Nokia is still putting the pieces together to make their Ovi Store and Ovi Navigation packages as world class and competitive as possible against other (read: Google) offerings out there and have teamed up with Yahoo to do so. As part of the alliance:

• Nokia will be the exclusive, global provider of Yahoo!’s maps and navigation services, integrating Ovi Maps across Yahoo! properties, branded as “powered by Ovi.”
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive, global provider of Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services branded as “Ovi Mail / Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo!”
• Nokia and Yahoo! plan to work on ID federation between their services, beginning by making it easy for people to use their Ovi user IDs across select Yahoo! properties to easily access the online content and services they need.

Although it’s good to see that Nokia is dedicated to improving their Ovi branded offerings… but seriously. Yahoo?

[ Links: Nokia, Yahoo, Nokia/Yahoo Press Release ]

In a surprise move, Nokia has announced that they will offer free navigation to all of their smartphones, Symbian based and the Maemo based N900 included.

“Nokia used to charge for navigation packages that included turn-by-turn directions. That all goes away now. Now you can get turn-by-turn directions covering 74 countries in 46 languages as well as detailed maps for 180 countries,” the report said.

Nokia offering free navigation on some 20 million smartphones is set to hurt key players on the global navigation market, including TomTom and Garmin. Nokia was not immediately available for comment.

This move will invariably be compared to when Google offered turn-by-turn navigation on the Motorola Droid in late 2009.

UPDATE: Apparently this move doesn’t include the Nokia N900 nor any prior Nokia Maemo device.

[ Links: Nokia Navigation Announcement - Reuters, Nokia Countdown ]

Here’s a cool concept, turning manhole covers into a street-level navigation system that can direct visitors around a new city.

I must admit, when I first saw the shots of the Map Hole concept I thought it was a cute idea but one that would probably never happen. The issue is one of convenience and cost, man holes come in a uniform shape and size for a very good reason, it makes them easy to place and if need be, replace.

However, when advertising is incorporated into the plan, which it has been, it becomes possible to not only make the manhole covers pay for themselves, but also turn a profit. Nice, as long as your manholes aren’t out in the middle of the street.

Link to the original article…