Nokia Smart2go for Windows Mobile now available for download!

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Nokia have now released their 'Smart2go' application Beta for download for a number of platforms, including Windows Mobile!

From the Smart2go site...

What exactly is smart2go?

smart2go is a freeware for your mobile phone for downloading maps and street plans, and also for saving your favourite spots to then share them with your friends. But that’s not all: Explore the world with our optional, premium-brand travel guides, packed with valuable information and important tips. And our optional navigation upgrade brings you professional navigation with GPS.

Do I have to have a GPS receiver?

No, smart2go can do a lot even without a GPS receiver: high-resolution maps and street plans for countries all round the world, full of interesting locations such as restaurants, clubs and cafés; route planning; city guides (optional) and lots more besides.

But to harness the full potential of smart2go (for instance, turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance), you will need a GPS receiver. Some mobile devices already have a receiver integrated in them, but it is also easy to connect an external GPS receiver to your mobile phone using Bluetooth.

How much does navigation cost?

When purchasing navigation you acquire a license valid for a certain region and period of time. You can find the price for the license in smart2go.

What are the guides?

They are optional premium-brand travel guides for a range of cities and regions — with detailed information on cafés, music and clothes shops, museums, WLAN hotspots and much more besides. Simply select and download a guide, then activate it and you’re ready to explore the world!

I'm about to install, so i'll have more details and screenshots shortly... visit the Smart2go site to download yourself! :)

P

[update: Installed and playing... check out screenshots below, including licence pricing for the UK / Ireland routing upgrade!]

P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Bizarre... after installing the CAB it installs another one on startup!

P

[Guest chucky.egg]

I was hoping that it would be a very lite app to install (running out of space!) but in the end I had to reinstall Route66 today anyway.

I downloaded this afternoon, but haven't got round to installing it yet.

Would be interested in hearing how you/anyone gets on

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Feels very beta so far!

A competitor here perhaps... http://www.wayfinder.com/products/wayfinde...hp?link_id=spot ?

P

[Guest chucky.egg]

Whoah!

£40 per year?

That's what Route 66 cost for ... well, forever!

[Guest rikwebb]

Well for once I was ahead of you guys, been playing all day. Didnt actually realise it was new to you guys, I had been looking into it for the wifes Nokia, noticed this morning it had become 'live'.

Unfortunatly it doesnt support her series 40 yet, although they will aparently.

First impressions are:

nice layout

fairly quick (compared to copilot)

very beta like !! - spoted quite a few bugs

Pocket GPS where reporting that this company is now owned by Nokia, and will be installing it free on all future Nokia smartphones (starting with the N95). It remains to be seen if they will need to pay extra for voice routing, like it wants me to do on the C600.

Yeh baby, I finaly had something before Paul :)

Rik

[Guest Pop2k]

I need URGENT help here!

I've installed this app on my Orange SPV C600 and ever since the backlight of the phone's screen won't turn off no more! This is draining the battery so fast, it's making the phone useless.

I installed the app and downloaded the Switzerland map using the maploader.

As soon as I noticed the screen not turning off no more, I've uninstalled the software (incl. that other service that got installed, some licencing or authentication thing, don't remember it's name). However, even after rebooting the phone the backlight still remained on!

So I checked the folders and found "some" (rather: a whole lot) of smart2go files that did not get removed by the uninstallation (like the whole smart2go folder for instance and some extension-less "qf" file). Deleted all that, rebooted ... no effect, backlight still doesn't go off.

If anyone has an idea on how to fix this, please help me! :)

Edited February 14, 2007 by Pop2k

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I assume you've just checked your backlight settings in the settings menu right?

I too have uninstalled, not because of a particular problem, but because it seems pretty rubbish :)

P

[Guest Pop2k]

Got it fixed! I had checked the backlight settings last night, they were untouched. But now I remembered that old backlight tweaking program I had installed when I had bought the phone. So I loaded that one and re-tweaked my backlight settings and now, the backlight turns off again. Phew! :)

As for the program's actual functions, I agree that it's rubbish. First of all, it connected to GPRS without asking my permision. Something I don't like at all since data transmissions cost an arm and a leg here. Next up, the prog decided that I was on the other side of europe ... and there was seemingly no way of telling it where I actualy am. So when I looked up some place in my city, it would calculate a route across the continent - for which it then wanted to dl the map data over gprs again. Grrrr.

Next to that, scrolling on a map is a pain in the ass, as is the seemingly touchscreen optimized UI.

So, all back to using MS Pocketstreets. That one works at least - and the maps are just as free (but sadly, not as numerous).

Edited February 14, 2007 by Pop2k

[Guest namiran]

i dont get it, its free to download, but not to use? i live in sweden and would like maps of stockholm, can anyone answere if those are free if not used with gps? thanx

[Guest major_sarcasm]

This software is actually not bad, especially for free. I do have an issue however, and there's no way to get tech support on their site. You can give them feedback, but it states that they won't enter into correspondence...

Does anyone know if there's any way to bypass the maploader software? I'm not on a flat rate data plan and I don't have a card reader that will do a micro-SD card. The maploader also doesn't recognise my card when it's in the phone and plugged into the PC via USB. So... screwed for advance download of the UK maps.

Edited February 19, 2007 by major_sarcasm

[Guest surfziggy]

Does anyone know if there's any way to bypass the maploader software? I'm not on a flat rate data plan and I don't have a card reader that will do a micro-SD card. The maploader also doesn't recognise my card when it's in the phone and plugged into the PC via USB. So... screwed for advance download of the UK maps.

Anyone figure out a way round this ? I've got the same problem with my SPV C600. I also noticed that the maploader doesn't work from behind a proxy/firewall (at work). Works at home but I don't have the sd card reader and it won't recognise the phone via USB as I don't think the c600 has a mass storage USB driver.

[Guest major_sarcasm]

OK, so I tried a workaround for this problem. It didn't work, but not for the reasons I expected!

So, I copied the "qf" file and the contents of "Program Files\Smart2Go" from my mini-SD to an old full-sized SD card that I had in my camera for which I do have a reader for. I also re-created the directory structure.

Hey presto, Maploader detected the card ;) I queued up the maps that comprise the UK and clicked download. And waited. And waited. As I waited, I watched the "Time remaining" counter crawl steadily up from several hours to over 10,000 before I gave up. I then had to use Task Manager to quit the program because after I clicked cancel, the app locked up solid.

Way to go, Nokia coders.

Back to square one.

[Guest]

I installed the smart2go app to my SPV M3100. I left it on for a couple of weeks. He's my very brief comments

Positives :(

1. Nicely laid out for the mobile platform - big bold buttons, etc

2. Clear and (reasonably) quick

3. Main app free

4. Works offline

5. Free maps that can be downloaded which disconnected from the 'net.

6. Actually closes down when you click the "x"

7. Installed app & maps to storage card

Negatives ;)

1. Still very beta - no obvious way to set default home location help information is virtually nonexistent or very well hidden.

2. No support for the app - only feedback

3. Some clumsy error messages

4. Can be a little unstable

5. Sometimes unintuitive features

6. Odd paid-for elements - voice instruction (I think?), navigational aids, etc

Overall I'll probably look at this again when it really comes out of beta mode. But from a person who vowed never to use Nokia software again - they really aren't software programmers - this is a very good effort and might convert me in the future. :D

[Guest surfheli]

ditto other users, at first glance yuk, gonna stick with virtualearth, googlemaps, map24....the list keeps getting bigger! But then after playing a bit longer you get used to the menu structure and actually get to like the programme ;) gps position is acurate display is good nice big buttons for easy use in car. Routing is free and can be used with gps postion (which does also move the map and trck). You need to subscribe to navigation if you want it and the pricing structure seems quite attractive. week / month / year / 3 years options aviliable and this also means your maps are up to date.

one main bug for me, it seem to leave the text input pad half way up the screen in other apps after using.

overall may actaully switch to this one as my main mapping prog as its all there!

[Guest Adaan]

PLEASE HELP!

I have an i-Mate SP5 running Windows Mobile 5.0 with smart2go installed, I've tried downloading maps using WM5Storage to change the phone's id to USB Disc, Maploader sees the device, but the progress bar when downloading stays at 0.0%! I've even tried direct download with my Wi-Fi on, but smart2go doesn't prompt to download maps! Please help!

Thanx! ;)

[Guest Jitsy]

Am I missing something, or is smart2go not available for Windows Mobile devices any more? When I go to www.smart2go.com, it redirects me to europe.nokia.com/maps - but when I go to downloads, I can only see downloads for nokia devices - is one of these supposed to work with windows mobile?

Thanks so much!

Jit

[Guest tsutton]

Looks like they've removed support for Windows Mobile!