Tears of joy.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/maps/9e8f8fc5-da17-4b7f-80f3-2dc334de8dac

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I just need to wait for Mango turn-by-turn navigation.

The comments are kind of funny.

So, I haven't been following this maps problem closely. But, I have some questions. Nokia sells phones and has some premier mapping service. They pull something from the Apple playbook and remove the baked-in Bing Maps app from the phones and put in their own mapping application. But, their own map app is dysfunctional in some type of fundamental way. And, there wasn't an easy way to restore the missing baked-in Bing Maps? But now there is.

JFC. Google and Apple are stomping on everyone else's nut sack and this was the best Redmond and Keilaniemi could come up with? *slow clap*

Why do you need this? Because Nokia wants you to launch Nokia Maps each time which sometimes isn’t as efficient when you just quickly need to open up a map to see where you are or quickly see traffic.

This is worse than Tim Cook's apology letter.

-Josh

But on the upside, people seem to really like the Bing Maps app.

2 hours ago, JoshRoss wrote

So, I haven't been following this maps problem closely. But, I have some questions. Nokia sells phones and has some premier mapping service. They pull something from the Apple playbook and remove the baked-in Bing Maps app from the phones and put in their own mapping application. But, their own map app is dysfunctional in some type of fundamental way. And, there wasn't an easy way to restore the missing baked-in Bing Maps? But now there is.

JFC. Google and Apple are stomping on everyone else's nut sack and this was the best Redmond and Keilaniemi could come up with? *slow clap*

*snip*

 

This is worse than Tim Cook's apology letter.

-Josh

It's not an official MSFT app. The publisher is Mohammed Adenwala.

Oh man, I didn't see that. Now that's funny!

-Josh

@JoshRoss:

I know, we need one person to undone the evil Nokia has forced upon us both under the permission of Microsoft.

My first windows phone was a Samsung that came with Bing maps. I will not call the maps useless, because that's not fair.  Instead "Not very good and of a quality and with features that made me not use any map applications at all" is a better description for the Bing map application that came with my Samsung.

After getting a Nokia Lumia 800 I use maps on my phone all the time. It has replaced the GPS in my car, I have used it all over Europe and Asia. Nokia maps has guided me safely to even remote destinations on remote parts of the world. The area very precise and seems to know every location and have great turn by turn navigation everywhere.

I have not tried to use Bing maps in the states. I suspect that magicalclick lives in the US and apparently, Bing must have optimized their application that that part of the world and have implemented features not found outside of the states.

But for the majority of us we should be very very happy about the "evil Nokia has forced upon us both under the permission of Microsoft", because Nokia Maps has changed my phone from being just a phone, to a tool I use everyday.

@fabian:

try windows phone 7.5 Bing map, if you haven't. IMO, Nokua drive is not as good as mango map.

Bing maps can't really compare. I am sticking with Nokia maps/drive and those are the reason why my next phone will be a Nokia.

What features do you see that Bing maps have that Nokia don't?

@blowdart:ohhh, i understand. We dont have that where i live, but we have it in the Nokia apps. Same, same but different

It's a role reversal. The British part of me thinks "About time", the part of me that lives in the US thinks "Damnit"

very unusual, for once, not bring the one with the crippeld version, because some manager doesn't realize there is a world outside of the USA. Ahhhh will sleep good tonight

@fabian:

one big thing about Mango map is that it zoom out when the next point is far away, which gives me a easy sense how far or close I should pay attention. Nokia Drive doesn't do that.

also Mango map direction is so much better.

also Nokia Map traffic doesn't show up at all.

and I really don't need someone keeps nagging my direction.

I just checked out some youtube videos where I could see the US version of Bing maps. Bing map over here is nothing like that and, some parts of it, look cooler and better than the Nokia drive / maps I have.

I understand why you guys miss it.

@fabian:

didn't realize Bing is bad in UK. Hope the Nokia agreement can help them in Europe map.

I am from Denmark, which is a bing beta country and bing (maps, search etc) lacks tons of features. I think the same goes for most non-english countries. The Nokia map deals helps a lot.