NokiaWorldWatch: Nokia maps 3.0 arrives, taking them in a new direction

At Nokia World in Barcelona the Finnish mobile phone makers unveiled their new take on their mapping solution for their handsets, with a raft of new additions.

On the grid for this release are new web services, online planning, plus the ability to view landmarks in 3D!

Folded up into this update is customisable mapping online from Ovi, allowing users to plan in advance their journey on a PC then export these details to their mobile.

There’s also some new additions to the overall suite, with the likes of 3D landmarks for 216 cities, high res satellite images and night driving to name but a few.

The latter of which is darn useful and is in Drive, the turn-by-turn sat nav tool and has been seen in others such as TomTom for a while now. We’re glad they’ve managed to work it in.

As for the aerial shots, it was about time they took on Google maps. We are unsure where all this data and imagery would have come from; we assume they’ve partnered with someone that’s also looking to take a chunk out of Google’s strangle hold. Although we’ve picked up that a company called NAVTEQ might have had an input there.

They’re planning to utilise Ovi for its social networking side over time, with planned journeys being able to be shared for the greater good. This all seems great and a welcome addition, but we’re also hoping for users to add changes to maps that may be incorporated in future updates. As not all maps are 100% accurate and could welcome the user specific input, just to cross the Is and dot the Ts where things have gone amiss.

Real time access to traffic information, speed camera and safety spots have also been included in this release for certain cities.

These new features are available now from Nokia Beta Labs website seen here.

With the online version being accessible from here.

All in all, it looks like a welcome upgrade and starts to make the software a lot more useful, along with taking on others out there en route *cough*