Nokia Maps on my N73
Inspired by Pradeep B V’s comment on my earlier post, I went on to check if Nokia has any (updated) Maps for my Nokia Phone (N73). My phone does not have GPS like the Nokia Navigator, but nevertheless, Maps on mobile (with GPRS for Search) can still come in very handy. Also, my phone came pre packaged with a dumb local application (with maps), but it only used to show the outline of India. Now, I have seen that many times in my sixth class Geography and that level of map is not useful for any god damn thing, let alone Local Search.
So, I started from here , downloaded and installed the “Nokia Maps” application over to my phone and then downloaded and installed a windows only (Infact, you won’t even find the download link on firefox on windows. Visit the link on IE) application over to my PC. And then, after a few glitches, I downloaded the India data pack.
The map data is from Navteq. And we all already know Navteq does not have the best data set for India. For instance, the data pack for China was about 190 MB whereas the India one was 21MB. (India is about a third in size compared to China).
I was checking in and around Bangalore and they have all the major roads named and searchable. But more importantly, because you can download the data pack into your mobile, you don’t need a network connection to search or view the Map. That is cool, because GPRS (or EDGE, 2.5 G) is real slow for Maps. Also, there is no connectivity in places where you generally tend to get lost.
Now, the technology is also different when you compare this with Google Maps Mobile or Yahoo! Go. Nokia Maps is a vector map application. What that means is, the maps are rendered by an engine that understands shapes rather than showing images that have maps pre-rendered (aka raster maps ).
So, the application is smaller, renders what needs to be rendered and ignores layers and shapes when it needs to, It is probably a bit slower because of all the bits it needs to flip/flop before rendering the shape. I may be wrong here, that is just my guess.
I don’t have GPS on my phone. Earlier, I tried to buy a bluetooth GPS receiver that I can hook up with my phone. But the pieces that I tried never worked with my phone and I gave up. So, I couldn’t check if GPS worked well with the application and if the map is, infact, accurate.
Anyway, If you have a Nokia big smart phone, go download the maps. It will come in handy.
Related posts:
I downloaded the India pack into my mem card and strangely Maps application is not showing any maps. Could you help me out as to how to access the downloaded maps??
I use a N73 ME with F/W ver. 4.0734.2.2.1.
And I don’t have a GPRS connection
Sanjit
19 May 08 at 11:45 PM
I upgraded my firmware and that thing now works like a charm!!
Anyway Thanks for the article. 
Sanjit
20 May 08 at 1:30 AM
I am in bangalore. can some one give me step by step instruction to download india maps application to my N73
Anonymous
5 Sep 08 at 8:55 AM
Hey Anonymous, I can write a separate article on this…but if you mail in to me or leave an email address..I can send you a few links as well.
shivku
8 Sep 08 at 11:28 PM
Hiiiiii,
I have Nokia N73 ME, i installed Nokia Maps but its not showing anything in the mobile.. I have installed the application in mobile too… I downloaded India Maps with Nokia map loader… But nothing coming…
I read an another article which says that you should have a GPRS connection! Is it because of that??
I dont have one..
Thanks.
Rinse John
22 Sep 08 at 3:47 AM
HI All,
I have downloaded nokia maploader for my N73 and installed it. Where can I find the india data pack. Can some one give me the link. Shiv Kumar, I responded to you by from my yahoo id long back, but no response.
Anonymous
13 Oct 08 at 2:18 AM
hii
Harpreet
30 Dec 08 at 4:41 AM
Hi Friends,
I have recently installed mapmyindia i-Nav WayFinder mobile application on my nokia N95 handset.This application works very fine.It help me to show the roads,distance and the street addresses.It saves a lot of time.I personally love this application and recommend it to all.
Harpreet
30 Dec 08 at 5:48 AM
I have nokia n73 me. Can u give me step by step instructions on how to download nokia map loader software and nokia maps for india .my email id is shreyas3007@gmail.com
Shreyas
3 Jan 09 at 10:09 AM
I have nokia n73 me. Can u give me step by step instructions on how to download nokia map loader software and nokia maps for india .my email id is kunal_relwani@hotmail.com
Anonymous
20 Feb 09 at 2:44 AM
please let me know the links where i can find nokia maploader and India data pack for My N73 music edition phone. My email ID is shaikh.wasim@gmail.com
wasim
16 Jul 09 at 3:28 AM