Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

If anything can be said is that Nokia bungled this announcement. The miscommunication is contrary to the reason for having a press conference in the first place. Nokia is playing coy with N900 owners something they clearly find a hard time as defining us. I'm guessing they look at us as some halfwits who don't mind the perks of owning a Nokia. Probably they see us as too geeky for maps ... which is why Nokia is out of touch in the smartphone selling arena. They are baffled at the success of the N900, and they probably see it as a beta hardware reaching mass appeal. Instead of doubling down on support and initiative they are probably playing a containment strategy of intentionally stunting the growth and popularity of the N900 just because it doesn't match the expectations they planned on. This has to be the case why Nokia doesn't seem eager to embrace Maemo fully, and why Symbian gets all the love, as their plan of Maemo is from 6 and onward.

They are forgetting the success of Maemo 6 rests on the opinions of people who own a Maemo 5 device.

N900 owners only want to know why Ovi Maps as it is in Symbian is not ready for Maemo. Also when will it be available. A strategy of offering a better service for lower end phones makes the consumer think twice as to why pay more ... why not use that money and get a Android 2.0 powered phone.

This press release leaves much more to be desired, I am dissappointed once more by Nokia, wonder if I have the patience to endure a future mess up.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Am I the only one that sees this announcement as a good thing?

In the near future, it means that Maemo and Symbian phones will have premium maps with turn-by-turn technology via Qt thus reducing the amount of differences between the two platforms and allows for Nokia to consolidate their efforts and bring out more features and "stuff" for all of their phones?

Simply put, there will be a parity between all future releases of stuff like Ovi Maps and whatnot... a good thing.

Sucks it didn't happen today, but it will. If it's announced as Maemo 6 only THEN get upset.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

ovi mpas has been in symbian devlopmet for 3-4 years

you cant expect them to magic it out of the thin air for maemo which is relatively new in the phone world etc

when you bought the device it wasnt advertised as having full turn by turn sat nav but it was a work in progress

now other handsets have a new version of maps and a full liscence everyone seems to feel hard done by all of a sudden :-)

cmon peeps if we get ''free'' maps it will be a very nice bonus as we didnt expect it , however we did expect to have a working version of maps but again there was no time frame for this was there so we should just be patient

iam sure they are working on it as we speak

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

not at all i think its a brilliant idear and iam really happy to see it

i cant understand why people are feeling a bit hard done by , we never expected a free version of maps and iam sure they are working on voice guidance as we speak also sygic has been submitted to ovi and nokia so that should be avalaible soon

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Simple - make it in Qt so it will work on Maem 5 and upcoming Maemo 6 as well as the new Symbian versions. I don't see why it wouldn't be worth doing as it will cover so many devices.

PS. I'm on page 7 of 17 so if anyone else has said that before me, sorry!

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Qt based apps must be under development now. 4.6 was just out and 4.7 is bringing a lot to table. So, getting it out based on Qt will not happen now. There are some differences between M5 and M6 UI and they need different UI code even if they code it in Qt. Also, turn-by-turn navigation needs text to speech converter. This is still not available on Maemo from Nokia. So, there is a lot which needs development and my guess is Nokia is in fix. if they spend time on M5, they will get delayed on M6.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Sort of semi-related, I'm looking forward to paying for some cool apps. I'm not ever going to be ready to pay a monthly fee for something (well, maybe Rhapsody), but under a hundred bucks for something really neat? I'm there.

(Edit Netflix Instant Watch for the N900 is something else I'd be willing to pay a monthly fee for...)

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Fair enough. And if they move the N900 to M6, what's the downside?

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Also when considering Nokia's futureplans, it must be taken into account that new to-come Symbian UI Nokia proposed few days ago, looks awfully lot like Maemo/Fremantle UI. This most likely is to move into QT-powered seamless architecture between low-end symbian and high-end high-capability maemo devices.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

i want TBT navigation on my n900 Nokia.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

The n900 is a very capable little device.

If people are going to sell thier n900s because Nokia may/may not release free map stuff is daft.

This is an open-source device. This means the community can write something similar. You do not have to use ovi map data but you have alternatives - e.g. Google's mapping data. A simple client application that get's it's data via server-side services is not that difficult.

That's why I am keeping mine. There are still many benefits of using the n900 and an active (and vocal!) community behind the device.

This is one of the many reasons I bought the n900 - the maemo platform is open-source which means I have a bit more control how the device is used.

At the moment not even Nokia themselves know what will happen to OVI maps on the n900 - there seems to be conflicting statements about the availability of free map stuff for maemo!

This is typical Nokia - great technical team but management seem to extremely ignorant about the whole thing.

To say "What? No free maps? f*** it! Selling my n900 and to hell with it's other benefits like community support, interesting applications, proper desktop-like browser..etc..etc"

This is daft and how many of you will actually sell thier n900 - not many I think!

So what if Nokia do decide to ignore maemo 5 and the n900?

At least we have an active community to push the platform and shape it the way we want to use it.

It could be a lot worse - you can own a locked-down iPhone -nice hardware & software shame about the fascist-like grip Apple exert on the platform..

or

Google Android phones - peering into every aspect of our lives and using the data to serve you endless adverts. Big Brother is watching & recording your every move.

or

Microsoft Windows Mobile - endless bugs and well it's Microsoft you know the rest.

Am I p***** off the way Nokia seems to be dealing with the whole free ovi maps debacle?
Absolutely!

But at least I am part of an active & friendly community - I have more control over my smartphone than Apple or Google could offer me.

I plan to keep my n900 and stick around here for a long time!

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Nokia N900 is equipped with FREE maps 1 navigation software. It has a good performance compared to other free apps. - good maps (which you can download in advance) satellite view, 3D view, international routing.
It has NO voice-guided turn-to-turn guidance and No recalculation. But I didn't so much of that in maep or google maps either.

I did have the same basic possibilities on my N95 with Maps 3. On that device, i bought voice guidance and recalculation for a yearly fee.
So, what's the difference ? You can't compare a free service with a service you have to pay for.
For me. ovi maps 1 is competative with maep and other free services, and ovi maps 3 is quite a different thing.

I hope Nokia comes soon with maps 3 and the paid for services.
Otherwise I will by the same functionality from sygic.com. It seems that bad weather is ending soon at Sygic.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

I had a tom tom, and you can believe that everything that I do with it, it’s possible with my Nokia 5800. I downloaded yesterday and it was working amazingly.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

What I don’t understand is why Nokia is making so few N900. Here in Portugal they had some hundreds in the first day, and have been sold out ever since. Go figure…

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

too tired to read this whole thread so delete if already stated...


At the press conference announcing the news this morning, Nokia executive vice president Anssi Vanjoki confirmed that the Nokia N900, which runs Maemo 5, a different operating system to most Nokia smartphones, will eventually support the free turn by turn service too.

“In later dates we will be increasing the number of support for this [sic] and certainly moving forward it will also support Maemo,” he told reporters.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Well, i am also developing sofware and can understand that support for a new platform is released later due to ongoing work.. The proplem is, that in the inerview Nokia VP said it is NOT ON THE ROADMAP. This tells me enough, and even worse, also other developers / companies will see this and reduce support for Maemo platform.

Apple in contrast well managed to keep even oldest phones compatible .... Nokia instead seems to forget old platfom phones immediately after relese, thus reducing thetotal number of potential cusomers for us developers, introducing zoo of different incompatible versions.

How long would a M6 be supported? until start of development of M7? Again rewriting sW?

Google also provides oldest phones with 2.1 - why does Nokia not do so?

Instead I use beta-SW and get recommendatin for buying next device ... Beta 6? No, Nokia, this does not work!

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

I am sure it will come out for Maemo 5 soon. Obviously its easier to release it for Symbian as its been out for a good 4 years. Let me remind you we already have a Ovi Maps, the next step would be adding voice turn by turn. Either that or Sygic, that can keep us satisfied until Ovi Maps 3 comes out for Maemo.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Read what you've written. He said Maemo not Maemo5 or N900. No commitment from Nokia for the N900 at all.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

That's the view of Nokia.

For consumers: Why did you spend money on N900, you should have been waiting for N910 or whatever...

No problem if they bring update to M6 later, but what I learned they never did for M1 to M6 ... and againstill go that way ...
Even HTC usually does one major update, and HD2 might get WinMo 7 according latest announcments...

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

I disagree completely with that statement. Why would people buy if they knew it would have serious limitations? I was looking for a replacement for my N95 8GB. i wanted to use it to browse web a bit easier... i was looking at WM phones, Iphones, Androids etc.. then i come across the N900, just about to be Nokias new release.. WOW... i was bowled over with the features they have on their website, and i promptly ordered...



Nowhere, did it say "this isnt a very good 'phone', and will generally have reduced support because its only a stepping stone to what we are releasing next year with Maemo 6"

nor did it say "as this isnt a "mainstream" product, it wont get all the new updated map software, or have any integration with Ovi suit / PC suite"

And im damn sure if i go into a shop with 500notes, with the idea of buying an N900 or similar, will the sales guy say to me "oh you may not want an N900 as its only really for geeks and people wishing to help develop the maemo platform".... no, hes just going to just take my money with a smile.

Now i do love this "phone" / "internet tablet" (whatever) as it does a lot of what i wanted, but to be neglected in key areas on such a new device it disheartening.

A lot of my worries stem from reading this forum, and had my concerns early on SEE HERE maybe i should have read more before... but then i suppose its the same whatever you buy.

I read from people all over the net, that things look bright for maemo's future... ... im just not seeing it yet..

Just my 2p

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

It's fairly un likely though that Nokia isn't holding back a complete and ready Ovi Maps with free navigation just because of a deal of Sygic. It's much more likely they've let Sygic know that the new version is still in the works and won't be available for x weeks or months.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Because I just couldn't put up with my 5800XM any more. It was a very frustrating phone to use. The notifications that block your usage of the phone until they disappear was a very big nuisance. So far I'm very very happy to be using the N900, even with the bugs and lack of turn by turn navigation it's still such a huge improvement over the 5800 that I'm a happy camper.

I could not have waited for a future gen device. I was considering a Motorola Milestone, but stuck with Nokia.

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

again.. JUST CHECK the advertising - in ALL major airports, Financial Times (where it actually states it makes Video Calls..)

Nokia has HUGE billboards advertising the N900. Not for the 3G notepad/book/netbook - but for the N900. It does not state it is: "a beta device" or it is "not a phone - but a computer" or "only meant for linux geeks" - etc. etc...

So all the fanboys who keep whining "this is not a phone" to defend the "missing parts that should have been" it would be so much to join forces and put pressure on Nokia.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

exactly, i slept now a night after Nokia gave us free navigation..

And the more i think about it the less i like it. Especially Nokia that already has the behavior we drop phones as fast as possible because we want you to buy new phones

the last phones i had i all had more or about 2 years (9300, E90) and there getting new firmware updates with more features was not really done.

My hope was that with the N900 because Maemo is way more open that behavior of Nokia was not moved to the N900 (if it is this will be my last Nokia phone).

But now i think it will happen because of this free navigation.. Because where does Nokia now get its profit from??? Yes selling new phones.. So what should Nokia do to get people do that? Yes stop supporting phones as soon as possible no more upgrades no more new features. Nothing.. Because if you want that buy a new phone.

I hate that business i really don't like it. That i find a big plus for Apple, apple doesn't do much right in my eyes but that is a big plus.. Also android especially if you have a rooted device is also upgradeable.

Why cant i just have an option that i pay for the hardware and for the software including the OS and all the build in apps. I really want to pay for that yearly if needed. (let say i pay Nokia 50 euro's per year to get all the latest upgrades until really my hardware cant handled it anymore)
Because if i pay nokia i can expect and sort of "demand" that Nokia does give me the things. But now also with maps. Where is Nokia's drive to upgrade and support older phones ?? Its completely gone.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

it was well known fact that n900 doesn't have voice guided navigation well before the sales begun. perioid.

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

When the free navigation was initially announced it was restricted to 10 mobile phones (with others to follow) excluding the n97 from the initial list!

It became recently apparent that updating the n97 was not going to be straighforward but it is happening. That's fine.

It was initially announced by V.P. of Nokia that the next version of maemo will have free maps. N900/maemo 5 was "not on roadmap"

Obviously people were upset by this. You pay full price for a consumer (I'm telling you - it is!) mobile phone and there seems to be no public commitment by the V.P. of Nokia!

I personally don't mind if I have to wait a couple of months or so for the free maps to be available on the n900. The symbian user base is much bigger and Nokia are prioritising them first - I'm even fine with that, it makes good commercial sense.

But eventually I do expect this to happen for my phone!

I want the existing phone functionality improved and expanded.
I also think Nokia prematurely released the n900 last year - they probably rushed it out before Christmas to increase sales. January is a very lean month for retailers.

I also think Nokia rushed the release of the firmware update too. I think a little more testing and tweaking would have made it a lot less painful for some users.

Oh and the n900 was "beta" tested last year - a handful of developers got exclusive access to it before it was released.

As a released product it still has a few rough edges but generally is still a very good device.

It would be reassuring of Nokia management if they made a public statement clarifying thier full commitment to maemo 5 and the n900.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

True. But all it means is I will have turn turn to my very old N82 to get voice navigation with no guarantee of N900 support. What does that say about Nokias N900 support?;)

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

This morning I thought about our situation with N900.

For me Nokia is trying to start selling mainly and only OS in high end market segment, because (maybe) they do not have much profit from it.
In this case Nokia will not pay much attention about end customers, just only for solving bugs and some problems. And no new features. Maybe they will sell mobile phone production to third company and start providing OS.
But in this case they are definitely duty to end customers to make good OS.

What do you think?

Regards.

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

who will buy in the future a N900 if nokia does not semm to want invest on maemo5 after what said Michael Halbherr?

sorry for my bad english...

chi comprera' un n900 in futuro se neanche nokia sembra voler investire molto su maemo 5 dopo le parole che ha detto Michael Halbherr?

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

who will buy in the future a N900 if nokia does not semm to want invest on maemo5 after what said Michael Halbherr?

sorry for my bad english...

chi comprera' un n900 in futuro se neanche nokia sembra voler investire molto su maemo 5 dopo le parole che ha detto Michael Halbherr?

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Only partially correct. Everybody I spoke to said "the feature is not included as of yet, but it's coming in January with a new FW update". And imho this hasnt arrived yet.

@Nokia, what's going on? ;)

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

to be honest, all of us were expecting a beta phone ... right?
but ... what annoys most of us, i guess, it nokia's failure to fix basic functions. minor, but annoying things ... like the phone application that is so handicapped on n900 ...
"basic" things that work well on nokia symbian phones, but not on n900

ovi maps is not, i guess it will never be a great navigation software ... and ... we know maemo's ovi maps application needs time to catch up with it's symbian sister ... but nokia should give us signs that they are working hard to match them!!!

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

From a pure and greedy economical point of view, Nokia should invest in future customers more than its current customers, in order to maximize sails.

I'm not sure that they have any interest - at this point in time - in investing efforts to please current n900 owners (us), nor give us any signs about them working hard...

At times like this I'm so glad that n900 has this community - as long as time goes by it turn out to be the main reason I'm pleased with my n900 :)

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

Not really I was expecting a stable device and mainly got it.

The "beta" version of the n900 was given to developers and a select few months before the n900 was offically released.

Yes, the phone functionality is basic by today's standards but it has been stable for me and works consistently.
I'm quite happy using the phone app and the sms app too. Of course new features will be welcome!

As a mini Linux computer it is superb!

If Nokia keep updating and improving the n900 then eventually the phone app should improve and gain new features.

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

how hitler as took the news of ovi maps going free http://mynokiablog.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRbCoh66yuU&

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

None of Nokia's phone ever produced came with voice guidance out of the box.

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

That's pretty, pretty, pretty good!

I nearly barfed my coffee!

:D:D:D:D:D

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

lol navigating the taxi driver!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgsla...eature=related

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

nice one HAHAHA :D

(i'm from germany... i think it's even funnier if you understand what the persons really say xD)

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

i think the video was made by jay montano of mynokiablog.com so find is profile on here and give him thanks.
please dont give me credit i'm not that creative lol