Nokia Maps for Windows Phone 8 adds offline access

Published by Pino Bonetti on September 6, 2012

Since we introduced our location-based apps for Nokia Lumia last year, the most requested feature was to make Nokia Maps work offline just like Nokia Drive. With the evolution of the Windows Phone platform, this feature is now available for Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 consumers.

Offline maps mean you get super-fast maps and can save on data costs, anywhere you go.

Additionally, Nokia Maps will also include:

  • voice guided turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation to take you right to your destination
  • augmented reality view to reveal the places around you so you literally see where you need to go
  • venue maps to see what’s inside venues like shopping malls, airports and stadiums
  • a link to Nokia Drive to start voice-guided car navigation directly from Nokia Maps

But let’s see the features of Nokia Maps for Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 in more detail.

Offline maps

 

As we revealed in June, the Nokia Location Platform is powering the whole Windows Phone 8 ecosystem with the intention of developing smartphones that bring advanced location experiences.

Windows Phone 8 partners and developers will be able to use our location assets to build high quality location-based apps and experiences.

One of the key benefits is that location-based apps specifically built for Windows Phone 8 will be able to use offline maps, for a snappier mobile maps experience. In fact, not only can maps be downloaded, but they can also be used by other apps specifically designed for the new OS.

While those features are available on all Windows Phone 8 smartphones, the experience is going to reach the next level on Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820. These two smartphones also include autonomous assisted GPS and GLONASS receivers. In plain English, this means that you can see yourself on a map within seconds, even when you’re offline.

Nokia has recognized the importance of a hybrid location platform that can work online as well as offline from the first time a navigation app was introduced on a smartphone (the Nokia N95).

Now some other players are also recognizing how useful an offline mapping experience can be. However, our experience is much more advanced. It’s not only about caching a part of the map, with a size limit, in only a few countries and without search or navigation, it’s really about bringing part of the experience offline. We have covered this topic previously and you can learn more here.

Voice guided turn-by-turn navigation

We believe that Nokia Maps helps you feel like a local anywhere: you can see where you are, discover the best places around with a tap, and get to know new destinations with trusted guides and tips from locals. But this is, of course, only half the story, because once you’ve found a great place on Nokia Maps, you also want to know how to get there.

If you have a car, you can now start Nokia Drive voice guided turn-by-turn navigation directly from Nokia Maps. But most importantly, if you’re on foot, you have now voice guided turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation too. It is important to highlight that our pedestrian navigation is specifically tailored to take into account footpaths, parks, stairs and all those areas that are only accessible on foot. 

Augmented reality view

So, let’s say you have found a good place to have dinner with Nokia Maps; you’ve followed the pedestrian navigation but you can’t recognize the place. This is very common, especially in very busy cities. Well, today we are happy to introduce an augmented reality view in Nokia Maps to spot the place you are going to.

Venue maps

And if your destination is within a venue, Nokia Maps is going to help you out too. We have been mapping thousands of venues like airports, shopping malls and stadiums to help you orientate yourself even after you have reached the destination and passed its entrance. Venue maps are available in the new version of Nokia Maps too.

What about existing Lumia owners?

Although these new feature of Nokia Maps are not going to be available for current Windows Phone users, we also have exciting news and updates for owners of a Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 710 or Nokia Lumia 610.

Nokia is continuously updating its location-based apps and after a successful beta test of Nokia City Lens, our augmented reality app is now available on Windows Phone Marketplace in the Nokia Collection. Go grab it now, while it’s hot.

Just last July we introduced a revolutionary feature of Nokia Drive, called My Commute, which learns your driving preferences and uses information about the latest traffic conditions to help you choose between the different routes you usually take to get to the places you travel most. Initially available only in the US, this feature is also going to be available in Germany, Russia, UK and Brazil in the coming months.

Soon, Nokia Transport for current Lumia devices is going to be updated with improved user experience, search history and automatic coverage update.

Comments

  • http://www.facebook.com/andrew.agerbak Andrew Agerbak

    To most people, I’d expect “Goes offline” means it’s being discontinued. Unfortunate headline. I’d suggest “Adds offline capability”

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

      Very good point! – I’ve changed it.

  • http://twitter.com/anidel Aniello Del Sorbo

    Come on!!! You let older Lumias in the dust with WP8, now even these offline capabilities? You’re kidding!
    On another note, when you’ll include cycling!?!?!?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @twitter-10252062:disqus I think we are making clear that we are supporting current Nokia Lumia consumers with continuos updates e.g. Nokia City Lens, Nokia Transport and Nokia Drive. Some features are unfortunately only for Windows Phone 8 for technical reason.

      • Auðunn Baldvinsson

        However much I try I just cannot imagine any possible technical reason for this limitation for older lumias. Only reasons I can think of are business reasons. Specifically deals with Microsoft to bring Nokia maps to all Windows Phone 8.
        Congratulations on another brilliant move to burn your loyal early adopter users and leave them in the dust. We are not talking about users of old outdated phones here we are talking about users who bought a flagship phone on Nokias (Microsoft’s) new platform and it was just released a few months ago. This is burning platform all over again.
        The new phones look awesome but however much I would like to I will be hard pressed to get one after this.
        Brilliant move Nokia just Brilliant.

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @google-63f0fcf92156c309977f081b99b76f34:disqus are you in Iceland? I’m going to spend my weekend there, it’s by far my favorite country!
          There is no business reason why we wouldn’t introduce a specific feature on a specific device.
          With the Nokia Location Platform powering the whole Windows Phone 8 ecosystem, we are now able to extend offline maps from one app (Nokia Drive) to all apps that run on that OS.
          But this doesn’t mean that we are not introducing new features for current users, as you can read at the end of my blog post.

          • Auðunn Baldvinsson

            Hi Pino I how you enjoy your stay here in Iceland.
            Offline maps is a big plus in Nokia Drive and will be also for Nokia Maps.
            I’m a bit confused, how come it cannot be on older Lumia devices? If possible for Drive why not Maps? It seems a little strange.
            Another small thing I would like improved is the ability to work with coordinates directly in Drive and Maps Also the ability to find a location in Maps and select Drive To here and launch Nokia Drive to that destination. Sometimes you find yourself going to places (in the countryside for example) with no address and no easy way to search for them in Nokia Drive as it is today.
            I really like my Lumia phone and would like to get the most out of the investment since it is still quite new. Unlike in the US where smartphones are often subsidized we pay full price for our phones here and it is quite a bit of money.
            The new lumia 920 looks like it will be a fantastic device, I am sure it will do well. If you guys would offer a upgrade offer of some sort I would probably be first in line to get the 920.

          • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

            Hi @google-63f0fcf92156c309977f081b99b76f34:disqus, Iceland has been great as usual, I should move there ;-)
            I have been trying to give some more information about Nokia Maps here http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/06/nokia-maps-for-windows-phone-8-goes-offline/#comment-645930799 I hope it helps.
            You other suggestions have been already shared with the product team, I will let you know when they get implemented.

      • judazuk

        Nokia City Lens is not supporting anyone … its a novelty application..
        Nokia Transport works no where I’ve tried it .. and Nokia Drive …well that is already on the devices.. its the Maps applications that needs an update ..badly.

  • http://profiles.google.com/rsadykoff Rustam Sydykov

    That’s nice… my Lumia 900 is just 3 months old and it will not get new applications or featuers available. It became obsolite too quick…
    Cheers,
    Rustam.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @google-5d08e4b2d86dd75fea0eb23d04a133e5:disqus some features can only be implemented on the new Windows Phone 8 platform, however, I think we are describing at the end of the post what you can expect for your Nokia Lumia 900 in the next future.

      • http://profiles.google.com/rsadykoff Rustam Sydykov

        Hello, Pino!
        Thank you for you reply. Well, you know, I am thinking about buying 920, so I am not too much upset :) I only wish Lumia 920 had microSD card…
        Cheers,
        Rustam.

      • foshimoto

        Yes, it is clear now we can expect only minor updates for my Lumia 800. I got the message. If I want the really new and relevant features, I have to buy WP8. Thanks Nokia. You are more and more making me more confident this is my last Nokia.

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          I feel your frustration @foshimoto:disqus but a whole new Nokia Transport, Nokia City Lens and “My Commute” aren’t imo “minor features”.

          • Andrew Matt

            They are minor features. We don’t care about Nokia Transport, Nokia City Lens. They are different apps. We want offline maps and you keep trying to justify the unjustifiable with other options. It is like saying in the pub: “Sorry you can’t buy beer, but you will LOVE our new flavoured Coca-Cola.”

            Either:
            Nokia has the worst programmers who are unable to do basic stuff.
            or

            Nokia is lying to us to force us on the new phone, which makes them really evil.

            Either way this Lumia 800 is my last ever Nokia.

          • pdexter

            Andrew, you are not getting the basics here.

            WP7.x is quite limited, example background tasks are not an option.
            The whole kernel was changed on WP8, Nokia simply can’t implement these features on WP7.X. It’s not about coders or developers, it can’t be done on the old CE kernel compared to full blown NT kernel on WP8.

          • http://www.kurotsuki.web.id/ Kurotsuki Kaitou

            We just want an offline maps and nothing else. If Nokia Drive can do it on WP7.x, why can’t Nokia Maps? It should be similar one and another. If it’s because those apps can’t share map data and need to have maps data for each apps, then so be it. Just give us the option to do so.

            Once, I’m board a train, and want to know where am I currently. But Nokia Maps failed to answer as the data connection is of coverage, and Nokia Drive insist that I’m on a street driving away from my train’s track. How good is that?

          • Chad Watts

            It is no good, it sucks, I’d rather have no maps than sticking with Nokia. Better have an independent and reliable GPS system. Nokia treated us as idiots, it betrayed us.

          • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

            Hi @kurotsuki:disqus I completely understand your use case. The reasons why Nokia Maps for WP7.5 can’t get offline mode are stated here: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/06/nokia-maps-for-windows-phone-8-goes-offline/#comment-645930799

          • Chad Watts

            @haikus:disqus you and all at Nokia are ignoring all our pledges but I know, you know and everybody knows that all you have to do is to add Maps functions to Drive and make it one software again.

            But Nokia will keep on ignoring this and will keep trying this shot in the dark. “Ok we may disappoint our most loyal basis of costumers, the ones who moved with us to Lumia, but let’s see if we can attract some fools to the new Lumias by announcing offline maps as if it was something really new”.
            It will not work and you know it.

          • LeoDaly

            Yes they are!, They are NOT what your customers want, they are just gimmicks!

        • Markus H

          I think its funny that people complain about not getting something to the old phone that the new phone has. This is what apple and the others are doing too. If you want the new stuff you buy the new gadget. Simple. When you bought your current phone you knew what youre getting while reading the spec sheet. Or have i totally misunderstood something?

          • Chad Watts

            You totally misunderstood something. Nokia has long advertised free maps forever, and many Nokia old school costumers who always took it for granted were baffled to find they don’t have that in the Lumia 800. Moreover, Nokia now announced the new Lumia, which are not even out yet, will have it and every current Lumia costumer will NEVER have it.

            A lot of people can’t pay $600 for a new phone to get that, and a lot (like me) are tied to 2 year contracts and can’t do a thing.

            Nokia basically betrayed us all, the most loyal of its costumers.

          • foshimoto

            I bought my Lumia 800 in March, in the 1st weekend it was LAUNCHED in Brazil. Do you think its really normal (after 6 months) to know that your mobile is “old”, and you’ll have to buy a new one to benefit from new features??? That’s what happens when you are loyal to Nokia. If you can spend money on it, good to you. I can’t.

          • Markus H

            Well, I have the N9 and when I bought it I knew what it can do and what it can’t do. Did Nokia suddenly take some features out of the phone while you were already using it? I think the 800 is an awesome phone allthough it is not the same as the new WP8 phones. it has a good camera, good body etc… and you have been using it’s features for 6 months. you can’t buy the new one yet…

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amir-Lukmanhisyam/100000239066933 Amir Lukmanhisyam

            @foshimoto:disqus That’s why I opted for N9 after comparing between Lumia 800 and N9 cause I know how short the lifespan of Lumia 800 is… Nokia should only join force with Microsoft for WP8 and not WP7….

      • Andrew Matt

        Pino I think Nokia needs urgently to hire better developers who can find solutions to the problems instead of just abandoning them and saying it is “technically impossible”. We don’t care about the other updates for Lumia 800 and 900, we want offline maps as we had in Symbian.

        Don’t you realise that if you guys don’t do this, this will accelerate Nokia downfall and you will lose your JOB????

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003635518214 Gustav Christensson

      Me: I bought a Nokia Lumia 900… Two days before Microsoft said it wasn’t getting WP8!

  • nozeca

    Great! Gimme moar love to us here in Brazil.
    But… Why not enable offline turn-by-turn to pedestrian navigation too? It’s something that I used a lot in my N8, and now, I cannot do anymore!

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Ola @nozeca:disqus turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation is coming to Nokia Maps in its version for Windows Phone 8.

      • Tom

        What about – add to rout/planning routes and another missing features?

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @XP17:disqus, we have already announced that Nokia Drive will be offered to all Windows Phone 8 partners.
          At the same time we have said that our Nokia Location Platform is powering the new OS.
          You can read the whole story here: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/06/20/nokia-drive-for-all-windows-phone-8-smartphones/
          We are always committed to improve our apps and you can expect more features in the future.

          • Tom

            Thank you for your reply.
            My main reason for buying Nokia phones are the maps. Now It will in any WP8. How to convince me to buy Lumia – not Samsung?

          • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

            I have provided some insights about differentiation in location-based services here http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/06/29/how-nokia-will-differentiate-with-location-based-services/

            Additionally, think about the autonomous assisted GPS and GLONASS receivers I am mentioning in this blog post.
            This innovation has been made possible because Nokia owns both the smartphone and the location businesses. Not only we have the best location experience, but we know how to build the smartphones that can bring these experiences to the next level.

      • Tom

        Pino tell us – Nokia maps, Nokia drive (turn by turn) etc will be available for all WP8 handsets?

      • nozeca

        Hi @haikus:disqus I understand that it will come with wp8, but it is sad that we won’t have it (even with wp7.8).
        After all, turn-by-turn for pedestrian, uses the same tech as used by Nokia drive, it’s same render, same voice, same maths, only change the data, “even the old” Symbian could do that…

        For the others app, I rarely use them here, Nokia Transport haven’t any data about my city (São Paulo), and it’s unavailable here in Brasil, and for City Lens, the places or do not exist anymore, or it has not yet. If I want explore places, for real, I’ll use Foursquare, or worst, Google.

  • Kallisticker

    Another disappointing news for legacy Lumii users!
    Do you really expect anyone who took the chalice and bought a Lumia 1st gen will support you anymore if you don’t vice versa?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @Kallisticker:disqus I feel your frustration but unfortunately some features are technically only available for WIndows Phone 8 users. However, we are continuing supporting our current consumers with continuous updates to our location-based apps as you can read at the end of this blog post.

      • Kallisticker

        I must admit that City Lens is and works pretty brilliant (even indoors), although I would have liked to see Offline Maps on my legacy hardware. And I don’t get why Offline Drive Navigation is possible and Maps only not. Seems to me to be a bit of a pretext. But I hope you somehow manage to get Offline Walk Navigation included at least. Just keep it up!

    • http://www.facebook.com/muhmahmed Muhammad Ahmed

      I was very excited when lumia 800 was announced but not any more…. my lumia 800 became a legacy device just after few months, and now who knows Microsoft bring win9 and say existing win8 devices could not be update.. Sorry Nokia, I was a big of you but you disappoint us :(

  • M A Adam

    will venue maps be coming to Symbian devices (808)?

  • Apostolis

    Could you please inform me if there is goin to be any update on nokua maps for us,who use YOUR nokia n9?Thanks in advance.

  • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

    Hi @disqus_rGigl4r2KO:disqus and @google-bf04b27849b2a04cf3155f332f111df4:disqus today we didn’t announce any news concerning Nokia N9 or Symbian smartphones. Nokia Maps Suite has been recently updated for both platforms and in going forward our efforts will focus on Windows Phone.

  • http://twitter.com/storeygraham graham storey

    What are the technical reasons why offline maps cannot come to win 7.5?
    I have been using my old N8 for sat nav duty rather than my 710 (boy am I gald I did not buy a 900)
    None of the updates coming to older Lumia are of interest to me,
    only a sat nav like the symbian version. My commute is still not in the UK, and I am getting a bit sick of carrying 2 phones, I might as well buy an S3 and a TomTom. My old N97 makes a good door stop BTW.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @twitter-103927549:disqus as I said at the beginning of my blog post, some features have been made possible with the evolution of the Windows Phone platform. And, trust me, Nokia Maps on e.g. Nokia Lumia 920 is just… fantastic!

      • http://twitter.com/storeygraham graham storey

        Ironic really that the Nokia N8 has now better Drive / Maps than the newer lumia 900 will ever have. In fact even my doorstop N97 has,
        My commute any kind of time frame for the UK ?
        Will it be before the 920 release or after ?

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @twitter-103927549:disqus, we have been developing Nokia Maps on Symbian for 6 years vs 1 year on Windows Phone. This is the reason why sometimes the Symbian version might look more advanced.

          • http://twitter.com/storeygraham graham storey

            Indeed I know that Nokia maps on symbian has been in devlopement for 6 years and therfore from that experience you must know how it should function and what fucntions there should be. It will function as well as and even better than the symbian version on WP8 so them 6 years have not been wasted, BUT if there is a technical reason why it will not function like the WP8 OR the SYMBIAN version on WP7.8 then this must have been known for MONTHS so every time the question or feature request for off line maps and the other important functions was asked on the support forums NOBODY bothered to say that it could not be done, The best answer I read was “we cannot comment on upcoming features” which really should have said “we cannot tell you the truth”
            Anyway my commute being available in the coming months is a little vague as which year these months are in is not mentioned, could you clarify if it will be 2012 or 2013
            Thanks

          • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

            Hi @twitter-103927549:disqus indeed those 6 years have not been wasted. We have matured so much experience to know which features to prioritize when porting an app to Windows Phone. We also know how to innovate (see My Commute, about the availability of which I can’t be more precise).

            Now, regarding Windows Phone, we had to find the right solutions to port our apps in an intelligent way. This was possible thanks to our tight partnership with Microsoft.
            Unfortunately, in the last months it slowly became clear that offline maps couldn’t be introduced in more than one app on Windows Phone 7.5. Please understand that while we are investigating an issue we don’t disclose information about potential outcomes.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mattias-Henriksson/581401499 Mattias Henriksson

            Still nothing more to tell?

          • mart

            I don’t understand this kind of reasoning. It suggests the first gen wp7 phones should be like this:

  • aLADdin7

    What are the limitations of using offline Nokia maps on windows 7.8? My Nokia 5230 could even do it!
    It is annoying that there is no way of getting walking directions while offline

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino
      • aLADdin7

        Thanks for the reply, but you did not answer my question.
        I bought my Lumia 800 7 days ago and I am already reading how it is being pushed to one side.

        Nokia lens is a luxury, not essential.

        Example: I am going to Greece on holiday next month, I will want to walk from A > B as I will not have a car.
        I cannot access Nokia maps because data is online and I will be charged excessively for roaming.
        Nokia Lens may tell me how far away the Eiffel tower is, but I do not care – I am not in France, I am in Greece and I need walking directions from A > B :)

        • http://twitter.com/casaout André Meyer

          just take Nokia Drive. I did that in Cologne and it worked perfect :)

          • aLADdin7

            But Nokia drive will take you the quickest route in a car. It is missing a lot of functions like shortest route, scenic route, avoid toll roads, avoid motorways, compass is not utilised, home location etc that the symbian version included.
            I accept you could just look at the drive without directions, but It seems Nokia drive (WP 7.5/7.8) has regressed in comparison to the Symbian version and will only move forward with WP8.

  • http://twitter.com/Charmilio20 Emilio

    Please Release This Phone World Wide!, Here In Chile, The lumia 900 Came jus 3 weeks agò! Bring it!

  • http://twitter.com/bhavanishankar Bhavanishankar

    Does voice navigation support all the languages which are supported by nokia maps for symbian? I need tamil language.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @twitter-17832207:disqus, we are going to offer the same voices you are used to on Symbian.

  • http://www.facebook.com/hhermon Hhermon R. Martinez DeMontes

    I understand everyone’s frustration but you have to understand that there are technological reasons for the switch. Its not business. Windows Phone 8 is built in such a way that it’s new features are mostly all only working on the new technological platform.
    It would be nice if Microsoft worked with the wireless carriers to provide users with older Lumias to trade in for good credit towards a new Lumia Windows 8 phone.

    • Andrew Matt

      Please no more lame excuses. Then just kill Nokia Maps and update Nokia Drive to include walking navigation, points of interest, distance from where we are, and rename Nokia Drive to Nokia Maps. Nokia you want to die but you choose to die slowly, why don’t you just kill yourself once and for all?

      • pdexter

        Drama queen a bit? :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Александр-Мартыньш/781139904 Александр Мартыньш

    You guys making me laughting with each post with description of limitation for my phone. I hope devices with wp8 will be more popular than wp7, but for a last half year, u were making a hard work to spoil relationship of current lumia users to you. Its impossible for wp7 devices to download map ? Its not funny. I belive, that u want to do it, because its take to much time to impement this functionality for wp7, but its not a hardware (or software) limitation. U told that in wp8 ND will share maps with NM, and wp7 can’t do that ? For most users, its not a problem to download a map twice.

  • Andrew Matt

    Seriously Pino, I am sure that it is technically possible to add offline navigation on Windows 7. If it is possible on Nokia Drive, it is obviously technically possible on Nokia Maps, even if for that you have to add capabilities to Nokia Drive and completely abandon Nokia Maps. This technically impossible seems like such a lame excuse. It seems to me that Nokia just want to kill itself. I’ve always been loyal with Nokia, even though I don’t like Microsoft I changed my X6 with Symbian to the Lumia 800 (2 year contract) just to find out that my by far favourite application, Ovi Maps, is much much much worse on the new phone.

    On the X6 I could click on London’s bus stops and see the buses, I could see the distance from any point in the map to me, now I only see minutes. Some points of interest were already saved in the maps, now they must be downloaded every time. How can a software lose features when it gets newer? Why do you insist on abandoning your loyal basis? Why don’t you just declare bankruptcy once and for all.

    Don’t come to who support you and tell us it is technically impossible to add offline maps, just find a solution for f*** sake and give us offline maps like in Symbian. Merge Drive and Maps together.

    My next phone will definitely be an Android, Nokia for me never again.

    • Andrew Matt

      By the way, we don’t care about Nokia City Lens. It is quite ridiculous to walk around seeing the world through your phone. All we want is offline maps in Nokia Maps.

      I feel so abandoned now I just want to break this Lumia 800.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Александр-Мартыньш/781139904 Александр Мартыньш

        Yes, yes and yes
        Totaly agree with you.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003635518214 Gustav Christensson

        I feel the same… I bought a Nokia Lumia 900 two days before the Windows Phone Summit, where it was announced it wouldn’t get WP8. Ouch.

        I don’t blame Nokia, because the Lumia 900 is an awesome phone, I blame Microsoft for not letting me get an update! After all, Windows Phone is all about having awesome features on one core, that’s what makes it unique. When you add more Processor Cores, it’s not unique – it’s any other smartphone in the market.

      • http://twitter.com/uxo22 Christopher Tanner

        @Andrew Matt, Please go take a nap or something, your whining is becoming embarassing.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003635518214 Gustav Christensson

        Me too, nearly!

    • MuhsSalah

      and by having an android phone,u’ve just solved ur problem. what a genius u r!!!even without all those features for wp8, u still have the best maps solution on a phone.i’ve a nokia 603 (it’s launched around the same time of lumia 800)and guess what?!i won’t get those features as well as many features that u’ll get later but i don’t whine up like u and i deal with the fact that there r features that r left for the latest,that’s how things work whether for nokia or any other phone manufacturer.
      there r lots of features in the galaxy s3(an example) that galaxy s2 users can’t have after upgrading to android 4.0 and those features r much important than what u r whining up for.let alone galaxy s1 users that they can’t dream of android 4.0(officially i mean) when their devices were only 1.5 year old(at the time that s2 users where able to upgrade to ics).while 3 year old nokia phones r still getting updates with new features
      my phone runs nokia belle i.e symbian (i am in an area with no windows phone support due to language) which means i don’t have half of the support that ur 800 has and will have even though the 603(and 701,700) r released around the same time of ur 800, but i don’t whine up like u because my phone gets better support than any phone (other than lumias and flagship phones of course) despite symbian’s decline.just get a life and enjoy ur 800

      • scb1898

        Hold on while I uses all the features of Android 4.1 on my awesome Galaxy Nexus. BTW, I want a Lumia 920 like yesterday. I like to switch back and forth between phones.

    • worldgoingmad

      You do realise that offline mode on Google Maps is practically a paper map? You cannot search offline, nor can you navigate. If you’re intent on getting an Android next, that’s fine – just understand that if you’re getting a new device anyway, there are major improvements with the Maps on WP8.

  • http://twitter.com/turbojewk Jesse Jewkes

    Pino, I don’t want to call you out because you have been great to answer questions but you are not answering anyone when they ask why aren’t offline maps going to over 7 million current Lumia owners? The vast majority of people (I dare say 95% or more) do not care about VR overlays on their smartphone or a transport app that likely doesn’t/won’t ever support their city. Everyone with a Lumia has been asking for true Offline maps like they have had for years on less powerful Nokia hardware. People want to be able to open maps and find a point of interest while remaining offline. They want the ability to click on something and navigate to that destination. You cannot even import your favorite locations from Nokia Maps into Nokia Drive. You cannot copy the addresses from Nokia Maps on the device to Nokia Drive. The two apps are completely useless if you want to use them together on current Lumia phones. You might as well just use a 3rd party Google Maps application with Nokia Drive because they would have the same level of interaction. Sorry for the rant but please stop saying you already answered the question when you aren’t even talking about the same app or service. There hasn’t been an actual reason given as to why it isn’t possible and nobody believes that answer without an explanation. If it is a true operating system limitation then just kill Nokia Maps on current devices and add the requested features to Nokia Drive because it obviously doesn’t share the same restrictions.

  • saintforlife

    Are the Lumia 920/820 the only phones currently in the market that connect to both GPS and GLONASS satellites for navigation?

    Related question: Does this mean the Lumia 920 shows my location even if I am in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal, let’s say in the Arizona desert or the Siberian wilderness?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @disqus_mpYJXuLGj7:disqus, to my knowledge there are other smartphones supporting both GPS and GLONASS. But that was not the exclusivity I was talking about.

      What makes Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 are the autonomous assisted receivers. Let me explain more.

      To catch a GPS signal and know where you are you don’t need to be online. Think about all the GPS enabled devices like cameras or PNDs which don’t have any data connection.
      However, smartphones have been… smarter at this. By combining both GPS and data connection, they have been able to get users positions just faster than any other devices.

      With the autonomous assisted receivers in the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820, we are able to provide this speed also without data connection. You get all the benefits of the assisted GPS, without using your smartphone connection, even in the middle of nowhere. Fantastic, isn’t it?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Easydoweb-Pang/100000100601186 Easydoweb Pang

    Good and it is the basic function for every one.

  • worldgoingmad

    Good to hear Maps will be available offline, but one major omission for me in the last version of Maps was “Compass view”. Will the WP8 version of Maps rotate as I turn to face my destination using the built in compass, or will the map only turn as I reach the next waypoint (If you understand what I mean)?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @worldgoingmad:disqus, indeed the new Nokia Maps for Windows Phone 8 is going to orientate itself in the direction you are currently walking to.

      • worldgoingmad

        Great news, and thanks for the reply. Um… While I’m at it, will the Drive app be any more advanced than the current version on WP7, or will it be improved with updates? Some of the features that were present on the Symbian version are sorely missed. Waypoints in particular. Otherwise I’d like to heap much praise on Drive; my dedicated GPS unit lacked coverage of the Czech Republic ahead of an upcoming journey, and a couple of downloads using Drive saved my bacon.

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @worldgoingmad:disqus I have tried to address these fair concerns here http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/08/09/a-day-in-london-with-nokia-location-based-apps/
          Indeed we have spent 6+ years developing Nokia Drive for Symbian vs. only 1+ years for Windows Phone. This is the main reason why sometimes the feature set isn’t similar.
          Nevertheless we are also introducing some innovation like “My Commute” http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/07/20/a-smoother-drive-one-commute-at-a-time/ currently only available in the US but soon also in Germany, Russia, UK and Brazil.

          • http://twitter.com/vedhaspatkar Vedhas Patkar

            What about India?

          • mart

            You’ve added a “very innovative” feature which is useless in the vast majority of countries. Should have concentrated on more basic features like avoiding toll highways or alternative routes.

  • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

    Some comments have been published during the last few days by @andrewmatt:disqus, @twitter-284048304:disqus, @facebook-781139904:disqus and @aLADdin7:disqus, frustrated to learn that some Nokia Maps features, like offline maps, are going to be exclusive to Windows Phone 8.

    Offline maps are in fact a feature of the new OS, provided by the Nokia Location Platform, as you can read here http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/06/20/nokia-drive-for-all-windows-phone-8-smartphones/.
    This means that offline maps can be used even by third-party applications.

    In Windows Phone 7.5, this is a feature of one single app: Nokia Drive.
    Nokia Maps, in fact, is being designed to let you discover places around you: to access the most updated places database, read the latest reviews and ratings, you would need to be online anyway.

    However, in no way we are stopping developing for your smartphones. Although you might not be interested in Nokia Transport or Nokia City Lens like many other people are, I was giving you just few examples of our commitment. When I have more news about your favorite apps, I will share them on this blog.

    Last but not least, although I welcome your feedback, comments and opinions, please try to use an appropriate language (e.g. avoid using words like “kill yourself”). More info on our comments policies can be found at http://conversations.nokia.com/comments-policy

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003635518214 Gustav Christensson

    I liked the part where it said that my Lumia 900 that I got in July will get something. Something.

    Microsoft made a big error not to let WP7.5 get a full update. Nokia probably doesn’t feel to happy either, looking back at the campaign they had in April, when it reached the US, and now, 5 months later, that phone is obsolete.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @facebook-100003635518214:disqus I know that this topic is quite delicate. However, please consider that your smartphone won’t stop working, it will still get updates, we will still continue supporting it and perhaps you would like to have a look here to see what’s coming http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/11/great-times-ahead-for-all-nokia-lumia-smartphones/

      • mart

        There haven’t been any updates for Nokia Drive for months although your users have pointed out the features they would need most. For me, the lack of “omit toll highways” feature is making it practically useless as in some cases the travel distance doubles or gets even longer than that.
        Could you please point out when current users will get an update?

        • Chad Watts

          It will probably never have another update for Nokia Drive, they abandoned all Lumia 800 costumers. Trying to buy us off with “City Lens”, I wonder how many people actually use City Lens more than the first time they open it. 0.001% maybe?

          Useless app when they could be dedicating time and effort to solve the maps issue, but they just want to force us to buy the new Lumias… No wonder Nokia is plunging.

          • mart

            I fear you are right. (I hope you are not though.)
            Nokia is alienating current Lumia users. It is sad. I don’t understand how they can abandon their most faithful customers who put their trust into a new device or os.
            I still have 17 months of my contract, but if only wp8 users get updates, I will certainly not go on to use Nokia phones.

            As for the missing features, they really are basic for a nav app.

  • Andreas

    As I read all the messages, there is one thing what makes me feel very uncomfortable: seeing Pino stubbornly repeating the same answer regarding offline support, despite it is obviously false. I’m software developer and I know that for sure it is possible to integrate the requested offline capabilities (in one way or the other, see the proposal to add pedestrian navigation to Nokia drive). The only limits in enhancing the existing apps are time and budget, as with every software project. So, why don’t you have the courage to answer something like this: Nokia cannot afford the required developer capacity to fulfill this wishes, it would need to long / would cost too much in relation to the expected benefit. This would be honest. So, nothing against you, Pino, this is just a proposal to shorten the whole discussion.

  • vikki_discuss

    Hello Pino,
    As a lumia 900 owner, I read all this discussion about new features not coming to WP7 and your excuses about those. But what about giving 20% discount to nokia’s current lumia owners on their new WP8 lumia purchases? this way Nokia can prove that it is sincere to it’s customers.
    -Vikki

  • http://twitter.com/Abdulski Abdulrahman

    Nokia should forget about competing with Apple Iphone and Samsung Galaxy 3. What they need is to invest on new features for the future they should try to revolutionised mobile industry by talking to someone or using maps via satelites.

  • mikko

    Dear Nokia,
    As a finn I have always used only Nokias and in a managerial position encouraged my subordinates to do so also.
    But, if this is how it is now adays, I need to rethink my principles.
    The best thing about Nokia has always been the UI, camera and the Maps/navigation. i loved all of this in Symbian, and the windows 7 UI on my Lumia 900 is ok, camera is good, but this map issue is rediculous. Get us back what we had in Symbian and stop talking besides the issue! There is no technological barrier stopping you!

    Kind regards,

    Mikko

    • pdexter

      I wish Symbian days never come back.

      It’s piece of sh1t that that made Nokia a walking zombie after N95.

  • http://twitter.com/DAEX27 Liang Chiuan

    We need a release date. I cannot wait for it. :)

  • Luke

    I live in Australia. Currently ‘My Commute’, ‘Traffic Information’, and ‘Nokia Transport’ do not work here at all. I’ve inquired about this many times with 0 response from Nokia. As far as my research goes, there’s been no announcement of supporting Australia with any Nokia apps… including your new ‘Venue Maps’. I’m not only highly disappointed, but extremely frustrated by no response. Bad business Nokia, bad business!

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @disqus_PN2IyH49Nv:disqus we don’t want to leave out your beautiful country from all the goodness, do we?

      Unfortunately you are right about the traffic information (and “My Commute” which is an extension of the traffic service): it’s are not available in Australia just yet.

      We do have public transport routing (in e.g. Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane), however without schedules. This is probably enough for a visitor (like me), but I understand that it’s not the optimal situation for a local commuter (like you, I assume).

      I feel your frustration, but we are working daily to extend or improve our coverage. In fact we have updated it already 3 times in the last 12 months and we are committed to do so in the future too, because the location business is very important to us. It is actually part of our strategy, contrarily to other players in the market.

  • Chad Watts

    Pino, I beg you to reply to this message.

    If you can’t have offline maps on 2 different apps, what we all would
    like to see to ease our frustration (and the frustrated here are those
    who care to read nokia blog, i.e., the old hardcore costumers, those
    loyal) is the constant improvement of Nokia Drive to make it more and
    more like Nokia Maps.

    Now it should be clear to Nokia that it was a terrible decision to
    separate Maps from Drive. While on one hand you need less clicks to
    start getting directions, on the other we lost the uttermost feature of
    all, the best thing Nokia has to offer nowadays, and that is the offline
    maps. You have thoroughly disappointed a lot of loyal costumers, not
    only in terms of not having offline maps, but because of the apparent
    lack of honesty.

    I think the least Nokia should do is to abandon Maps and make Drive the one and only app. For instance:

    - On Drive we cannot choose wether we want it to be orientated to where
    we are facing or always up north, like we did have in Symbian. I
    personally prefer to keep it aligned north and this is currently
    impossible.

    - Make pedestrian and public transport directions available in Drive.

    Please abandon the idea of having two different apps when the
    disadvantages clearly are way more impactant than the advantages (which
    happens to be only ‘less clicks’).

    Don’t abandon us, I beg you. As it stands both Drive and Maps are
    terrible when compared to the Symbian version. That is the number 1
    reason I haven’t moved away from Nokia so far, and you bring us the news
    that if we own Lumia 800/900 we are screwed forever.

    It is like finding out your beloved girlffriend is cheating on you, as
    much as you love her, you have to break up and find another one.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @chadwatts:disqus you can read here why we are offering separate apps instead of a monolithic one: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/08/09/a-day-in-london-with-nokia-location-based-apps/
      In fact, even on Symbian the apps are separate.
      It’s not only about improving the user experience with “less clicks”, it’s also about the speed we can deliver new features.

      • Andrew Matt

        How I miss the symbian monolithic app, best maps app ever. Now even Android Maps With Me (offline) is better, that is why I’m getting an Android next time.

        NOKIA USERS if you still use Nokia because of maps, Maps with me is not as good as Symbian’s maps but a good substitute, and WAY BETTER than Lumia’s maps and drive.

        So what should we do when we don’t have internet and we need the maps for navigation? Basically just either spend £500 on the new Lumia or screw ourselves?

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          I obviously respect your decision @andrewmatt:disqus but caching a (very limited) offline map without getting offline search, routing or navigation (not to mention the 80+ countries where navigation is not even available) isn’t the solution either.
          I would personally rather use Nokia Drive also when I’m on foot.

          • Andrew Matt

            Nokia Drive is pretty much useless for walking, as you can’t optionally align north, you can’t click on a map point and get directions there, you don’t have walking directions, you don’t have offline POI like Symbian’s maps had, you can’t click on bus stops or tube lines and see what goes there as you could in Symbian. Basically, it is a useless piece of software that does no good, unless you have a car and needs driving in one way only, because if you need alternative routes you are screwed later.

            Admit @haikus:disqus, Nokia had one more (very) bad decision, just like it has been having a lot lately, accelerating its downfall. The worse, it is doing nothing to fix it, and it is trying to bribe us with Nokia City Lens. First time you see it: “Oh look how cool, we point our mobile and see what is in that direction!”, and then, you simply never open it again. Useless as Drive.

        • pdexter

          You will be dissapointed by Google offline maps.
          It’s not even a real offline map.

          Thinking Nokia is world largest map provider there’s really no competition there.

      • judazuk

        in fact ,,, in Symbian Maps where not separated until at the end …when the maps application became worse. Was not separated for year before that.

        Pino, are you recently started working for Nokia? Otherwise you would have know that we have been enjoying one map application, in offline as well for years. Its only recently they separated the Drive and the general map application. The decision was based on collected statistical data showing that most Nokia users was using the Drive function …and not the Maps just for walking.

        and please. Nokia City Lens? A fun novelty , but hardly anything I use very often .. could live without that easy ..

        but no matter will buy a Lumia 920 because it is amazing. It is sad though that there is no real love for the fans that bought the Lumia phones to support Nokia in their transition .. all we get is a pointless startscreen ..the least interesting feature of Windows Phone 8 … and some toy apps..

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @chadwatts:disqus you can read here why we are offering separate apps instead of a monolithic one: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/08/09/a-day-in-london-with-nokia-location-based-apps/
      In fact, even on Symbian the apps are separate.
      It’s not only about improving the user experience with “less clicks”, it’s also about the speed we can deliver new features.

  • Douglas

    Great to hear. Now how about adding favorite organizing like we had on Symbian and can you please change voice guidance to tell us what side of the road our destination is on and add street names and exit numbers when we make turns. Thats essential in the U.S. Hope you’re listening Nokia.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Of course we are listening @LessThanDoug:disqus and we are carefully considering all the suggestions you guys are posting. Thanks for this one, I will pass it over to the team.

      • judazuk

        really ? :) how about re-captutring all the Streetview images in the Maps online in high quality with a proper camera.? The streeetview images today are terrible. How about adding maps for Japan? Have been missing that for years.. was there before , got lost when Nokia bought Navteq

        And add offline maps … not only for Drive .. if it was possible on a 680MhZ processor in Symbian, it sure is possible on a 1.4GHz processor.. if you really want to . …. how about killing Nokia City Lens and move the developers of that to make a useful application of Nokia Maps for windows 7.8?

  • jp

    Will it be possible to route via intermediate waypoints and if necessary bypass them like on Maps 3.06?

  • CarelezzPhlyBoyOhsoMazing

    I’m so getting this Lumia 920. Wish there was something like a Nokia E7. I love these physical qwerty keyboards rather than a virtual keyboard

  • http://twitter.com/kps91 Kunwar Preet Singh

    will the current lumias get voice guided turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation ? please bring it on my current lumia i missed this feature from symbian

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @twitter-548199064:disqus sadly all the features listed here are exclusive to Windows Phone 8 smartphones. We haven’t detailed yet all the updates coming to Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones.

  • aditya

    thanks nokia…less than 6 months of buying lumia 710 and its outdated…must be a record of obsoleteness…this is indeed my last nokia…in android even froyo users got offline maps…so dont tell me its hardware limitation….

  • Guest

    I love how all these people are moaning
    about not being able to get new features on their 1st Gen Lumia! Nokia said
    when it released the Lumia range around a year ago that it would not be able to
    make its own mark on the Windows OS until this year (and now it is).

    This is why I waited and toughed it out with my very annoying N8 way past
    my contract end for this 2nd Gen Lumia range. It looks amazing and hopefully
    will make people sit up and take a look, rather than sticking with the boring
    and old iOS and the very flaky Android.

    Seriously though, you were warned last
    year by Nokia and at least you have a great product now rather than the train
    wreck that became of the Symbian OS.

    • judazuk

      Symbian OS is not a train wreck … how Nokia handled it was though, ,,, Symbian still can do things no other OS can do .. with less powerful hardware..

  • http://www.facebook.com/Mark.Marston.Watt Mark Marston-Watt

    Why are you all moaning about not being able to get new features on their 1st Gen Lumia? Nokia said when it released the Lumia range around a year ago that it would not be able to make its own mark on the Windows OS until this year (and now it is).

    This is why I waited and toughed it out with my very annoying N8 way past my contract end for this 2nd Gen Lumia range. It looks amazing and hopefully will make people sit up and take a look, rather than sticking with the boring and old iOS and the very flaky Android.

    Seriously though, you were warned last year by Nokia and at least you have a great product now rather than the train wreck that became of the Symbian OS.

    • Andrew Matt

      Congratulations on being a well informed costumer. Now because 99.99% had never even heard such statement from Nokia, don’t go bashing the others. Nokia made a terrible mistake when splitting Ovi Maps into Maps and Drive. Drive sucks and Maps is useless. We thousands of costumers just got screwed up but hey “we have city lens”

      • http://www.facebook.com/Mark.Marston.Watt Mark Marston-Watt

        Nothing to do with being a well informed customer! It is called research before purchasing a product. Do you just go and buy things without researching it first?

        Had anyone researched the phone before just going out and signing up for it, then they would have known what I and I am sure more than the 0.01% you have put me in knew!

        I also find it hard to believe that Maps and Drive are useless on the Lumia, because, even with all its faults, both Maps and Drive are fantastic on my N8. So much so, I hardly use my Tomtom these days.

        • judazuk

          Actually I have both the Lumia 800 and the N8 … and more then once I pull out my N8 to find things on the map ..because the Maps and Drive application on the Lumia just is not up to par. The N8 is slow at finding a position in Offline, and the Lumia is much faster .. .but the maps application in Symbian is so far superior

        • http://twitter.com/storeygraham graham storey

          I have an N8 as well and the maps/drive on it are much more advanced than on the Lumia, I still carry around my N8 to use as a sat nav. You could not have researched into the missing features because Nokia did not admit that they would remain missing until now read all the comments particularly the replies from Pino.

  • addorange

    What country maps will Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive support? I switched out from my old Lumia 800 because there was no Japan support…

    • judazuk

      Nokia has no deal with any map maker in Japan still as far as I know ..so still no maps for Japan … (Nokia had support for Japan before Nokia bought Navteq though :) )

  • Cyberbard

    I can’t wait to switch to Lumia 920 from my old HTC Desire HD. Seems like such an amazing phone, and all these cool apps you bring out will probably make life a lot easier in the metropolis! :)

  • judazuk

    Nokia disappointing the fans that rallied to support Nokia in their tough transition to Windows phone and when out a Lumia phone..

    Nokia shows no love for the current Lumia users in the Map department .. instead the give Nokia City lens ..

    —-but then again it could be worse.. Apple Maps loses train stations, shrinks tower and creates new airports :)

  • http://twitter.com/HailMarxism fred sparrow

    While it’s not the best strategy, I don’t think Nokia are too worried about a few million customers that purchased the first gen Lumias.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      We are actually committed to support current Lumia owners. The fact that few features are exclusive only on the new OS doesn’t mean that we are not updating your experience on Windows Phone 7.5.

  • bluechrism

    Any chance of automatic traffic based re-routing. My Commute is nice but also slightly clunky and can only re-rout to previously saved commutes. Also drive itself can’t re-route based on bad traffic.

    IN addition, is there a way to report that a location is wrong from within maps? If not, that would be a nice feature.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @bluechrism:disqus fair feedback about My Commute. We are currently working on improvements.
      To report any mistake on our maps, you can currently only use http://mapreporter.navteq.com

  • Sachin TP

    Hello I just wanted to share all the issues,bugs in Nokia Lumia 800. Please let me know when will all these bugs would be fixed its been more than 9 months after launching Lumia 800 and still there are many bugs. I have just cut paste my email which was sent to nokiaindiadigitalmarketing@ovi.com please go through the issues with all the Lumia 800 phones and please let me know when we can expect fix for all these bugs. “Hi Nokia Team, Seasons greetings, This is Sachin from INDIA and, I happen to be a proud user of Nokia phones, ever since the days of Nokia 6600, N79…. I have simply loved everything that Nokia has had to offer me, be it the best music player, or the brilliant GPS navigation system or simply the sheer user interface. However, it seems that the trend doesn’t seem to continue, as I will explain to you as you read through my email. Especially after I purchased the top of the line product that Nokia had to offer in India, Nokia LUMIA 800 IMEI : 359289041411857 (Old Phone) IMEI: 359289040922532 (Replaced Phone) Firmware Version: 1750.0805.8773.12220 OS Version: 7.10.8773.98 I have got the latest firmware upgrade which is 1750.0805.8773.12220 and I have few problems one of which is a serious health hazard. Sorry for the rude and blunt subject line, but I have been hearing the same one liner albeit the word “Nokia”, and that is ” SHAME ON YOUR 8.1 MP CARL ZEISS CAMERA”. All my phones till now has been a NOKIA. I will be telling you about some major drawbacks on this PREMIUM product from the NOKIA stable. The camera lens is awesome man, but why do you guys ALWAYS screw up the photo processing, its the same case with my brothers’ Carl Zeiss camera on his 5800 which was also a PREMIUM “Flagship” product. However to take note of the plight of windows phone users, come on man Nokia is not in Android business, and I have opted for a Windows phone and to top it all its a NOKIA, give me something superb that i can talk about, or rather defend my phone with the thousand other android bozos who make fun of windows phones (read: lack of Bluetooth file transfer) or the awful image quality on NOKIA phones. Beat it man, a 5MP lens on a SAMSUNG FOCUS i917 wp7 works wonders and gives an awesome feel and SUPERB image capture facility. I am sure this is exactly the same thought millions of other users world wide are feeling about a LUMIA, and I don’t think this is too much to ask for from NOKIA. To hell with Bluetooth file transfer man, I mean I can mail my images or docs over the email and I am truly proud how seamlessly it can be shared on Gmail or social networks, all thanks to the beautiful interface Microsoft and Nokia have come up with. But NO excuses for the camera. COME ON NOKIA DO SOMETHING, WORK ON THE IMAGE CLARITY.!!!!!! Another issue is the bug in the volume, after the recent update, suppose I am on headphones and I am driving my phone, suppose someone calls me, BAM my ears are on the verge of explosion, there is a crackling sound followed by the voice from the call in FULL VOLUME, mark my words, i will be unable to reduce the volume as the phone is in my pocket and i am DRIVING, EVEN IF I REACH MY PHONE IF I TRY REDUCING THE VOLUME USING THE VOLUME ROCKER – IT WILL NOT REDUCE. I have to disconnect the call, remove the headphones then place the call again, and i am in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD when all this happens :), jokes apart this is a serious health hazard and a sure solution to loose hearing! I have complained about this bug many times.I almost Forgot that i owned a NOKIA LUMIA 800. Read: 3 months of CARE given by NOKIA CARE shipping his lumia800 from the service centre to head office in Delhi) and still NO SOLUTION. I am not being angry on you, as a Nokia fan I want Nokia to surge in the market and I want it to be the best in the business, we are paying a huge amount for these premium phones and is it too much to ask for quality?? Atleast the 8.1MP camera, come on NOKIA. I have given my phone to one of your Nokia care center in RT Nagar, Bangalore FOUR times but still my problem was not been resolved. THRICE it was sent to the manufacturer head office in Delhi. I did not have my phone for almost a MONTH. I have paid 29000INR for this so called flag ship phone from NOKIA which had many bugs from the day I bought it (Poor Battery, No bass in music play back, random restarts, Volume Bugs(too many of them), SMS typing lag( letters of the word appear after you have typed the word), Screen flickering( the display shifts from left to right)). It was only after I got the update that few of the major bugs were resolved. However the volume problem has remained while most of the other volume problems have been resolved by Nokia but one major has been elusive and has just not caught the attention of you guys inspite of my repeated attempts to explain the problem to your technicians at the Nokia care center! Here is a detailed explanation of the problem: 1.” Connect Nokia hands free or any headphones to my Lumia 800 and make a call and notice that u cannot adjust the volume. Volume remains high (max) “ALWAYS” even if you reduce the volume to zero.” 2.”Connect hands free or any head set to my Lumia 800, then play music and reduce the volume to 15 or less; now make a call, again you cannot adjust the volume of the call. Now disconnect the call and you should notice that music resumes playing in max volume which you will not be able to reduce. Until you remove your hands free or headset and reinsert it. The hazard I was telling you about is that when you make a call using the hands free or head phone for the first ring there is a very harsh loud cracking noise which can harm your ears (in full volume ie., 30 in a wp7). Due to this I cannot listen to Radio due to the fear that my ears will get damaged when I receive any call while listening to the Radio. Even your Nokia care center people have experienced it in my phone. This problem was also experienced by your Nokia care center people when I gave my phone for service. They updated my phone and gave it back and the phone was working fine till I started installing apps and synchronizing my Facebook, Gmail, Windows live accounts, after an hour the problem persisted. I gave the phone to Nokia service center, they sent it to Head office when I got back the phone I found the same issue and showed it to your Nokia care centre guys. They sent back the phone to head Office and got it back but still I have the same problem. Description to replicate the issue (here is how to recreate the scenario I am talking about in case you have formatted my phone and find that the volume problem has been solved) : The phone starts working fine once it’s formatted or updated until you start installing apps from the market place, start synchronizing mail and Facebook accounts. People in Head office are just formatting and updating the same Firmware which resolves the problem for few hours or a day and they say phone is working fine but they are not looking into the actual problem even after explaining the issue and steps to replicate the same. I am really fed up with the phone. It’s a great phone but why can’t NOKIA resolve these trivial issues. I have given the phone for service FIVE times. Had to visit NOKIA CARE center regularly for 3 months and finally received a replacement but still all the bugs and issues persist. There are other very annoying issues as well: 1. There is lag while typing message, characters show up after few seconds of typing. 2. Screen flickers randomly. 3. Continuous jitter(lag) in Video play back after recording video or playing Youtube videos. 4. Phone hangs while playing music and typing a message or doing other tasks simultaneously. Have to hold down the power button for few seconds and restart the phone to make work again which is horrible, because no other windows phones hang but this phone is very frustrating. All the above issues mentioned are not related to my phone alone . All the issues are present in all the NOKIA LUMIA 800 phones. Five of my poor friends and relatives are owning this model and all are really frustrated with the phone. NOKIA claims through its advertisement Tag line that “BETA TESTING IS OVER” But I regret to say that Nokia is using its customers for testing their products more than any other OEMS in the market. I would also like to add that i have used a Samsung Focus i917 Windows phone, upgraded to the same condition but it simply was flawless. I do not happen to draw comparison between the cellular giants, but this email is a reminder of the wrath faced by me and my sincere request to genuine NOKIA engineers to rectify the problems. Awaiting swift reply and irresolution of the issues. Thanks & Regards, Sachin TP

  • ROLO_ONFIRE

    Oh come on, add it to lumia 800/900 also, I bought mine less than a month ago, support your customers Nokia!

    • Chad Watts

      Nokia doesn’t care about its costumers

  • kit7kat

    I am so excited, cannot wait to have my hands on! Any time frame of its release on Verizon please?

    • Chad Watts

      My friend don’t be excited, Nokia policy is turning into Apple’s.

  • Major Plonquer

    FYI: None of the features discussed require dual-core processors. Therefore all will be likely available on the WP7.8 upgrade. Nokia is not Apple and don’t dump their customers.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @majorplonquer:disqus unfortunately cores are not the problem. Only the new Windows Phone 8 platforms is allowing us to introduce the features described here. You can read my full comment here http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/06/nokia-maps-for-windows-phone-8-goes-offline/#comment-645930799
      This doesn’t mean that the current Lumia range won’t get any update.

      • Chad Watts

        For how long will you try to deceive us? Offline maps are a feature of a single app, then for GOD SAKE MERGE MAPS AND DRIVE AS THEY WERE ONE APP UNTIL VERY RECENTLY.

        Or allow us to have repeated maps on our phone, both apps can have their own independent offline maps. This is way way way way better than not having it in Maps at all.

        Come on give us solutions, not excuses.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mattias-Henriksson/581401499 Mattias Henriksson

        We still haven’t heard anything for a very long time. Still Nokia maps on Symbian is far ahead of the Lumia version.
        Were the buyers of the first generation of Lumia just full-paying beta testers?

  • http://www.facebook.com/graigrsmith Graig Smith

    this looks cool… i have an iphone 4 right now. but i think apple really dropped the ball with the iphone 5 design.. easily scratched aluminum.. dents horribly when dropped. i like ios6, but i might have to give this a try.

  • Anubhav Kandpal

    Will Nokia Drive include ‘avoid toll’ and ‘spoken street names’ for Lumia 900/800 owners?

    • mart

      No one has dared to give a clear answer to this question so far. You can make guess… :(

      • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

        Hi @anubhavkandpal:disqus and @martj:disqus I was on vacation for a while, but now I’m back, sorry for the late reply.
        We are continuously developing new features for Nokia Drive or porting features from Symbian over to Windows Phone. This is definitively one we are committed to, but we haven’t announced anything yet.

        • mart

          Thank you for the info.
          I hope it happens soon as navigation was one of the main reasons why I stuck to Nokia, and honestly it was quite disappointing. Apart from that, I’m quite satisfied with my phone.

  • LeoDaly

    Oh my God!, Bought a new Lumia 610 yesterday and today I find out that it is out of date already. I have been a long standing Nokia customer since mobile phones came out, but I fear, that this is about to end. I have just spent the last while reading down through these comments and now I feel sick. Nokia customers are asking for Maps to have only the same features we have been using for years. Instead of listening and acting on the feedback of it’s customers, we just get fobbed of with gimmicks like City Lens, and told that our phones are too old. Nokia is creating it’s own downfall. LISTEN to your customers, don’t just hear them!

  • http://www.facebook.com/storeygraham Graham Storey

    Wow I have just realised that the features in the Symbian version missing from the Lumia 900 version are going to on the 920, features that I have seen requested on the support forums for months are likely never coming to the 900. Here is the kick in the nuts for anyone who has a 900 these same features will be on phones from SAMSUNG AND HTC BUT NOT YOURS!

    Take some comfort in the fact that the 1 feature I had never seen requested, My Commute will be available, hmm well sort of if you live in the right place.

    The good news is that if Navigation is important to you on a mobile then the choice of maufacturer has just TREBLED, that should comfort you until your contract ends, even Apple might have fixed theirs by then !!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/thibaut.dumas.56 Thibaut Dumas

    Hi Pino

  • http://www.facebook.com/thibaut.dumas.56 Thibaut Dumas

    Hi Pino,
    Every Lumia 800/900 user wants Nokia Maps to work offline.

    To me Nokia Drive could make the job instead of Nokia Maps as long as it could display North up on the map.

    I don’t think it’s that much of a challenge for developers to add this option – having North up on Nokia Drive – and could make millions of Lumia 800/900 users less frustrated and would make a final point to this endless dilemma.

    Can you add this feature and make everybody happy?

    Thanks

  • Ashley

    Hi, I know that Nokia will be providing navigation for some of the other Windows 8 handsets that are not nokia phones or Lumias, it is my understanding that while these handsets will have Nokia Drive, they will not have the voice guided version. Will there be a way to buy that or upgrade so that voice is apart of the turn by turn navigation? I think turn-by turn navigation is not nearly as useful if there is no voice.

  • http://twitter.com/JariTorvelainen Jari Torvelainen

    I have used my N8 ( with Symbian Belle operating system now ) last week on vacation Rome: maps preloaded & offline, navigation gps-based ( minor data costs from location info perhaps? ); pedestrian navigation replaced and beat expectations vs paper maps.
    So – with perfect 20/20 hindsight – Nokia should NOT have rushed to introduce “online only” navigation with its WP7.x platform.
    Now it should provide offline-map loading ( at the minimum ) pronto.
    Most current Lumia owners feel rightfully disappointed, despite the fact that most other handset providers cannot provide any better than what they already have.

  • Kamikaze

    Can’t wait to see My Commute in Brazil, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a White Lumia 920. Take my money!

  • swimpal

    Always listen to your customers, customers are always right. That’s basic customer service. NOKIA must do something , allow free upgrade to windows 8 and allow Lumia users continue with offline maps, PERIOD. Lumia 800 and 900 are great phones, just perfect it.

  • Dansercoer

    Since I am contracted to a Lumia 800 for two years: what would be the disadvantages of using Nokia Drive as a pedestrian?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @dansercoer:disqus you could theoretically use Nokia Drive for a walk route too. However, you won’t make use of a routing specifically tailored for pedestrian which includes stairs, footpaths, etc.

  • angryulko

    Lumia 900 owner. Lame excuses, lame forthcoming features. F### you.

  • angryangryangry

    BRING OFFLINE ACCESS TO 710/800/900. STOP ALREADY WITH THE BS EXCUSES. BRING IT BRING IT BRING IT. Is that clear ?