Ovi Maps for mobile updated, and a few words about positioning

Nokia Beta Labs has updated the Ovi Maps^Beta page with a newer version. There are no major changes but they’ve tweaked it here and there to improve the stability and fix a number of installation problems. They have replaced the “GPS indicator bar” from the bottom right hand corner of the screen. The GPS position is indicated with a red dot and the map zooms in to a certain zoom level to provide a good overview. There is no visual difference between GPS positioning and the WiFi positioning at the moment but they are looking to improve this in future releases. For cell-ID positioning they show a halo (the red circle around the dot – as shown below). When you have a position fix and you don’t interact with the map, they pan the map to your position fix and zoom in or out to display the whole halo. If you zoom in, the halo will get more transparent until it’s not visible anymore to avoid a full screen overlay of the map. When you zoom out, the halo gets less transparent to show you that the position is not accurate. When there is no position fix or the position gets lost, there is a grey dot on the last known position (if there is one) and the “back-to-my-position” (top left hand corner) button is blinking. Also, you can see on the top information bar that it will display “Searching for position”.

Filed Under: Nokia

Tags: cell ID positioning • Cell Phone • GPS position • Mobile News • mobile plan • new products • new release • newer version • Ovi Maps • Ovi MapsBeta • phone news • positioning • Telecom news • updated