New Maps, Drive and Transport in depth

Since we introduced Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive for Nokia Lumia last October, we’ve been busy adding new features and developing more location-based apps, which strongly differentiate Nokia from other Windows Phone manufacturers. In particular, we’ve been listening to your feedback and prioritising what most of you were asking for.
As we anticipated on Monday, we are introducing a full offline experience on Nokia Drive, favourite places and route sharing on Nokia Maps and, even more exciting, we are offering Nokia Transport on Nokia Lumia too.

Nokia Transport

With Nokia Transport you get the most convenient directions to underground, trams, suburban trains and buses services. You will find it particularly useful if you are a commuter or traveller or you just want to plan your urban journey in a timely and environmentally-conscious way.

A logical extension to Nokia’s free navigation and routing solution, this first beta release of Nokia Transport for Nokia Lumia supports over 270 cities or urban areas (86 of which with timetable information) in 45 countries.

A public transport route can be planned between two addresses or points of interest in the same covered urban area. To make your life easier, we are also offering you walking directions from the start of your journey to the first public transport stop and from the last stop to your final destination.

Very conveniently, you can also pin a favourite destination to your home screen to quick access the next departures from anywhere in the city. From your office, or from that new bar where you are going to meet your friends during the weekend.

Because we want you to test Nokia Transport for Nokia Lumia and give us your feedback and your first reviews, we are offering it as a beta release, which you can download from Nokia Beta Labs. If you want to give it a try, please remember that you can’t find Nokia Transport on Windows Phone Marketplace just yet, you have to download it from Nokia Beta Labs.

Nokia Drive

Your response to Nokia Drive for Nokia Lumia has been overwhelming positive, but most of you also know that we can do even better. In particular, we are working hard to extend all the great features you know from our other platforms.

With this first update, we are including, among others, the feature most of you were asking for: a full offline experience.

Not only can you download country maps on your Nokia Lumia, but now you can also plan your route completely offline and get rerouted without having to be online. This means that Nokia Drive cuts your data costs, especially when in roaming and it means that you can rely on Nokia Drive also in those areas where network coverage is poor or absent. A great deal.

The full offline experience, however, is not the only news about this Nokia Drive update. We redesigned the navigation dashboard to give you even more information, such as speed limit warning (where available) and the possibility to show either the estimated time of arrival, the time to destination or the distance to destination. Last but not least, you can more easily access all the destinations you have recently entered in Nokia Drive.

If you don’t have Nokia Drive on your Nokia Lumia yet, you can download it from the Nokia collection section of Windows Phone Marketplace. All these new features will be then included in the upcoming and automatic update that is going to be delivered to your Nokia Lumia in the next weeks.

Nokia Maps

To explore a city, its best places to eat, go out and have fun, you know you can rely on Nokia Maps. If Nokia Drive has been designed for commuters and drivers, Nokia Maps is here to help you when you want to feel like a local in urban areas and get to your destination on foot.

With the upcoming update you can for instance save places among your favourites. Even cooler, you can share over SMS, email or social networks, those places and the route to get there, including the approximate time of arrival. This is so useful when you are planning to meet your friends somewhere. It doesn’t even matter which smartphone your friends have: they will all see the information you want to share with them.

If you don’t have Nokia Maps yet on your Nokia Lumia, you can download it from the Nokia collection section of Windows Phone Marketplace. All these features will be then included in the upcoming and automatic update that is going to be delivered to your Nokia Lumia in the next weeks.