During Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, I had to face an unexpected challenge – Getting around Barcelona without the complete knowledge of Spanish.
Luckily for me just weeks before I started packing my bags for Barcelona, Nokia had announced that OVI Maps for going completely free and it was going to be available on a range of Nokia phones including the Nokia E72 which was my primary phone at this time.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPyS3ulNZHc
Here is my story of OVI Maps helped me find my way from the Airport to my Hotel on a Phone which was totally offline. I had lost my baggage and was waiting at the airport to find my way to Hotel. I had to find out how much it would roughly cost me to take a cab. I tried talking to some folks but they were talking mainly in Spanish. All I could understand was that they charge by the meter. I remember reading that they charge roughly 1-2 euros per km in europe.Now i wanted to find the distance to my Hotel from the Airport and Ovi Maps came to my rescue
I’m a huge fan of Google Maps but It just would not work without internet on my phone. I just got off my flight and didn’t have a local SIM card. I was not going to use my Indian SIM card GPRS as it would cost a bomb. So i fired up Nokia Maps on my E72 for which i had loaded maps of Spain using Nokia Map Loader.
Now I not only found how much would my taxi ride cost but also saw how far was the Fira – the main venue of the Mobile World Congress and other places were from my Hotel. It made my taxi ride pretty interesting and it made me worry less about my lost baggage. I spotted a huge shopping mall (Glories) where I planned to do some shopping incase my baggage didn’t arrive on time.
Also when i was checking out the routes from my place to the venues , I spotted a lot of Metro stations on the way. So another idea struck me. Why take the cab when Metro stations are so close by. Nokia maps saved me money indirectly. And I never got lost in Barcelona without knowing Spanish
And wish the Search feature was made more usable and I wish I carried the N97 Mini instead of the E72 as the touch version of OVI Maps is much better.
So have you used Nokia Maps / Ovi Maps ? Do share your experience below