The latest Nokia GPS ‘smartphones’ running the latest Symbian operating system – like the N82 pictured here – come ready loaded with Nokia Maps and Nokia Sportstracker software. The N82 even comes with a bar mount. Both can also be downloaded for free and run on older handsets with the relevant OS.
The Maps program turns your phone into a navigation device, with virtual 3D or line art mapping, and you can add voice navigation too. With its searchable destination and points of interest menus, it will greatly enhance any ride. It looks and works almost exactly like the Route 66 Mobile 8 software.
One tip though: to avoid hefty download charges as you ride along, use Nokia’s free Maps Loader to transfer the relevant maps to your phone via your PC before you go.
The Nokia Sportstracker, which you can run at the same time as the Maps program, switching back and forth as you like, is a GPS enabled activity tracker. It records and displays all the usual bike computer data and more – speed, distance, time, altitude, course, grid reference, even route cycled.
You also get on-screen graphs showing speed versus time, speed versus distance, and altitude versus distance.
Lay the N82 phone on its side, and the display switches automatically to landscape format, which is great for the graphs.
Each ride is then stored in a calendar-based training diary on the phone, which can display daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or total training summaries for speed, distance, pace and time.
Hook your phone up to your PC, or upload data via your phone’s internet connection, and the program also links to the free Nokia Sports Tracker website.
You can create your own account here, store and share your cycle routes, and even let people track your progress live via the site while you’re out riding!
All we need to go with this now is a Bluetooth heart-rate monitor, cadence sensor and power-measuring hub, please.
£from Free!