Hasta La Gadget!

Initially one of the main reasons you would get a Nokia Lumia device is because of certain exclusive apps available only for the Finnish handset manufacturer. This included apps such as Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive just to name a few. While they might now be available for other Windows Phone devices, it looks like HTC might have decided to create something similar of their own. Thanks to a report by Windows Phone Italy, word on the street has it that HTC could be looking to compete with Nokia in terms of a mapping/navigation app.

Considering that the Taiwanese company did release a similar app last year (which is no longer available for Windows Phone 8) called HTC Locations (pictured above), we are not sure if HTC is either building an entirely new app from ground up, or if they will be making major upgrades and changes to the existing app. Hopefully if HTC does release such an app, they will not be charging their users for additional features, such as offline voice prompts. After all if Nokia can do it for free, why can’t HTC, right? There’s also no word if HTC plans to make this app an exclusive to Windows Phone devices, or they will make it available across the board. Either way take this with a grain of salt for now, but what do you guys think of a HTC navigation/mapping app?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Yellow/Gold iPhone 5S In The Works?, Samsung Galaxy S3 Refresh Coming (Rumor),

Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia has plans to introduce Nokia Drive not only for Nokia devices, but also for other platforms. The thing is, very little is known about this particular effort from Nokia, and during the recent launch of Windows Phone 8, there was no mention of Nokia Drive either, leaving those who are interested up in arms as to whether Nokia was serious about delivering Nokia Drive to different mobile platforms or not in the long run. Pocket-lint managed to obtain some time and subsequently, information from Nokia that they are still working to deliver Drive to the platform.

Some deduce that Nokia’s ace up their sleeve at the moment would be maps on their range of Lumia devices, so chances are if it were to be made available onto other platforms, you can more or less expect to fork out some money for it. Rather confusing is how Nokia has pinned their hopes on developers to rely on Drive for location-based apps. Do you think Nokia intends to make just a select bunch of features of Drive available to everyone for free, or did Microsoft open up Pandora’s Box by giving them to green light to force Drive into the position of being the default mapping solution on handsets the moment it is installed? Time ought to be able to shed more light on the situation.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: More on Nokia Drive on Windows Phone 8 smartphones, Nokia Maps, Drive and Transport updated for Lumia,

I’ve sung praises about it for years, but it seems like only now the industry is getting on the same train of thought. It could be my unnatural adoration of travel, or just an entirely healthy fear of getting lost, but offline navigation has long since been a top priority for me when choosing a mobile device. Or, more importantly, a mobile operating system. For the longest while, iOS forced my hand to Android due to Google Maps Navigation being available only on the latter, and while even that wasn’t offline, it still far surpassed any other routing app in terms of system integration, map updates and general silkiness.

Even dating back to our 2010 mobile GPS shootout, Nokia has been a player. At that time, it was the outfit’s Ovi Maps leading the pack, offering the only legitimate offline solution amongst a legion of ho-hum alternatives that required bits of data to keep you on track. But frankly, there wasn’t a Symbian device in Nokia’s stable that could show up my Nexus One in terms of overall utility, so begrudgingly, I pushed it aside. Eventually, Google came around and added caching to routes, which effectively downloaded all routing guidance along your path as soon as you plugged in a destination. The killer, however, was that it wouldn’t take too kindly to veering far from that path should you ever drop signal. Close, but no cigar.

Fast forward to today, and we’ve got Google Maps already working in offline mode for Android 2.2+ devices. Furthermore, the company’s Brian McClendon confessed to us at its June 2012 ‘Maps’ event that it’s “committed” to bringing all of the app’s features to iOS (and potentially other platforms). But in my haste to find something in the here and now, I recently turned to the Lumia 900 for guidance. Literally. Back in late March, the Lumia-exclusive Nokia Drive application gained full offline access, and I sought to use the handset exclusively to navigate a 1,900-mile trek through some of America’s most remote locales. How’d it go? Join us after the break to find out.

Continue reading Nokia Drive offline navigation review: taking the Lumia 900 for an off-the-grid spin

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Software

Nokia Drive offline navigation review: taking the Lumia 900 for an off-the-grid spin originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia is still taking its lumps in earnings, but CEO Stephen Elop has an idea as to how the troubled phone giant can carve out its slice of the smartphone market: like a real estate agent, it’s all about location, location, location. As he outlined in the company’s fiscal results call, the aim is to make Nokia the “where?” company — the go-to for location-based services, whether it’s Drive, Transport or anything else that locks in on our whereabouts. Facebook and Google are the “who?” and “what?” companies, Elop says. He also imagines that his own firm “could be a leader” in sensors as a whole, tracking subtler cues like the owner’s pulse rate. Whether or not Nokia puts itself in front through positioning, the executive gave a small tease of the future during the call — the next wave of Lumia phones will have “more differentiation,” and both Windows Phone 7.8 as well as Windows Phone 8 will make their way to budget Nokia hardware.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia wants to become the ‘where?’ company, Lumias to become sensor masters originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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