Why the dependence on Windows

Discussion for Ovi Maps 3.0 Beta for mobile

09-05-2009 14:22

I have a Nokia N96 (v20). This is a portable multimedia computer with a high speed data connection.

*WHY* do I need to install a windows app to use maps 3?

Why can't it be downloaded direct to phone.

I'm fine for additional *optional* pieces to be desktop client specific, but it's mad that these are *mandatory*

In my case
* My main work system is linux
* My home desktop is W7 rc x64 -- and the current nokia maps updater app (just updated) just "stops working" (ie crashes) before updating the maps.

What's annoying is that this application is to run on the phone, and I download most maps directly from there too (at least in UK).

Is there a way to avoid the windows/pc dependence?

Comments

Submitted by mbrett on 09-05-2009 14:26.

There is a web based map data download option, but this would not be Nokia supported as this is a result of non-nokia employees reverse engineering the server info to be able to download the mapa data files directly from the internet. You would have to google for the source for this as this should not be referred to directly from the Nokia Betalabs Website.

mbrett
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.018

Submitted by Diabo on 10-05-2009 21:54.

The web based method on http://nokiamaps.site666.info is 100% legit and has nothing to do with reverse engineering. It's just a collection of links to the map data on Nokia's own server that's open to everyone who feeds the right URL into his/her browser.

This is what Nokia Employee Steve A, product manager of Map Loader for Mac, said about it:
"We are not trying to create a monopoly on Map downloading."

Submitted by mbrett on 11-05-2009 08:29.

All I was saying was that I could not say that this method would be supported by Nokia. By reverse engineering I meant that the method by which the links were found for this site in the first place were by analyzing HTTP traffic whilst using Nokia Maps Loader and viewing this data in hex, followed by a degree of hex parsing. Reverse Engineering was the wrong wording, but my point was that this information was obatined by non Nokia Staff analysing the interface from the outside and working back through the data to find the source (some would refer to this as reverse engineering to the download source).

See
http://martinletis.blogspot.com/2008/02/nokia-maps-download-links.html

which was the inspiration for the http://nokiamaps.site666.info site (The bottom of their webpage)

I say again I was unaware of the quote you have from Steve A.
http://betalabs.nokia.com/blog/2008/10/20/introducing-nokia-map-loader-f... (Comment 37)

mbrett
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.018

Submitted by Diabo on 11-05-2009 17:03.

Martin looked at the http traffic, but for nokiamaps.site666.info I used the URLs that appeared in Map Loader itself and the names of the zip files that map loader put in plain sight in my temp folder.

I didn't look at any data in hex, and I didn't use any information from sources other than Nokia Map Loader and Windows Explorer. That doesn't even get close to reverse engineering.