Ovi lets you navigate with your Nokia without any data transfer

Hello everyone, this is me again, your friendly Maps Community Manager signing in from Helsinki. I love traveling – meeting new people, taking lots of pictures, exploring cultures completely different from my own, trying out different types of food and drinks… what is there not to love?  I am going ...

Hello everyone, this is me again, your friendly Maps Community Manager signing in from Helsinki.

I love traveling – meeting new people, taking lots of pictures, exploring cultures completely different from my own, trying out different types of food and drinks… what is there not to love?  I am going to Amsterdam to attend SEE2010 next week, here is how I prepare for a good trip without too much roaming charges. I have an N8 and have installed Maps v3.06 beta from Nokia Beta Labs.

The first step is to download the maps of the places you are planning to visit to your mobile device via Nokia Ovi Suite. We have navigable map data from more than 75 countries.

Once you have downloaded maps to your GPS smartphone, you can use it in offline mode. Your Nokia will show you the map data you have downloaded, plan routes and navigate you without any data transfer.

Next step is to look up where you are going on maps.ovi.com. You can read reviews of the places that you plan to visit. The info you find there is all integrated with various partners like Lonely Planet and Qype. Once you find some places that you want to visit, sign into Ovi and favourite them.

See that golden star near the first result? It means the place is added to the list of your favourites.

Once you decide on some of the places you want visit, map out the route. If you plan to visit a series of places between your starting point and your destination, you can add them to the route.

This is very useful, whether you are planning to go on a museum marathon or indulge in some shopping. Some might even say it is very helpful if you are planning a pub hopping night – and I will have to agree

Once you have added all your favourites and routes on maps.ovi.com, the next step is to sync them to your phone. Click on Maps icon > Favourites and then click on the Synchronize with Ovi button. It will sync online with your maps.ovi.com favourites.

Once the sync is complete, the favorites will be accessible from your phone in the offline mode.

Some of you might be driving or biking when traveling. For those who like their four wheelers; there are some very useful Nokia gear accessories like phone holders and mobile chargers for your car. If you want to bike around (like our friend Lukas) then we have developed mobile chargers that can be used with your bikes for you.

So you have found the places you want to visit, you have planned out the routes to spend your time the best way and have some fun, you got geared out. What next? Go to your Maps menu, and click on the screwdriver icon.

To have only maps go offline while your phone can still make and receive calls, click on the Internet tab above and turn it OFF.

Your Nokia GPS smartphone also transfers some data (around 10Kb) to quickly find your location. We think that this is really helpful, however, if you want to make sure you don’t spend even that penny, go to Settings in your phone’s main menu, then Application Settings and click on Positioning. You will find a tab called Positioning methods. Make sure your options are as below:

Done? Great! Now we are all set for a lovely trip with Maps which is also light on your pocket. I am off to pack my bags for SEE 2010, I will tell you how I used Maps there next week!

Source : http://blog.ovi.com/2010/11/05/ovi-lets-you-naviga...