Nokia's HERE maps returns to iOS App Store after 15-month hiatus
After being pulled from Apple's iOS App Store in 2013, Nokia's HERE mapping and navigation app is back up for download, complete with offline caching, traffic information, public transit data and more.
Making good on a promise to bring HERE back to iOS sometime in 2015, Nokia officially launched a refreshed version of the maps and navigation app on Wednesday.
According to Nokia, HERE for iOS is a "completely different app" than the old HTML5 version. The company says its app has been reworked from the ground up, with code optimized specifically for Apple's mobile operating system.
Unlike competing services that stream map data, like Apple Maps and Google Maps, HERE lets users save to their device mapping data from 100 countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia and Brazil, for offline use. Caching maps can provide a faster in-app experience and is a good way to save on allotted cellular data and roaming costs, especially when traveling to far-off lands. Other apps offer identical functionality, but usually for a price.
HERE also incorporates features seen in other mapping apps, like global voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, real-time traffic information in 40 countries and quick comparisons between driving, public transport and walking routes for trip planning. In addition, the service supports cross-device syncing, meaning users can save a point of interest on their iPhone and later retrieve the information on iPad.
Nokia pulled HERE from the iOS App Store in December 2013, saying at the time that changes introduced in Apple's iOS 7 "harm the user experience."
HERE comes in at 60.4MB and can be downloaded for free from the iOS App Store.
Making good on a promise to bring HERE back to iOS sometime in 2015, Nokia officially launched a refreshed version of the maps and navigation app on Wednesday.
According to Nokia, HERE for iOS is a "completely different app" than the old HTML5 version. The company says its app has been reworked from the ground up, with code optimized specifically for Apple's mobile operating system.
Unlike competing services that stream map data, like Apple Maps and Google Maps, HERE lets users save to their device mapping data from 100 countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia and Brazil, for offline use. Caching maps can provide a faster in-app experience and is a good way to save on allotted cellular data and roaming costs, especially when traveling to far-off lands. Other apps offer identical functionality, but usually for a price.
HERE also incorporates features seen in other mapping apps, like global voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, real-time traffic information in 40 countries and quick comparisons between driving, public transport and walking routes for trip planning. In addition, the service supports cross-device syncing, meaning users can save a point of interest on their iPhone and later retrieve the information on iPad.
Nokia pulled HERE from the iOS App Store in December 2013, saying at the time that changes introduced in Apple's iOS 7 "harm the user experience."
HERE comes in at 60.4MB and can be downloaded for free from the iOS App Store.
Comments
I downloaded this, the map design is hilariously archaic, like Mapquest circa 2005.
I have this sudden hankering to buy a 1964 Cadillac DeVille convertible. Short of that, maybe I can find an old Palm Treo on eBay.
I downloaded this, the map design is hilariously archaic, like Mapquest circa 2005.
I have this sudden hankering to buy a 1964 Cadillac DeVille convertible. Short of that, maybe I can find an old Palm Treo on eBay.
Yes, it's terrible.
Hmmm funny Here (Nokia) make the mapping data for Mercedes, BMW, Yahoo, Garmin,Amazon wonder why they made the iPhone version crap then or is it just knee jerk bias as nothing is better than Apple
After all of the advancements in mapping, this is what they're offering? Their ad trumps up such an infrequent issue.
For me when I'm abroad: I don't usually drive in areas I don't know. Even if I do, apple's standard maps are lightweight enough to not punish my roaming data bill. (Usually I pick up a local data pack anyway.)
Like Apple's Map didn't suck.... come on... did you tried before you posted your comment??? The app it self is not bad.
- For some reason you can't remove favorites (POIs). You have to do this via the website.
- The old Nokia Maps on Symbian showed you the actual traffic jams you would run into, I find just a delay indicator (even up to the second) a bit too sparse.
- All of Europe is a ~9 GB download, while my TomTom Western Europe app is ~2 GB incl. all POIs. etc.
- More street names and info in the main display would be nice.
- Traffic info looks like a straight pull from Google, would be nice to also inform people when they will hit upcoming traffic (like TomTom)
But it's free and you can download maps, so you don't get a big hit on your data plan. Here in Europe, that's a major annoyance..
Downloaded it last night. Meh, nowhere near as good as Google/Apple offerings. It would not show me alternate routes to my destination (200 miles away) even though I know there is at least one viable alternate. UI is not very clever, you have to hunt around to figure out how to use it. I'll keep it installed as a backup for when I'm in Europe. It certainly won't be my go to navi app.
The HERE maps app is pretty incredidble - I do not know what others above are talking about. I find the design and UX superior and clean. Does Apple Maps do public transport? does it do offline? is the turn-by-turn guidance as good as nokia here map - apple is based off of Tom Tom data. For users in other parts of the world outside US, offline is a big deal - you need maps the most when you are traveling - without incurring massive data costs - that's why I don't use Google or Apple Maps. If you live in Europe or ROTW, or major US cities public transport is a big deal. I don't use Apple maps for that.
I think this map is a great alternative - I've been using it on my Android Nexus 5 phone for quite some time and it appears that the iOS version is pretty much on parity with that one.
I love it
I downloaded this, the map design is hilariously archaic, like Mapquest circa 2005.
I have this sudden hankering to buy a 1964 Cadillac DeVille convertible. Short of that, maybe I can find an old Palm Treo on eBay.
Yes, it's terrible.
I thought I would give it a try this AM on the way into town from home (about 15.5 miles) even though I know the route quite well. First a couple things about setup. I use an iPhone 6 plus with 64 GB memory w/AT&T (excellent signal here). I set it up to show traffic, auto switch between day & night mode and selected the Hi-def Female US English voice with voice directions turned on.
I downloaded the maps that I thought most likely to ever use to see what impact that had on available space and performance. I found that with over half of the US and Virgin Islands loaded as well as part of Mexico and Canada the hit on space was quite small (< 1 GB) but most was the west side of the Mississippi so the maps would be more sparse considering there is relatively large low density population in the midwest and major deserts.
It was easy enough to find the location I was traveling. I entered company name in search field which it then found in my contacts and some other hits it presented in a list for me to confirm as the To: end and it assumed current location was From: end. It very quickly presented a greatly scaled down map and also had me confirm auto (from choice of auto, walk, mass trans). Interestingly it only seems to present ONE route which is what Apple/Google would show as the quickest (but no alternates if you want to avoid toll roads etc...) which is kind of lacking.
I found all that nice and functional and did not find the maps to be lacking in anyway (but this was one trip). I liked that it automagically switched to night mode (much easier than a bright screen in the dark).
I hit 'Start' and it zoomed in on the current location with accurate map and also showed the estimated time of the trip along with my current speed and the speed limit (in lower L corner). However there were no verbal instructions nor were there and notes popping up saying turn L/R in XX distance. The maps did highlight the place where you were about to turn an it was prominently displayed but the lack of audio sucks. Maybe I set something up wrong but the US English Female in Hi-def never came out to play!
I intentionally diverged from its instructions an it responded very quickly with a msg stating 'recalculating directions' and almost before I could read it, the msg was gone and the screen refreshed with the alternate route and my current location in the blink of and eye. It was very fast so I guess having the maps on the iPhone does make a difference!
'Here' has a couple of features that I have not seen on the iPhone that I liked (e.g., night mode, current speed limit and your actual speed indicated with a user adjustable threshold before waring you are over). I have not figured out all of the workings (i.e., some are not that intuitive).
On balance if I can figure out why the voice did not work it seems to be pretty good but not great and didn't seem to be as bad as earlier comments said.
Good write-up, Damn-its-Hot,
I tried doing the HERE Maps turn-by-turn guidance using the downloaded "offline" maps in Amsterdam while riding a bike there! (I was using the Android version of the HERE app) it worked and better yet, I switched it to pedestrian mode (versus drive) so I would get a better bike versus car route. I also downloaded the high-def female UK voice and worked flawlessly. I also saved my favorite places I wanted to visit so I could go to them later. The best part - no roaming data charges when I needed maps the most!
The hardest part? Trying to ride a bike with my phone in Turn by Turn mode! :-)
HERE screenshot
[IMG]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/56607/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
Google screenshot
[IMG]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/56608/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
Apple screenshot
[IMG]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/56609/width/200/height/400[/IMG]