huntsville, Alabama.

The price is right and it will impress as a finished product even in Beta.

[Kris Kumar]

My problem is that:
- it is not intuitive.
- I didn't try pre-loading the maps, so straight download was slow.
- over the air download of the application is slow, it is 5 MB download :roll:
- like the way the map is displayed but again it is not intuitive
- the application started out in Berlin
- the left soft key in a Windows Mobile app never has a menu, but this one has and has a lot of useful stuff, so I missed that one in the begining
- took me forever to figure out that I need to enter "united states" in the country box instead of "us" or "usa" to make it find location in US

I will wait for the next version.

[raaden]

I have to agree with davea0288, this is far superior to all of the free mapping solutions out there right now. The only products that even come close are priced in the $100's, and even if you purchase the nav add on this is still much cheaper.

I do agree with Kris though that you can tell it is a Symbian app made to fit onto WM, but once you get past that there is nothing close. I am attaching a quick review I am working on for it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a Nokia basher like most WM users are; I just like the integration and 3rd part apps on the WM platform much better than what Symbian has to offer. With that said Nokia has seen fit to try its hand at two new fields, Navigation and WM 3rd party software. Not only have they tried, but they have succeeded, and with a beta product no less. The smart2go application (finally) released in beta form (although very stable I had only one crash while using it for about 6 hours) by Nokia yesterday works with a variety of phones, including all versions of WM5, and is FREE for most all of the features. It includes downloadable maps (also works with OTA dl’ing of maps), GPS integration (top notch at that), route planning, a huge POI database and with a relatively inexpensive upgrades (8 Euro each from what I can tell) you get city guides, turn by turn, voice assist, route simulation, and much more. Virtual Earth and Google Maps take notice, this is your new competition, and they have raised the bar significantly.

It is not perfect though, but is far and away the best of the free and low cost alternatives. The downsides to this program, and there are really only 2 that I have noticed so far, are that the app is lacking contact support (how do you overlook this) and it feels like it was made for a very low feature phone, not the rich platform that WM provides to developers. Both of these issues I believe are a result of Nokia developing a platform agnostic solution, which I am not happy with but can understand, that will run on a variety of platforms including most of the Series XX, WM5, and a couple of other various systems are in the works, and the mentality of developing against the Symbian development model. The lack of contact support is not without workarounds though as S2G provides Home and Work hard locations, and a bookmark feature that will let you save as many named locations as you wish. The bookmarks work relatively well, but as those of you that know me know I hate doing things twice, and it just seems silly to have a contact with an address and then have to store that name and address again for use with a single program. With that said entering bookmarks is incredibly tedious and requires putting each part of the address into a separate box and only when the previous part is entered, also there didn’t seem to be a way to do a partial search. This was by far the biggest downfall of the program, to search for an address was a 2 minute ordeal, but came back quickly and was very thorough. On the upside it will let you bring back multiple results and scroll through them directly on the map, something that VE and GM do not let you do. The other half of the negatives was the fact that other than the actual map screen the rest of the app lacked any flair, continuity, or easy navigability; which is something that Nokia normally is very good at. This surprised me as the functionality was a bit hard to figure out at first (of course I could have read the directions I guess), but once you get the button layout and text entering methodology it definitely made the program a bit more usable. The menus were pretty bland, and the active button context was not at all what I expected it to be (the active button is the gray one and the other buttons are a gray blue which seemed backwards to me), but with that said the features more than make up for any limitations listed here.

The application is huge, and by huge I mean that it takes ~20MB of storage space just for the application (maps require additional storage and range from 15MB to 75MB based on the state or territory you are using), but this space is put to great use if you can afford it. Both the application and the maps can be stored on a storage card so this is not a huge issue. It seems to use somewhere in the 6-10Mb range of application memory, which could be an issue for some of the older resource constrained WM5 devices (although I tested the application on a 2125 and BlackJack and it seemed to work fine). The load time is a bit long but once again the payoff is well worth it. Upon initially loading the application you are presented with a fairly standard disclaimer (which I cannot figure out how to disable even though it provides a checkbox to hide at startup), followed by an attempted install of the OpenBit License Manager. This application is installed as a .cab file and provides the ability to do OTA payments for the upgrades the application provides. Once you get past that you are started on a map of what I assume is the HQ of Nokia's gate5. Upon successive startups the application provides a prompt on load to resume the previous route, a very nice feature.

From there you can begin using the program. I started by entering my home and work addresses. This was quite frustrating at first (as noted above) but once I screwed up the search a couple of times and entered my home address in the parts and order it was looking for it jumped directly there and started downloading the map. From there I spent a bit of time scrolling around the map and trying to figure out the button assignments. FYI the buttons in the mapping section are as follows: * zooms in, 0 changes between 2D and 3D, # zooms out, and all the number keys appear to work the same—zoom in. As a general rule the action key in the D-pad works the same as the Right Soft Key and the back button provides no input at all. The first thing I noticed, and really liked was that the cursor can move around the screen without scrolling until you reach the edge of the screen. Initially I was a little confused what benefit this could provide but when I looked at an area that was not in the middle of nowhere (yes I live in the boonies :) ) it began to make sense. As you scroll around the screen the cursor becomes an identifier. When you move the cursor over a street it tells you not only the street name, but also the approximate address of the point you are highlighting, and when you hover on a POI you get the name and address of the POI. This was a fantastic feature and I can see this providing a huge benefit when navigating in an unfamiliar place, where street numbers can be hard to see while driving. A feature like this is something I have not seen even on the &lt;$150+ true navigation programs. Way to go Nokia!!

This is all well and good, but the best part of the application is the way it integrates with a GPS receiver. Without the level of GPS integration S2G provides I would probably just stick with VE as I like the UI and contact integration better. With VE you have to continually poll the GPS manually which doesn’t allow you to tell heading, direction or your actual location very well. S2G provides complete GPS integration much the way you would get from an actual commercial navigation program. It tells speed, location direction, the name of the road you are traveling on. This is huge for me as there is much of the metro area I live in that I have not even seen yet, and this makes getting somewhere much easier than using VE or GM. Not only that but it allows you to plan, navigate, and visualize beforehand, a route from any 2 or more navigable points. This last part was another shortcoming of VE and GM, in those you needed to plan multiple routes to navigate more than 2 points. This program not only lets you route 3 or more waypoints it also lets you move them around and check multiple routes between them as well.

Another really great feature that reminds me of the ultra expensive navigation programs is the MapLoader application that is available as a separate (but free) download. The basic point of this application is to preload the maps that you are likely to use on a regular basis. It does not preclude you from using OTA downloading, it just gives another option for those who do not have unlimited internet (or those of us with a BlackJack, where 3G use can run the battery flat in a matter of an hour if downloading constantly). The one thing about the maploader that I would like to see added is to be able to load partial maps or route corridor maps. I am planning a trip to Michigan and the amount of maps I will have to load for that is almost 250Mb, and most of the states I need to load are only for the highways. This is not a deal breaker as I have the space to spare, but I have seen some good options in other programs to handle this sort of thing.

Everything listed so far is included in the FREE package. This is by far the largest featureset I have seen in a free mapping program for WM. If you decide to upgrade to the high end features like City Guides and turn by turn navigation (No high end price here; most City Guides are 8 Euro) this by far becomes the navigation program for the money. I also haven’t covered any of the settings, of which there are quite a bit if that is your thing, and some of the nuances of the program are excellent as well, but I will leave that to you to discover and enjoy.

If you have use for a mapping and navigation program and feel that VE is lacking in navigation features then this just may be the program for you.

--Raaden

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks Raaden,

Looks like I gave up on it a little too soon. I should download the maps on to the Storage Card with the Map Loader and then give the app a try.

What about the need to enter United States for the country, instead of US or USA? :?

[Kris Kumar]

Also I would not compare VE with Smart2Go; Pocket Streets, Google Maps and Windows Live are the competing applications. VE as far as I know is not a Microsoft supported, official application.

Also, based on your review it sounds like the GPS integration is the other strong point of S2G.

[raaden]

I would say that the two best features in my opinion are definitely the GPS ntegration, and the ability to see location and location address with the pointer, when navigating the map. I can think of many times in the recent past when using VE and GM that I would have used that feature.

Kris you bring up some good points, and I touched on them a bit, but you are absolutely correct that the address entry is absolutely atrocious, and the part of it that burns me the most is that if you enter something out of order it overwrites it when you go back up and change something else. when I was testing it I figured if I put in a zip code, and a street address it would figure out the rest right, wrong. So then I went up and put the city and state and it deleted my zip... bad move.

How did downloading the maps to the phone go. I wasn't able to get it to recognize the phone although I have been a lot of problems with activesync since I started switching between phones, so I wasn't sure if it was the maploader not working or what.

When you refer to Windows Live are you talking about the web application or is there a client out there other than VE?? If you mean the web app I would definitely not compare it to a native app. I have tried that and when you are not familiar with the area it makes for a tough find. I was mostily using VE and GM (the new native version) to compare because they are free and provide a very similar type of experience. I spent a couple of hundred for OnCourse navigator a couple of years ago and since then have sworn off paying more than a couple of bucks for any navigation software. The main issue is that there is so much construction and new roads and addresses going up around here that by the time I get the maps they are terribly outdated, and I can't find half of what I am looking for. I am much more in favor of something that has the ability to update maps over a given time period. Granted, VE is not officially supported by MS, but it is still an alternative choice to any other mapping programs, and is the best besides S2G in my opinion. BTW I thought Pocket Streets was discontinued after the 2005 version.

Anyway thanx for taking a look

[Kris Kumar]

This is what I am talking about:

Live Search
http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13599

It is an application that can be installed on WM. However it needs net access for maps, data everything, but like you mentioned the advantage is that the maps will get updated (hopefully).

The good thing. It is responsive, unlike other applications that use the Web to download info. It integrates VE functionality - aerial and regular maps. Plus depending on where you are you will see traffic info also. ;-)

[Kris Kumar]

I haven't tried downloading the maps to Storage Card yet. I will try it, looks like over the weekend now.

[Vuvision]

After reading this thread I gave smart2go a try on my DASH (downloaded the map to my storage card), and I have to agree that the graphic by far is superior to VE &amp; GM on all level. I like the bold &amp; much larger text for easy viewing, along with the 3D map, voice instruction, &amp; vehicle's speed. Granted this is still beta, I'm afraid the user interface is a complete mess.

Routing calculation is painfully slow, that is if you get through the seeking for license first (this process takes an equally long time). I'm still trying to figure how to navigate from &amp; to feature, most of the time I get error out. The manual wasn't much help.

For now, I've resorted back to VE for my daily navi. needs. That said, if and when Nokia works through the bugs in the beta version, I think smart2go will be the best in class.