Tommi's reports from Wonderland

February 06, 2007 amAze - free navigation application Posted by Tommi at 02:38 PM | Categories: 3rd party S60 applications

Last week, an Israeli-based company called LocatioNet Systems Ltd. released a free* GPS navigation application/service called amAze:

amAze is a first of its kind free navigation and local search service. It is free to download and use and it contains the maps of over 15 European countries and North America.

Oh, sounds good. Must try it. Advertising-based business models are so hot these days.

How to get started:
1. register at amAze
2. download the client by pointing your S60 Web browser** to wap.amazegps.com
3. start the app and login.

Wait! For some reason, I couldn't log in:
Urgh. I'm sure I have the right username and password. What did I do wrong? Does it work for you?

Update***
And it works:

I couldn't get GPS working, but I suspect there's something wrong with my GPS module - it hasn't worked properly lately. According to the comments, the GPS part should work just fine.

Anyway, amAze looks like a neat application/service, and a sign of wonderful free (=ad-supported) mobile services to emerge in the future.

* = of course, you have to pay for the data traffic, unless you have a flat-fee plan
** = I tried to download it also with the Services browser on my N73, but it didn't work.
*** = apparently, you can't use numbers and other special characters in your password (?)

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Comments

Tried it on my N70, installation took ages but I got past the login screen without problems. Only thing is my bluetooth GPS receiver is either in the car (= grr, need to go find it later today) or I lost it yesterday (grrrrrrr, noooo!).

Quite colorful menu...I'm not a big fan of candy color stuff but it's alright.
Has 6 options there
- Search
- Calculate route
- Map
- Favorites
- Tools (with Regional settings, find GPS receiver, tell a friend...)
- Help
Apparently, maps can be viewed classic Google Map style as satellite, street map or hybrid.
Search can be done for addresses, yellow pages and keywords.

Will try to find the GPS receiver later and actually use the app.

Cheers

Jenny

Got it working on my E70. I only tried quick locate me with GPS and it found my location. Then I had to get back inside before I would freeze to death!

A note to those of you without a flat data plan:

"If you want to limit the amount of data consumed during navigation, you should use the default arrows mode. In this mode only the calculated route is sent to the phone. It is typically only up to 10 – 20 Kbytes of data for in-city routes. Once the route is stored in the phone and as long as you are on-track, you do not need to have data communication with the network. The local software will use this info to guide you with voice and arrows all the way to your destination. It is definitely the cheapest navigation system worldwide."

Thanks Tommi.

by the way, have you noticed in the supported handsets, the E65 present? :)

Nice. I will give it a try.

Anybody knows if it uses Location API if present? That would be nice since on a nice multitasking enabled phone (like every S60 of course) one can use more than one application using the GPS at the same time.

Even if you don't own a GPS u can still run their demo simulation mode (cool!).
After u define staring point and destination for the raute (say by address or POI name), just go directly to the same page's menu and select 'Navigate (demo)'.

It will show u driving on the route. u can play with the speed with keys 1 and 3... :-)

Tommi, you should mention the Nokia / smart2go maps application. This thing is awesome.

skosko, I will.

This is very very very helpful and great web page i ever seen.:)

S60 Open to new features

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