The 10 point guide to Nokia's Ovi Maps

With the Nokia smartphones less inspiring than the current darlings of the mobile industry HTC, Apple and BlackBerry as well as the irresistible forces that are Samsung and LG, it's easy to dismiss what the Finnish company has to offer at the top end.
However, back at the beginning of 2010, Nokia made the move to offer its Ovi Maps and route guidance system up for all to use - all who use the right bunch of Nokia phones, that is. Here's a quick guide as to why that's a more interesting proposition than some might have realised - both those happy to pay for TomTom, Mio Navman and Garmin and those who're singing the praises of Google Maps.

1) It works offline

One of the major complaints with a lot of the satnavs on mobile phone systems is that as soon as you go into the countryside and start losing reception, the whole thing comes crashing down. Ovi Maps doesn't suffer from that problem. The reason is that the application downloads the full map information to your handset rather than constantly having to refer and access the map data in the cloud. So, not only does it require no internet connection to get you from A to B, but it also won't cost you a penny in data as well. If you do choose to run the app in online mode, you get access to a few more features and it might be a smidge quicker with assisted GPS, but otherwise it's the same kettle of fish.

2) It's for pedestrians and motorists

Like TomTom on the iPhone or Google Maps for Navigation, one of the good things about Ovi Maps is that it runs on your mobile phone. When you add that in with the fact that it gives route guidance for both pedestrians and motorists, then it means you only have to bother with one device on you at any one time. Certainly beats bulking out an extra pocket with a big-screened dedicated satnav as well as your handset.

How to Download Nokia Apps and Games from Ovi Store to Computer

Ovi Store is a great place for Nokia users to find and download applications, games, themes, videos and sounds. However, typically one must use a compatible phone or Ovi Suite. This tutorial describes how to download from Ovi Store directly to your computer from your browser. Detailed instructions are given for finding the direct links to the .jad files and on how to convert sis.dm files to .sis files.

Update: With the new Ovi Store update, some models may not work with method 1. Please try method 2.
Method 1:
This requires using firefox as the browser. You will also need a Nokia user account which is typically the account you would use on your phone.
1. Install User Agent Switcher add-on and restart your Firefox.
2. Go to Tools->Default User Agent->Edit User Agent.

3. In User Agent Switcher Options window, choose New->New User Agent…..

How to Download Nokia Ovi Store Applications to Computer via Firefox

Nokia, just like Android has a magnificent number of application in their application store named  Nokia Ovi Store. The application database is superb and one will find one or the other application to suit his needs. One thing annoying with the app store in that you can not download the apps on your PC and later transfer it to your phone. People who are not connected through GPRS or 3G find it real pain to install the apps. Now here is a way you can download the apps directly to your system and transfer them to your mobile at a later stage.
Note :: I have used Firefox and Windows OS  for the trick and to be frank I don’t know how to do it on other browser and Operating Systems so please install Firefox before you proceed on a Windows running  system

Guide to download Nokia Ovi store application to PC:

• Download a small Firefox add-on User Agent Switcher and restart  your browser for the changes to take effect.
• Now Open any suitable editor and copy the code given below.

<useragentswitcher><useragent description="Internet Explorer 7 (Windows Vista)" useragent="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)" appcodename="" appname="Microsoft Internet Explorer" appversion="4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)" platform="Win32" vendor="" vendorsub=""/><useragent description="Netscape 4.8 (Windows Vista)" useragent="Mozilla/4.8 [en] (Windows NT 6.0; U)" appcodename="" appname="Netscape" appversion="4.8 [en] (Windows NT 6.0; U)" platform="Win32" vendor="" vendorsub=""/><useragent description="Opera 9.25 (Windows Vista)" useragent="Opera/9.25 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en)" appcodename="" appname="Opera" appversion="9.25 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en)" platform="Win32" vendor="" vendorsub=""/><useragent description="Nokia 5800" useragent="Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.4; U;Series60/5.0 Nokia5800/10.0.006;Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413" appcodename="" appname="" appversion="" platform="" vendor="" vendorsub=""/><useragent description="N95" useragent="Mozilla/5.0(SymbianOS/9.2; U;Series60/3.1 NokiaN95/1.39.044; Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1;)AppleWebKit/413(KHTML,like Gecko)Safari/413" appcodename="" appname="" appversion="" platform="" vendor="" vendorsub=""/><useragent description="5310" useragent="Nokia5310XpressMusic/1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1" appcodename="" appname="" appversion="" platform="" vendor="" vendorsub=""/><useragent description="E71" useragent="Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.2; U; Series60/3.1 NokiaE71-3/1.00.000; Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1;)AppleWebKit/413(KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413" appcodename="" appname="" appversion="" platform="" vendor="" vendorsub=""/><useragent description="N97" useragent="Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.4; U; Series60/5.0 NokiaN97/10.0.001; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) AppleWebKit/525 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/525" appcodename="" appname="" appversion="" platform="" vendor="" vendorsub=""/></useragentswitcher>