BARCELONA, Spain – Buying a Nokia is never just about hardware and an operating system, billions of people around the world expect access to all the entertainment and information they need in their lives through their mobile. Whether it’s with a Lumia 900, or an Asha 202 – Nokia connects people to the world through great entertainment and services.
Now Nokia has taken the next stage in providing even better services; improving how you can navigate your way around the world with a Nokia Lumia using Maps, Drive and Transport, introducing a world class eReading service – and launching a new Nokia Life for people in dynamic growing economies.
Getting around with your Nokia Lumia…
It’s never been easier to get to where you’re going with improved services for the Nokia Lumia that are going to be available soon.
Nokia Maps is there to help you, whether you’re in a car, or on foot.
When you’re in hurry it can be confusing to see every eating choice, or art gallery – you only want to know where you’re going.
That’s why Nokia Maps has also been updated for Windows Phone to make the experience simpler, with fewer intrusive objects and signs to get in the way of where you want to go – and a reduced colour palette to allow the brain to process information more easily.
Now you can zoom in to get all the detail you need, and pull back for larger context about what route you need to take – with pedestrians and drivers seeing different maps to reflect their different experiences.
With the updated Nokia Maps you can now also create and collect your favourite places, and access places you’ve recently visited.
Then, if you’re travelling with friends or colleagues, you can share your route with SMS email or social networks.
Nokia Maps now covers over 190 countries – and uses the latest technology to make sure that images are viewable from any browser, device and operating system.
This update will be available in the coming weeks.
Nokia Drive has been one of the most popular services on the Lumia, offering free turn-by-turn voice guided navigation in over 100 countries, with multiple views, larger icons for in-car arms length use, one easy search box, and fast route calculation and preview.
Now Nokia Drive on Lumia gets full offline support, with offline search and routing from calculating a route, to navigation and re-routing. A newly designed dashboard now shows speed limit alerts, as well as the speed you’re travelling at, as well as estimated time or arrival, time to destination and distance to destination. You can also access a list of recently saved destinations through a single tap, and then start turn-by-turn navigation.
This update will be available in the coming weeks.
Nokia Public Transport is a natural complement to Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive as part of navigating your life – and is now available as an app on the Nokia Lumia.
Nokia Public Transport is a unique service that allows you to plan fast inner-city routes from point to point, and work out your time of arrival.
Using Nokia Public Transport you can see when the nearest train, bus, tram or metro leaves, find out how to get to the station, discover if you need to change trains or lines along the way, and then use walk routing to reach your final destination.
This new app will be available in the coming days.
Nokia Reading
The Nokia Lumia is about to become even more entertaining with Nokia Reading, a premium e-book and audio experience.
Nokia is working with some of the world’s biggest publishers, including Penguin and Hachette, and Pearson to launch a world class e-book and audiobook experience that’s been designed specifically for the Nokia Lumia.
Using Nokia Reading you can choose your own favourite authors, or select from bestselling novels and an extensive selection of top local books in your own language. The service integrates beautifully with the Lumia in the same “hub” and panorama experience we’ve seen working so fluidly with other services.
Once you have chosen a book, large, clear, smartphone screens like those on the Nokia Lumia make reading an enjoyable experience. It’s great for reading on an underground train or plane, as you can read everything offline after downloading beforehand.
In coming months you’ll also be able to create a personalised magazine page called “my stream” that automatically updates content across the most popular categories, and adds web content from your chosen sites.
Nokia Reading will be available for Nokia Lumia handsets from April. The service is initially launching in six markets (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia) with more to follow
Nokia Life
The hugely successful Nokia Life Tools has now become the new and enhanced Nokia Life, which includes great extra services like Life Skills and Parenting Advice, as well as new social elements.
Since its launch in 2009, millions of people in China, Indonesia, India and Nigeria have been using the SMS-based service to access a wealth of entertainment, and information, that would otherwise only be available on the Internet.
People have loved learning English, getting health tips, preparing for exams and downloading ringtones with Nokia Life Tools – and now there’s even more that you can do with the new Nokia Life.
You can ‘Ask an Expert’ – like a doctor or career advisor – for specific health or work tips. Then you can ‘Share’ that information with friends from your phone book – or take part in a poll to express your opinions.
If you’re young and finishing your education, or starting out in your career, you need all the help you can get on how to manage your daily life. By using ‘Life Skills’, young people can see how to develop their communication skills, business and social etiquette, understand the basics of accounting for small businesses, and lots of other topics which can guide them through 21st Century living.
There’s more for parents too. ‘Parenting Advice’ helps parents with all physical, emotional and social aspects of bringing up their children from birth to adolescence.
And Nokia Life is now easier, and more fun, to use through a new homescreen with a rotating menu that makes services easier to find, and a dynamic inbox that reorganises folders to highlight newest content.
To date, more than 50 million people have experienced its benefits.