Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

Just for giving note, getting thanks for.

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

I guess a re-allocation of programmer resources.

I can imagine Nokia management saying:

"Great the n900 was a success, users are spending their hard-earned cash. We have solid revenue over the next couple of months as it keeps selling. We are also going to re-coup development costs too.

Now what?

F*** it! Let's prematurely start on maemo 6 and f*** the n900 users the've already spent thier money. Let's develop a new phone with a new updated maemo os. Better still don't release the new os for the n900 either. Users will have to spend more of their hard-earned money buying the new phone. But we need an incentive. I know we'll only release the free ovi maps for the new version of the maemo and users will have to buy a new phone to get it.
Great that's a great idea Mr V.P. of Nokia. I'll tell you what. I'll tell the existing maemo 5 developers to start work on maemo 6 straight away.
But n900 user's are waiting for the firmware update - it needs a couple of months more work - it's not finished yet. What shall we do? I know! We'll get the developer newbie to continue work on the maemo 5 updates when he's not busy!"

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

Many users discuss about N900 being a phone or tablet, and uses that as an excuse for why Nokia ignored Maemo in their recent Ovi Maps announcement.

I just can't understand then why every single Reviews on the web classified it as phone, and in most cases as an Android/iPhone competitor. Nokia is not complaining that it should be compared to other tablets... The fact is this situation is comfortable for them:
- When some mobile feature is missing, it is a tablet and thus was designed with that in mind
- In other cases, it is a mobile with a new O.S. that will eventually catch up

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

... oh yes, and when some functionality is not working, it is beta, for geeks, ...

... or you should buy you the next beta demo version of Maemo 6 :-(

... and yes, forgotten: It is the most expensive, but not Flagship device.

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

About turn-by-turn navigation needing text to speech converter, I don't think this is correct. As far as I know the voices are recorded and associated with specific phrases like "turn left", "take an U-Turn" and so on... Even Tom-Tom GPS devices allowed users to record their own voices to customize their voice guided navigation (that resulted in a lot of funny sets of voices... :D)

Based on the assumption that Maps for Maemo doesn't require text-to-speech capabilities and also that Nokia already have recorded voices available in various languages, my guess is that it would take very little effort to at least implement the voice guidance. Additional features from Ovi Maps 3.0 like traffic info or guides would be harder to implement, but voice guidance would be a start, even considering that Nokia Maps 1.0 on my N95 already did that a few year ago...

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

Sure, but i Nokia VP states that further development for N900/Maemo5 is not on the roadmap ... simply forget it. We can now
1) return n900 if we are in the 2-week period after buying
2) wait for applicable google navigation (that will not happen)
3) wait for navigation on OpenStreetMap ... that's what would be most preferrable
4) hope there is an update path to Maemo6. Guss this is also unlikely, given the fact that we have a big number of SW repositories ... and will get a new one in winter 2010 ...

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

Or keep the E71 that is being replaced by the N900 for another few months, and use it for a while as the maps offering on Symbian is better.

Interesting thought, that. Thanks Jaco2k.

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

It's a small world after all.

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

Or 5) Wait for the sygic release.

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

Symbian is no alternative, like WinMo. Just a bad joke, compared with Iphone, Android 2.X or Maemo. At the moment, I would only buy an Android as alternative: Also Linux kernel, lots more of support, and update to recent version even for oldest phone.