Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman have completed their epic motorbike journey from John O'Groats in Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa, done in aid of UNICEF. It's relevant to the Symbian world as they used S60-powered Nokia 6110 Navigators as their GPS devices, thanks to a sponsorship deal with Nokia.
Read on in the full article.
I am from Zimbabwe and there certainly isn't a map for that, so how much use were these things in Tanzania or wherever?
In the uk I use smart2go on my E61 with an external GPS. It's very useful and being free is a great thing.
It could be faster and I haven't bought voice guidance but it is still great with my motorbike. I plan trips beforehand as normal but I have that feeling of confidence that when (not if) I make some mistake I will always be able to get back on track.
"I am from Zimbabwe and there certainly isn't a map for that, so how much use were these things in Tanzania or wherever?"
I'm not familiar with how well Africa is mapped, but if there are no electronic maps at all for a particular area, at least the GPS would give them co-ordinates for use with paper maps.
(And presumably at least some African countries do have maps available, particularly South Africa.)
"In the uk I use smart2go on my E61 with an external GPS. It's very useful and being free is a great thing"
The E61 must be quite good for GPS maps as it has such a physically large screen?
Yes, the screen is nice and being able to type easily helps with searches.
Scrolling around is slow and jerky and I find that infuriating. The screen is not very high res so even though it's big it can't show much and can't fit labels onto all streets so one must scroll around to put the cursor over a street to get the name and the delayed response leads to overreaction and overcorrection.
One really needs a much higher res screen to plan a trip because the detail when zoomed out is very poor. I use a PC with Google maps to work out a rough route before going on a trip.
I also found the way that the trip planner kept rotating the map as you moved from one waypoint to the next was utterly confusing and I don't use that. Phones could do with having a basic magnetic sensor so that they know what direction you're facing - I have seen a Japanese one that has this and I think that would be great for this kind of application.
The database of street names is very helpful, even without a GPS.
I hate the way key locking is achieved in Symbian. I find it very difficult to operate the phone without taking my gloves off (a real nuisance) and it's made much worse by the way that one has to swap the application into the background before being able to press the lock combination. I want a solid, recessed, lock switch or just to press the "OFF" switch and be able to get back to the map instantly when I turn it "ON".
Having complained a lot, I nevertheless find it indispensable. It is wonderful for the basic task of being absolutely sure of where you are and where you need to go. Thank you, Nokia.
I am from Cape Town and can say that generally the mapping software & coverage is quite comprehensive here in South Africa. Speaking of the 6110 Navigator,it is being offered here ( in what I view) at a really competitive price,consideing its a new phone with its pretty much unique feature (in its price range) of a GPS being built-in.Its available here in South Africa for the equivalent of about 17 Euros a month for 24 months from various Network Providers.
I should point out that the 6110 Navigator doesn't use Nokia Maps, it uses Route 66.
You can install Nokia Maps (or any other S60 GPS software) if you want, but Route 66 includes free route planning and voice guidance built into the phone, and scrolls much more smoothly than Nokia Maps.
"I find it very difficult to operate the phone without taking my gloves off "
I think the E61 is definitely the wrong phone if you want to operate it with gloves on! 😉
They may have carried Nokia 6110 Phones but I very much doubt they used them.
It was just a sponsorship deal
All of the bikes were fitted with dedicated 'Garmin GPS' devices, supplied by Touratech.
That photo is very cheesey. As Homer Simpson would say, welcome to the planet corn ball! I visit Cape Town often and Nokia Maps has coverage, although there some inaccuracies with house numbers and the coastline.
. . contrary to what some South Africans tend to think. 😊
The rest of us Africans would like maps too.
"That photo is very cheesey."
We did try to pick the cheesiest one!