Ability to turn off snapping to objects & screen real estate

Suggestion for Ovi Maps Beta for mobile (v3.03)

14-09-2009 13:38

I've just got a shiny new N97 and one of the first things I did was to load v3.03 of Ovi Maps Beta.

So far I'm impressed with it but have a couple of suggestions:

1. Enable the user to turn off the "snapping to objects" functionality
I appreciate that it's reasonable to asume (most of the time) that a user's actual position will be on a road, path or at a POI and so it's sensible for the app to snap to the nearest one when the GPS data says something different. However I commute by train each day and whilst I don't NEED maps on the train I'm geeky enough to sometimes enjoy following my progress. When I tried the new version the poor software was constantly trying to place me on the nearest road rather than allowing my position to actually be on the rail line. This resulted in the map dancing all over the place and a couple of times in it spinning uncontrollable through 360 deg!

2. When in landscape mode move or minimise the caption.
When in landscape mode the caption appears in the middle of the top of the screen - slap bang in the middle of the most important part of the map if using it for navigation! I suggest that the caption is placed top left rather than top centre in landscape mode and/or that it can collapse to a small icon.

Best regards,
Pete Sykes, Brighton, UK

Comments

Submitted by axelbeiovi on 18-09-2009 00:45.

I can only agree: please give the user the possibility to swith the snapping of, and to choose if the map should rotate or be always rotated towards north!

Submitted by mbrett on 18-09-2009 08:10.

Have you tried setting walking to straight line and then using walking and track me when on the train?

mbrett
N97 RM-505 (Product Code: 0585262 (Vodafone UK)) FW 11.0.021
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.015

Submitted by navio1973 on 19-09-2009 14:31.

With the previous version if you used walk instead of drive when you drived your car there was a message like you go too faster for walk, with the new version I did not yet try.

@mbrett: good idea.

@pete.sykes It shoul be a suggestion for the new option TRAIN. On the map the railway is shown, the railway stations are in the POI: it has not to be so hard to realize. if there will be the possibility to access to a timetable of trains, there will be a new users target for ovi maps.

Navio
Nokia N97 V12.0.024 RM 505

Submitted by pete.sykes on 23-09-2009 01:02.

@mbrett - just checked and it happens whether "walking" or "driving". In fact it jumps around more when "walking".

@navio1973 - option TRAIN is a good idea but I still think we should be able to turn off snapping as well.

This evening I did a bus journey with Ovi Maps on. Even from the top deck of the bus the GPS was very erratic and the map was still jumping around - although in this case I'm sure it was because it was responding to the erratic GPS signal.

Pete