Nokia’s Beta Labs have released Nokia Map Loader 2.0 - an app that lets you download maps to your mobile to use offline.
The app runs on Windows XP or Vista and works with Nokia Maps on the user’s phone to display the map in offline mode.
New in this version is a ‘Services’ tab that allows the purchase of navigation and city guides. Services require PC Site to sync the guide data and will not work with phones in mass storage mode.
Directions can be provided for walking or ‘drive and walk’ - each is sold separately. Licenses to use the maps and services can be purchased via the app with a credit card and Map Loader will let you manage any existing licenses.
The app is a bit basic - you can’t keep browsing the store while a map is downloading, for example. Also, it would be nice to see some pricing information for each item.
Nokia’s Sports Tracker is fine if you are into jogging about all over the place and want to build up to a marathon or something, but what if you prefer your exercise to a bit less high-impact? A pleasant walk in the country, for example.
Nokia Step Counter is fresh out of the Beta Labs and uses the same accelerometer technology as Sports Tracker. Rather than pushing you onwards and upwards like a digital, pocket-sized Nike advert, Step Counter just works like a pedometer and eschews GPS tomfoolery in favour of a bevy of stats about how far and fast you have been walking.
Using that data, plus info about your height and weight, Step Counter can tell you how many calories you have burnt off during your last promenade. Quite wht this isn’t just another version of Sports Tracker is unclear, but it could be that Nokia just want feedback on certain aspects of this kind of app.
Beta Labs have gone to great lengths to ensure the accuracy of the accelerometer reeadings and reckon that the app should be able to accurately report your pace regardless of how you carry your ophone. Nevertheless they would still appreciate feedback from users, particularly women.
Nokia Beta Labs isn’t just there for the Symbian things in life. As well as pumping out bleeding edge S60 apps at what seems like a rate of twenty or so a day, Nokia have also released experimental PC software - usually novel takes on their synching apps or ways of controlling you phone from the desktop.
Nokias Music is at first glance a bit of a departure, given that it is an iTunes-like music player and organiser that lets you manage your digital music collection and hook up to a wide range of MP3 players. You can knock together playlists and rip CDs directly to connected devices.
Obviously, this primarily intended to e used with Nokia phones like the N81 and N95 but perhaps leaving things open will convince a few people to give a music-oriented smartphone a try - particularly when Nokia rolls out more phone-oriented features like Nokia Music Store integration.
Nokia Music PC Client is a 63MB download for Windows Vista and XP with service pack 2, available here.
Nokia Beta Labs has released an update to the Nokia Maps app for S60 3rd Edition phones that adds realtime traffic updates to the device.
Using data gathered from collaborators ARC Transistance (they only sound like a form of radiation, they are in fact a Europe-wide body of automotive clubs like the AA) the Maps app will show traffic troublespots near your vehicle updated in as near to real time as your connection and their servers will allow which will let you steer your way trhough any roadworks, jams or other hazards.
Not that you should be gazing at your mobile while driving, of course. Hmm. Maybe you should get a passenger to check it for you.
There seems to be a slight bug in the current release that causes the app to download too much trafifc data at once, so it might be worth holding off on this one for a couple of days.
There’s not a dry eye in the house over at Nokia Beta Labs. Their little media uploading app, Share Online, is all grown up and ready to make its fortune in the real world.
In the Beta Labs blog, Tommi Vilkamo announced that Share Online will be becoming a fully fledged, non-beta application available from Nokia’s Sharing and Blogging microsite.
Share Onlne, as previously covered by Pocket Picks, is an automated media uploader that lets you send your photos and movies to Flickr and Vox. The newly released v3.0 also supports Ovi.
Continuing Nokia’s recent obsession with widgets, Nokia Beta Labs has released Nokia Text Messenger - an SMS display widget for Windows Vista desktop PCs.
As well as Microsoft’s most up to date OS, NTM requires Nokia PC Suite 6.85 or later in order to make the connection twixt phone and PC.
The widget sits as a window on your desktop or (in a smaller version) in your Sidebar and PC Suite acts as a conduit to pipe it full of fresh incoming SMS goodness.
Messages can be displayed five at a time in the flowting desktop windows with the compact Sidebar version showing three at at time.
As ever, with Beta Labs productions, the clue is in the website name and you should expect the odd bug, but this is a reasonably polished, if limited in funtion, piece of work.
Nokia Beta Labs has used the Mobile World Congress to announce the release of Nokia Maps 2.0.
The new version of Nokia’s rival to Google Maps Mobile now has maps covering over 200 countries - many of which feature 3D and satellite imagery.
Version 2.0 has added Walk - a pedestrian route finder that complements the existing Drive in-car navigation system. Walk can give information about the surrounding area and shortcuts and can use the built-in compass of the Nokia 6210 to show which way you are walking.
Also new is the selection of downloadable multimedia city guides that point out notable features with audio and video descriptions.
Maps is fully compatible with built in and external GPS but seems to lack the My Location ‘pseudo GPS’ feature included in the latest Google Maps release although, given My Location’s lack of precision, this may not be such a loss.
As this is still a beta, Nokia recommend not trying to use their Traffic Info service and advise that some of the new map data might be drawn incorrectly.
Nokia’s Sports Tracker software has been available from its Beta Labs for some time but has now been officially launched, together with a shiny new web app to let you share and publish your boasts training progress reports.
Sports Tracker requires a Nokia S60 3rd Edition phone with either an external or internal GPS receiver which it uses to automatically keep a log of your speed, distance run, and location when out training. This data can be uploaded to the site and presented in a variety of ways including a map view, progress graph and workout summary.
Another nice feature is the ability to upload geo-tagged photos that you take while out and about. The software will pop them up onto the appropriate point on your route map or let you manually place them.
Nokia Sports Tracker is completely free and Nokia say they are working on an API that will let you access your data from other websites and apps, which should let you publish your progress on your blog or (potentially) into social networking sites like Facebook.
Nokia’s NSeries PC Suite 2.0 has finally been released after its initial delays, with a fresh new design, improvements in installation and syncing, and now integration with Nokia Photos.
Nokia’s NSeries PC Suite 2.0 was supposed to have been released in September, had was delayed due to installation and stability issues.
Now Nokia’s Beta Labs has finally released version 2.0 with a raft of improvements. As well as a new look and feel, Nokia Photos is now integrated, alongside drag and drop file copying from your PC to your NSeries handset.
It’s also based on a web installer, meaning you don’t need to download the whole thing, just the bits you want or need to update your existing NSeries PC Suite.
Finally, you NSeries owners out there can now can download it here. You can also check out if your Symbian S60 phone is also compatible.
Nokia has opened the doors of its Beta Labs once more and before any of the tireless boffins inside could even feel a draft, a new and interesting application flew out into the world for us all to poke with sticks.
It’s called Download! (surely the first thing to be updated here should be the slightly unimaginative name, you wouldn’t call a new Nokia music store, Nokia Music Store, oh wait!) and essentially it is a client that through the somewhat amorphous currency of banner ads can pay for and deliver content to your phone.
So to say it more simply it is an ad-funded download client. The app is available now and all of the content that can be accessed via it is currently free. Worth checking out then.
(Via Nokia Beta Labs)
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