Maps Booster from Skyhook Wireless is the perfect addition to the new free walk and drive navigation available in Ovi Maps. Like all location-based services, Ovi Maps needs to determine your location. Getting a fix on your location is easy and accurate when you are outside with a clear view of the orbiting GPS satellite constellation. Getting a fix when you’re outside in the concrete jungle of an urban center, let alone when you’re inside planning a trip, is a bit more trouble.

Maps Booster delivers your location faster than GPS.

Normally we don’t get under the hood of how apps work here on the Ovi Daily App blog, but if you’ll go along with me for a bit it will help you understand why you should consider spending a few bucks on an app to make your free Ovi Maps work even better than it already does.

When we talk about a service like Ovi Maps we typically think in terms of the service obtaining the location of the user “from the GPS” in the handset. While that statement is normally true, it does not tell the whole story. The code in an app does not talk to the GPS, the code in an app makes a call to a Location API, which talks to the GPS.  The Location API can also use other methods to determine position and the app does not know and does not care.

Maps Booster uses WiFi signals to determine location, and relies on its extensive database of WiFi locations. That is how it works quickly and indoors, but that also means it requires a database of WiFi locations in your area. Skyhook provides that database, and the Skyhook Wireless site provides a coverage map which shows areas known to the database. Here’s a snapshot which shows my location in Tucson:

Skyhook Wireless web site includes a coverage map.

Maps Booster links this WiFi positioning technique into the Location API already used by apps in your Nokia mobile device. It works on a broad range of Nokia Symbian devices (see the complete list in the App Compatibility section below).

I installed Maps Booster and upgraded to the latest version of Ovi Maps on my Nokia N97, then tested them together.

I fired up Ovi Maps inside my office, and the first thing I noticed is that it located me on the map in about 5 seconds. Before Maps Booster I needed to take my N97 outside and give it a minute or so to get a satellite fix.

I confirmed Maps Booster was working by looking at the Maps Booster app interface to see that it obtained my location. Then I confirmed that all the rest of the apps on my N97 were obtaining location information from Maps Booster. You can check which positioning methods are in use on your device by clicking: Applications->Location->Positioning->Positioning Methods:

Maps Booster positioniing method is available to all Location Based services.

The rest of my testing focused on the capabilities of the Ovi Maps walk-and drive features. From inside my office I searched for nearby places, and selected a coffee shop a few blocks from my office.  Great interface: it provided me a list of locations sorted by distance from my current location, and when I touched the listing for one of the locations it allowed me to select “walk to” or “drive to”, among other options. I asked for walking directions, at which point it provided me with an extensive list of voices I could download to speak my turn-by-turn directions.

Nokia is known for extensive localization and cultural sensitivity, so it did not surprise me to find a long list of languages recorded in male and female voices. I was not prepared for a sense of humor in the list. The English language options include English (UK) female, English (UK) male, and the English speaking “Surfer Dude” voice. With Surfer Dude downloaded to my Nokia N97, the first driving direction I heard was “Find the nearest road — no need to panic, dude.”

Voice guidance in local dialects, including Surfer Dude.

So if you have not yet checked out free walk and drive navigation from Ovi Maps, you are in for a treat.  Then check out Maps Booster to make all your location-based apps faster and more accurate.  The app is available for $2.99 (USD) in Ovi Store. And, as my new Ovi Maps navigation voice would say:  It’s totally awesome, dude.