This is only just been announced, so I’ll provide more comment later, but if you own, or are planning to buy one of these Nokia models:

• Nokia N97 Mini
• Nokia E72
• Nokia E52
• Nokia E55
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
• Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition
• Nokia 6710 Navigator
• Nokia 6730
• Nokia 5230
• Nokia X6

then as from today, you should be able to download a new version of Ovi Maps, which not just offers free GPS Navigation in over 70 countries, but offers more too…

• Free Drive navigation
• Free Walk navigation
• Free maps and map updates
• Free Events guides
• Free Lonely Planet guides
• Free Michelin guides
• Free Weather updates

That’s an impressive list, especially the guides and weather being free too.  This is obviously a reaction to Google announcing plans to make navigation free for all, but with Nokia supporting offline navigation (with all the maps and routing being stored on the device) this is likely to be a much preferred solution for many (especially those travelling abroad where roaming data charges would make Google’s solution impractical for many).

We’re also hearing that traffic and safety camera information will be free too!

Nokia have stated they plan to increase the range of devices further in the future (I, like many others have already commented on the lack of the original Nokia N97).

For more information, head to the Free Navigation Forever page from Nokia.

Update: We understand the Nokia N97 is likely to need a firmware update first to be able to support the new version of the Ovi Maps (this is more about a lack of free space on the C: drive than anything in particular within the firmware), and it’s possible that the new Ovi Maps will be included within the firmware itself, and that we may see that firmware before the end of the month.

Update: We have seen a number of comments from Nokia that imply more of their “older” devices will soon be included within this Free Navigation programme, and we hope it covers the majority of S60 3rd Edition FP1 devices, especially those like the Nokia E71 which are still on sale today as brand new devices.

Update: It appears there will be a Free version for the Nokia N900 Maemo device, but this is some way off.

Truphone Local Anywhere (which we have covered before) has now finally launched. There are a number of options, from just buying the SIM as a starter pack (£14.99 including £10 of credit and a UK phone number), to the UK/US Pro pack (£79.99, including £20 of credit, US discounted call rates and a US phone number *and* a UK phone number for 12 months provisioned onto the SIM).  It’s this last point that kept me interested in Truphone since the announcements nearly a year ago; Truphone are happy to allocate multiple country-specific phone numbers onto the SIM, to allow you to be contacted anywhere in the world, but for the people calling you, it’s just a local phone number.

If you only holiday in the US, then the US holiday pack might be better value, which gives you a US phone number for 12 months as well as the UK number, but only gives you 1 month of the US call rates.  If you want the US call rates for longer, you can purchase them for £7.99 a month.  What does the US call rates give you?

• At the normal rates, a US – US landline call would be 50p/minute; with the US call rates that is only 22p/minute.
• Calling US – US mobile drops from 50p/minute to 10p/minute!
• In a similar way, calling US – UK landline drops from 75p/minute to 22p/minute, and US – UK mobile drops from 75p/minute to 10p/minute.
• Receiving a call whilst in the US drops from 50p/minute to 10p/minute
• Sending a text drops from 40p to 8p per text, although there is a 7p charge to receive a text (inline with many US mobile plans), and sending a text to the UK is only 10p per text with the US call rates.
• Finally, without the US call rates, you’ll pay £2 per MB of data; with the US call rates, you’ll ‘just’ pay 75p per MB.

So, for those that actually plan to use their phone whilst abroad (and especially in the US) the Truphone deal looks very impressive, and it’s well worth either buying the US/UK Pro pack, or upgrading your account to include the US call rates for their best rates.

Now, being able to offer worldwide calling plans is nothing new…  Offering a SIM with a local in-country number is not new…  Offering data on a SIM is not new…

Offering all of those together though, that’s the benefit of Truphone; throw in the ability to have multiple in-country phone numbers provisioned onto the same SIM, and this is truly different and well worth further investigation…

… and if you want to investigate further, head to the Truphone Local Anywhere website for more information.

Although only a rumour at this stage, the PeekFON (which we first covered here) currently offers access to email across Europe without paying roaming fees, and FON have stated they hope to bring web browsing and Twitter support to the device too.  However, what’s interesting is that Peek themselves have recently worked on a Facebook application (currently in beta) for their US devices.  It’s likely this may also be available on the PeekFON (there’s no reason why not, and it may help promote the device further).

Also, in the article we’ve already linked to, we indicated the Peek Twitter-only device could not access twitpic, or any other URLs within tweets, both points which we understand are not true, and the device is actually slightly more feature rich than many people give it credit for.  The Twitter-only device is still US-only, whereas the PeekFON will be available here for sale for €99 (which includes 6 months pan-European email, and then the device is €12.90 per month, although no long term contract is required); although as of today, it’s still a pre-register page.

Interestingly, it’s looks like this is actually not a “real” application for the device.  The application is actually a Facebook application, and seems to offer the ability to publish new information to your facebook account via a dedicated email address (so you simply send out emails from the Peek device), and equally it will collect the content from your news feed and regularly email that to your device.  In which case, even more reason to hope this becomes available for the PeekFON for Europe too.

If FON are able to offer a range of facilities on the device, then this will offer a greater range of services than just email, and then the international traveller will be well prepared with a single device.

The Peek email only device has been quite popular in the US since it launched (and in fact, they now also have a Twitter only device too, which unlike some of the reviews does include Twitpic support and the ability to open links, but not much else).  However, FON, another company I have been a supporter of with their Wi-Fi sharing network, have now announced they will be selling the PeekFON with European GPRS roaming from this month (although not shipping until next month).

The device will go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday 15th) for €99, and that will include 6 months of European GPRS roaming to allow you access to your email anywhere where the device can get a working mobile phone signal.  After that, it’s €12.90 per month, and there is no cancellation policy, so no long term contract to worry about either.

For now, the device is an email-only device (although with a full QWERTY keyboard, that’s still going to be a popular device), and in time, FON hope to add web browsing and Twitter support too.

This device doesn’t use the FON Wi-Fi Hotspot technology at all, but has been launched as a complimentary product; if it supports your email service provider (it’s not yet clear whether this will use your existing email provider, or require you to use a dedicated email address), then this does look an interesting device for the reguar traveller, especially with that lack of roaming costs across Europe; imagine being on holiday, or on a business trip, and still be able to keep up with all your email without fear of “bill shock”; an even better proposition when they are able to add twitter and web browsing support.

Certainly, the Peek device in the US allows access to up to 2 email accounts, and that includes Google Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo!, so assuming that the software inside is similar, then this European device should also support a variety of email accounts.  It will feature a 2.5″ screen, a scroll wheel (and back button) on the side, and the QWERTY keyboard.  It’s roughly 4″ x 2.7″ x 0.4″ and weighs around 100 grams, and in essence, is similar to the early BlackBerry device in the sense that it is a data only device.  It seems to have a total of 16MB of Flash, of which 8MB is allocated to the OS, and 8MB for email data.  It’s said in the US to manage 4  to 5 days between charges (wow, that’s so much better than most mobile phones!) and a recharge takes around 2 hours.  It should support blinking LED, ringing and vibrate to alert you to new email.

Finally, it appears to be able to view JPG attachments, but not anything else; there’s a second device in the US that supports 5 email accounts, push email, sending SMSes, and PDF & DOC support as well as JPG attachments, but I don’t think this is the device being targetted in Europe right now, although it’s not clear.

FON have announced that the mobile data will be provided by Europe’s first pan-European MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), Spotnik.

Obviously, for those with corporate BlackBerry devices (and others who don’t actually pay the bill for mobile data roaming) this will not be popular, but for the rest of us, it’s certainly a device to consider.  Imagine letting your elder kids go off travelling around Europe for 6 months knowing that they can keep in contact with you…

Personally, I think devices that offer full European roaming built into the device are going to sell well as niche devices; in that respect this device is similar to the Amazon Kindle (which features even greater worldwide coverage), and although many people will not want or need this device (preferring to either pay the roaming charges, or will swap a local country SIM into their phone), for some people this offers a very cheap way of getting access to email and twitter (once supported) across Europe, and for that requirements, we recommend you at least look at this device…

We’ll publish more on this, including links to purchasing it once they go live, but for now, keep an eye on the FON website…

When Mike Barrett (from Pocket GPS World) went to Florida recently, he took with him an iPhone loaded with a variety of SatNav applications.  He also took a TomTom with him, but wanted to see if he could survive without needing to resort to using it.  Did he succeed? Read his article here.

I met up with James Body of Truphone last night, and had a nice long chat about where Truphone and other companies are going in the next few months.  However, the exciting solution is the Truphone Local Anywhere solution, that I’ve talked about before, should launch early next year.  Because Truphone are supplying the SIM which talks to their infrastructure backend, it allows them to provide some nice features you won’t see on other solutions…

When they launch, they will have support for UK and US, but not just will you be able to roam to the US at nice low rates, but on that single SIM, Truphone are able to provision you both a UK phone number and a US phone number (in fact, they will over time be able to provide multiple different country phone numbers on that single SIM).  This is the cool bit; irrespective of where you are located, the SIM will work the same way…

• If someone in the UK rings your UK number, they will reach you
• If someone in the US rings your US number, they will reach you
• There will be clever CLI management functions to allow you some control over the Caller ID presented to your callers as well.

Basically, the person you call doesn’t need to know you are roaming, doesn’t need to know which country you are in, and can also reach you on what is (to them) a local number.  Because your outbound call is being routed through Truphone, the call cost to you is lower than normal roaming rates too.

The benefits of this are items such as:

• The convenience of a single SIM with local mobile numbers in multiple countries
• The ability to transfer their current mobile number to Truphone
• Great value domestic calls, SMS, and data in their home country
• Low cost international calling to the world from their home country
• Significant call savings, when visiting other countries
• The feeling of being local, wherever they go

This is powerful.  For those regular international travellers or even international businessmen, this is a well designed solution.  As we mentioned earlier this year when we first covered Truphone Local Anywhere, data will also be available as part of this solution.

James was sporting (amongst many other handsets) an iPod Touch and a 3UK MiFi (which are being bundled together by 3UK; see here), and was having no problems with utilising the iPod Touch for VOIP calls over 3UK’s network.  In fact, a solution like Truphone on an iPod Touch, or Skype on an INQ Mini 3G may well suit many families to allow easy and cheap communications between everyone without needing lengthy phone contracts (calls to other Truphone users, like Skype, are free of call costs).

As Truphone have pointed out here, using an iPod Touch over WiFi with the 3UK MiFi allows apps such as Truphone and BBC iPlayer to work as the iPod Touch sees a WiFi connection and is not aware that the traffic will then pass onto a 3G network.  The same trick can be used with the iPhone as well, of course.

Thanks to James to taking time to talk through this and many other matters last night, and here at UK Gadgeteer we look forward to some of the other Truphone developments during 2010.

Update: When first published, this story had a number of technical inaccuracies which have now been addressed; apologies and thanks to Truphone for the corrections.  For more information on Truphone Local Anywhere, head to the Truphone website, or look at this PDF presentation giving the details of the new service.

This is the new Roberts ColourStream radio, which is yet to be formally announced or released by Roberts, but at least one website already has the item with specifications, so we can reproduce them here.

As well as being a DAB and FM radio, it features an iPod Dock (possibly only supporting the iPhone in offline mode), but also sporting a 3.5″ colour touch screen for many of the controls. In other respects, it seems to offer a similar feature set to that of the Roberts STREAM 83i (USB media playback, Internet radio).  It can make use of the BBC Listen Again function, has an AUX in socket, as well as Line OUT and Headphone sockets.

Until more details are released, it’s not clear if this unit will also play last.fm radio (as the Roberts STREAM 83i does), so we’ll update you when we get more information.

However, with a price of £400, I think many will prefer the styling of either the Revo IKON (see here) or the PURE Sensia (see here), and personally, we would head to the Revo IKON.

Also, we note that both this device and the Roberts STREAM 83i we covered last week (here) may not have DAB+ support (thanks to Paul Webster at his DABDig website for drawing our attention to this point), which may limit it’s usefulness in the future, should the UK ever decide to adopt this standard (other European countries are already rolling out DAB+, so lack of support may impact your ability to use either radio whilst travelling).

Specs courtesy of DNA Car Audio (via Paul’s DABDig website).

Yesterday Spotify launched their Android and iPhone mobile clients, allowing access to the streamed music service for Premium customers.  Although many people have signed up for the ad-based free service on their PCs, only the Premium (monthly subscription service) is available on the streamed mobile client.  One nice feature is the ability to download some of the music to be able to use the mobile client in Offline mode, which will certainly be welcome to train travellers who have to handle patchy signal areas and tunnels, where there is little mobile network coverage at all.  Spotify also claim underground tube networks, being on a plane and being abroad (to avoid roaming charges) are other environments where the Offline mode will shine.  Once you have created a playlist and specified it to work in the Offline mode, you can now use it for 30 days without needing to go back online (at this point you will need to go back online to continue listening).

Spotify say their client will work over 2.5G or 3G (so that’s EDGE or 3G, but not straight GPRS), and over Wi-Fi.

Here are some videos of the client in action (from Spotify):

Yes, that’s right; the last video is an early preview of their Symbian S60 Mobile Client, which they are hoping to release soon.

In terms of increasing revenue, this seems to be an instant winner for Spotify; for those who want access to an ever-growing music catalogue on a rental basis without the costs of having to buy, store and manage all that music, this is an interesting tool, and should work well for many.  However, others will prefer to continue with their traditional model of buying the music, and they will continue to buy from the iTunes Store, Amazon, or the Nokia Comes with Music solution.  Of course, another option remains; last.fm, which offers a different experience but an equally valid one.

This is an interesting looking secondary display to add to your PC.  The Nanovision 710-S display features a 7″ 800 x 480 screen; what’s most intersting though is that there will be two version of this USB-connected screen, a normal screen and a touch screen version.

Both versions feature a dual hinge mechanism, allowing it to be used in portrait or landscape mode (but still fold flat for travelling).  It’s due to ship next month, and one UK site apparently has it on pre-order at £130 (although that may well be the non-touch screen version), but it’s definitely an interesting device for adding a secondary display to your PC (it may well be Windows only), especially for the likes of the smaller laptops with 3G that are often in desperate need of a bit more screen estate…

Some content courtesy of Slashgear (via Engadget)

We briefly covered ALK’s new CoPilot iPhone SatNav application, but ALK have kindly provided us with more information.  Firstly, here’s a full list of the features that are available in the CoPilot iPhone version;

• Full spoken turn-by-turn voice directions
• Detailed street maps of UK and Ireland with full UK post codes stored on your iPhone
• Clear 3D and 2D driving views with SmartZoom™ speed-variable zoom and street names
• Navigate to a house number, street, intersection or address book contact
• Automatic portrait and landscape display switching
• Comprehensive multi-stop pre-trip planning and preview
• Route optimizer works out the best way around multiple stops
• Intelligent navigation provides guidance in tunnels and underpasses
• Automatic day/night mode
• Navigate to thousands of Points of Interest
• Lane indicator & CoPilot ClearTurn™ provides a more realistic view of motorway exits and junctions
• Real Signpost display matches real-life signs
• LiveLink™ location sharing and messaging: keep track of your CoPilot friends, live on-screen!
• Live 5 day weather forecast for your location or destination
• Roadside Assistance helps you contact your breakdown company and tell them your location
• Huge range of customization features to suit the way you travel
• Customized trip status displays, including eta, distance remaining and more

As well as the UK & Ireland version (£25.99), ALK are planning a full European version (£59.99) and ALK have stated that USA and additional European country maps will be available soon.  CoPilot have mentioned that they hope to bring safety camera alerts in a future version, but this is not yet definite.

IBM announced last week that there are two new third party plugins, or widgets, for Lotus Notes.  These are from TripIt and from LinkedIN, both popular websites both with ourselves, but also many other corporate users.

The TripIt widget (above) looks very interesting, with the ability to see your upcoming trips (including trips shared by others) within your Notes environment.  TripIt have also included information on how to get Notes to directly import your TripIt calendar via iCal, something I find very useful as a way of getting data out of TripIt into both into my personal calendar, but also as a method of feeding data into Dopplr.

The second widget is for LinkedIN, which allows people to access their network, updates within their network, search and access to professional profiles directly within Notes.

These are the first two third party widgets for Notes, although more are likely in time, but both of these seem to offer enough extra that I suspect many Lotus Notes users would be wise to install them right away…

Here’s Dopplr’s first mobile application; their Dopplr iPhone application.  This allows you to use the majority of the services available on the Dopplr website, but directly from your mobile phone.  These include:

• 1. Install the application

  Download Dopplr – The Social Atlas from the iTunes App store to your desktop computer or directly to your iPhone. Then sync your iPhone. If you’ve got an account on Dopplr, the app will ask you to log in to Dopplr when appropriate. You will only have to do this once.

• 2. Find a place

  The app opens the city map of the city you’re currently in, and shows your location as a blue dot. You can zoom in and out with standard pinch gestures. Wherever there’s a marked place, you’ll see a square marker. Places are sorted into categories: Eat, Stay, Explore and My Places. Switch between each category by tapping the icons on the map corners. Tap the list icon to see a list of places sorted by their distance from your current location.

• 3. Indicate you have been to a place

  Tap on the marker for that place. A popup will open; tap on the green plus symbol to say you’ve been to the place – it will change to a checkmark. Tap the star to say that you’ve been there and you liked it. Tap the checkmark to undo.

• 4. Get more information about a place

  Tap on the place marker. Tap on “more” and you’ll see all the information Dopplr knows about that place, such as phone number, address and website. You can also open the location in your iPhone’s Maps app, view the Dopplr page for the place in Safari, or create an email message containing the details.

• 5. Add a new place

  You can add a new place from your current location at any time, by tapping on the blue location dot. Tap the green plus symbol to say you’ve been to that place, or the “more” link to add more details. The new place will be stored on your phone but won’t be added to Dopplr’s database until you’ve confirmed the addition (and added more details, if you wish) at dopplr.com.

• 6. View a different city

  Tap on the Cities tab. An alphabetical list of the top 250 cities on Dopplr opens. Choose the one you want.

• 7. See your planned trips

  Tap on the Trips tab. All your upcoming trips are listed. By tapping one of them, you’ll see the trip details such as its description and coincidences with fellow travellers. Tap “See places in this city” to see related places in the map view.

• 8. View your fellow travellers’ trips

  Tap on the People tab. You can choose from an alphabetical list or a “Nearby” view, which sorts your fellow travellers by their proximity to your current location. Tap on a name to see a list of that person’s planned trips. Tap a trip to see more details about it. If we can match the person to a name in your iPhone’s Address Book, you’ll also see their phone number and email address. You can also contact people not listed in your Address Book by sending them a direct message through Dopplr.

What’s even better is that Dopplr have stated that although they have released for the iPhone first, they intend to release similar apps for Symbian, BlackBerry and Android devices before the end of 2009.  For users of those OSes who want to access Dopplr from their mobile before a dedicated app is available, there is still the m.dopplr.com website, which offers most of the features of the main website.

A week or two back, 3UK informed us they were cutting their data roaming charges to just £1.25/MB, claiming that was the lowest rate available in the UK.  It may well have been, but I’m afraid it seems to me that Vodafone’s new rates make that look pretty poor…

If you are using a Handset (as opposed to a Mobile Broadband USB Modem), then in Zone 1 (roughly the bigger countries in Europe) you will pay £4.99 for each block of 25MB (ie go 100k over 25MB and you will pay £9.98).  Outside of Zone 1, you would pay £14.99 per block of 25MB.

If you are using a USB Dongle (actually Vodafone’s terms are “on phone” and “on laptop”, not explaining where a laptop or PDA tethered to a phone comes) then it’s £9.99 for each block of 50MB in Zone 1 (so the same rate per MB, just only available in bigger chunks) and £29.99 in Zone 2.

All these charges are per day, and end at midnight *UK* time (although Vodafone will send you texts when you get close to the end of a block of data and when it’s close to midnight), and Vodafone do state the charges are based on browsing and emails, and not file sharing, downloading music or video or streaming media either (as these will quickly eat up those blocks of data).

So, if we do our sums properly, it looks to us like Vodafone works out a lot cheaper per MB than 3UK are when roaming, but of course if you use a really really small of data per day, then 3UK will be cheaper, but where’s the fun in that…

With the aide of a handy calculator, we think the following would apply:

• Using 1MB a day for 7 days on 3UK in France: £8.75
• Using 1MB a day for 7 days on Vodafone in France: £34.93

So, 3UK comes out best, until you start using more data…

• Using 4MB a day for 7 days on 3UK in France: £35.00
• Using 4MB a day for 7 days on Vodafone in France: £34.93

Of course, as the numbers go up, it still starts to add up for both…

• Using 15MB a day for 7 days on 3UK in France: £131.25
• Using 15MB a day for 7 days on Vodafone in France: £104.79

Now, 15MB a day for 7 days is only 105MB, and, to be honest, with both networks offering over 500MB (3UK offering 1-2GB) for £5 per month, all these charges still look ridiculously high, but let’s hope the price war between the networks continues to drive down data charges before the EU has to act and set limits on roaming, like it has for calls and texts.

As big TripIt (and Dopplr) fans, we’ve happy to see TripIt have upgraded their iPhone app.  It now features:

• Shared Trips are now displayed
• Restaurant reservations are now displayed
• Meetings now show their end times
• Faster data download and increased stability
• Improved phone number support
• Better map links for airports
• Support for longer trip notes

We’ve been fans of the idea behind the Pocket Surfer device since it was first launched, and now they have upgraded the unit again, and provided an even more compelling product.

Firstly, the Pocket Surfer 3 adds an Active Matrix TFT Screen, probably the major complaint about the original and Pocket Surfer 2 devices.  Weighing just 174g and featuring a 640×240 display, the device has a backlit QWERTY keyboard and a touchpad mouse, and features about 4 hours of active use, or 4 days standby time, and recharges via a miniUSB connector.  The device also features a GPS (previous units relied upon cell ID triangulation), although you won’t find any SatNav type software available for it; the device is designed to be used as a web terminal.

With a built in web browser (and server based compression technology back at Datawind), the device is capable of loading many webpages in less than 7 seconds, despite being limited to a GPRS connection.  As with the Pocket Surfer 2, this is via Vodafone, and included in the £159.99 device price is 12 months of 30 hours per month.  This will cost around £29.99 for another 12 months, and if you need more than the 30 hours, you can either pay an additional £5.99 per month for unlimited browsing per month (if you haven’t paid the extra, the device simply stops working, as opposed to racking up huge additional bills).

Of course, if you are a heavy user, then you may be better paying a one time £59.99 for unlimited web browsing for the lifetime of the device (if you fail to use the device for 90 days, you will need to pay a £29.99 reactivation fee).  Travelling abroad is the same as the Pocket Surfer 2, with either a charge of 5p per minute (Europe & USA) or 25p per minute (Rest of World) for when you use it, or you can pay £29.99 to credit your account with 600 minute of usage (valid for 12 months).

With email, IM, web browsing, and many other services linked via the online menu system (eg free online translation services, travel information etc.) this is still a handy little device, and one well worth considering for those who want more than just a mobile phone, but don’t want an all encompassing smartphone.

Two things to note: the Pocket Surfer 3 (£199.99) is still lacking audio (so no voice chat, watching video or listening to music), and the Pocket Surfer Lite (£129.99) doesn’t have the GPS or touchpad.  Both devices will be available from Maplin shortly, who are currently selling the Pocket Surfer 2 Lite at a discounted £129.99 (presumably to clear stocks).

iPhone users are still reeling over the decision by National Rail to be sticklers over the licensing rules for a (now no longer available) free iPhone app for accessing live train timetables, and then releasing their own paid-for app.  However, Symbian users are more used to simply accessing the free National Rail WAP site for the same information.

However, one Symbian user has created a S60 5th Edition WRT (Web RunTime) widget (and has plans for a S60 3rd Edition version too) to access the rail timetable.  Now, this doesn’t yet include live data, but at least does allow you to see what trains should be running, and how long journeys will take.  Best of all, it’s free!

Of course, there are other options; beyond the National Rail WAP site already mentioned, there is also traintimes.org.uk, which is mobile-friendly, and can provide similar information to this WRT widget.

This story and picture are courtesy of Daily Mobile, from where you can also get access to the widget.

Google have updated their Google Maps software.  Interestingly, instead of wrapping it up into a new firmware bundle (which limits distribution whilst the various network operators have their say in when and even whether the firmware is sent out), they have released their Maps update via the Android Market (just search for “Google Maps”).

Also, a key point for UK users is that Google have ensured this version has working Google Latitude support; Google claimed when they released Latitude support, but it wasn’t available in the UK, that it was due to regulatory reasons covering all UK networks.  Of course, this “excuse” lost weight when Vodafone released the HTC Magic with full Latitude support

So, now, whatever the reason was, Latitude is available to T-Mobile G1 users.  However, this update brings with it a number of other features too…

• You can now search using your Voice, and unlike some other platforms, Google have included support for US English, UK English and Australian English in this version.
• They have added “Transit” (aka public transport) and walking directions; for the UK, the public transport information is limited to Traveline South East, Traveline Midlands and London (which seems to cover most of the London Underground and selected overground services; it may also include some bus and coach information).  250 Cities are covered (such as New York and San Fransisco, so it will be useful when travelling if it doesn’t yet cover your area in the UK).  As with many other services, by selecting walking, it allows the navigation to ‘ignore’ one-way streets, providing sensible routes which would not be available to a vehicle.
• As well as enabling Latitude for the UK, it also fixes problems with the application periodically stopping to update Latitude in the background.
• There’s a new experimental feature called “Updates” which allows you to notify your friends of your current status; “Start Latitude and click the “Updates” tab to shout out updates at friends when they’re at interesting locations, start a conversation when you’re at your favorite restaurant, or just add more details to your Latitude location for your friends to see. Your friends will also need to download this new version of Google Maps for Android in order to use this experimental Updates feature — they will not get your messages otherwise.”
• Finally, if you are wondering where Street View has gone; “You can now check out Street View directly from any search result where imagery is available. You can also long-press any point on the map, in map view or satellite view, and you’ll see a Street View thumbnail wherever imagery is available.”

Once Google can roll out the “Updates” service across all mobile platforms, this may prove quite a popular function, but until then, we suspect it’s not going to get used much, however, it’s good to see Google still adding new functions, and nice to see them decoupling themselves from the network operators grasp.

In other news, we were made aware of SIM Checker a few days ago; this application can automatically SMS or email you whenever the SIM card is changed in your Android phone.  This means, if your phone is stolen, you will get notified of the new phone number, but also it will provide you information on the current location of the phone.  It actually provides (if these functions are left enabled on the device) 3 different location results; cell ID based location information, GPS based location information and Wi-Fi positioning location information.  This seems one of those handy utilities to install and forget about, and then should the worst happen, be grateful you spent those few minutes installing it.  We’d like to see it extended though; things like sending the location information once every 24 hours once the SIM is changed (until disabled) or the ability to be requested to provide the current location via an incoming SMS / email would be handy (if only to handle the “argh, I can’t find my phone, where did I leave it?” type scenarios).

Nokia have released what they are claiming should be the final beta version of the new Nokia Maps v3, AKA Maps 3.0 with Ovi Maps.  This new release has a number of new features, including:

• Additional features such as weather information, safety spot warners in selected countries, extended country coverage for traffic info service and premium POI (Point of Interest) content for travel, selected events and cinema
• New maps data version
• Quicker zooming & panning
• New “Shop & Licenses” format
• Also, a number of fixes and enhancements onto both Maps Updater and Map Loader have also been implemented – with Maps Updater supporting 21 different languages
• Last but not least, many bugs have been fixed!

This new version is also compatible with Symbian S60 5th Edition devices, so the list now includes:

S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 (E63, E66, E71, E90 Communicator, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95, N95 8GB)
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (E55, E75, N78, N79, N85, N86 8MP, N96, 5320 XpressMusic, 5630 XpressMusic, 5730 XpressMusic, 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic, 6650, 6710 Navigator, 6720 Classic)
S60 5th Edition (5800 XpressMusic & N97)

To use this, you’ll need to head off to Nokia Beta Labs and download and install the new Map Updater and Map Loader.  If you use SpeedCam on your Nokia to get alerts for speed cameras, the author tells us it should still be compatible with this version (on S60 3rd Edition FP1 and FP2 only; he is still looking into S60 5th Edition support).

Update: If you are a Mac user, then N97Geeks have managed to work out the Map Updater simply downloads a .SIS file and sends it to your phone, and they have intercepted this process and released the .SIS file for Mac users to download and directly send to their Symbian phones.

Vodafone have today launched a new promotion; a free underwater camera with certain phone and mobile broadband contracts.  This promotion lasts until 2nd July, and the camera comes with the following:

• Waterproof case
• Pouch 
• Strap
• TV cable
• CD Rom with Arcsoft software
• Manual
• 2 x AAA Alkaline batteries

No technical specs for the camera were available at the time of writing, but if you are in the market for a new phone contract, and you want to benefit from this offer, then you’ll need to head to our UK Gadgeteer Offers page where we provide the links and codes you’ll need to enter to get this free camera.

Truphone have updated their iPhone client to v3.0.  They are claiming that they have improved call quality to the extent that the quality is “superior to Skype for iPhone and other iPhone VoIP apps!”  To access the new version, simply head off to the Apple iTunes Store, or you can get instructions on how to download this client direct from Truphone’s website here.

Truphone offer you free calls to Skype and other Truphone users, free instant messaging to various platforms, and also offer low call rates to international numbers allowing you to keep your call costs to a minimum.  They have a range of schemes (depending on the level of calls you make), from Truphone Unlimited (subject to 3000 minute per month limit), Truphone Anywhere (to allow you to still make calls when out of reach of a Wi-Fi network), and Truphone Local Anywhere which offers a SIM which can have multiple incoming numbers assigned to it, and benefits from much reduced roaming rates (when it launches later this year).