gps navigation

HTC starts charging for “free” GPS Navigation and it’s a pretty penny

May 9, 2012 | By Surur

When HTC released an update to their HTC Locations app to provide Turn by Turn GPS Navigation and actually make it useful, it seemed the company was negating one of the major advantages of buying a Nokia Windows Phone.

Now however it seems the grace period has ended, and after the free trial users are being asked to pay for the full package.

When run the app now asks you to purchase a license for the maps, costing EUR 39.99 for Eastern Europe and EUR 49.99 for Europe respectively.

Fortunately the purchase is optional, but without it turn by turn voice navigation is disabled.

It seems there is now one less reason to buy a HTC Windows Phone.

Via Winphonebg.com

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Nokia Drive 3.0 and Nokia Transport 2.0 features detailed

May 4, 2012 | By Surur

WP7Forum.ru has had a sneak peek at Nokia’s new Drive GPS navigation and Transport Public Transport app updates and have spilled the details.

New features in the Nokia Drive 3.0 include:

The application "learns" based on the style of driving
Time travel and the density of traffic movements are tracked in real time, displaying information on the "live tile”
Automatic determination of time of day, with the change of colour scheme cards
Manual adjustment of routes
Off-line favourite lists with the possibility of fixing tiles on the desktop.

The Nokia Transport 2.0 app is also getting a list of new features:

Search for public transport using the user’s location.
Displaying nearby transportation: buses, trains, trams, subways, taxis, marked stops
Show the route with transfers
Support Schedule in 87 countries around the world
Support for fast access to Favorites
Advanced Search
Saving query history
Change the query without a new route
Faster search and installation of the route
Optimized application performance

WP7Forum.ru did not reveal when we can see the updates arrive on handsets, but I expect it would not be many more weeks.

Via WP7Forum.ru

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Wisepilot turn by turn GPS Navigation app comes to Windows Phone

May 2, 2012 | By Surur

Appello has announced the release of Wisepilot, an award winning mobile navigation service with more than 20 million users on Windows Phone 7.

The turn by turn navigation app with voice guidance uses Navteq and Bing map data and does not store maps on the device itself.

Wisepilot Lifetime GPS Navigator features:

Voice Guidance – live instructions for how to proceed to your destination.
3D & 2D Worldwide Maps – always automatically updated and synchronized with your phone.
Lane Assistance – get in the right lane as you approach an intersection.
Junction Views – prepare your motorway exit in advance with a guiding display.
Speed Limits/Alerts – displays speed limits while driving and alerts if you exceed the limit.
Pin address – pin your favorite address to the start screen to save time on recurring trips.
Route of your choice – the shortest route isn’t always the best, choose between multiple options e.g. avoid motorways, fastest and easiest.
One Line Search – assists you to find nearby places, persons*, businesses** and addresses.
Nearby – find places within different categories e.g. Parking and Eating & Drinking.
Recent trips – shortcuts to your latest visited addresses.
Weather – five day forecasts for any destination in the world.

“We believe that the Windows Phone platform has a great future ahead and we are very enthusiastic over our Wisepilot release. The platform expansion for Wisepilot is Appello’s natural way of supporting expectations and demands from our users and partners but also an intentional way of expanding our product portfolio as Wisepilot already is offered with great success on the Apple App Store, Blackberry App World, and Google Play” says Peter Tyreholt Head of Product Portfolio at Appello.

Even with a 30% discount at present, the app is still a pricy $32.99 without a free trial, and can be found in Marketplace here.

Via MimovilWindows.com

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Microsoft accidentally reveals official Waze app

April 17, 2012 | By Surur

Extremely sharp-eyed reader PaxTTel has spotted the icon for the Waze app, apparently on Windows Phone 7, on the recently released Microsoft Translator 2.0 video.

Waze is a free, community-base traffic & navigation app where maps are built using other drivers, who also contribute information such as traffic speed and best routes.

The service does not have a Windows Phone 7 app, but from the name and icon it appears an official version may be on the way.

Waze did in fact support Windows Mobile in the past, so it would be great to see them back on the platform. There have been doubt about Windows Phone 7 support, since Waze has said in the recent past that they did not wish to rewrite their C++ code to .Net, and would wait for Apollo before supporting the platform.

The video can be seen at Bing here.

Thanks PaxTTel and CruiseZero for the tip.

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HTC Locations navigation vs Nokia Drive video review

April 12, 2012 | By Surur

Booredatwork have posted this video review of Nokia turn by turn GPS navigation solution, Nokia Drive, vs HTC’s newly updated HTC Locations, which I suspect most people still do not realize can now also do turn by turn navigation.

Both apps appear to hold their own pretty well, but I suspect HTC uses maps with slightly better quality than Nokia does. Booredwatwork notes HTC Locations has a wider breadth of features that many will find useful, while Nokia Drive is very basic yet simple.

What is certain from the review is that if you want free turn by turn GPS navigation, you are certainly not forced to buy a Nokia Windows Phone; an HTC handset will do just as well. On the other hand Nokia appears to have a more aggressive roadmap for their location-based software, whereas HTC is unlikely to update their app very much.

Read their full review here.

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Nokia Drive vs HTC Location video review

March 30, 2012 | By Surur

Pocketnow have uploaded this video comparing Nokia’s free GPS Navigation solution, Nokia Drive, with HTC’s new and improved HTC Locations app, which also offers voice-guided turn by turn GPS navigation.

In some ways HTC’s app is somewhat more feature-filled, but it is of note that while basic navigation may be free, it appears that voice-guided navigation may initially be free, but will eventually involve having to pay for the feature.

The applications can be found in the various OEM specific marketplace subsections.

Which do our readers prefer so far? Let us know below.

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Real Time traffic updates comes to Nokia Drive in selected cities

March 30, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia has announced the availability of real time traffic updates for their Nokia Drive users on Symbian and Windows Phone 7. The service will initially only be available in Delhi and Mumbai, but will eventually expand to other locales.

The service currently cover 1,500 KM of roads and is based on data collected by other Nokia Maps users acting as ‘traffic probes’ and will show up as colour coded roads, with green for free flowing traffic, yellow for sluggish traffic and red for heavy traffic and will be refreshed every 2 minutes.

The service is available by updating the Nokia Drive app.

Read more at Mediamana and BGR India here.

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Funny Nokia Lumia commercial demoes 3D maps

March 25, 2012 | By Surur

BangbangFilms produced this short commercial for the Nokia Lumia 800 in India, and unlike Nokia’s other, more high concept ads, this one includes a pretty clear demonstration of one specific feature of the phone, and also adds some humour to make it memorable.

Do our readers agree this approach is also necessary for Nokia Marketing? Let us know below.

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Nokia Drive 2.0 now in Marketplace

March 20, 2012 | By Surur

After a bit of a wait Nokia Drive 2.0, as predicted, is now available to download in Marketplace for Nokia Lumia handsets.

The app provides coverage in 100 countries on 6 continents and adds:

Completely offline route planning and navigation
Notice of speed limits
Advanced dashboard with more details and list of recent destinations.

The app, which is exclusive to Nokia handsets, can be found by searching marketplace.

Via Plaffo.com

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Great Deal: Navigon GPS Navigation app 50% off for only 2 days

March 19, 2012 | By Surur

z_navigon-winphone

Talking about deals of the week, Navigon is offering a great deal on their turn by turn GPS navigation app for Windows Phone 7.

For the limited period of only Monday the 19th and Tuesday the 20th March they are offering Navigon USA and Navigon at 50% off, meaning Navigon USA only costs $24.99 and Navigon Europe 42.49 EUR.

The deal expired at midnight tomorrow.

Navigon USA can be found in Marketplace here and Navigon Europe here.

Via Pocketinfo.nl

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Nokia Drive 2.0 with full off-line GPS navigation coming next week

March 13, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia’s Drive GPS Navigation app is pretty good, but so far still needs an internet connection to even launch, and will refuse to work if your phone is in flight mode, which can be expensive when roaming.

Nokia demoed their new Nokia Drive 2.0 at CES and Mobile World Congress. The app will provide full off-line routing and GPS navigation, and according to Sander Teunissen, a Nokia sales manager, the app will be arriving next week, not only with off-line mode, but also lane assistance.

Nokia Drive 3.0 is already in the works of course, and promises not only normal GPS navigation, but integration with traffic information services and re-routing based on traffic incidence. See more about that upcoming version here.

As far as we know, as before, the app will remain a Nokia exclusive.

Via Pocketinfo.nl

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Nokia announces off-line HTML5 GPS Navigation with audio directions for iOS and Android, not Windows Phone

March 13, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia has made their online Maps website off-line enabled, but not for Windows Phone.

Now iPhone, iPad or Android (2.3) devices can point their browser to m.maps.nokia.com, and get maps and routing. The maps can however also provide voice directions by pre-loading up to 2 MB of voice data, which can then be used off-line. The service only works for walking directions.

When one tries to visit the page with a Windows Phone however you get a screen explaining “Our Nokia Web app has not been optimised for your device.” Nokia Maps, which is free for all Windows Phones, does not provide voice directions.

It seems, rather ironically, Nokia is happy to promote their services for iPhone and Android, but not to allow non-Nokia Windows Phones to gain the benefit of them. So much for enhancing the whole ecosystem.

NDrive to deliver a Windows Phone app, TomTom “powering the map services for all HTC smartphones in India”

March 1, 2012 | By Surur

compass-1 NDrive announces a partnership with Appello whereby NDrive will deliver a solution for the Blackberry and the Windows Phone7 environments.

“We are very excited to address 100% of the smartphone market with our location based app.” said Luis Baptista-Coelho, NDrive’s Chief Executive Officer. “On top of the current Android, Apple iOS and Samsung bada environments, we are now delivering a Blackberry and a Windows Phone 7 app that will strengthen our offering into the carrier markets around the world.”

“With NDrive, Appello expands its reach across Latin America and additional markets in Asia and Europe. Furthermore, this partnership is a natural step in the development of our business” said Martin Svensson, Chief Executive Officer at Appello. “We believe that the potential behind this partnership is significant and we do look forward to announce next steps.”

At the same time TomTom has announced a collaboration with HTC where the company will power HTC’s Locations service in India to provide the maps, points of interest and turn-by-turn directions for a range of HTC smartphones in India.

“We are excited to expand our global offerings by powering the map services for all HTC smartphones in India,” said Nuno Campos, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for TomTom Licensing. “This is our first major partnership in India, and we look forward to providing HTC and its customers with the most comprehensive and easy to use maps and navigation services.”

We await confirmation from TomTom PR that “all HTC smartphones in India” includes HTC’s Windows Phone devices in India also.

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