Slashgeo

Nokia which announced their Maps 2.0 earlier this year have now announced Nokia Maps 3.0 (beta) and related plugins. From Mapperz: "What’s new: Enhanced car navigation, Drive*, through lane assistance, speed limit warners, improved sign post design and new ‘Route overview’ mode during navigation, * Enhanced pedestrian navigation, Walk**, through shortcuts (virtual connections) in urban areas, straight line guidance for off-road terrain and beeps and vibrations before next turn, * Significantly improved map data quality and content, * 3D landmarks for over 200 cities – can be displayed in 3D and 2D map modes, * New Terrain*** map mode, * Hi-res aerial images for Satellite*** and Hybrid*** map modes, * Nokia Maps Updater for PC, to update your Maps application and existing map data, * Synchronisation of Favourites and Collections with MapsBeta on Ovi and vice versa (use in online mode, enable Internet connection). # Coming soon in Maps 3.0 commercial release: Safety spot warners in selected countries # Extended country coverage for Traffic info service # Weather information # Premium POI content for travel, selected events and cinemas" Recent Nokia coverage on the geoblogs include a first look at the Nokia N97 and a study of how people navigate: "“More people are becoming comfortable with using navigation tools on their phones and in their cars, and are seeing direct benefits from using these devices in their everyday lives,” says Marita Markkula, head of Marketing for Nokia Maps." See also related stories below.

Mid-week bunch of recent interesting entries on the geoblogs. There's the open source GIS uDig's 1.2-M4 released and its TileSync plugin, allowing you to locally cache WMS-C layers. Google Maps now suggest alternative routes and Google MapMaker added 64 new countries and tons of data, directly 'competing' with OpenStreetMap. Regarding OSM, APB informs us that MacOSX's TrailRunner 2.0 supports OpenStreetMap routing [PR]. Forgot about Microsoft's Surface? Here's an entry on Virtual Earth 3D and Microsoft Surface, their 'TouchTable'. Paul Ramsey offers a insightful recap entry on Where 2.0 2009. There's GeoImgr, allowing you to geotag photos online - of course you can do this with numerous desktop software, but that's a fully web-based solution. Vector One share clues about zero carbon real estate: DEMs are part of the solution. Spatial Sustain offers an entry named "Satellite Observations Reveal Extent of Australian Drought". And finally, Baliz [Fr] links to Nokia's new version of Ovi Maps and a new API. See also related stories below.

On Wednesday I met with Ken Hoetmer (Lonely Planet) and Jussi Nevanlinna (Nokia) to discuss the release of the Ovi Maps API that Nokkia had announced at the Where 2.0 Conference. (Lonely Planet is currently a user of the Ovi Maps API.) Ovi is a new mobile phone from Nokia.

You can read the full text of my interview here.

The Sunburned Surveyor