Wherever you go, there you are - and what better way to prove this philosophical nugget than an app for your Nokia N97? These five apps will help you explore the world around you without getting lost in the big city. What's more, four of them also happen to be free, so what more could you want? Discover the Top Five Map and Navigation Apps for your Nokia n97 after the jump...
The Nokia N97 has a 3.5-inch touchscreen display and a full QWERTY keyboard and is every inch the flagship Nokia device. However, you can also make the most of it by adding a host of apps from the Nokia Ovi Store, as well as other third-party locations. Here we look at the best apps for the Nokia N97 to make mapping and generally getting around a whole lot easier.
Nav4All
Price: Free
Nav4All is a free, cross-platform navigation app that works well on the N97. The interface can take a little getting used to - supporting multiple devices means that Nav4All opts for an onscreen keyboard rather than the N97's hardware keys - but the app performs well, grabbing your GPS coordinates and relaying the data back to its servers to do the route calculation. You need to sign up with an email address so you might expect a little unsolicited mail, though we haven't seen any so far.
navmii
Price: £45.99
navmii is a new navigation app for Nokia phones that features a 'friend finder' called GeoFriend which highlights the positions of your friends and family who are registered with the service. navmii lets you quickly send locations to anyone in your addressbook. You can search UK postcodes and plot routes just by tapping the map if you don't know the actual address you need.
Ovi Maps 3.0
Price: Free (extra services are chargeable)
Nokia Maps has had a bit of a revamp and is now known as Ovi Maps. Version 3.0 just came out of Beta and is looking good. All the old map data has been updated (you will need to download it again if you upgrade from v2.0) to provide detailed road info for the UK and Europe with 3D views and key landmarks. Although the basic app is free you can buy add-ons for turn-by-turn navigation and traffic camera locations, etc.
Compass Touch
Price: Free
While most of these apps make the most of either a GPS link or GPS plus data triangulated from mobile phone masts, sometimes you may want - or need - to kick it a little more old school. Step forward, Compass Touch - an app that uses the N97's little-known magnetometer sensor to turn your phone into a fully functional compass.
PinPoints
Price: Free
PinPoints doesn't try to work out where you are, or plot walking routes with turn-by-turn directions or anything like that. It comes into its own on those occasions where you have to head somewhere, but need a bit of help with directions once you arrive in the general area. You just find a location on an onl-line map (via the PinPoints website), or by highlighting an address using the PinPoints add-on for Firefox, and PinPoints will send your mobile an SMS containing the info you need. The PinPoints app on your phone interprets this SMS and displays a local map so you know where to go. The app is in free beta at the moment, with some plans to charge a micropayment for pinpoints in the future. See our full review of PinPoints.