So it looks like a grand total of 765.75 MB of data was used by yours truly on his N97 24/7 tour across the USA. That’s probably an inconsequential number to my new American friends and their unlimited mobile data plans, but had I not been loaned an AT&T SIM Card for the trip I would have had to pay for all those ones and zeroes myself — and at 3¢ per kilobyte I’d be on the hook for almost $230 CAD from my carrier!
If you find this video a little lacking consider also that it cost me about four thousand bucks to shoot!
It’s my own fault, really… I should have secured myself a better viewing spot for the famous Hong Kong Harbour fireworks show much earlier in the evening. As it happened, I walked out of my hotel at around 11:45pm and could only get about ten steps towards the water before a sea of other revellers stopped me dead in my tracks. Here’s as far as I got, courtesy of Nokia Maps:
Fireworks Vantage Point
Of course I’m not just here to ring in 2009 some thirteen hours before my friends back in Toronto… More posts are on the way — in the meantime, check in on my dedicated Flickr set for the story so far.
Today we take a look at Nokia Maps 2.0 for the N95 8GB. It’s availability hasn’t yet trickled down to my trusty E61i, but with only a month and a half before my trip to the Japan Wireless Expo I’m hoping for an update before I leave — here’s why…
In my review of Nokia Maps 1.0 I wrote that its killer feature over the ubiquitous Google Maps was the ability to store local map info on your handset. This is especially important for Canadian wireless customers who are being colossally ripped off for mobile data, and absolutely crucial for international travel with Fido, where such data costs 5 cents per kilobyte above and beyond the allowance of any data plan.
So far so good, but… Here’s all you see of my favourite Tokyo intersection with version 1 of Nokia Maps. I guess it’s partly because the naming conventions of the Japanese language don’t always translate what with the Prefectures and such, and also because there are actually many streets in the city without any names at all — whatever the case, there’s clearly no way I could use this software to find my way from Shibuya Station to my favourite hotel, even if it’s located directly across the street…
Fortunately Nokia Maps 2.0 comes with this handy satellite view! Click on the screen or here to see exactly where my hotel is.
These hi-res satellite images rival anything I’ve seen on Google Earth — on a small screen, anyway — and I can suck ‘em all down to my compatible handset with Nokia’s Map Loader, or even more easily via my home WiFi connection.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the 5MB of satellite imagery I needed to figure out where Shibuya crossing was would have cost me a whopping $250 CAD at 5¢ per kb!!!
Oh, and that little icon bottom centre is to let you know that by pressing the centre key of your handset you’ll get a pop-up menu where you can, among other things, save what’s on your map as a favourite place.
Nokia Maps 2.0 is certainly one of my favourite S60 apps — or at least it would be if Nokia would only release it for the E61i…
