Yes, I read that too in these forums somewhere...
He might have been hired by them because of Maemo-mapper.

maybe Maemo-Mapper can evolve into the Next Google maps app...

Hehe that's what I'm hoping.

I'd looked earlier in the day. I'm trying to find if there are any Ovi Maps in existence for Iceland. Maybe I need to wait til I have the N900 and try to download them directly.

why does many of you say that it needs to be free?
Ok it could be free for the first 6 or what ever months (subscription is included in the price you pay for N900) but after that period that you have to pay for such a service is just fine in my eyes.

Its quite a manual and time consuming thing to do to get all the roads in and get all the updates in. I have seen quite some camera cars/trucks of various providers like google and teleatlas(tomtom) those have to be paid.

And to say that for ever the maps and all the other data surrounding the maps are fee and navigation are free is just in my eyes a bit weird. As i said it is very costly to constantly have updated maps.

Google is for me really expensive.. why? Because i use maps/navigation the most when i am not in my home country.. And then google constantly wants to download the maps.. So OVI maps that i use now on my E90 has a big plus that i can download the maps to the memory card on forehand..

As long as google doesnt give me that option it is a big no go.
I would happily pay Nokia 50-100 bucks a year for voice navigation and constantly free and updated maps if i just can download the maps on my phone. Because with google a few weeks of vacation in a foreign country with active use would cost me more then the 1 year license from nokia's turn by turn voice navigation.

IMO no device is complete without google maps.... I've resigned myself to accepting that there will likely be no turn by turn directions for my n900, but I fully expect a google maps app, with lattitude to be one of the first major apps available. I appreciate that the browser will be good enough to display google maps, but this is not location aware and won't show me where I am with a little dot on the map. I've found myself with this feature so many times with ifone, and the thought of giving it up is quite scarey.

Please please google, do your thang with maemo

Well there is a geolocation "add-on" (or is it a hack?) anyway, it gives the default browser in the n900 geolocation support which will pretty much make it location aware.

That or you can use Mozilla Fennec.

Really? Oh how very special.... Well that at least should see me out of a few scrapes...

I don't know about laughing, "laughing man" but you difinitely made me smile

so true, Google maps is a killer app. What's sad is that Nokia created Nokia maps a couple of years before Google and even now a couple of years AFTER... OVI maps is so far behind Google maps in terms of finding address/business, UI usability, speed, map accuracy.. its so so sad

One more navigation/mapping option was just announced:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34409

Sygic announces world-wide turn-by-turn navigation for Maemo

I am so happy to see that we are getting new choices.

Yes this is good to see, especially when you consider that the device is still yet to hit the shelves.

It's good that corporate developers are showing interest, the more avenues you can get apps from the better, paid and open scorce it's all good