Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

PhoneTorch 2.0 was installed in a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS 9.4.

Installation

Installation is imply via the Nokia Application Installer available in the Nokia PC Suite. You can also transfer the .sis file to the mobile’s memory card and start installation directly from the phone.

First View

I always thought flashlight applications for the mobile phone were overrated. There is a wow factor and the first impression is always good but I wondered if they’d be really useful when you really need a flashlight to search a car key dropped on the road at night or finding your seat in a movie theater. Read on.

Main Review

PhoneTorch uses 2 light sources on your phone – the LED flash and the LCD display. The LED flash of the Nokia 5800 is quite bright and I found that it functions truly as a low intensity flashlight and is very useful. I used it in both the use cases I mentioned above and it proved useful. The LED can be turned on and off from within the application.

The LCD display lights up the entire 3.2″ display with the color you want. You can change the color of the display too. The light intensity of the display can be reduced or increased.

PhoneTorch also lets you send out Morse code using the LCD display. You just have to type the text, like SOS, and it send out dots and dashes by short and long bursts of LED light.

PhoneTorch can be configured to autostart on your phone. The hardware Camera key can be configured to be a shortcut key and can be used to turn on / off the LED flash.

You can set the application resume the light state when you last quit it. Which means if you quit the app with the LED on, the next time you restart it, the LED comes back on, without you having to turn it on. That reduces the number of taps you have to make when you badly need some light.

Handling

PI found PhoneTorch to quite fast showing now latency when I opened it to start the flash light. When the app goes to the background, you can use the hardware Camera key to turn on and off the LED. This is thoughtfully done so that once again, key presses or taps are reduced. But you cannot open the camera when PhoneTorch is running, because it hijacks the hardware Camera key.

But I found that ScreenSnap, the screen capture application overrides PhoneTorch too! So when you have ScreenSnap and PhoneTorch open, pressing the Camera key

Weaknesses

Obviously, keeping the LED flash or the display turned on for many seconds will drain the battery in a flash. Its not really a weakness, but something one should remember when keeping the LED flash turned on for many minutes and complaining that the battery on the device is poor. Notice the power spike in the image below, when LED flash is turned on.

Conclusion

I found that the design of PhoneTorch was well thought out. Quick access to open the application and toggle the flashlight easily are two use cases which have been given paramount importance and implemented perfectly. With simple controls, great ease of use, PhoneTorch is good stuff and can be purchased here for $2.99.

PhoneTorch is one application that silently stays in a corner and shows its value at the most important moment.
PhoneTorch with all its functionality is supported in Nokia S60 5th edition, 3rd edition FP2 and Sony Ericsson Vivaz, Vivaz Pro and Satio. Older vesions like N95 are also supported, but with limited features. Its a truly useful application and I’ll give it 4 of 5.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

TviderLite, is a fancy little Twitter client created exclusively for tweeting multimedia status. Now, you’d ask, why would I want to have a separate client for multimedia, when I can use, for e.g. Gravity which supports posting images via TwitPic, TwitGoo, Yfrog, img.ly, Posterous and MobyPicture? But does your twitter client post and instantly clicked picture, captured video or audio clips to a public timeline and also your own Twitter timeline?

With a beautifully implemented user interface, Tvider is a refreshing new Twitter application that I find quite impressive, in what it does.

Read on.

Tvider has four ways to update your status – InstaPix, InstaVideo, InstaAudio and MemWiz.

InstaPix lets you capture a picture and tweet it.

With InstaVideo, you can capture a video, from within Tvider and instantly plays it back to you so that you can decide to tweet it or not.

InstaAudio records is a voice recorder that tweets audio message to your timeline.

When you playback the video or  audio, Tvider also displays the length of the clip in seconds. That gives me an idea of how long it will take to actually tweet the clip online. Tvider obviously maintains its own server to host the public timeline which will contains hundreds of thousands of images, video and audio clips. So the multimedia is of the smallest resolution possible. I don’t see this as a real issue, considering that more and more multimedia creation and consumption is via the mobile’s small screen.

MemWiz, which I find to be a name that’s not related to the function it does, lets you pick a file and tweet it. But in reality, it only lets you select images to tweet. But the additional benefit is that you can add a comment along with the picture that you wish to tweet.

Tvider.com has a public timeline to which you can login with your Twitter handle.

Download

TvideLite 1.4 can be downloaded from m.tvider.com. TviderLite only supports Multimedia tweets, as explained on the tvider blog.

The premium version of Tvider supports Text and Multimedia tweeting, viewing tweets and other operations like DM, Replies, follow, unfollow, etc which are the standard features of Twitter, But Tvider premium, is only available for subscribers of two service providers, Airtel and 3 Networks. Mobile subscribers of other networks cannot get Tvider premium!!

TviderLite and Tvider are currently available only for S60 3rd edition devices. I tested TviderLite on my Nokia E71, a Symbian 9.3, S50 3rd edition FP 1 device.

Conclusion

TviderLite is perfect for travel blogging and for sharing instant emotions to people across the world. I enjoyed the simplicity of its user interface. Its good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

ABBY Foto Translate was installed on a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS 9.4.

Installation

Installation is simply via the Nokia Application Installer available in the Nokia PC Suite. You get different .sis files for different languages.

First View

ABBY Foto Translate, as the name suggests, instantly translates words captured on your S60 Symbian camera phone into the desired language. The concept of snapping a few foreign words and getting their meaning immediately is very exciting. Lets see how well this ambitious idea has been implemented for daily use.

Main Review

ABBY Foto Translate, is a very simple-to-use application. The use case is for a typical globe trotter, who needs a quick translation of road signs, restaurant menus,  news paper headlines, business card and so on. When the visitor in a foreign city needs to translate a magazine article or an instruction manual, he would approach a professional translator for this job. ABBY Foto Translate uses ABBY’s award-winning optical character recognition (OCR) technology for converting images of words into text and mobile dictionary software.

I used the French –> English translator version for my tests. When ABBY Foto Translate is started, it opens the camera view finder with its own interface. You just point the view finder to a block of text and press the on-screen camera button or the hardware camera button.

Remember to have the text appears horizontally on the screen and is parallel to the guiding line, that’s visible on the view finder within ABBY Foto Translate application. The application expects the camera to have auto-focus because it automatically focusses on the word you point to and takes an image.

If the camera’s focus is poor or blocked, ABBY Foto Translate, points this out so that you can adjust the distance of the text from the camera and point it correctly. In the image below, you can also see guiding line which should be parallel to the text.

ABBY Foto Translate not just captures a single word you point at, but all the words that fall within the view finder of the camera. Each word in the captured text is treated as an independent block which is character-recognized and translated for the user. After the image capture and processing is done, you can select any of the words in the captured text to get the translation. As long as ABBY Foto Translate has successfully captured that word as a complete block, you will get the  translation perfectly.

I learnt, after may trials, that I should keep the camera at the right distance to capture enough words for translation, but not too far away from the text that ABBY Foto Translate fails to pick words correctly and as unique blocks. When the camera is kept too far away, a whole paragraph is recognized as a single block and fails to be translated. See examples in the images below.

Handling

Making sure the camera’s guiding line is parallel to the text and the text is horizontal on the screen is a little cumbersome and it will take many attempts to get it right. Otherwise, its very simple to use.

Weaknesses

Many a time, I observed that ABBY Foto Translate didn’t capture the block with precision. Many long words were captured as incomplete blocks and the dictionary failed to return a translation. For e.g., in the image below, the word I wanted to look up was “nous”, but ABBY Foto Translate has blocked the letter S and has given a vague translation! But this is did not happen often. Most of the time, I got the whole words blocked and were translated correctly.

Conclusion

ABBYY Foto Translate is worth a look. It will surprise you by the accuracy and the detailed dictionary it points you to. Its fast too. ANNYY Foto Translate is available for Symbian OS S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition (v9.1/9.2/9.3/9.4) in English, German and Russian languages. You obviously need a camera, and ABBY recommends a minimum of 2 MP with autofocus for best results.

ABBY Foto Translate is available for 8 languages and doesn’t need an internet connection or mobile network connection is required.

You can download a trial or purchase it here.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

SPB Weather 1.00 was installed on a Nokia 5800, a Symbian 9.4, S60 5th edition device.

Installation

SPB Weather comes as a .sis files and can be installed using the Nokia Application Installer.

First View

SPB Weather takes away the drudgery of having to use the never ending hierarchical-menu-driven S60 interface and replaces it with a UI refresh that brings a renewed hope for S60 touch.

Read on.

Main Review

The whole 3.2″ screen of the Nokia 5800 is dedicated to displaying the weather of a single city. This means a great amount of weather information can be gathered in a single view! The screen real estate is divided into three parts. The top part of the screen, [or the left side, in landscape mode], shows a graphic, the day’s weather in a large font and a smaller weather list for Morning, Day and Evening on the side.

The middle part of the screen, which is the largest, displays the weather for the next 4 days with a graphic and the high and low for that day.

The third part of the screen, has the controls for the configuration settings button, weather update button, 3D Globe button and the exit button.

The main screen also shows when the weather was updated last. You can refresh the weather by just touching the weather update button.

Touching the city on the screen, brings up additional weather info – Humidity, Pressure, Wind speed, etc. Touching the return arrow on the right takes you back to the main screen for the city.

Touching the day’s weather forecast brings up additional details for that day. For each day, the weather for Night, Morning, Day and Evening is displayed, with humidity, wind speed and a graphic.

In the landscape, mode, only the weather for Night and Morning can be displayed, so you can use kinetic scrolling to scroll down to view the weather for Day and Evening.

The return arrow is implemented uniformly in all screens to take you back to the main screen. All new screens are brought up with cool animations that’s pleasing to the eye but doesn’t mar the experience by being slow or too long to distract the user.

Even if 10 cities are configured, navigation is very easy. Just by pushing the screen left or right brings up a new screen with the weather for the next city, just like navigating a photo album.

The 3D Globe button animates a globe that can display information about the Cities, Clouds, Sky, Temperature and Rains for the cities configured. Touching the play button animates the globe.

A zoom in/ zoom out option is available that appears when you touch the screen, almost like the Ovi Maps zoom function. The animation is quite realistic, like the weather channel.

The configuration settings, still opens up the S60 menu structure, to add new cities and set other options, like automatic schedule update, units to use for display – Celsius or Fahrenheit, etc.

Adding a new city is a simple operation. SPB Weather supports over 10,000 cities all over the world. Each city in the list is prefixed with the country’s name in short. This is better than have to select a city in two passes – first the country and then the city.  There is also an option to select the city by GPS.

Handling

With photo album-like navigation, kinetic scrolling, large touch buttons and limited dependency on S60’s hierarchical menu-structure for only the initial setup, greatly improves navigation.

Usually frequent operations like weather update, exit, etc are hidden in the a menu structure, thus making it cumbersome to update the weather quickly. SPB have changed the approach and this makes the user experience delightful.

Here’s a video demonstration of SPB Weather from the developers of the program.

Weaknesses

I didn’t find any weaknesses in SPB Weather.

Conclusion

There are so many weather forecast reporting applications out there for S60 on Symbian OS but SPB Weather is the first one that actually makes the weather report rather interesting. SPB have shown that you can actually bring cool animation, one-touch access to most functions and present a great user experience on the S60 UI.

For the functional simplicity in using the touch interface, great display, innovative features and accurate weather reporting, SPB Weather is a must have and I’ll give it 4 of 5. SPB Weather can be purchased or downloaded for a trial here.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

Top2Move Lite, V1.63 was installed on a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, a Symbian S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS 9.4.

Installation

Top2Move comes with a Nokia installer .sis file. Each map comes separately in a set of 2 files, a .map file and a .ogf2 file.

First Look

Top2Move is a Symbian S60 5th edition based user friendly mobile route-navigation system for hikers, bikers, marine environments and other outdoor activities.

Main Review

Top2Move is a navigational cartographic application developed specifically for outdoor activities like biking, hiking, sailing and skiing. You can plan your own routes and share them using SMS or online.

Top2Move comes with high definition proprietary maps for each location that has to be installed separately. The maps come with 1:10,000  scale and you can switch to different locations in a map quite easily.

You can use Top2Move as a simple cartographic application or use the Top2Move functions with the help of the GPS module to create Waypoints and Tracks.

Installing Maps

Maps for each region comes as two files – .map and .ogf2. These files must be placed in the <memory card>/data/SmartComGPS/maps folder.

Loading a Map

In the main menu, click on Map Options to select one of the installed maps and you are ready to go. I picked up the Kitzbuhel Ski maps and Phuket’s maps for this review.

Navigation

Once you have loaded a map, you can Navigate To a point on the map by selecting Tap Screen or by selecting To Waypoint or By Track that already exist in the database. More about Waypoints and Tracks later. As you can see, the Tracks are proprietary files created by Top2Move at the request of the user.

Map operations on top the screen, like Zoom in, Zoom out, Zoom 100%, Where Am I and Mini Map are available. I particularly like the Mini Map feature that lets you browse around a large region at a 30,000 feet level before picking the region you want to zoom into.

Tracks and Waypoints

On existing maps, in the Navigate To panel, custom tracks can be created by selecting Create Track and picking a route that you want to take.

On a track, interesting or vital points of interest for the traveler can be marked as Waypoints and used for navigation. The Waypoint’s GPS coordinates are recorded by Top2Move.

You can create custom tracks in the place you are currently visiting. When a new track is created, the distance of the track is also calculated.

When you select Navigate To and pick the custom track, the distance from your current location to the track is shown and the direction you have to take to reach the track is also given.

Remember to name your Waypoints and Tracks with meaningful names relevant to the specific map because when you are viewing a different map and try to load a track that’s not built on that map, you will be surprised!

When you have Top2Move open, the digital map will move along with you. During movement, your track is being recorded by plotting a trail on your screen so you will never get lost again.

Drive

The Drive function is somewhat like building a Track-on-the-go. Select Drive on the menu and start driving. The GPS follows you and you can create Waypoints on your trip and finally save the track for later use.

Send Position

You can send your current position to a friend by SMS.

There are lots of general settings that lets you control the user experience. Top2Move lets you use the internal GPS built into the S60 device or you can use external GPS devices via bluetooth.

Add-on Packs

Every city or ski resort’s map is available as a separate add-on pack that must be downloaded and installed.

Handling

Finding your way around Top2Move could be a little overwhelming at first because of the large number of operations and options. Over time you will get used to its features and put them to good use. To get the best experience, go to the actual location and start the application, with the right maps.

Weaknesses

A couple of times, Top2Move didn’t start. I had to reboot the  device to get it started again. But I didn’t find any weaknesses in Top2Move.

Conclusion

Top2Move Lite V1.63, the .sis application can be downloaded here for Euro 29.50.  Hundreds of add-on packs for various regions are available for purchase. Add-on ski packs are available for FREE here. A demo add-on pack for Phuket is available that can be downloaded here for a trial. All other add-on packs are priced at Euro 4.50 but are now available at a 50% discount at Euro 2.25. Top2Move Lite must be purchased before using the maps and it is not available for trial.

With a unique type of service and versatile features like creation of Tracks and Waypoints, Top2Move aims to provide a special experience for bikers, hikers, ski lovers and similar outdoor sportspersons. Its highlight is the availability of hundreds of add-on packs for various regions which make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, I could not try it out in a real location Top2Move is good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5.

Review Conditions

VoiceQ from SBSH Mobile Software Ltd was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition, FP 1 device.

Installation

Installation can be done via the PC using the Nokia application installer or by downloading the file OTA and installing it on the go. You need to register with SBSH by giving your email address to begin the download.

First View

Why do we need another voice recorder for a Symbian phone? What is VoiceQ going to provide over and above the default application that will make you buy it? Read on.

Main Review

VoiceQ is a solution for users who wish to take notes on the go and don’t have the time or inclination to write it down. But when there are dedicated Voice Recorders available in the market and by default all Symbian mobiles come with a very good voice recorder, why does one need another one?

What makes VoiceQ stand apart is its simplicity in use and email of the voice memo to a desired email id almost instantly. Furthermore, it can do it in just 2 clicks.

VoiceQ expects the messaging application to have one email mailbox setup already to function. Unless the email is setup, VoiceQ cannot email to voice memo to an email address. VoiceQ works only with the built in messaging application and does not work with other email clients like Nokia Messaging, Profimail, etc.

When the application is opened, you get the “Ready” screen where you can click “Record” to begin recording the voice memo. While recording, the screen shows that the “Recording” is in progress. Once voice memo is complete, you can stop recording and you get the option to Email the memo.

All this can be accomplished in two clicks. To facilitate even faster operation, there are 2 options that can be setup. These two options are to start recording the moment VoiceQ is opened and to email immediately after the memo is recorded. With these two option set, you only have to start the application and start talking. VoiceQ will do the rest.

You can insert multiple email addresses by separating them with the ‘;’ character (i.e.: a@aaa.com; b@bbb.com)

VoiceQ uses the same sound file for all of your recordings. Once you start recording, the previous recording is overwritten (but the attachments stay in the e-mail). This will save space on your device while keeping your attached voice notes intact. The idea is that the voice memo does not have to be present in the mobile’s memory card after it has been emailed out.

Each recording is saved to a WAV sound file which can be played in every standard sound player. The encoding is done as PCM audio format, 128 kbps Bit Rate, 16bit Audio sample size, mono (1channel), 8kHz Audio sample rate. This means that the file is pretty small for an audio file (about 1MB = 1 minute). The recording is limited by 10 minutes. This was done as a design decision, because there is not a real point in sending an email with a huge attachment.

Handling

VoiceQ is extremely easy to use. There were no issues in using it.

Weaknesses

The same sound file is overwritten for each voice memo with the assumption that it will always be emailed out immediately. It may so happen that there is no WiFi or GPRS/3G connection at certain regions. In these cases, if the user wants to record multiple voice memos, only the latest will remain and all others will be lost. There should be an option to enable email. If email is not enabled, the sound files should not be overwritten.

Conclusion

At 160 Kilobytes, VoiceQ is a tiny application that delivers what it promises with great simplicity. For the ever traveling businessman, who has to take notes on the go, VoiceQ is a very useful application. Its good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5. You can try a full-featured version of VoiceQ for 12 days or purchase it at $5.95 here.

When I formerly was jogging I wondered what distance I completed and what time it took me. Furthermore I wanted to know about my speed and would have liked to compare it to former runs. Now there is something that could help me, and you of course, to keep an eye on your training status.

Review conditions

For testing purposes I installed Nokia Sports Tracker in Version 1.71 for S60 3.0 on my Nokia E65. Please notice, that Sports Tracker is still in Beta status.

Installation

First you have to download Sports Tracker in the specific version for your device. After downloading the file, step through the familiar installation process. For tracking data you will need either an external GPS device or the built-in ones, like Nokia N95 has. Pairing my E65 with my external bluetooth GPS worked very well.

First view

At the first start of the application I recommend to establish a wireless lan connection, because you will need a free account to use the Sports Tracker properly. I did that and set up a user. You can also define some details about your person like age, gender, height and weight.

Main features

I think the name says exactly what this application does: it tracks your sport exercises. Select New Workout, tell it if you are running, walking, cycling or skiing and press start. Unless you have a valid GPS connection you can go for your workout. A nice fullscreen  shows you some interesting data, a landscape mode is also possible but that didn’t make sense for me at this time. While you work out there are six different views that aggegrate facts that are pretty interesting to know. It shows your current speed, average speed, altitude, distance, time and others. But that is not all, Sports Tracker creates three different graphs showing for instance your speed and the distance. You can navigate through the screens via top and down key very easily.

Do you have a data flatrate? Turn on live sharing and your trackings will be available online for everyone you want to be able to see your workout live. When you finished a lap, just press the right soft button and the lap-time shows up. If you have finished your workout you can stop the tracking and save the recorded data. A pretty nice feature is that you can define every workout as a specific route. When you are running at the same way again and again you can compair your performance very easily through that feature and observe your training status. For that purpose you can also take a look at the training diary, where a small calendar shows up, that marks the days where you did your training.

But that is not all. Noka Sports Tracker also offers a nice web interface where you can upload your data to for sharing and viewing your trackings online. That could look like the following. Unfortunately the GPS data delivered where not pretty acurate at this point.

Besides that the mobile application also offers multi user support, as you can add new user profiles for the use of Sports Tracker. Furthermore there is the possibility of looking for pictures associated with your workout. Sports Tracker does this automatically, does a search for pictures created during the workput and lets you upload them.

Handling

Since the Sports Tracker is made by Nokia I expected the application to be very easy to use. And that is really true. It can be controlled intuitively. There is nothing negative to point out here.

Weaknesses

One thing I have to mention at this point is, that Sports Tracker did not ask which connection to use when I tried to upload my workouts. The application did just nothing but showing a progress bar. Aborting and reentering the preferred connection solved this issue.

Conclusion

Nokia is not the first who tries to connect technology and sports. But who needs Nike + iPod? I am really overwhelmed by the functionality Nokia Sports Tracker offers. I can do everything I expect of such an application, and even more. And the best: it is free. Nokia Sports Tracker is an excellent way to keep an eye on your workouts, even though it is still in beta status. In my opinion 5 of 5 stars are appropriate.

Download Nokia Sports Tracker

Today I’d like to review a program called WorldMate. The application provides you with travel information like for example weather forecasts.

Review conditions

I installed WorldMate version 5.10.34 on my Nokia N80. To update its data the program requires an Internet connection, therefore I used wireless LAN.

Installation

The easiest way to install WorldMate is via the browser of your smartphone. Just go to http://mobile.mobimate.com/s60 and download WorldMate. The installer starts automatically and you only have to follow the instructions as usual.

First view

After starting WorldMate the first time you have to register with your email address and configure basic settings like country and city. After you completed the basic setup you see the main menu. From here you can go to the different tools.

Main features

But before you start using WorldMate I recommend to open the settings and choose the correct access point. You can configure temperature and measuring units, confirming of connections and updating as well. In the free version you can use the tools clocks, currency, weather forecast, weather caster and world map. When you want to start a tool in WorldMate the application shows a short description of that tool. If you press dismiss the description won’t be shown in future. With the tool clocks you can see the time time of your and four other cities all over the world. Of course you can change each city via the options. The currency tool is a converter for three currencies at the same time. The rates can be updated via the Internet and you can change each of the three currencies individually.

Weather forecast offers you a forecast of the next five days for the city of your choice. The forecast includes highs and lows and the weather conditions. The data has to be updated via the Internet. With the tool world map you can see the day and night status of the world and the location of a lot of cities. The time and weather status of the chosen city is also displayed. The last tool is weather caster. Unlike the other tools weather caster works passive. You can configure two reports as you like. You can set days, time and if the report is visual or also vocal. A report includes highs and lows, weather condition and information about wind and humidity.

Handling

WorldMate is really easy to use and self-explanatory. You just have to use the direction keys and three buttons. Changing cities or currencies can be done via the options menu. That’s it.

Weaknesses

Because of the simplicity of WorldMate there are no great weaknesses. We were a bit annoyed with the advertisement of the pro version. Another weakness is that you can’t choose an access point when a connection is going to be established. Especially if you travel and use different access points this is unfavourable. A useful feature we missed would be to start reports manually and not only scheduled.

Conclusion

WorldMate is a really simple but useful application. It offers many useful tools, especially for traveling. Of course there are little weaknesses and the other three tools are only included in the pro version but because of the easy handling and the good information the program provides I rate the free version of WorldMate with 4 of 5 stars.

In our first review we are going to check out a very famous application – Google Maps. When using a computer Google Maps is always my first choice for planning routes or just looking for business nearby. Let’s see how it works on a smartphone.

Review conditions

In the review we were running the latest version of Google Maps (2.0.7) on a Nokia E65. To use Google Maps on your smartphone you need an internet connection, on the one hand to install the application and on the other hand to use it, because Google Maps streams requested data to you phone.

Installation

Installing Google Maps on your phone is very easy. At first you have to visit “www.google.com/gmm” in your browser. Just click the download button. When the installation file is completely downloaded the setup starts. Just continue with two clicks and you are done. The Google Maps icon shows up in your program folder.

First view

After the first start of the application you will be shown the disclaimer. Then you have to choose your preferred internet connection. When the connection is established you can go and browse the maps you want. If you don’t want to establish an internet connection Google Maps will shut down immediately. My first impression was, that Google Maps on a smartphone is not significantly slower than on a computer. Searching works very good, as well as scrolling around and browsing the maps.

Main features

One of the main application areas of Google Maps is the satellite view. You can see almost every place of the world on rather good satellite pictures. Most cities offer a decent zoom level where you can see details like cars or even people walking around. That is mostly like Google Maps on a computer.

In addition to that it is possible to plan routes via Google Maps. In the menu choose directions and enter your start and end address. The application will offer you the best way immediately. You can either view the text-based Route Overview or click through the single instructions in the map with the keys [4] and [6]. The Route Overview shows the distance of the route and the time you will need to complete it. Everything you need.

Another nice feature is looking for businesses nearby. You don’t know where you are? Use My Location to view your location approximately, even with a phone not supporting GPS. It takes information broadcast from mobile towers near you to approximate your current location on the map. In the search box just enter what you are looking for. The results are very satisfying, just take a look at the screenshots. Here we also have detailed information like address, phone number or website. Clicking the search results through in the map with the keys [4] and [6] is possible, too.

Handling

To control Google Maps you just need to know a few neat shortcuts. Use [1] and [3] to zoom in and out, [2] to toggle between satellite and map view or [0] to view your current location. The keys [4] and [6] are for scrolling through search results or directions. Moving around the map is also very easy using the direction keys of your phone. All in all it offers a very google-like handling.

Weaknesses

I have nothing to complain about in Google Maps for mobile phones. If I had to tell you something to improve this application, it would be to be able to choose whether to use faster or shorter routes in Directions. But taking into account that Google Maps is no navigation system that would be pretty overdone.

Conclusion

Google Maps is definitely a must-have for every owner of a symbian smartphone. It is a fast application written in native code. Despite the ease of use Google Maps comes with a lot of great features like My Location or the use of bluetooth GPS devices. Furthermore there is detailed documentation in the program. 5 of 5 stars!