Nokia HERE updated with better transit info and turn-by-turn navigation for new countries

Nokia has announced an update to its HERE mapping service that brings updated maps to Android and Windows Phone users around the world.

Nokia has been working on public transit information and navigation within HERE for months. Last fall, the company talked about how it’s working to improve transit information within HERE and revealed that it had updated its Chicago transit map to better reflect the various lines geographical reality. This change is now being replicated across public transit systems in several new cities. Commuters in Kaohsiung, Taipei, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Singapore will now see a more accurate representation of the subway, train and tram lines.

Perhaps more importantly, given HERE’s offline functionality, Nokia has updated a handful of countries’ maps to navigable status, which means they’re actually interactive. Users in Cyprus, Mayotte and Zimbabwe are all able to use turn-by-turn navigations thanks to this update.

It’s also good news for Windows Phone users, given last year’s reports that Nokia planned to end support for Windows Phone users. Nokia launched HERE maps for Android late last year and an iOS version is scheduled for “early 2015.”

HERE is one part of Nokia that wasn’t sold to Microsoft as part of the multi-billion dollar acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services business earlier this year. HERE Maps competes directly with Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Bing Maps and offers complete maps for offline viewing and navigation.

[source]Here 360 Blog[/source]