BEFORE LEAVING IRELAND for a week in the States, I read Conor O'Neill's comment about Nokia Maps saving him frustration and money while roaming. From previous experience, I know that a page of information on Google Latitude normally costs me a euro while roaming and that I need a new page every five miles. Nokia Maps costs less than five euro cents across the same ground and Conor O'Neill's commentary prodded me to download all the pages I needed before I left home. I can use Nokia Maps offline, once I download and zoom around the route I intend to take. I can put the information for a country directly onto a memory card and reuse that memory card on subsequent trips. The entire States takes around 1.5 GB of memory. You cannot cache and save information from Google Maps. When in a new location, I normally try to see how much information I've saved locally onto my Nokia E90 by zooming down to the highest macro level while connected on a wifi hotspot. All things considered, I still like Google Latitude for ease of use when looking for location-based services. But with the money Nokia Maps saves me, I can operate with the knowledge that my data-fueled journey isn't costing me the same as overnight accommodation in a top-flight hotel. Sent mail2blog using free wifi at the Eden Resort, Lancaster, PA 17601.
