It has been a little over a week since Nokia’s Ovi maps (free) was launched. The word “free” is enticing in many ways, it is attractive, inviting and conjures up curiosity in almost everyone. So now there have been over 1.4 million downloads of this application in this small period. By the way Ovi Maps offers free walk as well as drive navigation.

From next month onwards all Nokia devices with GPS will come with Ovi Maps pre-installed sparing users the trouble of downloading and installing the app themselves. Also included will be local country maps, drive and walk navigation, access to Lonely Planet and  Michelion Travel guide.

Supported devices include Nokia X6, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97, E72, E55, E52, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia 5230. Support for other devices can be found at the Nokia website. The app can be downloaded from the same page and is available in over 70 countries.

Google maps for mobile is an impressive mapping and navigation application, while Google maps has quite detailed maps of Pakistan, way better than any other navigation and map provider but one thing which was missing from Google maps for mobile was turn by turn navigation feature. But now Google has enabled this feature for Pakistan and now users using Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows and Symbian s60 series smart phones can use this feature. Google maps for mobile is a free application and just requires a data connection on your smart phone, although GPS is not required but availability of GPS or A-GPS can enhance the experience many times.

Bing Maps has gone 3D! The map service which has been trying hard to rival Google’s maps has gone a step ahead of them, now it is Google’s turn to throw in something new. To us this service one will have to install the 3D patch which can be downloaded by clicking the 3D button on Bing maps. After running the installation simply click on the return to maps and you will be taken to the maps showing 3D views of the selected locations.

Three options are presented at the start to choose from, that is, “Best Performance”, “Balanced” and “Best Quality”. Choose the one that you want to use and enjoy a 3D experience of viewing maps. The other options of tilting camera, zooming in/out, increasing/decreasing altitude are also available. The street views are pretty good and one can get directions easily, or even enjoy moving along a road as if flying over it. Actually it is plain old digital photos that have been analyzed using Microsoft Photosynth to create a 3D view .

The features are great and it is one impressive utility but what bothers me most is if the same service is abused by people who want to plan terrorist attacks, isn’t this making it one more step easier for them to plan?

Are you planning your upcoming vacation this new year? Do you want to make it one of the most  memorable and luxurious experience of your life? Something you can only witness in dreams like the finest decor hotels with Jacuzzi bathrooms, exclusive spas and exquisite food, unforgettable adventures, romantic hideaways and what not. Well recently, I have come across this brand new site “Hubresorts.com” that gathers all top resorts of the world, Whether you are a Ski buff, a Golf junkie, a luxury seeker or even a casual wayfarer they have all those unique places covered with necessary details in a concise form. The idea behind this new launch is to bring the vacationers and resorts owners together, to network and to make it easy for people to find that perfect place to travel for anyone and everyone. Let’s learn more on what they say about Hubresorts.com

Pick out any Smartphone in the market today and it is sure to have a GPS built in to it. The availability of advanced applications make it even easier to navigate and get directions. But  when Garmin teams up with Asustek to add mobile phone functionality to a GPS cum navigation device the result is nüvifone G60. This is a navigator with added functionality of a mobile phone which features voice and data both. This is 3G phone, with a 3 MP camera, Bluetooth, Garmin GPS, preloaded maps for navigation, web browser, SMS and E-mail, Wi-Fi, geo-tagging, MS Word/Excel?PowerPoint viewer, calendar, alarm clock, to do scheduler, 5,000 strong contact list  to name a few. The device is 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.5 inches in dimensions. It has 4 GB internal memory and is expandable to 16 GB using a microSD card. An mp3 player is included and the maximum talk time is up to 4 hours whereas the stand by time is 250 hours. It is very much a touch screen phone which allows one to use it as a mobile phone and a GPS at the same time. Besides all this it has some very advanced features like connecting with friends, checking flight status, avoiding traffic jams, and navigating form SMS. In simple terms if you need to find the location of a friend simply track his/her SMS. Similarly, he/she may also track you. There goes your privacy! More information can be found here. The big question is should one buy a Smartphone which has a GPS as an added feature running as an application or should one go for a GPS that has mobile phone facility? Confused? So am I