Mapping for Germany and Norway; custom maps for Ireland

Germany, Norway, Ireland

We've just added mapping for Germany and Norway to the range of ViewRanger maps.

You can buy maps for these countries in two ways - either by choosing you own map using the ViewRanger map chooser, or by downloading over-the-air.

Mapping for the Republic of Ireland has also been added to the map chooser. (Ireland mapping is also available over-the-air, and several pre-defined areas are available in the store, including a whole of Ireland map.)

To see the range of over-the-air tokens please visit the ViewRanger store. To download the map chooser please visit the map chooser page.


ViewRanger beta

We are about to start beta testing the next version of ViewRanger. If you would like to take part please email your phone's IMEI number (dial *#06# to obtain this) and your phone model name/number (e.g. N95) to support at viewranger.com.

Ireland maps and new phones

Ireland Maps

Maps of Ireland for ViewRanger are now available to download from the store. You can choose from country specifc maps or a map of the whole of the Republic of Ireland.

The maps are detailed 1:50,000 scale. They come with height data, an overview map and a 2000 place name gazetteer.

The panorama only shows the shaded landscape - hill names, lakes and so on aren't marked. We will release panorama data later.

ViewRanger now has mapping for Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. More countries are in the pipeline...


New phones - N96

ViewRanger runs on the new N series flagship phone, the N96. You need to use version 2.5 of the ViewRanger software.

The N96 has an internal 16GB and a memory card slot, and of course a GPS. The ViewRanger folder can be put on either the internal disk E: or the memory card F:. See the wiki for more or if you'd like to use both the disk and memory card to store your maps.


New phones - touch

Nokia recently announced the first of their touch screen phones - the 5800 XpressMusic.

ViewRanger runs on this phone. At the moment it runs in compatability mode, where part of the screen is used to draw the keypad (the phone doesn't have physical keys). We'll provide a full screen touch interface around the time the phone ships.

Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland

ViewRanger now has maps for five more countries

Maps for Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland are now available to download within ViewRanger, joining Finland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.

To obtain these maps first buy and activate a ViewRanger map token, then download the maps within ViewRanger.


Bank holiday

This weekend is a bank holiday in the UK. We have a wide range of maps ready for immediate download. We are open for sales and support all weekend. We will answer any support emails received the day they are received.


ViewRanger 2.5.12

An update to ViewRanger, version 2.5.12, is being put through final testing. If you'd like to use this release, please visit the version 2.5.12 page.

ViewRanger Slovenia now available

Slovenia is a beautiful country of spectacular mountains, caverns and waterfalls with wild untouched forests rich in wildlife - and we're pleased to say that with the launch of ViewRanger topographic and panoramic mapping for Slovenia, it is now even easier to explore with confidence.

ViewRanger Slovenia is the result of a partnership between Augmentra and Globalvision PIS d.o.o., a Slovenian GIS specialist. The Slovene Alpine Association have been testing ViewRanger for a while now - with great results.

Detailed 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 topographic mapping is available. You can download via our webstore the entire country at either scale, or download individual map tiles over-the-air direct to your handset.

Also available is a "Basics" bundle that includes ViewRanger's unique Panoramic mapping, overview mapping (1:250K), plus useful points of interest from the Survey and Mapping Authority in Slovenia, the Environmental Agency of Slovenia, and the Alpine Association of Slovenia.

Product details here.

ViewRanger version 2.5 released

ViewRanger version 2.5 has now been released, please see the release notes for full details of the changes.

To download the free trial and sample mapping visit the download page.

If have already purchased ViewRanger and have an activation key then download the update from the software update page.

Nokia to buy Symbian and set up Symbian Foundation

Interesting news this morning that Nokia is buying Symbian (or at least the 52% that it did not already own).

But potentially bigger news is the establishment of the Symbian Foundation with Nokia then sharing the technology on a royalty free and open source basis to allcomers. The detail: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO have announced their intent to unite Symbian OS, S60, UIQ (the flavour of Symbian used on SonyEricsson handsets) and MOAP (used by NTT DOCOMO handsets in Japan) to create one open mobile software platform. Partnering together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone they plan to establish the Symbian Foundation to extend the appeal of this unified software platform.

By the end of March 2008, Symbian said that there had been 206 million cumulative Symbian OS shipments across 235 different phone models.

As a mobile software developer, we try to keep a close eye on the many different operating system options available in the market. New entrants such as the iPhone and Google's Android offer new opportunities, but also present new headaches as each platform requires a substantial investment in R&D resource and time.

If the Symbian Foundation can bring together S60, UIQ, and MOAP into a single platform and increase the handsets using this platform still further - particularly in the mid-market categories - then this could a very exciting step.

It is clear that this will take time for everything to fall into place and then time for handsets to appear that use the combined technology. But we applaud and support the initiative.

More information can be found at: www.nokia.com and www.symbianfoundation.org

More GPS Handsets

Nokia and Samsung have recently unveiled details of more S60 handsets with GPS.

The Nokia E66 and E71 are the latest additions to Nokia's E-series business-focused handset range. Both include A-GPS.

Samsung's new G810 handset includes a 5megapixel camera, 3X optical zoom, and GPS for that all-important ViewRanger application!

For more details on handsets that will run ViewRanger, click to www.viewranger.com/phones or check out S60.com