Same day, same hemisphere - different fortunes:

German news site golem.de reports Navigon MobileNavigator 2.5 for Android is ready for sale at the Android Market (can't find it though). Until May 2 a 30-day-trial for DACH is €50, Europe bites €75.

As free Google Maps Navigation destroyed TomTom and Garmin share prices (yet unclear if and when it will be offered in EMEA), and past the introduction of free turn-by-turn navigation to Nokia's Ovi Maps (yet for only a small share of current phones) - Vodafone's Wayfinder is the first prominent victim:

"We could not charge for something that others gave away for free."

Hard times ahead.

Full story at Engadget and elsewhere.

I was creeping around this announcement for quite a while, reluctant to join the choir of futurologists. Anyway, it was a logical next step for Nokia to open their maps environment and set it free. The only question was: when?

Mobilecrunch sets the dimensions:

To dive a bit deeper into that “20 million.. handsets” number, we’re talking about users speaking 46 different languages across 74 different countries. If Google didn’t kill the standalone GPS market when they announced free navigation for the Android platform, Nokia may very well have just pushed the knife that last inch.

The feature set is impressive:

• Maps are stored locally, no continuous data connection is needed
• Traffic Information in 10 countries, Lane assistance, speed trap warnings
• Pedestrian mode, including shortcuts only possible on foot
• Free Lonely Planet/Michelin travel guides

Effectively that means: Navteq maps and some of the services are given away to Nokia device owners for free, nada, zarro. Will make negotiations within the automotive sector quite interesting for the sales folks.

Well, "free" if it works on your device as one commenter puts it "so far the new ovimaps only work on Symbian 5.0 devices. so I guess that’s where the figure came from – older devices like N96, E51 etc. are not supported"

What does the pedestrian mode mean for United Maps and our "Walk & Ride" line of products?
Give it a try - a free update pushing pedestrian features further is on its way into the appstore. Still a long and humble road from "Discover Cities" to what pedestrians need. 

Just in time to submit our proposal to the annual "Galileo European Masters Satellite Navigation Competition 2009". As even the sharpest signals need maps to be marked on, I hope the jury sees it the same way.

Here's the condensed posters we submitted:

BoyGeniusReport posts a screenshot from debugging menus in the 3.0 beta firmware which seems to confirm that Apple has built-in magnetometer (digital compass) support into the next operating system.

So the formula goes like ...

Magnetometer + GPS + accelerometer = you are going from HERE to THERE at SPEED x

The missing element still: B.Y.O.M. - bring your own maps.

Everybody’s free to develop GPS navigation applications for the iPhone now.
As long as everybody brings own maps.

Oh yes, we will ...!

Directions magazine has a story 'A History of the Order of X, Y and Z – and Why It's Important' by Sam Bacharach, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc..

The story is worth reading, the wave of comments certainly is also.

Vector1 has a funny pointer:

A Japanese website called Nioibu has a Google mashup aimed and mapping and describing smells throughout the world. The aim is to pinpoint distinct odors throughout the world, and the creators dream of a day when the computer will mimic the smell of the item at a click of the mouse.

(Nobody speaks japanese here ... Jeff, you don't either ...?)

Google has responded stating that a single search is actually equivalent to a mere 0.2 grams of CO2.

Vector 1 has a story about the World Ball, "a cartographically-accurate basketball that is designed to teach geography". Rather rough details. Does this need to be taught in the US?

The Washington Post reports "it took 16 designs until National Geographic was satisfied with the accuracy of the balls". Hu! Let's do this on larger scales ...

Are maps the new interface? We think maps have been an effective interface through ages and finally will be proliferated to the most personal device ever: the ubiquitous cell in everybodies pocket.