navigation

Facebook moving towards Nokia’s HERE for mobile

Social media giant Facebook is showing a strong interest in Nokia’s HERE mapping suite for its mobile offerings. TechCrunch first flagged the move up, which was subsequently confirmed by both companies.

Europe’s own GPS satellites ready for launch

A project to provide Europe with more reliable satellite navigation technology is nearing fruition after the European Commission (EC) announced that the first two satellite-navigation spacecraft are ready for launch.

RIM beds down with Microsoft for search

Microsoft seems to be on a roll at the moment, this week adding Canadian Blackberry maker Research In Motion to its lengthening list of partners. The deal announced this week makes Microsoft’s Bing the default search engine and mapping tool on Blackberry handsets, but the appearance of Steve Ballmer alongside RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis at the Blackberry World conference in Orlando, set tongues wagging.

iPhone finds free navigation with Skobbler

Competition is certainly warming up in the navigation space, with iPhone users finally getting a free turn by turn offering in the shape of Skobbler. In partnership with the OpenStreetMap community, Skobbler has made some waves in the market with its community-based approach to mapping and navigation.

Yahoo gangs up with Nokia for web services

One in the eye for Google on Monday as the world’s biggest handset vendor struck a global deal with Yahoo to collaborate on the delivery of email, instant messaging and maps and navigation services in the mobile space.

Mobile navigation service, Waze, hits the BlackBerry platform

I had a note in from the team at free navigation service, Waze, to let me know that they’ve launched an early beta version of Waze for BlackBerry. If you haven’t come across Waze before, it’s a simply fantastic community mapping service that quite a lot of people are going nuts over. The service enables you to swiftly identify the best and most usable map routes — like a ‘path well trodden’ for the connected age.

Vodafone navigation unit at dead end

Just over a year ago, monster carrier Vodafone showed just how serious it was about the navigation space, by spending €26m on the purchase of Swedish navigation and location-based services firm Wayfinder.

Nokia makes navigation free for the masses

Finnish handset vendor Nokia revealed what it’s been up to with location and mapping firm Navteq which it bought in 2008 for $8.1bn. The monster handset vendor is shaking up the mobile space by making mapping and turn by turn navigation available for free to a potential 83 million users.

Back to your routes

A proven success for the likes of Garmin and TomTom, navigation services are going mobile. Advances in handset form factor and functionality could enable the cellular industry to position the mobile phone as the heir to the SatNav kingdom.