wtorek, 25 czerwca 2013

GeoCoder for Harmattan (N9 / N950) and Symbian

The main purpose of GeoCoder is to let quickly and easily find any location and provide LOTS of information about it, that would otherwise require using multiple, separate resources.

The application accepts as input any kind of data pointing to the location you want to find:

- its address (full or partial, e.g. just Champs Elysees) or place name (e.g. Tate Gallery), or
- its coordinates (in either decimal or DMS format), or
- selecting its location on a map.

Just select the corresponding input type from the top most button row ("Address" or "Coords" or "Map"), enter the data and click "OK".

For an address, it is not necessary to enter all details. City name (if it is unique) or place name (e.g. Niagara falls) is usually sufficient. However, the more data you enter the more precise result you will get. Entering full address with street number will give you precision of the results of up to several meters...






Within just a few seconds you will get A LOT of information about the location, including:

- location shown on Nokia Map (can be switched between Street, Terrain, Satellite)
- exact GPS coordinates (in both decimal and DMS format)
- exact elevation above the mean sea level (in meters and feet)
- detailed address (country, city, street & number, district, county, state)
- postal code
- time zone name and UTC difference
- daylight saving (summer) time enabled or not, difference
- current time and date
- sunrise & sunset times and day length
- dawn & dusk times and daylight duration
- moonrise & moonset times
- current weather (description, cloudiness, temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, direction and gust, precipitation (rain / snow)
- road distance from your home location (configured in Settings) or your current location (from the GPS receiver) in kilometers and miles
- travel time (for driving, bicycling or walking - configurable in Settings) from your home or current location.




Additionally, for every location you also get:

- a 360 degree panorama picture of the exact location (if available for that location from Google Street View Image API)
- 7-day weather prediction
- full screen Google Map (street and satellite) and Google Street View
- direct link to a Wikipedia article about the city in which the location is placed, useful if you'd like to check some more advanced details like e.g. population, density, history, etc.

 
 


In addition to the above, GeoCoder also provides a "HERE" option, which simply shows all the above listed data for the user's current location obtained from the GPS receiver. All it takes is to select the "Here" tab and press "Get" button. A nice way to quickly get A LOT of information about your current location, including exact elevation, postal code, distance and travel time to/from home, sunrise/sunset, and all the rest.




 Benefits:
- with just one tap (and a few seconds of waiting) you get A LOT of information about any location worldwide, which otherwise need checking at least several separate resources (at least I am not aware of any service providing them all)
- very quick and easy way to get a panorama imagery of a location. Just input data to find the location and then tap on the Panorama button. No need to browse maps, drag and drop the Pegman, etc.
- both Nokia Maps and Google Maps (with Street View) are provided
- small (240 kB ) and fast.

The program uses Nokia and Google geocoding and reverse geocoding services, Nokia and Google routing services, Google Elevation API, Google TimeZone API, Google StreetView Image API, Google Maps API, OpenWeatherMap API, and more. It requires Internet connection.

MeeGo Harmattan version: http://store.ovi.com/content/379830

Symbian Anna & Belle version: http://store.ovi.com/content/381250