Nokia's Ovi Maps 3.0 goes live, you need a PC (can't use a Mac) to install it on your mobile

Nokia’s Ovi Maps 3.0 just launched, and I’d love to tell you what it’s like, but I’m such a huge fan of Google Maps that I see no compelling reason to switch. For those of you living in nations that have expensive data plans, Nokia Maps is for you since you can preload maps. For those of you who need turn by turn navigation, Nokia Maps is for you. For the rest of you, the majority of you, just go to google.com/gmm on your phone, download, and enjoy.

Why all the negativity? You need to download a file on your computer, to install an application on your phone. How silly is that? Even more silly, the file you need to download to get Maps 3.0 on your device will only work with a PC. Sure Google Maps may not have “3D landmarks for over 200 cities, rotation, tilting, night view, and fly-overs and fly-throughs” or “enriched POI information by Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities, as well as a weather service that provides 24 hour and 5-day forecasts”, but the search works remarkably well and when I’m trying to find a bodega at 4 in the morning in a rough neighborhood, I want to see accurate results and fast.

[More screenshots here]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

name

“You need to download a file on your computer, to install an application on your phone. How silly is that?”
I would ask “how silyt is such remark” – you just do it once and you have it
no need to download it everytime you start the application – it takes NO TIME and you have it
additionally when you go abroad you will get bankrupt in no time trying to download the maps

…and the advantages of features … any comment are needless

I am very sorry to notice that the reviewer who should be objective is funboy promoting his belowed stuff rather than giving objective review
mike

I have to disagree. Thanks for that important bit of info Stefan! I too own a Nokia and use a Mac for my personal computing needs, and can not tell you how frustrating it is to HAVE to use a PC to install or update things like this (I don’t even own a PC, or want to install a virtual machine on my Mac)! I too find this very vexing! @noname, he’s not trashing the service or your ‘precious’ brand/software/phone… I think that if you re-read his post you’ll notice that he’s just COMMENTING on a very big oversight on Nokia’s part. Oh, and please turn down YOUR “funboy” (WTF is a ‘funbot anyways?…) hypersensitivity.
Cary

As for the Gmail being faster than Nokia Maps. This is all based on where on the planet you are and when you happen to have network access and if 3G is available at all. The older GSM based network is dog slow in most places here in USA, where the Cell Phone carriers have lagged behind in updating technology through the years.

Heaven help you if you happen to be in the middle of no where Wyoming, or Montana as you are going to be completely SOL when it comes to getting google service over the air.

Even in OKC I have seen much better response via Nokia Maps than via Google Maps. This is on an N97 on T-Mobile.
dreadlocksny

The problem with the new Nokia Maps is certain to annoy a number of users and the reason for this is simple, you will have to download the file on to your computer first so that you can install the application on to your phone. That file will only work on a PC, but if you have a Mac, chances are you have an iPhone anyway.’

That is simply not true. My Nokia e72 has over the air updates and the Nokia maps upgrade was available in this feature. You can also download Ovi maps from the Ovi store on your phone. Google maps does not give you voice for driving and walking….ovi does.

I have been useing Google maps and was very happy with it. Now I use ovi Maps.

The new version of Ovi Maps includes detailed maps, car and pedestrian navigation for over 180 countries. It also has turn-by-turn voice guidance for 200 cities in 74 countries.

there are no hidden costs involved in the downloading of the new versions and currently 10 phones support the upgrade.

The list includes the Nokia N97 mini, 6710 Navigator, 5800 XpressMusic and E72 models. Other smartphones, both old and new releases, will soon receive a firmware update to make them compatible to receive the new maps, Nokia said.

Know what you are talking about before you post this crap.
HTC

For those Googlemaps fans – are you really serious about what you are writing???

Googlemaps misses 2 MOST important features for what people are even paying to several navi soft companies:
1. offline maps
2. turn-by-turn (voice) navigation

All other things are just browsing a map though sh.tty tiny monitor forced to be always online – this is not navigation.
Rameshchouhan101

o sir where is the download link for these maps ???????????