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Posts: 87 | Thanked: 535 times | Joined on Oct 2010 @ Karlsruhe, Germany
#1

It's my pleasure to introduce Marble (the virtual globe and world atlas you know from your desktop system or your N900) in its Harmattan version for the N9/N950, available for installation from the Ovi Store.

The user interface has been rewritten completely based on the Qt Quick / Qt Components with the goal to simplify the interaction while still keeping all important features. An immediate change existing Marble users will notice is the introduction of a new startup screen where you choose an activity: Routing, Navigation, Virtual Globe and many more; each aligning the user interface in a way convenient for the task at hand.

In contrast to other Marble versions we will ship updates more frequently and introduce new features also in minor versions.

Marble 1.3.2
The following activities are integrated:
  • Virtual Globe - Different views (map themes) of the globe
  • Search - Find cities, addresses, points of interest
  • Routing - Calculate the way between arbitrary targets
  • Tracking - Record your way
  • Navigation - Turn-by-turn instructions while you travel (textual and voice guidance)
  • Weather - Temperature and weather situation of many places
  • Friends - Shows people from the OpenDesktop community
  • Space View - Views of different planets and the moon





















Let me highlight a couple of features which I like best personally:
  • Four different routing backends are queried at the same time: Yours, OpenRouteService, MapQuest and Monav (offline routing, see below)
  • Offline routing is possible when installing Monav Routing Daemon from the ovi store and downloading offline data for it in Marble's Preferences page
  • Switch between motorcar, bike and pedestrian routing with a single click
  • Voice navigation speakers for many languages can be installed directly from within Marble; just select the one you like in the Preferenes page
  • We provide many additional map themes; install the ones you like in the Preferences page
  • The search function queries nominatim (from OpenStreetMap), but also works offline when you install data for the region you're interested in (in the Preferences page again)
  • View realtime clouds, realistic day/night zones, and accurate satellite positions in the space view activity

Feedback is highly welcome! Please report bugs to KDE Bugzilla. Short-term planned changes are listed in KDE Techbase. Posting in this thread works great as well.

Roadmap
  • Marble 1.3.1: 2012-02-02 (available in Ovi Store). First release
  • Marble 1.3.2: 2012-02-08 (submitted to Ovi Store). Pinch zoom, MapQuest routing backend, download tiles along the route, more voice navigation commands
  • Marble 1.3.x: Bookmark support

Further Reading
__________________
Marble - Find your way and explore the world with your N900 or N9 | Your voice counts!
 

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