If you’ve been waiting impatiently for the GPS application with theN95, then wait no more. Nokia has made available the application - smart2go available for free for all S60 users. Here is the press release from Nokia:

Espoo, Finland - 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 plans to pre-install the smart2go mapping and navigation application on all future Nokia Nseries multimedia computers under the name “Nokia Maps”. Current owners of Nokia devices may also download Nokia Maps to their supported devices. And now, by paring your non-GPS enabled mobile device with a Nokia Wireless GPS Module LD-3W or other compatible GPS module, Nokia Maps can provide the same fantastic navigation experience for a broad range of Nokia devices.

The platform contains over 15 million POIs that help people explore the most interesting sights, restaurants or accommodations around them. Customers can select their favorite locations and send them to friends by multimedia message, Bluetooth wireless technology, infrared or e-mail. They can also send map excerpts and routes or save map screen shots to the gallery on the device. Recognized brand names like McDonald’s will have the option to place branded icons across the world’s digital maps downloaded onto millions of mobile devices.

“People will trust and use maps if they have those maps with them when they need them, and smart2go allows consumers the full freedom of which maps they want to carry with them. By offering Nokia Maps and smart2go for free on your mobile device, cost is no longer a barrier for anyone to enjoy the convenience of maps and routing on-the-go,” said Ralph Eric Kunz, vice-president, Nokia, Multimedia. “Nokia is on track to build the world’s most connected location based platform for mobile devices which also opens up interesting opportunities for future services.”

smart2go is a hybrid map solution: Map data from Tele-Atlas and Navteq can be downloaded directly via wireless network (e.g. GPRS/3G/WLAN) and stored on the devices memory card as needed. If all the desired map data is stored, no network connection is needed for mapping, routing and navigation. For managing downloads of bigger sizes there is an additional PC desktop tool available.

smart2go comes with the option to upgrade to full fledged turn-by-turn navigation. With just some clicks, customers can turn their device into a voice guided navigation system by purchasing a navigation license. There are various licenses available: from a one week to a three year term. When traveling to a new country for holiday one can download the relevant maps via PC in advance and subscribe to the navigation service for the duration of the holiday at affordable cost.

I’ve highlighted some of the key points of the press release which I think are important.

Symbian-Guru has also stumbled upon the presentation slides for Nokia’s announcement. The rates for the upgraded service in Europe are:

7 Days - ~$11.71
30 Days - ~$13
1 Year - ~$117.28
3 Years - ~$130.32
Well, its already February 10 and the application should be ready for download, right? But this it what I see when I visit the smart2go website.

Engadget has posted some public pictures of the Nokia E90:

The phone is scheduled for a 3GSM launch, along with the E65 and the E61i.

VIA: [ENGADGET]

Here is the press release:

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today introduced a new Feature Pack for S60 on Symbian OS(TM), the market leading smartphone platform. S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 is designed for innovation and significantly facilitates the creation of compelling applications and accelerates performance. S60 3rd Edition is targeted for mid-range devices and offers significant usability enhancements for this category.

Development of applications and services for S60 devices will be faster and more cost-efficient as S60 brings a major extension to the C++ development environment with Open C. This introduction brings the familiar standard C function libraries to S60 software, supporting increased productivity and improved time-to-market of applications. With Open C, developers can reuse existing code and focus on the mobility aspects of their applications.

Symbian recently introduced four of the basic POSIX libraries on Symbian OS. With Open C, S60 is extending the reach and implementing five additional C libraries for an optimized solution to migrate open source and desktop applications to S60 on Symbian OS. Open C libraries are part of the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 and will be integrated into the publicly available software development kits.

Feature Pack 2 comes with improvements in usability and software architecture focusing primarily on the mid-range device category. Usability enhancements support the ease of use in for example messaging, multitasking and downloading. Feature Pack 2 also enables instant media playback during downloading and animated notification of inbound calls. Architectural improvements focus on ensuring excellent performance and flexibility of S60 in various hardware configurations, and include for example support for demand paging virtual memory technique.

“Feature Pack 2 is a major element of our strategy to support handset vendors in creating devices for the mid-range market,” says Matti Vänskä, Vice President, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia. “There are already five S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices launched worldwide by three handset vendors. The emphasis with Feature Pack 2 is on improved user experience, usability and ever richer development environment”.

“Supplier efforts to simplify the user experience of smartphone software platforms are a key factor in attracting and retaining users, especially as those platforms strengthen their position in mainstream markets. But the ultimate success of smartphones rests with attracting the widest array of application developers. Aligning handset development more closely with the desktop is a good step towards achieving this,” says Tony Cripps, senior analyst, mobile user experience, Ovum.

S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 will be available for all S60 device manufacturers in Q2. It is fully compatible with S60 3rd Edition, and applications developed for 3rd Edition will run on all Feature Pack 2 devices. The new Feature Pack 2 will be demonstrated at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona in S60 stand in Hall 8.

According to Canalys research (January, 2007), S60 is the clear leader in converged device software with 54% market share globally in Q4 2006. Nokia alone has cumulatively shipped nearly 85 million S60 enabled devices by the end of 2006. To date, 49 devices based on S60 and Symbian OS have been launched, 20 of which are based on the latest S60 3rd Edition.

Link to press release

Bloggers all over the blogosphere are talking about the this announcement. There have been some interesting blog posts about this, particularly from the S60 Blogs Team:

• Jouni a.k.a MRKTNGman from the S60 Blogs Team has a great article on the S60 Feature Pack 2 as well. Read it here.
• Tommi Vilkamo from the S60 Applications Blog talks about ‘Open C’ which has been introduced with S60 Feature Pack 2 and how it will ease application development for the Series 60 platform.
• Phil Schwarzmann of the See Into S60 blog is interviewing the head of S60 Platforms Marketing, Mikko Röntynen this Friday for his ‘Voice of S60′ podcast. So if you have any questions you want answered, head on over to his blog post and submit a comment.

Screenshots of S60 FP2:

Nokia is set to add another phone in its N-series line up at 3GSM this February. It will be a mid-level phone supporting DVB-H. Nokia hopes that the mid-priced phone (around 200-300 euros) will help boost the mobile television industry.

Now where did this come from?? This increases the handset count for 3GSM to four, along with the E61i (can’t wait for it to get released), the E65 and the E90.
SOURCE: Reuters, Darla Mack