Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Just as the world itself can be viewed through many lenses, the latest version of Google Maps for mobile allows you to view many layers of information on your map at the same time. Layers make it easier and more useful to find and interact with geographic content, like public transit, traffic (with incidents!), local search results, Latitude friend locations, Wikipedia and more. You can also see your own My Maps content as a layer on Google Maps for mobile. And finally, multiple layers can be combined at the same time to give you a content-rich view of what's around you."

Layers and improved search are nifty additions to Google Maps for mobile. The updated version is available for Windows Mobile, so what are you waiting for? Go get it!

"Way back in November 2007, we location-enabled all of our Google Maps for mobile clients to bring location awareness to the masses and improve the local search experience. Using My Location, millions of you have been able to easily find yourselves on a map at the touch of a button. But what about finding other people? Lots of you have been requesting to see where your friends are on a map, too. Well now you can with Google Latitude. Latitude is a new feature of Google Maps for mobile, as well as an iGoogle gadget, that allows you to share your location with your friends and to see their approximate locations, if they choose to share them with you. You can use your Google account to sign in and easily invite friends to Latitude from your existing list of contacts or by entering their email addresses. Google Talk is integrated with Latitude, so you and your friends can update your status messages and profile photos on the go and see what everyone is up to. You can also call, SMS, IM, or email each other within the app."

Unlike previous Google Maps for mobile innovations, Google is making the new Latitude feature available to Windows Mobile users from day one. To start spying on connecting with your friends, fire up your mobile browser and grab the app from google.com/latitude. It's 100% opt-in, and you can choose just how much or how little information you want to share, and with whom.

"We're excited to announce the availability of Google Maps for mobile version 2.3 with Street View on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile. Street View was previously released on Google Maps for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone. Street View lets you access street level imagery to help orient yourself when looking for places, businesses, or getting directions. Say you're going to meet with friends at an unfamiliar restaurant. Now you can search for it in Google Maps for mobile, click on "Street View", and see what the place and surrounding area look like. Similarly, say you need to get to a shop in a part of town you don't know. Find it using your phone, get directions to it, and see how to get there with full-screen panorama images of every step along the way."

Google Maps 2.3 has arrived, but this release is more than just a bunch of bug fixes. It includes walking directions, transit alerts, POI reviews, and Street View support, so you can take the sights of the United States, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, and Spain with you wherever you go. It's a free download from google.com/gmm.

"A few weeks ago we released Google Maps for mobile with Transit directions for BlackBerry and Java-based handsets. Now, with the release of version 2.2 of the application for Symbian S60 (3rd edition or later) and Windows Mobile (2005 or later), we're happy to say that Transit directions will be available to a bunch more smartphone users around the world."

Google Maps 2.2 is now available for Windows Mobile. It adds Transit directions for over 50 worldwide cities/regions, star ratings for businesses, faster search, and user-generated content. Simply point your mobile browser to google.com/gmm to download.

"There's nothing special about Windows Mobile, Palm, or Symbian devices that make them virus-resistant. It's just that for the most part malicious hackers haven't tried to target mobile devices because there hasn't been that much information worth stealing. But as people put more and more valuable data on their cellphones and PDAs, those devices are becoming more attractive targets. And so we probably shouldn't be surprised that McAfee released an alert this week that a virus targeting the Windows Mobile operating system is making the rounds..."



Huh, well look at that. I guess this answers that age old question for us as to why some carriers feel the need to install, what we thought to be, useless anti-virus software on our devices before sending them out in the wild. According to McAfee's website, the WinCE/InfoJack trojan sends valuable information about the infected handset to the author of the application. Some of the data that is being sent are things like the devices serial number, operating system version and anything else it can get its grubby little hands on. On top of that, it also leaves the handset vulnerable for silent installation of other types of unsigned applications and malware. This is some pretty serious and scary stuff!

The worst part about this trojan is that it appears to have been distributed via applications for stock trading, some games and even Google Maps! Now before you start panicking, I should point out that if you downloaded your Google Maps application from Google or your games applications and stock trading tips applications from or their respected developers and not off of some shady website behind the Great Wall, you're most likely in the clear! I guess our happy-go-lucky days of installing applications without a care in the world are officially over.

"Nokia today announced that it is making its smart2go mapping and navigation platform, available for free download (www.smart2go.com), enabling millions of people to use the most comprehensive map coverage offered on a mobile device. The platform allows for mapping and routing in over 150 countries and has support for full turn-by-turn satellite navigation in over 30 countries. The application allows people to view where they are on a map, search for points-of-interests (POI) around them and create routes to get them there free of charge. Nokia plans to start offering the smart2go application for free, on Saturday, February 10th, for selected Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices initially and has plans to roll out support for most of the major mobile OS platforms including Nokia S60, Series 40, PocketPC, Linux and other Windows Mobile devices."



Nokia has surprised the mobile world by releasing FREE mapping software for not only its own Nokia S60 devices, but also for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. 8O This unexpected gift for the Windows Mobile world has got some blogs speculating that Nokia might be interested in Windows Mobile and planning to launch a device with it. In fact I believe the IDC or Gartner has even recommended that to Nokia. Getting back to the mapping software, Microsoft and Google both offer similar applications, the unique feature of Nokia's application is that it an hybrid application; it allows the users to download the maps on to the storage card and also access the maps real-time like Google or Microsoft. I like the ability to have the maps available on my phone instead of downloading it always, not everyone has an unlimited data plan. The thing that bugs me is that this free download was supposed to become available today but Nokia's smart2Go Web site still says "Coming Soon." :roll: Oh, forgot to mention the one and only catch. The free mapping software offers only viewing locations, for turn-by-turn direction with voice prompts you will have to pay a fee.

Thanks, jhalsey205, for the heads up on this. I have never been a big fan of any software Google makes but this is quite good. I have it working on my BlackJack and my 8525. It is quick and slick!



Just point your mobile browser to http://www.google.com/gmm/winm and it will download a cab file to you device for installation. On both of my devices I installed it on the storage card. Works perfectly from there. :)

"How many times have you found yourself stuck in a traffic jam, construction zone, or even a blizzard, and wished you could have seen the road conditions up ahead before you got there? Radio reports and roadside signs are all well and good, but all too often you�re already caught up in a problem before you hear about it. Traffic Vizzion (pronounced �vision�) makes it possible to keep an eye on the road ahead by bringing live images from thousands of traffic cameras located across North America and the UK to your cell phone or Pocket PC."



We have posted on this application before. Now Yahoo! Maps have been added. This is subscription based and the service is 39USD per year. There is also a 2 week trial. Sadly, the Q is not yet supported.