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Nokia says they are giving iOS mapping another try
Nokia had a pretty bad experience with its Here Maps on iOS late in 2012. I reviewed the app back then and found it wanting in almost every way. Now the company tells the Wall Street Journal it's ready to try again with a new, improved navigation app for iOS. The app will come from the part of Nokia that Microsoft did not buy. Nokia has been very active in mapping for years, usually in business settings. But Nokia executive Sean Fernback told the Journal that the company wants to be in the consumer space. He added that he thought people were looking for an "alternative to Google and Apple navigation apps", and the Nokia app will let users fully download maps so the app can be used when there is no data connection. Google and Apple do something similar, although Apple's implementation gives users very little control over what is cached. I'm not sure consumers are clamoring for another mapping solution. Google Maps is wildly popular, and after a really rough start, more people seem pleased with Apple Maps, especially the way it integrates with Siri. The new app, which doesn't have a release date, will be based on the Here mapping technology that the old app was based on. Nokia expects the app to roll out before the end of this year. When I tested the original incarnation, the points-of-interest database was very thin, and the satellite photos were out of date compared to Apple and Google. Competition is always good, but Nokia stumbled pretty badly the first time out. I'll review the app when it appears and see if Nokia has learned any lessons.
Nokia pulls Here Maps from the App Store, blames iOS 7
In the wake of Maps-gate, Nokia was one of several outfits that rushed to Apple's aid with a navigation app of its very own. A year later, however, and that same offering has been yanked from the App Store before it could send a note to its neighbors. When we asked, Nokia responded with the below quote, saying that iOS 7 harms the user experience of HERE, but users can still access the mobile edition of the service. Which is all well and good, unless you were a big fan of the app's ability to cache offline data. "We have made the decision to remove our HERE Maps app from the Apple App Store because recent changes to iOS 7 harm the user experience. iPhone users can continue to use the mobile web version of HERE Maps under m.here.com, offering them location needs, such as search, routing, orientation, transit information and more, all completely free of charge."
Nokia's Here Maps service comes to the Asha 501, beta release available now for download
The touchscreen Asha 501 Nokia unveiled back in May will now work with Here Maps, the company announced on its blog today. The navigation service is already available on Windows Phone 8, Firefox OS, Android and iOS, and its arrival on the Asha platform will boost that operating system's more modest selection of apps. Available now as a beta release, Here Maps for the Asha 501 offers turn-by-turn navigation and real-time traffic information. It's designed specifically for low-end smartphones without GPS on board, and Nokia's post notes that the current version "is a starting point and we will improve the experience over time." Upcoming changes will likely include improved satellite images, which the company says will soon be updated to a higher quality. Asha 501 users in select countries can nab the Here Maps beta via the source link below.
Daily Update for November 20, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Nokia Here arrives for iOS, brings Navteq-powered offline maps and voice guidance
If you've been keeping up with the news of Nokia's cross-platform mapping service, then you'll know it's designed to offer access to all of that Finnish cartographic expertise even if you're holding something other than a Windows Phone or Symbian device. To that end, the iPhone and iPad version of Nokia Here has finally landed at the App Store, promising to make you "feel like a local anywhere you go," through traffic and public transport overlays, voice-guided in-car and on-foot navigation and community-based updates. It also integrates with Nokia's other new service, Collections, which lets you save your favorite places to a personal account. Crucially, the app allows you to download one geographical area of your choice as an offline map -- although a 10MB cap means that the more square miles you try to grab, the less detail you'll see.
Nokia Here collection vehicle hands-on (video)
After our interview with Peter Skillman last week we were given a brief tour of the Nokia Here collection vehicle, a bright blue Volkswagen Jetta Wagon specially outfitted with a smorgasbord of sensors. The main attraction is a retractable roof-mounted mast that collapses behind an aerodynamic fairing for stowage. From top to bottom, this mast features a military-grade GPS antenna, a 360-degree panorama camera in a white pod (which captures the spherical views you'll see in Nokia Here), a Velodyne LIDAR unit in a spinning silver cylinder (for 3D mapping), high-resolution signage cameras in a black box (for forwards and backward automatic feature extraction) and finally a wheel encoder to measure distance / velocity. Sadly the car was locked so we were unable to check out what's inside or go for a ride, but we're hoping to remedy this at some point in the future. Until then check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.%Gallery-170826%
The Engadget Interview: Design Head Peter Skillman on Nokia Here
We just had the opportunity to sit down with Design Head Peter Skillman here in San Francisco and get the lowdown on all things Nokia Here. A lot has changed since we interviewed him at Nokia World last year, including the launch of Windows Phone 8 and new Lumia devices. We talked about what Nokia Here brings to the table including LiveSight (a whole suite of applications including Drive, Walk and Public Transportation), the here.com full 3D WebGL experience and the Earthmine acquisition. Still, it's the cross-platform aspects of Nokia Here -- Android, iOS and Firefox OS support -- that intrigued us the most, so we asked how this affects the company's Windows Phone strategy (if at all). Join us for the full interview above.
