Grand Prize: Ground Guidance

How do you navigate when there are no roads? Ground Guidance with Ovi Maps solves this problem. With technology originally built for the U.S. Army, St. Paul, Minnesota-based Primordial uses an innovative, patented technique, combined with a wide range of data sources to create a walkable route where no road data exists. Pick any two points in the app, and the user will be presented with a walkable path to take. Developer website

2nd Place: Pocket Life

Pocket Life (from Wanaka, New Zealand-based Pocketweb) is an established location-based social network for web and mobile. As a location-based lifestyle app, with Pocket Life for Ovi Maps on your Nokia device, individuals can always be in touch with their closest friends, down to knowing precisely where they are at that given time. Using Pocket Life, individuals can discover new places, share photos, and quickly know their way around like a local. Developer website

3rd Place: Smart Eggs

Smart Eggs, submitted by Forum Nokia PRO member company MSCorp (based in Coral Springs, Florida), will bring the thrill of discovery and surprise to your explorations when using Ovi Maps. Crack open a Smart Egg to get a multimedia review of the latest movie, or get tips about special promotions from nearby shops. Engage in the excitement of a mobile treasure hunt with your friends, collecting codes inside Premium Smart Eggs. This clever mobile app for brands, artists, and venues interacts with consumers at the local level, while promoting the use of multiple Nokia services and platforms, including Ovi Maps and more. Developer website

Special recognition among Apps on Maps finalists
In the Apps on Maps category, from all of the ideas submitted, 14 developers were given exclusive access to the Ovi Beta SDK to turn their ideas into a completed application for use on Nokia devices. In addition to the three finalists selected, Forum Nokia would like to recognize the high-quality submissions received from five other developers. We will be working with these developers to help them complete their Apps on Maps projects, and to ensure that these innovative applications are promoted in Ovi Store by Nokia, where the finished apps will be available to consumers using Nokia devices worldwide.

These five other Apps on Maps projects (in alphabetical order) are:

Feng Shui Explorer

The practice of Feng Shui ('wind and water') looks at the relationship between man and nature, and is widely used to perform analysis on a home. Using the GPS and Ovi Maps built into Nokia mobile devices, Feng Shui Explorer by Cheah Wei Leow (based in Penang, Malaysia), will help individuals to easily analyze Feng Shui, saving the cost of hiring a professional to conduct a feng shui analysis. For individuals looking to buy a house, it can be used to find a home with good Feng Shui. For the seller, it can be used to identify the bad Feng Shui and offer suggestions for improvement.

Home2go

Home2go, from Australia’s Infact Data, is a real estate application for Nokia S60 5th Edition devices that allows potential sellers to immediately and accurately display their property within the context of Ovi Maps, while at the same time enabling potential buyers to see what is available in a specific area for purchase on their own mobile devices, compare properties, and then communicate with the seller or real estate agent to view the property and negotiate a purchase.

me360

me360, from Chicago-based Earthcomber, uses the one resource more powerful than the Internet: You. Specifically, the depth of your personal desires, interests and tastes. Think of all of the things we could experience, the people we could meet, the special interests we could uncover – if only there were an easy way to know where all the opportunities are around us all the time … Guess what? By using the built-in GPS and Ovi Maps technology on your Nokia mobile device to know where you are and what is nearby, and by stepping out of the manual search box, me360 takes your interest profiles – your modes at work, home and play – and enables you to discover the myriad opportunities around you (including people, places, things, and events). Developer website

msgBoard

msgBoard, created by Viktor Csala (based in Budapest, Hungary), is a mobile social networking application providing a virtual black board (similar to a normal black board, or magnetic white board that can be found in the home) to closed user groups, such as a family or a small group of close friends. With msgBoard, users can post notes (e.g., buy some milk on the way home) and can set alarms related to time or location-based information derived from Ovi Maps (attached, for instance, to the grocery store). When the appropriate condition applies (e.g., one of the members of the group approaches the store), a reminder appears on that individual’s phone informing the individual what he/she is supposed to do.

OpenRide

Developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems based in Berlin, Germany, OpenRide is a mobile solution connected to Ovi Maps for the provision of shared-cost rides. Drivers and passengers on the go can use their Nokia mobile phones to connect with OpenRide and offer a ride, or look for immediate transportation opportunities. Additionally, OpenRide enables drivers to offer spontaneous shared rides when they are already on the road, as well as covering trips over short distances. As such, OpenRide takes advantage of the previously untapped market potential for free transit capacities in private, individual transportation. Developer website