Ah, so it's not just me then. Respected über-blogger Jay Montano (far from an N97 fanboy, he's a Maemo 5 user these days) has compiled an interesting and highly illustrated list of ten reasons why Ovi Maps 3.3 utterly rocks on the N97. A good read over your afternoon coffee. (Note that the software itself works on a range of phones, mind you. Do buzz me if you spot Ovi Maps v3.3 (free nav) becoming available for more than the initial eight or so devices.)
Read on in the full article.
It's good to see that they finally seem to be getting software right. When I had my N97 (last fall) I stayed on the Ovi Maps beta rather than upgrade to 3.1 since I liked the new UI that apparently did make it onto the new free version.
As they say in the article, this all applies equally to the 5800 and any other touchscreen handset running Ovi Maps (and to be honest, non touchscreens too). Not N97 specific! I've had a great experience with the 5800 and Maps, very good, better than Google Maps for walking and TomTom for driving, which I didn't think would happen for a long while!
Now, can anyone tell me one thing please - how on earth can you view your whole route (and pan around it) when in driving mode on the latest Ovi Maps? I can't find a way, and it's frustrating not knowing if it's going to take me somewhere I know from experience there will be bad traffic etc. Browsing the calculated route is very important! Thanks.
Although I use a 5800 I absolutely agree with the review. The navigation is excellent and the search facility works well, at least as good as my dedicated Garmin SatNav. Nokia have done an excellent job with Ovi Maps 3.0 and now that it is totally free I'm glad I don't have any shares in any SatNav companies. I really feel that they are going to feel the impact of Nokia rolling this out for free.
To answer the question about viewing the whole route, (on a 5800), I have found that if,whilst in drive mode you quickly drag your finger from left to right across the screen it goes to a mode that shows the distance to your next turn, if you then drag your finger from left to right again it brings up a screen with an overview of the whole route. There is a scroll bar at the left hand side of that screen that allows you to go to different points along the route. Drag your finger again and the screen goes back to the normal drive screen.
A. Someone with five readers?
Maybe someone can explain.
Hello,
I agree the software is surprisingly good (although I've had some strange routes calculated sometimes).. but it's let down because of poor hardware (at least in nokia devices). If the interface could run 3-4 times smoother it will be just awesome.
Just thought i would throw this in i debranded my phone and now have 0585162 and still no software update for maps, however i have downloaded the maps from ovi.com works great apart from the speed keeps going off all the time.
Reply to the following question:
As they say in the article, this all applies equally to the 5800 and any other touchscreen handset running Ovi Maps (and to be honest, non touchscreens too). Not N97 specific! I've had a great experience with the 5800 and Maps, very good, better than Google Maps for walking and TomTom for driving, which I didn't think would happen for a long while!
Now, can anyone tell me one thing please - how on earth can you view your whole route (and pan around it) when in driving mode on the latest Ovi Maps? I can't find a way, and it's frustrating not knowing if it's going to take me somewhere I know from experience there will be bad traffic etc. Browsing the calculated route is very important! Thanks.
My reply:
Once your N97 has calculated your route and is in the driving mode, just press the "up" and "down" buttons on the navigation pad. The navigation pad is on the left side of the keyboard. It will give you an overview of the route it's gonna take you.