In an effort to become a really compelling all round location based application, Ovi Maps has added one more feature to its already impressive offering – Booking a hotel. Ovi Maps has tied up with HRS, Europe’s leading online hotel reservation system, to open HRS’s 250,000+ strong database of hotels to Maps users. This means that with Ovi Maps now you can:
search hotels close to your current location,
check real-time price and availability information,
make the booking with just a couple of clicks (or taps) on your Nokia phone and finally,
be guided to your hotel with the free turn-by-turn navigation service, all with Maps!
In addition to this, the usual way of searching also works, you can simply enter the destination, the arrival and departure dates and the room category and the displayed hotels can be sorted according to individual preferences, such as the distance from the current location, the price or star rating. Additionally you will also have access to photos, hotel descriptions and average customer ratings to help make an informed choice.
Initially this service is being rolled out to users in Germany and Finland only, but we can expect a extended rollout soon. The service will shop up as a shortcut on the Ovi Maps app homepage on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 Mini and Nokia 6710 Navigator.
Fierce Wireless has published the first videos of the Symbian ^4 UI that Nokia supplied to Symbian. To be honest the homescreen setup is a lot like Maemo and the back button at the top a lot like Android. However, that isn’t really a bad thing.
It will only be in Q3 that the code for S^4 will be complete, and handsets will come out only in 2011.
Fresh from the labs of the folks at the Nokia Research Center came an awesome new demo called ‘Mobile Radar’, this was essentially a modded Nokia N95 that could measure an object’s distance, speed, and direction all without coming into contact with it.
The above video showcases just two of its awesome use cases, first researcher Jani Ollikainen use his hand to adjust the music player’s volume, despite the presence of an object in his way. Next, researchers Terhi Rautiainen and Risto Kaunisto measure the distance, speed, and direction of a human walking all with the Nokia N95.
As the folks at Nokia Conversations point out, you shouldn’t get your hopes up of seeing this technology in your next Nokia as some of the projects from the NRC do not even make it out of the labs, but this is surely something we’d like to see our devices to. Possible use cases? Gaming? Security? What not!
Awesome News today, as we find out Nokia’s Ovi Maps now has FREE Navigation for Symbian Devices !
Espoo, Finland – Nokia has today announced plans to release a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones that includes high-end walk and drive navigation at no extra cost,available for download at www.nokia.com/maps. This move has the potential to nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market.The new version of Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries.
Here’s an interesting string of photographs and videos from Nokia World 09‘ that was held on September 2-3, 09 in Stuttguart, Germany.
Nokia unveiled some of its flagship devices such as the N900, X6, X3 as posted earlier, initiatives for web publishers and new solutions under its OVi umbrella. More importantly, Nokia provided some strong indications on the shape of things to come in the mobile computing space.
Just in case you have missed the bus, you can get a quick recap from this Nokia World 09 Round Up video.
After a lot of fanfare and whopping number of entries received for Search for N contest that was conducted by Nokia last month, we have the happy and proud winners of the N97 sharing a tip or two.
First one up is Kshitij Raina, a Btech, Final year student from Delhi.
Search for N Winner from Techtree
Here’s what Kshitij has to say about the Nokia N97.
The Nokia N97 is not just a mobile but also a multifunctional device, which will suffice almost everyone’s need. It has changed my perspective of looking at mobiles.
After an exciting journey for Search for N as posted earlier, an online hunt conducted by Nokia that went on for 5 days starting June 15 commencing on June 19, 09, finally the results are out!
The much awaited Nokia Search for N , the Worldwide hunt for the N97 has finally begun today at 8:00 am (IST).
For beginners, here’s something about Search for N.
What is it?
Search for N will run for a period of five days from June 15-19, 2009 in advance of the Nokia N97 going on sale in India. It will invite technology enthusiasts across the country to solve cryptic clues shared online on Techtree , ThinkDigit , Fonearena , Brajeshwar and Digital Inspiration.
