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Nokia Internet Tablet - N810 (part 10)
As I mentioned already in one of my previous posts, the N810 has a integrated built-in GPS receiver.
In order to use the GPS functionality with the 'voice guidance' feature, you need to buy an extra license code from 'Wayfinder', the Wayfinder Navigator Nokia N810 Edition. The price for the license depends on the region and duration (1 month (9.98 EUR), 1 year (89.00 EUR) of 3 years (98.99 EUR)).
During my holidays in May I have tested the Wayfinder Navigator during 7 days free of charge. Depending on my conclusions after this trial periode, I was going to buy or not to buy the Wayfinder license.
Find hereafter my conclusions.
Positive
Update: Thanks to the tip of Aniello Del Sorbo ! You can update the maps to the latest version (2008.1) by clicking the update button in the available map tab.
Negative
and last but not least
In other words, it's impossible to drive from a location in one map region towards a location in another map region! The fact that almost every country in Europe acts as it's own map region doens't make it userfriendly
Final conclusion:
GPS with voice guidance is definately a nice feature !
The Wayfinder solution isn't however the best solution available. The issues encountered with the map regions that have to be activated, the issues that it's not possible to drive from one country towards another (residing in another map region) without struggling with 'how to drive to country ...' have let me decide not to purchase the Wayfinder Navigator software for Nokia N810 Edition.
Alternative
You can still use the N810 GPS functionality with the same available maps without voice guidance ! However it doensn't provide you the luxury of a voice guidance GPS it can be handy in some cases ;-).
On the market a lot of solutions are available which have Europe as a whole fully active, in other words, in Wayfinder terminology, in those solutions Europe is one map region !
8 comments

I want only to say that the maps have just been updated.
All of them have been updated to 2008.

I have a similar problem here in the US, which is split into 2 maps pretty much along the Mississippi River, which leads to the same sort of problem.
It would be nice if the program would auto-load the correct map based upon GPS position, but it does not.
Also, there is no way to save and load a route - this makes a multi-day trip more difficult as you cannot shut the program down unless you are willing to re-enter all your waypoints. It would be BEST if the program would save/load GPX format data: then you could use a more competent program on the desktop (or a browser based program) to do the route and let the program handle map display and navigation.
The program also has no ability to review the whole route as a series of directions, which makes it difficult to familiarize oneself with the proposed route before starting out - you have to scroll along the route, and you won't really get the directions you would need.
Also, when zooming out, the map removes too many roads and too much detail: zooming out to cover the whole US will remove ALL roads! Zooming in on a middling sized state like Kansas will show only the 2 Interstates, not any other roads.
Finally, the spoken directions are done with recorded speech - while this give the best over-all clarity, it means it is not possible for the program to tell you "Turn left onto Main Street", which is sometimes needed when there are more than one possible "left turns" available. It also would help for it to say "In 1000 yards, turn left onto Main Street" so that you know what you are looking for (I would accept if the street names were synthesized and the rest was recorded).
I've called this to Wayfinder's attention, but since Wayfinder is NOT Free Software, they really don't have a good handle on taking feedback from users (e.g. no public Bugzilla).

@Aniello Del Sorbo
For example map of Poland (Eastern and Central Europe) for Wayfinder is bigger (50 MB vs 120 MB) then before last update. But still is not as reliable as Google Street maps for Maemo-Mapper.
For car driving I prefer Maemo-Mapper.

Hi George,
I don't think maps for Romania exists within Wayfinder.
The content of the package Eastern Europe consists of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Turkey, The Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
The content of the package Western Europe consists of UK & Ireland, Germany & Alps (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Scandinavia (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway), Benelux (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg), France, Italy, Spain and Portugal

@pdd
The disadvantage of Maemo Mapper is that you need an internet connection or you have to preload the maps, isn't it ?
Jan

HI
looks very interesting!
bookmarked your blog.
john brightman

I purchased N810 hoping to use it as GPS as well, but the price for the navigation in this software is just ridiculous. For the same price I can get very nice dedicated unit with better fix times and more.
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