Meet Pino Bonetti from the Maps team!

Oh my gosh, when I asked you to send questions for our next Ovi People Interview with Pino Bonetti from the Maps team, I didn’t mean you should do everything in your power to jam my Inbox with questions! LOL! In other words, we got a m-a-s-s-i-v-e ...

Oh my gosh, when I asked you to send questions for our next Ovi People Interview with Pino Bonetti from the Maps team, I didn’t mean you should do everything in your power to jam my Inbox with questions! LOL! In other words, we got a m-a-s-s-i-v-e amount of questions last week, so a big thank you to everyone who sent in their question! It was so amazing to notice how much interest you had in this upcoming interview! Keep that spirit up, as we have a bunch of really interesting Ovi people lined up from here until, you know, eternity, and they’re just waiting to hear your questions as well. Now, Pino was able to answer a ton of your questions – and I think he deserves a pat in the back for going through all the questions, since, like mentioned, there were lots of them! – so scroll scroll scroll further to see what he had to say =)

On with the show!

What do you do here at Nokia, Pino?

I love to say that I make Ovi Maps more social and fun =) In other words I’m evangelizing Ovi Maps on social media channels like the Ovi Blog, @OvibyNokia on Twitter and of course our Facebook page.

Recently I started doing crazy things like house running to show all the situations where Ovi Maps can be a great companion.

How long have you been working here and what other projects have you been working on at Nokia?

I joined Nokia 2 years ago after the Plazes.com acquisition (in 2008) and I always worked in the location-based services area. In case you’re not familiar with Plazes: the service started out similar to what Foursquare is right now, so it was about discovering & checking into places. There is a huge buzz around them nowadays and I’m happy I was there since the very beginning.

What did you do before you joined Nokia (work + education)?

Before joining Plazes.com first in 2006 and later Nokia I was working in a complete different business: ringtones. I worked in company called Jamba! and, well, do you remember the Crazy Frog? Well… Now you have a real person to blame…

You will also be surprised to know that, actually, I’m a physicist. A theoretical one. You know, string theory and all that stuff. I basically still have a small Sheldon Cooper in me

OMG! How… how did that happen?

Well, I just always wanted to know how the world works around us, and I figured studying physics – I mean pure physics, none of that ‘applied’ stuff – would get me to that place. Our life at campus actually resembled that of the Big Bang Theory characters; we were always like “if you’re not a theoretical physicist, you’re not as cool as we are” =) Meaning: the more abstract, the better!

Wow. So how did you get from that to what you’re doing right now?

After studying, I realized I didn’t want to chase sponsorships (as all physicists have to do to get by) but instead I wanted to find a good job so I moved to Berlin and drifted over to the world of marketing. Physics gave me a really good mindset and an ability to solve problems so my education actually comes in very handy still today =) I do miss physics sometimes, though… I still try to keep up to date on it by reading articles and talking to my old college buddies.

What makes you passionate about what you do?

Oh I could mention 1000 different reasons. Yes, I love technology, I’m passionate about social media, I love to show off when I’m at a cool place or traveling and all that… But eventually I think it’s the people. My boss, my colleagues, the other Nokians I’m working with are all so cool persons that inspire, motivate and ignite me. Honestly.

Is there anything specific you like about working at Nokia?

Oops, I just answered I guess But let me make one more example: I went to San Francisco for vacation a couple of weeks ago and I run into some Finnish colleagues at In-N-Out Burger at Fisherman’s Wharf (delicious burgers, folks, go there!). Isn’t that great?

What word is the first word that comes to your mind when you think about Ovi?

I’m Italian. Ovi means eggs in my mother tongue… Mmm, I love eggs

What’s your favorite thing you’ve downloaded from Store? Why?

Angry Birds. Why? It goes without saying.

Also, another favourite of mine is definitely Gravity. I also use this Lufthansa travel app a lot; it’s really helpful, especially when you’re on the road and want to, for example, check flight schedules.

What was your very first Nokia device?

Wow, this is a great question! My father let me use his 5110 for a while before I got my own: a 3210, the first phone with internal antenna and the first to feature T9. Amazing!

What devices do you use right now and what do you mainly do with them?

My current device is a N97 mini which I of course use to navigate in addition to calling and texting.

What were you looking for the last time you used Maps?

I was driving with my best friend and my boyfriend from Amherst, MA to Bar Harbor, ME last week. Have you ever been to the Acadia National Park? Beautiful place! Anyway, on such a long route we stopped several times to visit other places, find restaurants and so on… Maps was a really great travel companion! And I didn’t have to pay a penny for data roaming because I preloaded all the map data offline. (Ed.note: see some of Pino’s pictures from that trip below!)

What are your top five favorite blogs/websites?

It goes without saying: http://xkcd.org/! It’s a popular site for geeks and scientist, LOL!
But of course the blogs I usually follow are TechCrunch, Mashable and similar.
Another one I love is http://unlike.net/ which is a really cool guide to several cities, including Berlin.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

In random order: having fun, traveling, listening to music, eating, attending concerts, strolling around Berlin, shopping, watching American TV series (such as the Big Bang Theory, obviously, and Glee, V, Desperate Housewives…) and Japanese anime, tweeting…

What’s your motto?

I have different mottos, depending on my mood and also on the music I’m listening to =)
But the one I use the most is “Sometimes I feel like the world isn’t ready for me”. It’s a quote from the song S.O.S. by Kula Shaker. Check it out!

Is there anything you’d like to tell our readers here at the Ovi Blog?

We come in peace. Always.
Ok, I stop mentioning TV series

And then, on to the reader questions!

Maps for other countries

Misha:
When are the Israel maps are coming?

Talha:
I have been using Maps since version 1 and am a big fan – the only problem is I get to use them only when I am traveling. When do you plan to develop maps for Pakistan? That way I can use them all year round.

Nenad:
I am from Serbia, and I was wondering if and when there will be available full Maps of Serbia.

Answer: Our map data provider, NAVTEQ, is currently extending its navigable countries coverage and we are integrating their most recent additions as soon as we can. In fact, we recently announced new or updated navigation in Russia, Romania, Azores, Iceland, Kenya, Malta and in time for the FIFA World Cup also South Africa.

Free Navigation for older devices

Hari007:
This is what I want to know: is there any future for old GPS enabled devices? It’s been long time of any upgrade map or free nav for N95…

KXP:
Why did Nokia break its promise to give Ovi Maps to all of the GPS-enabled phones?

I know this is somewhat-of-a-protest but I’m still disappointed, that Nokia decided not to roll out the updated version of Ovi maps to all of the GPS-enabled mobile phones, especially the symbian ones. It couldn’t possibly have been that hard to make versions for the S60v3 FP1 devices etc. I’d actually buy a new phone to get the free navigation but unfortunately you don’t have a newer communicator than the E90 and I have no possibility to upgrade, when there are no devices that I’d like (especially the keyboard part).

Answer: I’m sorry but because of some technical constraints we are not going to release Ovi Maps v3.03 and newer for other S60v3 FP1 phones. But if you have an unsupported GPS phone, you can purchase navigation licenses for as low as €10/year.

Many of you are also waiting for Ovi Maps with free navigation for their N900. You have to be patient: we are doing our best to release new features as well as porting Ovi Maps to new Nokia platforms like Maemo and MeeGo.

Positioning methods

Photogazer:
On the Nokia 5800, for someone who does not have a cellular data plan, what positioning methods should I have checked under Location->Positioning->Positioning Methods to ensure the fastest GPS lock on OVI maps 3.04? I noticed that sometimes it is still taking over 10 min to get a lock.
Also, does enabling the wifi/network positioning help at all if wifi connections are present but they are password-protected?
Ovi maps rock by the way!!

Haris Loutradis:
I would like to ask a question about WIFI positioning system. How exactly does it work? Will it be possible to get my position anywhere or maybe in certain countries and places?
I would also like to ask about the condition in Greece.. I would love to have a pedestrian voice guidance with street names in my language.. will something like that be happening any time soon?

Answer: Of course if you don’t want to use data connection (to avoid data charges, roaming charges or simply if you are in the middle of the desert ) you can still use Ovi Maps in offline mode (see this crazy example).
However, I really suggest you to use, at least, A-GPS and WiFi positioning (available on Ovi Maps v3.04). The GPS fix is so much faster and requires only around 10Kb of data.
WiFi positioning, in particular, isn’t really different from Cell-ID positioning: we have a databases of WiFi networks and their approximate position so that when the device “senses” some of them, it already knows in which area you are and the GPS fix goes faster. You don’t have to be connected to a WiFi network to use it.
This is great also as indoor positioning, especially in big buildings or department stores.

Future features

Andrei:
1. Will we support functionality like “Google street view”, “Yandex Map Street View”, etc?
2. When can we start using Ovi Maps without plugins needed to be downloaded? Currently there are plugins only for MS Windows so Maps are not supported on Nokia mobile phone’s platforms. At the same time other vendors provide maps which are fully supported on Nokia mobile phones….

Carsten Lange:
1. Is it planned to integrate bus /tram/subway stations and information to the map? It would be a great feature, especially when the user is in an unknown area or foreign city and he wants to find the closest way to the bus or tram/subway station or he wants to go to a museum and wants to know which kind of public transportation is available there and which line will bring me to the destination point. Of course, big railway stations are on the map already but it can be optimized to show all stops for all available public transportation vehicles.
2. Why has the compass been disabled by default since Version 3.03? I think it’s a great feature to find the right orientation and it has to be enabled by default. Its annoying to enable it manually every time when I start Ovi Maps. Please insert an Option to handle this issue.

jacobkorf1:
I would like to see integration with contacts for the n900. So when I want to go to a friend of mine, I can just select him, and travel to them. Is this possible?

Also, could you make 2 different types of navigation? In-car UI & walking UI. Now I don’t have spoken routing, and neither have normal turn-by-turn navigation like á la TomTom & Sygic.

Hiei:
Here were I live maps has often roads errors or are not updated, I’d like to have a way to signal where the map is not correct and maybe give a raw correction. Any plan for a feature like this in the future?

Al:
It would be useful if the home screen widget were a half-screen view of the app itself, or there was media player integration within the main maps application, as it can be fiddly when driving to switch between the two, and so I generally do not have the ability to interact with the player controls, say to switch song. Is this sort of functionality planned?

Tarun:
Another problem is accessing contacts from the maps application. Would that be fixed anytime soon?

Answer: Wow, guys, you have great ideas! What I can say is that your feedback is really important to us and we are definitely listening to you. In fact we are already working on some of your suggestions so stay tuned!

Other questions

If you have still questions please don’t hesitate to contact us also on http://twitter.com/OvibyNokia or http://facebook.com/OvibyNokia. Our colleagues at http://support.ovi.com will be also very helpful if you need more dedicated assistance.

One last question:

Michael H:
When, oh when will we get proper support for the Ovi Maps website for Mac? Some of us can’t stand Safari, and considering you’ve already got a Firefox plugin this shouldn’t be hard to get done.

Answer: I am a Mac user too and I’m currently using Ovi Maps on Firefox with all the 3D landmarks and route preview awesomeness that the plugin is offering. Update to the last Firefox, go to http://maps.ovi.com and have fun.

Source : http://blog.ovi.com/2010/05/31/meet-pino-bonetti-f...