The Nokia Beta Labs team has been on a roll lately and this morning they kept up the momentum. The beta version of Ovi Maps received an update bringing it to version 3.06. If you have a Symbian/Nokia smartphone and haven’t tried out the beta version you need to do it NOW. It’s much improved over the stock version that comes pre-loaded in the firmware. The reason it’s still in beta phase is because more features are being added which need to be tested by the community but I can assure you it’s stable. Besides the list of updates that I’ll show you towards the end of the article, I noticed on my way home today that traffic conditions are now available for U.S. highways like the CA-91 freeway – one of the worst freeways in California.

This is huge for Nokia users in North America. Just this morning I was ranting about how close to perfect Ovi Maps has become, and one of the major things it still needs is traffic conditions in the U.S. As you can see in the screenshot above it’s been turned on. The blue line is my current route home from work, about 13 miles. Normally I stay on the 91 east until I get closer to right around where you see La Palma on the map. But due to traffic conditions shown in yellow Ovi Maps re-routed me to the 605 south, a good alternative in my opinion. Once I exit the freeway it’s all surface streets for awhile with this route, but at least I’m not sitting in traffic. See all that red? Yeah, southern California driving sucks.

Why haven’t we heard about this? Because Nokia never mentioned it, unless I missed it. It wasn’t even mentioned in the official changelog posted by the beta labs team today. I obviously don’t need Ovi Maps to route me home but today I decided to test out the new version. I wouldn’t have known about Ovi Maps USA traffic conditions otherwise! It’s a #chancewin and #chancefail in the same damn sentence! I used Ovi Maps just a few days ago and didn’t notice traffic conditions. But it’s there now!

With traffic conditions in Ovi Maps I no longer need to fire up Google Maps for navigation.

So what else is new in Ovi Maps 3.06?

The big thing is you are now able to download map data directly from your device over Wi-Fi. Before you had to do this via Nokia’s clunky program for the PC known as Ovi Suite. No need anymore, just download directly from your phone.

Here is the full list of updates:

• New! Download street maps directly to your device!  A new feature called “Update” on the main menu which allows you download Street Maps directly (via WiFi) to your phone without a PC!
• New! My Position and Search are now integrated (now called Map). When accessed, it will show your last map view
• New! Back button in Favourites
• New! Long tap functionality to delete & rename collections & routes
• New! Pop up for first time use – to inform user to download new map data (when upgrading 3.04 > 3.06 for the first time)
• New! Improved behaviours of transit lines settings in map toolbox (no more grey out)
• New! Compass calibration hint
• New! Refreshed place details information view

Download

Visit http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/ovi-maps-306 for all the information and download links.

Nokia still needs to take a look at their search database. Check out my recent article ‘Ovi Maps: Still lacking search results‘ for more on that topic.

Mike Macias has written 297 articles for The Mobile Fanatics.

Mike is the editor-in-chief of The Mobile Fanatics. Contact him via email or at his twitter page.

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