

Nokia’s Here Maps Sold for $3B to Audi, BMW and Mercedes - flying_whale
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2015/08/03/nokias-here-maps-sold-for-3-billion-to-audi-bmw-and-mercedes/

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collyw
Does anyone know what the implications are for the phone application? Its
default map application on the Ubuntu phone, and although its missing some
features, its quite nice overall.

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omgtehlion
It is default maps application on Windows Phones too (at least that were
nokia, now lumia). And for me it is the best maps app working offline.

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5h
osmand does a good enough job for me, used it recently on a cross-european
motorcycle trip.

edit: i should have been clearer, osmand isn't just "good enough" \- it is
brilliant.

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ce4
I'm also a huge fan of OsmAnd, it has many outstanding/unique features that
other map solutions neglect to offer (albeit some features are a bit hidden).

    
    
        In no particular order, things that I like:
        - Wikipedia (offline). Discover articles by location
        - Topographic maps (nice for hiking)
        - speed camera warnings
        - completely free & open source
        - you can alter the options, add your own POIs, etc.
        - draw tools, use polylines to measure distances
        - find any POI by name, category or location (they're *all* indexed)
        - copy a position's latitude/longitude to the clipboard
        - start route from a distant starting point (instead of current location)
        - discover opening hours of shops/etc.
        - launch calls from a POI's attached contact number
        - public transport (nice for city trips)
        - GPX logging
        - tools to support OpenStreetMap editing
        - route along saved .gpx/.kml track
        - ...
    

While it had been available exclusively for Android for a long time, there's
now an iOS version as well.

EDIT: Formatting

PS: In the past I've even gone so far as to add phone numbers to my favourite
pizza deliveries on OpenStreetMap to be able to call them using OsmAnd.

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StringyBob
Or invest $1bn in enhancing the already good openstreetmap dataset?

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Aoyagi
While I love OSM (both the map and the project), I don't think they have
enough data (depth) to provide any navigation/routing.

Or I'm missing something.

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detaro
Biggest problem with OSM is that quality is varying wildly. Awesome in many
cities, but then in rural areas it can be missing half a town. And large
differences between countries.

A lot of money could possibly help to get good base maps into it (by paying
enough that their producers accept OSM licensing), which could help that
situation...

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matt4077
Or, alternatively, getting more people to help with the data. I once did help
a bit when I took a bike ride through Albania and for some reason I still get
warm fuzzy feelings when I think back to those "mapmaking days". For some
reason it feels more meaningful than my wikipedia contributions.

Unfortunately, I live in the center of The Left Wing of the Internet^tm
(Berlin) and every anthill is already mapped around here.

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heifetz
I generally find the quality of built-in GPS maps in cars to be quite inferior
to the quality of google maps. Is this company really worth 3B? who knows, but
the car manufactures could probably just licensed google maps for free and
focus on building great cars instead.

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dr_faustus
It might be surprising to some people in Silicon Valley but there are folks
who find it a bit disconcerting that Google knows every place they drive to,
when they do it and how long they stay. I personally am glad that there is
still some competition in the maps market and since HERE is a European
company, you can expect them to be much more privacy conscious than Google (or
Bing Maps, ftm).

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dylanjermiah
What nefarious use of the data will be beneficial to Google?

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madez
Google can be hacked or forced by public authorities to enable or to do
nefarious things. I know, godwin’s law, bla bla, but look what happened during
the second world war to german companies. There are more examples.

I’m not okay with being tracked, and I don’t care whether the tracker swears
to be or not to be evil. And no, this is not negotiable.

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Aoyagi
I'm especially not OK with being tracked when it has absolutely zero benefit
for me, long or short term. UI is getting worse (for all these megacorps that
harvest all the "automated feedback" they can) and I don't consume advertising
and even if I did, the "targeted ads" are irrelevant pretty much all the time.

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danmaz74
Tracking is the only way for Google to get traffic data; you could still not
find that reason enough to get tracked, but it's not "zero benefit" for users.

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Aoyagi
I'm quite sure they, and other map providers who have live traffic info
(including HERE), get the data primarily from infrastructure managers.

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danmaz74
I don't know if anything changed recently, but I'm sure that at least until a
couple years ago they got the traffic info from their own app.

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bluepostitnote
What happens to the employees with a joint ownership like this? In other
words, who runs the technical side of the house and determines the future
course of the product.

