Nokia Drive update enables offline route planning, Transport app enters beta

Nokia revamped their mapping apps for their Windows Phone handsets and added one more app to the list of Lumia-exclusive apps. Nokia Drive has gained full offline functionality and is joined by the new app, Nokia Transport, so you can navigate a city with public transport instead of a car.

Nokia Drive for Windows Phone had one big problem at launch – it couldn’t plot a route in offline mode (even if you have downloaded the map for the region). The latest update fixes that and adds other improvements.

The update for Nokia Drive enables offline route planning and updates the UI

It enables Speed limit alerts, which will notify you if you go over the road’s sped limit. Another addition is the option to display different info in the app’s dashboard – time of arrival, time until arrival or distance to destination.

Nokia Transport allows users to plan routes to any destination in a given town using the public transport available (busses, trams, metro or suburban trains). It will also include walking destination to the first bus stop (or metro station, etc.) and from the last stop to your final destination.

Nokia Transport is a convenient way to move around town using public transport

You can pin favorite destinations to the home screen, so you can quickly plan a route home (and also get at a glance departure info).

Transport is available in 270 cities in 45 countries. There’s timetable information for 86 of the cities – here’s the list.

Then there’s Nokia Maps, which is designed to help you explore a city on foot and also find something interesting to visit in the first place. The update will let you save favorite places, share locations over SMS, email or social networks (and those messages include your estimated time of arrival).

Nokia Maps helps you find interesting places and share them with friends

This is a great way to set up a meeting with your friends. They don’t even need to have Lumia phones, the info is shared in a way anyone can view.

The Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps update are coming in the next few weeks. If you have a Lumia but somehow don’t have these two apps installed, you can grab them from the Nokia section of the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Nokia Transport isn’t available there as it’s still in beta – you can download it from Nokia Beta Labs instead.

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