For Developing Location based reminder app,which one is good Google Map or Nokia map

[Rahul More]

I am developing GPS based Location reminder in j2me. I am little bit confuse to which maps i use??.....Google maps & Nokia maps. Which one is better?

The working of my app are as follows :-

-User will provide a string to app to search a place of his/her desire.

-Then according to given string app will show a place on map by pointing marker on map.

-User can save that place or he/she can select a near by place rather than searched place by clicking on map or any other way.

-app will save that searched place coordinates & remind when it reached to near that place.

-When app remind to user about already stored place... that place should show on map by pointing an marker along with the how far he is from his destination.

[jasfox]

.....Google maps & Nokia maps. Which one is better?

Hi Rahul,
Your question is a good one, I think you can already guess which company is likely to be promoted on the Nokia developer forum, but the real choice lies in whether to use a RESTful API like the Google Static Maps (or Nokia's RESTful Maps) or to use a complete mapping library plugin such as the Nokia Maps API for Java ME. The latter has several major advantages:

• Static mapping services such as the Google Static Maps API or Nokia's RESTful Map API do not cache or tile the images when requested, therefore each request involves a round trip to the server. If the map on a mobile application needs to be refreshed at any time, using a caching library will result in a reduction in network traffic after around three maps have been displayed. An explanation of this can be found here
• As the name implies, Google's Static Maps API can only retrieve over http static images for a requested coordinate point, image size, image type and zoom level. Newer libraries offer additional functionality out of the box offering dynamic Map content and touch support, where the user can move around his/her current position, zoom in, zoom out, modify the view mode to satellite or translate an address to a coordinate point and show that on the map, among others. This abstraction of the underlying functionality is hidden from the developer so much less coding is needed in order to achieve the same result .
• Terms ans Conditions for Nokia Maps are easier to fullfill than Google - No legal restrictions of using the API outside a web browser application or need to provide a link to the native Google Maps App (if there is one), or to Google Maps (if there isn't one).
• Nokia currently offer higher free daily request limits. Nokia Maps API for Java ME supports up to 50,000 render requests per day and per unique IP address (as of January 2012), for Nokia Developer registered users (free of charge) while the limit for Google's Static Maps API is currently 1000 unique (different) image requests per viewer per day.

A couple of years ago there wouldn't be a choice, only RESTful solutions existed, but these days I would say a static http solution should only be used if you want a simple single image

As an abstraction of the underlying services, there are already a full set of examples to cover most of your use cases:

-User will provide a string to app to search a place of his/her desire.
-Then according to given string app will show a place on map by pointing marker on map.

http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...PI_for_Java_ME

-User can save that place or he/she can select a near by place rather than searched place by clicking on map or any other way.

Maybe you need to use a draggable marker:

• http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devel...ples/#standard

Or react to the touch and find a Geocoordinate:

• http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...PI_for_Java_ME

-app will save that searched place coordinates & remind when it reached to near that place.

This is known as geofencing and is covered by the Location API:

• http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resou...ty-events.html

-When app remind to user about already stored place... that place should show on map by pointing an marker along with the how far he is from his destination.

Showing a Map
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devel...ples/#standard
For distance calculations, I guess you'd be after the ROUTING example

• http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devel...mples/#routing
• http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...g_with_Java_ME

Now you *could* re-write and all these services from scratch using RESTful APIs (and then go about debugging your code) , but I'm sure you'll agree it would be much easier to use an existing, working and tested framework for the low level plumbing and then just write your code on top using the services.