New generation of Nokia Maps

Be glad you tourists, drivers who travel to distant and unknown places and those of you, that are just suffering from some orientation issues. The new version of Nokia Maps has been announced today, and it packs a lot of improvements.

For example, thanks to the built-in support for the free online service Ovi, it’s now possible to plan the route for your future trip on the PC, and then synchronize it with your mobile phone. In addition to this, users will now be able to enjoy high-quality aerial pictures and visualizations of 3D sights on the map (this will be available for 216 of the cities at first). What we liked the most, however, is the provided access to real-time information on street cameras (no more speeding penalties!), traffic (no more traffic jams… at least in some of the countries) and cultural events (concerts, movies and so on). For the pedestrians, there’s an option which shows the shortest way from A to B and a warning for an approaching turn.

According to the manufacturer, their partnership with NAVTEQ led to a significant increase of the detail level of the maps. This should lead to a better coverage and more effective navigation.

Whether these are only promises, or the new version is really going to come with all the mentioned improvements, you can find out for yourself right now if you download the beta version from here. Well, you’ll also need a Nokia phone, that works on the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (for example N85, 5320, 6210, but for the moment N96 is not supported).

source: Nokia