Nokia Maps users can now discover how to get to a location simply by holding down on their destination of choice. There’s also the ability to to create customised routes shaped by photos of your favourite locations whether you’re sightseeing or avoiding those pesky traffic jams.

More vocal Nokia fans will appreciate a new voice search tool that lets you speak the name of your destination while driving. It’s a solution that is both safe and clever. New landscape views make seeing what you need easier. And an improved Weather tool automatically displays the weather for where you are, and even for what’s ahead, should you, y’ know, accidentally drive into a monsoon or something.

Any geo-tagging fans in the house? You can now transform your map into a photo blog. Photos tagged with locations now appear on your map, making Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 a more visual experience whether you’re on foot or on four wheels.

To use each of the features look our for the Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 widgets, giving everything you need at a taps distance. All the usual features: Drive, Maps, My Location, Places, Public Transport and Weather are still there, but better!

If you’ve got a Nokia Belle phone you can try out Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 right now by heading over to Nokia Beta Labs and hitting the Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 page.  

Nokia Mix Radio on Nokia Lumia 710 hands-on review

Music-streaming services have become all the rage in recent years, but they usually involve a monthly subscription fee. Did you know that Nokia Music, which comes pre-installed on every Nokia Lumia 710, offers up the ability to stream music to your phone for free?

You don’t even need to sign up for anything – the Mix Radio service is ready to go out of the box. Once selected you’ll be taken to a list of possible mixes incorporating a bunch of genres. Whether you’re into Pop, Rock, Dance or Hip Hop there’s something to suit your tastes.

It goes even further, though. Nokia understands that you can’t really sum up peoples tastes with such broad descriptions as ‘dance’ or ‘rock’. To that end, Mix Radio features loads of sub-genre mixes. Go into Dance, for example, and you’ll find mixes for dubstep, trance, house, minimal techno and more.

Check out the following video from Nokia UK to see how Mix Radio works – including how to save playlists for offline listening. It really is very easy to use indeed.

Have you used Mix Radio? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments section below.

Over on the Xbox website, Microsoft is highlighting five ‘Must Have Games’ for February. This will see one new game a week going live throughout the month, each with achievements, leaderboards and more. The first one’s already out, so without any further ado let’s get stuck in.

Week 1 – Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

While there are some tip-top games available on the Windows Phone Marketplace, there aren’t too many rip-roaring racers. They don’t get much more rip-roaring than the Need For Speed series, which has been ripping up tarmac across numerous console and smartphone platforms for years. This latest version, Hot Pursuit, sees you giving chase to assorted felons (as well as your own Police colleagues) in variety of powered up cars. As well as pure racing you’ll have to partake in a bit of argy-bargy, whether that’s ramming the opposition or laying down spike traps and deploying road blocks.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is out now on the Windows Phone Marketplace (under NFS: Hot Pursuit, in case you were wondering where it had got to) for £3.99.

Week 2 – BulletAsylum

Next week’s offering is the first Windows Phone exclusive of the bunch, and it couldn’t be further removed from Need For Speed in its style of play. BulletAsylum is an intense arcade blaster that sees you warding off massive waves of enemy attacks from a stationary gun platform. This old skool gameplay is accompanied by decidedly current gen graphics, with impressive neon-drenched lasers and explosions filling your Nokia Lumia 710′s 3.7-inch screen. This one’s going to be a blast when it’s launched on February 8.

Week 3 – Chickens Can’t Fly

Another Windows Phone exclusive, and another completely different experience from the other games on this list. Chickens Can’t Fly appears to be a gorgeously crafted casual physics puzzler that’s just bursting with charm and style. Just check out the teaser video on the developer’s website to see what we mean. We’re not entirely sure how the game will play at present, but it looks like you’ll have to guide a chicken through a number of torturous and hazard-strewn obstacle courses. All will be revealed on February 15.

Week 4 – Splinter Cell Conviction

The classic third person stealthy-action series Splinter Cell takes a (silent) bow on Windows Phone. Splinter Cell Conviction will be a full 3D action game that mimics many of the console game’s mechanics, like shooting from cover and performing stealthy take-downs. It’ll be interesting to see how this translates to the small screen, but we’re pretty sure of one thing – it’ll run like a dream on the Nokia Lumia 710. Splinter Cell Conviction is out on the Windows Phone Marketplace on February 22.

Week 5 – Toy Soldiers: Boot Camp

The final Windows Phone exclusive on this list is also the final game on this list, which should ensure this must have game-filled February ends with a bang. Toy Soldiers: Boot Camp ties in closely with the related Xbox Live Arcade game, Toy Soldiers: Cold War. It presents the same mini-games found in that console game, which include swotting flies with a miniature anti-aircraft gun, and guiding a rocket through a tight obstacle course. We’ll see what other toy-based treats Toy Soldiers has to offer when it’s released on February 29 (gotta love leap years).

Which of these five games are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the Comments section.

GetMeThere is the only app to make use of Bing maps and London Underground, District Light Rail (DLR), London Buses and Overground live updates together. First launched back in July of 2011 when the idea of the Nokia Lumia was just a rumour and not a reality, Bing GetMeThere has come in for something of a major update that will start rollign out from today.

Bing GetMeThere has been on the Windows Phone marketplace for some time but the new update brings with it a host of service upgrades, with features such as the newly added DLR, London Buses and Overground data to the route planning portion of the app. Taking full advantage of the Live Tiles functionality in Windows Phone you can now pin your journey to homescreen and see live updates as and when they happen, which means gett from A to B is so much easier than ever before.

New features in Bing GetMeThere app for Windows Phone:  

·Plan journeys using Bing maps and the London Underground, Overground, DLR and Bus networks ·Full tube maps and live service updates ·Full DLR and live service updates

·Full Overground and live service updates

·Station open/close times ·Nearest tube, train and bus stations (with map and walking directions)

·Set up favourite journeys with ‘live tile’ alerts on your home screen (MANGO feature)

·Weekend service updates

·Offline access to tube maps (great for when you are on the tube) ·Pin favourite journeys to start page

·Get me Home which can be pinned to the start page

·Live travel updates viewable from the start page  

The app is available as a free download from the Marketplace and those already using it will find an update status appearing in due course.

DOWNLOAD: Bing GetMeThere 

Nokia Maps

The main map tool on your Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Maps is one of the finest apps of its kind on any smartphone platform. Open it up and the first thing it will do is use your Lumia 800′s GPS connection to quickly jump to your location, showing you a map of the surrounding area. Very handy in a pinch, such as when you emerge from a tube station somewhat disorientated.

From here you can change the view to show public transport services or even an accurate satellite view. Alternatively you can tap ‘Places’ to get a list of popular facilities in your location. You can also plot out routes to and from any place you like. 

Nokia Drive

While Nokia Maps will give you a good idea of your surroundings, when it comes to detailed turn by turn navigation you’ll need Nokia Drive. This fantastic tool lets you pre-load maps for free (though we recommend using a Wi-Fi connection!) which is how it manages to supply a full and fluid 3D satellite navigation service. Yep, that means full turn-by-turn navigation, complete with voice guidance. No rival smartphone has such an excellent navigation tool as standard.

Nokia Lumia 800: Driving with free Nokia Drive free satellite navigation

Nokia Transport

So with Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive you have a fine general mapping tool and a world class sat nav solution. What about the commuters among us? For you, Nokia is developing Nokia Transport. It essentially tells you how to get from one location to another using public transport, and it’ll happily mix and match to find the best route. Type in a destination and Nokia Transport will pull in bus and train timetable information and construct a travel itinerary for you, taking into account the time necessary to walk between each point. Even better, it will feature a live tile that advises you of the next available bus or train times on your selected journey. Having seen a near-finished version of Nokia Travel at CES, it should be out soon.

Nokia Public Transport app hands-on preview

Nokia City Lens

Finally we have Nokia City Lens, which is currently in beta. This ambitious app takes the Places element of Nokia Maps and really runs with it, using your Nokia Lumia 800′s many sensors to give you an accurate feel for the services and facilities available around you. Select from the main menu what kind of facilities you’re looking for – including hotels, pubs, shops and more – and then hold your Lumia 800 up like you’re taking a picture. Using the phone’s camera, GPS and accelerometer sensors, you’ll be shown a live view of your surroundings with relevant locations marked out. If you hold the phone flat, meanwhile, you’ll get a map view of the points of interest. Clever.

Nokia City Lens brings augmented reality to Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia Lumia 800 game: MiniSquadron review

Programmed by Nokia design engineer Taneli Armanto, the original mobile Snake first came pre-installed on the aforementioned Nokia 6110 in 1997. It was the Nokia 5110 that really took off the following year, though – and the Snake craze along with it.

Snake ’97 recalls that craze by presenting the full original game for your Nokia Lumia 800. Not only does it replicate the distinctive retro monochrome visuals, it also presents it with a digital representation of the Nokia 5110′s keypad. As with the original, you have to use the 2, 4, 6 and 8 keys to steer your snake around the tiny arena, gobbling up dots and avoiding collisions with the walls and your own tail.

Of course, as you become more successful by gobbling up more dots, your snake grows and becomes increasingly hard to avoid. It’s a natural way to increase difficulty and a massive part of Snake’s charm, as you have to adapt your playing style to stay alive.

Snake ’97 is available on the Windows Phone Marketplace now for 79p, but you can try the game for free. You’ll only be able to play the game in trial mode until you hit 250 points, though, at which point you’ll be returned to the start. For anyone who mastered the game back in the day, hitting such a tantalising barrier will doubtless prompt a full purchase.

Snake ’97 proves the old adage that class is permanent, as we’re having a whole heap of fun with this blast from the past. Check it out.

Via Nokia Conversations

Nokia Maps is a first-in-class mapping service that continues to grow. The addition of 360Cities lets you browse 360 degree photos shot close-by, or in in the location of your choice on Nokia Symbian devices.

360Cities is the largest collection of geo-references panoramic shots. Each shot has been taken by expert panoramic photographers, so you’re always guaranteed great shots on your Nokia. Going on holiday somewhere?  Then 360Cities is a handy way to check out the sights, and get even more excited, or to look at the places you may hope to one visit one day.
 
360 Cities works on Nokia Maps software v3.06 onwards. If you are using v3.06 you can access 360 Cities from the ‘More’ tab on your map menu. Those using Nokia Maps v3.08 can access the service from the ‘Guide’ icon.

It’s easy and available now. We’ve just given it a go on our Nokia 700. You can browse from nearby panoramas, those especially selected, and the most popular. There’s also an option to have a panoramic peep at other cities. Go on, give it a try.

Check out our photo gallery below to see what 360Cities on Nokia Maps is all about:

]]> http://www.noknok.tv/2012/01/19/nokia-social-v1-4-available-now-for-nokia-belle/feed/ 0 http://www.noknok.tv/2012/01/19/why-windows-phone-is-a-game-changer/ http://www.noknok.tv/2012/01/19/why-windows-phone-is-a-game-changer/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:30:50 +0000 Alex Bentley http://www.noknok.tv/?p=42689 As Nokia continues to revitalize the fantastic Windows Phone OS around the world thanks to the Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 710 and Nokia Lumia 900, it seems we’re not the only ones that see Windows Phone as one of the best smartphone OS’ currently on the market; even Forbes magazine agrees!

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