Even though we’ll probably still be relying on cars in the future, we most likely will be using something other than oil to power our transportation of choice. With the Earth’s population expected to reach nine billion people in 2050, disproportionate energy demands are a present-day topic that will likely turn into an intense concern.

The Discovery Channel program “Earth 2050: Redesigning Our Energy Future” features the exciting innovations people are working on today in the areas of fuel, transportation and cities to address these future energy challenges. In the transportation segment, “Driven By Design,” Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Michael Epstein takes a look at the implications of the expected dramatic rise of car demand and dependency over the next 40 years.

Featured in this piece are Mike Finn and Cliff Fox  of Nokias Location & Commerce division. Mike provides expert insight on the high costs of traffic and the need to use our roads more efficiently and intelligently. Cliff goes on to describe how detailed maps are arming drivers with the information they need to make smarter driving decisions and spend less time in their cars.

Watch Mike and Cliff in the “Driven By Design” segment here and keep an eye out for the data clouds collected by our NAVTEQ True technology:

Click here to view the embedded video.

While the transportation segment touched on the importance of 3D mapping to new smart road technology, like driverless vehicles, the future of 3D mapping has even more in store for us than we might have imagined. In this extended interview, Cliff brings to life the depth behind our 3D map data and how these maps will revolutionize the way we navigate, travel and see the world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We were thrilled to be a part of this exciting documentary by Discovery Channel. Take a look at some of our behind the scenes photos from when their crew came to film at our Chicago HQ.

Cliff chats with the director in his office

Take 1!

Setting up

Powering up for a better look at the NAVTEQ True technology

The NAVTEQ True car makes an appearance outside of Nokia Chicago HQ

Mike Finn prepares for his interview in the Traffic Studio

Click here to view the embedded video.

And of course, let us know what you think!

Finnsurf, like the name indicates, is the world’s first Finnish surf film, about five incredibly dedicated  Finnish surfers who chase waves through the Finnish coast. When I first heard about the film being made, I was surprised – and may be even a bit shocked given how cold Finland can be in spring and fall, when the height of the surf season is – the ocean water is near freezing, it rains a lot and wind chill adds to the cold.

Finnish surfers wait for a storm front somewhere in Finland to produce big enough wind waves either on the Gulfs of the Baltic Sea or on the lakes inland. For me, this is not just a documentary about surfers, it is a documentary about dedication, fighting against odds and adventure.

Maps.nokia.com and the Nokia Maps API were both lucky to be a part of this wonderful documentary. Watch the trailer below, and you can follow the film around the festival circuit on their facebook page. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

This has been made possible by the Nokia Maps Places Plugin for WordPress. You guys have been very excited about the announcement of the API, and some of you have already embedded it to your websites. For those of you still wondering whether to use it or not, here we present a small video created by our developer team on how to use Nokia Maps Places Plugin in your WordPress blog or website.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So easy! You can download the plugin for your blogs from WordPress and read more about the Plugin on Nokia’s API page. Check it out and let us know what you think of the API!

Rikibu from Germany said on offline navigation: “when you switch to offline mode you miss the online up to date poi database feature. Especially when you walk/drive around in an unknown area/city/country its useful to find the important attractions. If you navigate in offline mode it can happen that you miss some interesting locations because these are not marked on the offline map. To bypass this limitations I would buy a prepaid sim card to get the full features for Maps – I already have  1 sim for Sweden and 1 for UK “

This is a great tip – if you travel often to a country, it is worth the cost to get temporary SIM cards so you can be online and take advantage of features like Live Traffic so you will travel fester.

Jade from Philippines suggested geo-tagging : “when the GPS is on, try to turn on too the geo-tagging feature on your camera in order to captured moments and tracked the places you’ve been through. “

Excellent idea, especially when visiting tourist spots!

Rikibu continues : “Here is another great hint for the planning situation. I have a Nokia N8 with HDMI output through a mini HDMI cable (included in the package). I really often plug my N8 on my 46 inch HDTV – its always impressive to handle Maps and other stuff through touch screen and take a look on the huge screen. Turn the phone sideways and you have a full screen display in king size dimensions ”

I have done this, and loved the clarity that the bigger screen provided. It is also easier when you want to show the maps to a group of people and get their opinions on a trip or a place.

Rikibu also has some wise advice for those of us who like to be organized: “Another great hint is to put all needed POIs into new categories. I added lots of bus and tram stations into my own favorites.”

Thank you Jade and Rikibu for your tips! Do you guys have any more tips to share?

Adi from WorldofPhones tried out Nokia Maps and Drive on Lumia, and talks about them in his three part review. We are covering the Maps and Drive part but make sure to read the full review:

Adi says “….. Nokia Maps is the solution I’m most comfortable using on a mobile phone….  First it’s maps like you know, then satellite view (aerial view) and third is public transport. This classification is a much better approach and quite practical too….  Nokia Drive basically is the navigation aspect of Nokia Maps with the voice guidance and offline map data you are familiar with. The UI gets an overhaul here and on Windows Phone it looks very different from what I remember seeing it as. It’s very easy to use the app and GPS locks are real quick even indoors. I’ve not seen such quick GPS locks and one must congratulate Nokia on simply nailing this one! …… The labeling on Nokia Maps is also more accurate….. and that’s a key differentiator and important feature. My vote as of now still stays with Nokia’s solution.”

Thank you Adi for your kind words! You can read the complete article at WorldofPhones.net

 ’Driving’ in the sea

Most of us have used Nokia Drive. We use it to commute in our city, to drive to our weekend destination and even to go on a road trip. Jade from Philippines has a rather unique Nokia Drive experience to share.

“Back November last year, me and some of my classmates went to Bantayan Island, Cebu…. We traveled by ferry, not a big boat but enough for few dozen of passengers, from Sagay City port to main Bantayan Island …..

I’ve fired up the Nokia Drive on Nokia N9 wondering if this will work right in the middle of the sea….. There were few connection cuts on both satellite and cellsites but overall the Nokia Drive worked smoothly because of the excellent performance of the assisted-GPS on Nokia N9….. The only issue I have had was on the calculations of my set points, start(boat) to end (center of Bantayan)….. What it did was it calculated the distance from the land (port) and not from where I was exactly. But in the end, docking the ship on the nearest point is better than getting lost.”

Thank your sharing the story with us Jade! You can read the complete story and look at the screen shots at his blog.

5. Save Data and Money when Traveling: Use Maps in Offline mode when you travel to save on data costs. Change your phone Profile to Offline mode, yet still explore where you are. However, getting a GPS fix when offline may take time depending on where you are, so make sure that you stay put in a relatively open space – which means not inside buildings or not when using the underground- for a minute or two for the fix to happen.

6. Use a Bigger Screen for Planning: Before you start a trip, use maps.nokia.com to plan the routes that you want to explore, and then sync the routs to your phone.

7. Save Time – Sync Favorites: Make sure you sync between your favorite on your phone and on maps.nokia.com. This will help you in having all your favorite places and routes at your fingertip, whether you are using your Nokia or on your laptop.

8. Take Advantage of Local Experts: Nokia Maps comes with Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, TimeOut, Qype and many more to give you good tips and reviews about the places that you are planning to check-out. Read the reviews, and then impress your friends with your knowledge of the neighborhood. For example, I am in Helsinki now and I read up on the restaurant reviews on maps.nokia.com before I try out a new restaurant, and also post comments to the place page when I am delighted or underwhelmed by the experience.

9. Make it a Better Map: Our world is ever-changing, which means yesterdays hot spot may have gone bankrupt, new roads are made, old roads are abandoned. Help the community by reporting errors via NAVTEQ Map Reporter. 

10. Keep your Maps Updated: Nokia periodically release new map data for different countries, and also new releases of the apps. Make sure that you update your location applications so that they will continue to help you best.

Oh, and a last one – wherever you are, use Nokia Maps to have amazing everyday adventures, and do share your maps stories with us!

Save time, data and money: Download free maps over Wi-Fi. Make sure that you have downloaded the free maps for your region, and have uploaded the maps of the regions to where you will be traveling.

1. Download lots of Apps: Now commercial, Nokia Suite with Nokia Maps v3.08 is the best location offering from Nokia so far. With Individual short cuts to Maps, Drive, Public Transport, City Lens, Pulse, Weather and more, you can customize the shortcuts on your home-screen so that the apps you want is just a click away.

1. Start using the Weather App: The Nokia Weather App is easy to use. The hour by hour update is very helpful, and small details like wind direction, sunrise-sunset time and phase of moon are well integrated to the app  to take it above and beyond the other weather applications

1. Use Landmarks View : When you are driving or walking, use Landmarks view on your maps to get a better idea of where you are. It helps you to better orient to your surroundings.

1. Save Data and Money when Traveling: Use Maps in Offline mode when you travel to save on data costs. Change your phone Profile to Offline mode, yet still explore where you are. However, getting a GPS fix when offline may take time depending on where you are, so make sure that you stay put in a relatively open space – which means not inside buildings or not when using the underground- for a minute or two for the fix to happen.

Part II of the post will be up in a few days. Meanwhile, try out these tips, and give us your tips to have a great Nokia Maps experience!

360Cities is the world’s largest collection of geo-referenced panoramic photos, each one shot by a network of expert panoramic photographers from around the world.  New members can join in either with the free basic membership or via the upgraded, paying options. Each and every image that is selected for the panorama is carefully reviewed and chosen by the community to maintain the quality of the images.

360Cities works on Nokia Maps v3.06 onwards. If you are using Nokia Maps v3.06, you can access 360Cities from the ‘More’ tab on your map menu.  In case you are using Nokia Maps v3.08 on your Symbian phone, you can access it via the ‘Guide’ widget. Currently, the images are displayed in a flat Mercator projection.

If you have Nokia Maps v3.06 or v3.08 on your phone, do try out 360Cities on them and let us know what you think!

…The other day there was a bad accident on the road and I was on the way for client meeting in the morning.. It was not the area i go regularly so i didn’t know how to help the injured guy.. First I informed the Police and the next thing I did is I searched for the nearby hospital on Nokia Maps and explained the road directions and landmarks to the Police with the help of Nokia Maps. Things moved really fast after i gave them perfect directions to take the injured guy to the that nearest hospital. it was not very famous hospital so hardly any one was aware of it but it was nearby and helpful at that moment. Thanks to Nokia Maps for helping me to help someone who was in trouble…..

Modern technology has been accused of alienating people from their surroundings. Nithin’s story is the proof that it is not the technology, but what you do with it that really matters. Thank you Nitin, for sharing this lovely use of Nokia Maps with us.

Do you have stories like Nitin’s to share?