Nokia Maps digitises streets to battle Google's threat

[morphix]

Nokia is combining data gathered by lasers and cameras to make interactive 3D images of cities.

Nokia smells an opportunity. Maps have become one of the most closely-watched battlegrounds in tech after a user-backlash led Apple to apologise for the quality of its iOS6 Maps update.

The Finnish firm quickly capitalised by beating Google to the release of an app in Apple's iPhone and iPad store.

BBC News - Nokia Maps digitises streets to battle Google's threat

 

[NRG]

Yes, I have the app but its not as good as the old Google Map app IMHO.

 

[eHomer]

Phones and Apps gizmos are now changing faster than I can keep up (financially and mentally), so I may make a fool of myself here..

When I tried a lot of android mapping systems they needed to be online with a good 3g connection to work, which is expensive on pay as you go (told you I was stingy), and coverage is often poor out in the countryside where I cycle exclusively now.

For many years I've been an avid fan of Memory Maps on the PC, and when the Android app "MM Tracker" came out, it enabled the use of the same full high res ordnance survey maps.

I use it on my old viewpad 7" android tablet in a near-watertight case, and it gives me a moving GPS cursor on 1:25000 scale maps.

The tracking can be saved and uploaded back to a PC.

It would be no good in Cities where the maps are years out of date though.

 

[colonel]

I too utilise Memory Maps on an android tablet, PC and a fully waterproof Adventurer 3500 GPS (mounts on handlebars). As stated, they give you a moving map display whilst recording positional data.
This data can then produce elevation and speed profiles and an overlay track/route back onto your device map.

This data would be great for providing feedback data/comparisons when reviewing/comparing bike performances.

However, the Memory Map system can be expensive if you want extensive coverage and mapping is limited if going abroad.

As a FREE alternative, I would recommend "MapDroyd" on the Android. This utilises OpenStreetMap (OSM) raw data and gives a google type map image. The maps (well compressed) are downloaded to your device, use the device GPS, and are supposedly updated on a regular basis. No 3G/phone required just a gps equipped android device. It doesn't have all the features of MM and I have found some minor flaws, but cannot complain its all FREE.

The real beauty of this system though is the world wide coverage of the maps. I have loaded the uk, France, Spain and New Zealand. I have been able to track our flights to Spain and spot locations on the ground with this system. I have used it in a car and on a bike in Spain and the street level mapping has worked perfectly for me. Generally, I have found that the inner city areas are correct as these do not change much (especially in historic areas), likewise in the countryside things don't change much. Its usually the main infrastructure/A roads where changes are more likely to take place.

Anyway, nothing to lose, give it a go.

True offline maps for your Android - unplugged ! | MapDroyd

 

[morphix]

When I tried a lot of android mapping systems they needed to be online with a good 3g connection to work, which is expensive on pay as you go (told you I was stingy), and coverage is often poor out in the countryside where I cycle exclusively now.


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I know what you mean eHomer, I found this out the expensive way too.. I loaded £10 of credit on my GiffGaff HTC and rather naively I didn't realise using the map apps required mobile-internet to work! I just assumed it downloaded the maps using WiFi and then overlayed your position using the GPS.. not so it seems, within a week my £10 was gone*! It actively keeps downloading small bits of maps eh (and possibly doing other things), rather than downloading the entire map. I have read though, some apps can be made to work without data connection by downloading all the maps and putting it into an off-line/cached mode..I'm looking into that as I use Maverick on Android which I find a very good map app for cycling.

* When I told GiffGaff they very kindly loaded the credit back on for me, after informing me the credit had been used by data connection which I had no knowledge was even activated (by the app it seems) and eating my credit..no billing alerts or anything! Sign of a good network eh, not many would do that.

 

[jackhandy]

mm tracker is only available from android pit, I beleive, since the copyright owner of multimap threw a wobbly, accusing mm tracker of ripping them off. Google market, as it then was, slung mm tracker out.
I tried to install mm tracker on my galaxy note & could only do so by buying it again from the pit.

I now use viewranger & find that quite a bit better .

 

[themutiny]

I use MotionX. It allows you to download and cache maps to your device (eg using your home network) for instant recall later. It has a whole host of other useful functions as well. Not sure if it's available for Android though.

MotionX® | MotionX-GPS Overview

 

[Scimitar]

Thanks for that pointer - I've just loaded MapDroyd so will see how it goes.
I keep my data connection hard set to the off position so no rogue downloads, hopefully.