Nokia announce FREE OVI Maps for all

[richard345]

Cheers Roberto, thanks for the additional information. I visit the two sites you mention, in addition to The Daily Mobile and maybe one of the people there will come up with a suggestion.

I have Orange Maps on the Samsung, which is provided through my data bundle, but it does have its limitations. Google Maps is handy for finding a location, but it doesn't have turn by turn navigation.

Going to stick with my TT 520 for now, and just use the Samsung when city walking, I think.
_________________
Ric - TomTom 520 DEAD - Passed to the great traffic jam in the sky. Now using Maps & Waze on Samsung Galaxy S4 + CamerAlert of course!

[Jack735]

double post sorry!

[Jack735]

I’ll admit to being a bit of a gizmomaniac and love to have the latest toys.

I’ve just updated my Nokia N97 with the latest maps for the areas I’m likely to visit and a voice system through my PC and it cost me nothing. The UK, Europe and the USA; with a device, how much would one of the traditional sat/nav companies have charged for that?

I’ve not had much time to properly test it but so far its proved to be every bit as good as TomTom, in fact better.

I’m still stunned I paid so much (a few hundred pounds) for a sat/nav system (not that I minded too much, it was a useful toy) but the maps were not updated as regularly as they should have been (that made me a bit angry) and when they were updated they cost an arm and a leg, for what you got! (that made me very angry!).

And to think these expensive kits and updates replaced paper maps that cost less than £10 a time to keep up with the latest roads and were often given away as a freebie!

TomTom, treated their customers with contempt and tried to bleed them dry.

Its not surprising then all those involved in the traditional sat/nav world have belittled what Nokia/OVI have done, after all they’ve lost their golden egg! And it serves them right.

[MrGumby]

I use TTN7 on an XDA Guide but fancy trying a Nokia.

Which is the best Nokia to go for, if navigation is the primary use of the phone?

[MrGumby]

Call me old-fashioned but, regarding the debate on the law and use of navigation equipment, perhaps we should stop worrying about what's legal and start worrying about what's safe?

The truth is that even we wonderful multi-tasking blokes are distracted by button-pushing activity at the wheel, whether the buttons are on a phone or anything else and whether the device is hand-held or in a cradle.

Anybody who believes their driving is unimpaired while button-pushing is plain wrong. If they've got away with it so far, they've just been lucky. Even talking on a hands-free phone, never mind operating it, destroys concentration.

No one with a friend or relative who had been injured or worse as a result of an accident with someone using their phone would stop to debate what was legal, they'd just stop fiddling with devices like phones and sat nav devices while driving.

[Cursor]

Nokia recently reduced the cost of the drive and walking licence for all regions by 90% to about £10/year and traffic is about £3/year for S60 series, not free but better than before.

[gacrane]

I've been using this for a long time now and no longer even bother getting the TOMTOM out. It was also great to have when I got stuck out in the USA due to the ASH.
I have a huge card on my phone and have all areas I might visit already loaded. To save on air time I don't ever load over the air but check for updates regularly.
The traffic seems to work well too.
Having everything in my phone is great and I'm not leaving something in the car to be stolen either.
Don't think I'll go back to a dedicated unit again.

[MrGumby]

[gacrane]

Agree on the "shop" issue and I do all my Geocaching from same unit too. I did have a windows mobile phone for a long time but moved away as the Nokia phones improved. So I haven't had the full one unit luxury for a longtime (Personnally I didn't like CoPilot much)

[MrGumby]

[gacrane]

There is still some room for improvement to compare 100% with TT. As for the roundabout issue you talk about I haven't experienced that yet roads have been as expected. Also as you can use it like google maps and having the ability to view Sat images to check locations, I find this great.
Camera database implementation is one area TT still wins hands down, but I've tried to reduce my need for any of that currently :-)
Adding your own POI's is poor but I have found the built in data pretty good to date.

It's more of a take us as we are at the moment but for my usage and needs I find it works well.

[MrGumby]

Very helpful - thanks. I'll go to a Nokia store and give Ovi maps a try.

[RGN01]

Very interesting and useful thread, thanks!

I've just started using the free Nokia Ovi maps on my E71 and so far I'm very happy.

Does anyone know if the PocketGPSWorld safety camera database can be loaded to the Nokia? If so, how, please?

Thanks.

Richard

[windy1]

Here's my experience for what its worth;

I have a Nokia 5800 and loaded all the world maps via PC for free. Very large files and it took a while but there is no download cap on my landline so no worries there.

The maps themselves seem very nice and up to date. Its good to checkout our friends street map locations in Australia, Germany and USA from the sofa.

However, the navigation is rubbish. The routing is at odds with my old Garmin and often quite nonsensical, showing opposite direction turns even when 5 miles from destination, presumably because it wants to reposition you onto its preferred route even though you are nearly there!

There is no clear way to select the routing- fastest, shortest, etc just vague words like "optimum" whatever that means.

And even worse no way to have a look at the route beforehand.

And I still don't know how to cycle between the 3 map screens: Tapping once or twice, in the centre of the map screen or on an icon doesn't seem to make a difference. After a considerable delay, the screen does change to the simplified picture of next turn, but it is very delayed and unpredictable. Not the sort of thing you want to be doing whilst driving.

On the simplified screen the next turn is displayed as 2...if more than say 20 miles. It obviously belives you don't need to know the distance to the next turn except its quite a long way.

It takes a long time to acquire GPS lock even when placed on a window cill.

I can't find any manual or guide.

A LONG way to go before its anything like a TT, Garmin etc

[MrGumby]

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