A new beta version of the Ovi Maps applications has been released over at Nokia beta labs. Recently, Nokia’s Ovi Maps was released with free voice navigation – something that was previously a premium service. This was prompted by Google announcing that their GPS software was going to be free. Ovi Maps is also available over the internet in a web browser like Google Maps. If you use the Ovi Maps app on your phone and Google Maps on your PC then it may be a good idea to try out the in-browser version of Ovi Maps as it can actually sync with the app so all your planned routes and favourites are quickly and easily saved on your mobile device. (Link later on)

Any way, We now have a new version that comes with a few improvements over previous versions. Before I explain the new features let me remind you that this is indeed a Beta version and therefore it is prone to have some problems along the way.

The improvements;

• Faster zooming and panning of the maps.
• Improved speed and accuracy for GPS positioning. (finding, and keeping, where you are)
• Improved searching functions for cities.
• Added “zoom out to city” level of zoom.

If you don’t already know, the maps themselves don’t actually come with the app. You can download them on-the-fly whilst navigating but this can be slow and tedious if using a slow connection. The best way is to download the map data on a PC using Nokia Map Loader and the Ovi Suite – both will detect which version of Ovi Maps you are running and download the appropriate map data depending on the selected locations.

You can find the new beta version of Ovi Maps over at http://betalabs.nokia.com/ ovi-maps and the in-browser version over at http://maps.ovi.com/

Have fun and let me know what you think.

Peace out.