The Nokia Navigator is the world’s first cell phone to combine the power of a compass and a GPS, ensuring you won’t get lost as long as you have your phone with you.
The ‘compass phone’ - or Navigator, as it is called - works by aligning maps that already exist within the handset according to magnetic north - much as a compass needle would. The owner can then look at the buildings around him or her, line them up with the satellite imagery that is generated by the phone’s GPS system, and work out which way to walk.
Having a compass in a phone with GPS also opens up the possibility that a person should not in theory be able to be lost no matter where they are on the earth’s surface, because the phone should always be able to point them in the direction of the nearest town.
The Nokia Navigator will first be offered in Europe starting in July. Nokia has been pushing more “location-based services” since taking over TomTom.
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