Nokia Maps V2.0 Beta Released !!

The guys over at nokia beta labs are on a roll and have recently rolled out yet another juicy beta .this time of the new n improved Nokia Maps application. The New v2.0 Nokia Maps features a all new interface with the options to view maps in 3D , Google maps and hybrid maps. It also includes the "pedestrian" mode where you can have breadcrumb trails of your walk around the city streets. This is something unique which i have never seen in any other GPS mapping software. Kudos to Nokia for including this. I tried out the app and found the new interface very refreshing and less buggy than the old version.




Head over to http://betalabs.nokia.com/blog/tag/maps/ to download the application , and do let me know what you think !

Nokia Location Tagger Beta

Nokia Beta labs have churned out yet another amazing application this month ...and this time its called the "Location Tagger". Basically what this app does is that it starts off your GPS ..and gets your current or last saved co-ordinates and embeds them into the EXIF data peresnt in the JPEG pictures header.And when you upload such pictures on flickr , picasa or google earth , you will be able to see the picture in the exact position on the map you had clicked it on.



Shozu has been offering this feature in its app for a long time ..but its nice to see nokia jump into things and offer an app of their own. So if you have a Nokia N95, N95 8GB, N82, and E90 using the integrated GPS, or any S60 #rd edition device with a bluetooth GPS ..head over to :

http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/locationtagger

to download the app. Is it as good as shozu ? Post your comments.

Google Maps for Mobile goes 2.0

Google has released an update of its popular maps application for mobile phones ..and here's the best part. Now even NON GPS phones can find their approximate location based on the information provided by the cellular towers (cell-ID). This is a really cool feature ..although i bet it must have taken a lot of coaxing on google's part to allow the cellular companies to part with the locations of their towers. This is a great new feature where your approximate location is displayed as a light blue circle i.e the range of the cellular tower nearest to you.This is a real boon for all the non gps equipped phones out there. Kudos to google for making the maps application even more versatile.I'm sure Nokia will follow suit too. To see a demo ..watch the video below.



You can download the latest google maps for mobile from the link below :

http://www.google.com/gmm

Nokia N95 v12 Firmware Rants...

Whoooooooo Hooooooo !!

V12 firmware for the nokia N95 is finally here. I just upgraded my phone last night.Went through the usual half an hour of "waiting" for the 113 MB rom to download ..and the five minutes of "heart attacks" when the actual flashing takes place.But in the end...its really worth it !! And the new firmware is swwwwwwweeeeeeet !!



Okay...One thing that nokia has to figure out is the re-installation mechanism. After you reset your phone or flash it to a new firmware ..all the registry entries in the c: drive of your phone get erased. so when you put in your memory card ..the applications try to re register themselves on the phone boot up ..and the "installer" starts running. Somehow ..this installer has never really worked its magic for me . It either hangs ..or i have to terminate it using swiss knife utilities...but the next time i reboot the phone ...it starts running all over again. I even tried going to the app manager and manually installing the apps (which appear as some combination of hex numbers..and you really don't know what is what until you install them)...but considering my phone is always full with about 50-60 apps/games at any give time...this is gonna be quite a task. So the only quick solution i see would be to backup my contacts , images and videos ..and format the memory card . :( Sad ..i know...but at least it gives me a clean slate ..and i can start anew all over again.




Regarding the new firmware ....I was disappointed NOT to see the latest version of Nokia Maps bundled with this firmware upgrade. The AGPS really doesn't work out well for me . I have a gprs plan and all the settings are right ...data is getting transferred when i use the maps application ...but I didn't notice any improvement in the lock time.(its still a pathetic 2-5 minutes for me ) ..and i wonder if this AGPS support is only country specific. Anyone knows anything more about this ?? Another thing that pisses me off is the lack of Maps for India in the Nokia map loader ?? What gives ?? They were there in the older version ..so why aren't they there in the new one ? Hello Nokia...are you listening ??


Some improvements I've noticed are ..
1.The interface feels zipper on the whole.
2.Slightly more ram on boot up.
3.Gallery is much quicker ..and now pictures zoom in till 800%
4.The camera is much more responsive...Better focusing.


About the battery life...I'll have to wait and see if that has improved. Another thing I've noticed..is when the screen light times out ..the photo preview button momentarily comes on for a bit ..as if to signal that the screen is switching off.Don't know if this is a bug or they've just kept it that way.

Feel free to add any more bugs / improvements you've noticed . I'll be posting more of my findings here.

Nokia N95 v12.0 firmware coming soon....

Symbian Guru Rcadden has got his hands on the latest version (v12) firmware for the N95.
Key features in this upgrade are not clear yet ...but one major upgrade is in the form of a new nokia maps application and a much faster GPS lock on (due to Nokia using A-GPS technology by storing your nearest cell-id's in their centralized servers for a faster lock ).




I also hope nokia has optimized the ram and improved the response time of the camera. Also a bit of optimization on battery life wouldnt hurt either.. :)

To read more about the new firmware head on to..

http://symbianguru.typepad.com

UPDATE : V12 IS OFFICIALLY OUT. CHECK YOUR NOKIA SOFTWARE UPDATER !!

Geotagging photos on the N95 using LOCR

Remember how i always used to rant that the current apps available for Geo tagging on the N95 really suck. I mean ....there's shozu of course ...but its way too unstable ...and then there's zonetag... which hasn't come out with a symbian s60 v3 version yet.

But guess what ... all your N95 enthusiasts out there ..your prayers have finally been answered !! LOCR ...is a brand new FREE app which allows you to geotag your photos taken from your camera , on your camera ..or even on your p.c . There are several different flavors . There's the P.C edition ..which you can use to geotag photos on your p.c ..and then there's the symbian o.s versions ...which support symbian os v2.0 , v2.0 FP 1 and v3.0 . So that means you can use it even with an external bluetooth gps device . Cool...!!

All you have to do is first register on the Locr website . After doing that you can download the app from the download section . Install it on your device and you are all ready to go.



The best part is this app recognizes the inbuilt N95 gps module , and even when you arnt getting a GPS signal , it allows you to use your last known co-ordinates to tag the photo. Of course , you can edit it manually too. The photos can be uploaded to the Locr website via GPRS or Wi-fi and you can view them through your phone's web browser. Another cool feature is the ability to find photos near you...by using your current GPS co-ordinates. The only downside i've found in this app is the lack of third party support..i.e ability to upload your photo's on sites other than the locr website.Also the Max resolution supported is 1024 x 768 (0.8 mega pixels) :(



In all..this IS the best Photo geotagging app I've used on the N95 so far. Doesn't hog memory , doesn't crash and of course has all those excellent features which i mentioned before. I would recommend all you N95 users out there to give it a try ..and don't forget to let me know how it works out for you . :)

8 Motions ... The all in one GPS mapping , tracking, geo-tagging & buddy monitoring App !!

Another day .. Another great Application...and that too FREE of cost !! Thomas Landspurg , who is one of the people working on the webwag widgets app i reviewed earlier sent me his pet project 8 MOTIONS to test on my Nokia N95. 8 motions is a GPS mapping , tracking and buddy monitoring app. You can use it to find out where you are Via GPS (supports both internal gps like the N95 and external bluetooth gps ) , You can use it for route mapping , directions to places , and also to track your buddies locations .

To use this awesome app ..you have to first register at http://test.8motions.com/ , after you enter your mobile number on your profile , you can have the link to the app sent to you by sms.
When i tried to download the app from my mobile through the wap link ,Although the wap page didn't recognize my mobile properly , the jar file got downloaded and worked just fine.



After installing the app on the mobile , you can either set your gps position , by allowing it to access gps data , and you can also see where you are by letting the application download maps via gprs. This app works similar to mgmaps , but has some additional features that give it an edge. One interesting feature of this app is the ability to click a snap , geotag it and upload it to your flickr account . Although to do this you have to go to http://www.flickr.com/auth-19913 and enter the code given there into the token field in the application ...and you're all set to upload your geo tagged photos to flickr. Sweeeeeet !! :)



Another interesting thing about this application is the fact that you can find out or track your buddy locations . As soon as anyone in your buddy list logs into the application and his position is updated via gps and the app , you can view his position too by clicking on the respective buddy in the buddy list. So now you can keep track of your friends 24x7. Sounds kinda like "big brother" ..doesn't it ?? :D



Another cool feature is the compass , and the GPS tracking feature. You can set the app to record your GPS movement ..for e.g your car / bike ride , and it will continuously poll the gps at the interval specified by you , and update your location coordinates to a file. You can later export this file and view it on applications like Google earth to get an outline of your route.these tracks can then be re-used to navigate to the same place again ..or even shared with your buddies. You can even download new tracks and use them.
The application even lets you toggle between 4 different map providers ..which are Google , Msn , Ask and Yahoo. So what are you waiting for ? This is one cool app which in my opinion combines the best features of mgmaps + shozu + googlemaps mobile into one nifty little application.And although there is no Wi-fi support at the moment ...it is still one of the best GPS and geotagging apps I've come across in a long time.Go ahead ..give it a try ..and do let me know what you think of it.