Now, Ovi Maps beta for mobile is also available from the Ovi Store.

Ovi Maps^Beta is compatible with the following Nokia devices:

• Nokia N97
• Nokia N97 mini
• Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

To download Ovi Maps beta from the ovi store, visit this link – Download Ovi Maps beta. (Alternatively, you can also download the sis file directly from this link.)

Announcing the new beta, the Maps team explains what all you can do with the new Ovi Maps^Beta -

All these services focus on your current location and nearby surroundings. My Position looks for your location and shows it on the map. Find places lets you search easily for cities, addresses and places with the new one-box search. Favourites allows you to save your personal map objects such as places and routes. Sign in with your Ovi account and synchronise your favourite places with Ovi to make your maps.ovi.com experience more personal. You can also synchronise your map objects from maps.ovi.com back to Maps on your device.

Our popular car navigation service, Drive, with voice and visual instructions, lane assistance and speed limit warners, comes now with text-to-speech feature for voice guidance including street names during navigation.

My personal favourite service, Walk navigation, takes you through dedicated pedestrian zones, shortcuts, stairways, plazas or pathways through parks and buildings. Now we are introducing voice guidance for Walk with voice instructions including street names during navigation.

Anywhere you go always take the weather with you, or rather real-time Weather information including a 5 day forecast for your current location or the one you go next. Additionally, check out Events for movies, concerts and venues around your location or other places you have found with the help of the Find places functionality.

For you guys, travellers and globetrotters, we’ve added premium editorial travel content by Lonely Planet and Michelin for over 1000 destinations. Find thousands of listings for sights, restaurants, hotels, shops, nightlife, and more. Look these places up on the map, and get there quickly and easily with pedestrian and car navigation.

Basically, What all is new in this release is :

• Weather - Get real-time weather information including a 5 day forecast for your current or any location found with the help of the Find places functionality.
• Michelin and Lonely Planet – Get dynamic access to premium editorial travel content for over 1000 destinations. Find thousands of listings for sights, restaurants, hotels, shops, nightlife, and more. Look these places up on the map, and get there with pedestrian and car navigation.
• Events - Check out the events on the map around your location or other places you have found with the help of the Find places functionality.

To know more about what all is new in this release, Watch this video Introducing the new Ovi Maps  -

Screenshots

The new startscreen offers one touch access to all the new content & services.

You can now access weather & events info from within the Maps view.

The new content & events view in Maps. This looks really impressive!

Smarter navigation options.

Ovi Maps^Beta is compatible with the following Nokia devices:

• Nokia N97
• Nokia N97 mini
• Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

You can download the sis file for the beta from this link – Download Ovi Maps Beta.

World Traveler by Psiloc is a recently launched traveling application that aims to ” make business traveler’s life easier”. This is another hot space that we are seeing many application developers are trying to tap into and it all makes sense because while traveling  many frequent travelers rely on their smart phones for flight info, weather and other data.

Installation:

The World Traveler comes pre-installed on Nokia N97 but other symbian s60 device owners can install this Free application directly from the Ovi store or from Psiloc’s web portal. The installation file is around 1.2 MB and it was very easy to download and install it via Wi-Fi connection.

Features:

Before I get to the feature lists of this application, you need to understand that World Traveler is a open platform application which means  other developers and travel related services can build plugins on top of World Traveler and use the API offered by Psiloc to reach customer base of global travelers.  This is a new development that we are starting to see in mobile applications industry and its great to see Psiloc has taken this approach.

World Traveler has one of the best designed interfaces of any application that is available for Nokia Symbian devices. The interface design of the application has a sharp and glossy looks to it and is very easy for users to navigate through plugin tabs and menu items.

World Traveler comes with a 5 day weather forecast and current conditions for over 2200 most popular travel locations worldwide. As a user, you have the option of choosing between Celsius or Fahrenheit units and if you want to have weather information displayed on the main screen.

The next useful feature of this app is its currency converter that calculates amounts in four currencies and gives you a clear understanding of price differences in different metrics and I can see why business travelers would appreciate this feature.  The application also provides a plug-in for World Clock with four analog or digital clocks which show local time at four cities of user choice simultaneously and a moving globe that shows day and night zones and present local time.

The World Traveler also has the option for Flight service and travel planning and alerts but the plug-in is under development and based on some reports it will be available soon as part of a paid subscription service. This is an area that we are starting to see many web travel services go in order to keep the basic services free for average user.

Conclusion: Score 8/10

No wonder Nokia has decided to have this app pre-installed on upcoming Nokia S60 devices. The gorgeous application interface, overall reliability of the application and the fact that its open platform encourages other third party travel services to be offered and installed  from the World Traveler application in a seamless, easy way makes this app a winner in my book and a must have for travelers. As other third party plug-ins become available, World Traveler can dominate this space, assuming that the pricing on its premium service is reasonable and compares fairly with the competition.

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