Nokia have released version 2.1 of its Public Transport app for Symbian. In this release, Nokia have almost brought feature parity between all versions: Belle, Anna, Pre-Anna, and Symbian^1 (S60 5^th Edition). Version 2.1 brings improvements to battery life and start-up time, plus bug fixes. A major new feature, which is only available to Nokia Belle however, is the presentation of public transport in users' immediate vicinity. Not only is this version available at Nokia Beta labs, but in the Nokia Store too.

If you have a previous version of Public Transport installed, the store client should offer an update as of today. Please note that the application update procedure takes an unusually long time to complete, so patience is advised!

Waiting ... and waiting ... and wa...

For those not familiar with Public Transport, the idea is that the user would set a starting point (typically their current location) and a destination. The application will then use its database of local transport schedules to create a journey plan. For example, to navigate in London, Public Transport would advise where you need to talk, and take the tube, including line changes, and duration estimates.

The key drawback with Public Transport is that there is still a relatively small number of cities covered by the service. Most areas covered are in the USA, but major metropolitan areas around the world are included (e.g. capital cities). More cities are promised though, and Public Transport will tell you at launch whether your current location is covered.

This release marks a maturation of Public Transport, which is a key differentiator among mobile devices. It's laudable that Nokia have made this available to all generations of its touch screen devices.

Nokia Beta labs stated the change log for all platforms as follows:

 What’s new in 2.1?

• All the platforms (S^1 and S^3-all firmwares) have now the same feature set – only difference is Transport Nearby on the map (which is only supported on Belle and newer firmwares).
• Transport Nearby in estimated routing areas.
• Improvements: battery live, start-up time, UI for Transport Nearby page, etc.
• Bug fixing.

What else is new in 2.1 for S^3 preAnna and Anna firmwares?

• Simple routing: Simple routing uses the map data to calculate a heuristic route, based on the likely frequency of lines.
• Improved experience in the available cities and increase to more cities; especially in China.
• Much more coverage: many more timetable cities + simple routing (before only Germany, UK, USA, Canada, Finland,  Belgium Denmark and New Zealand)
    

What else is new in 2.1 new for S^1?

• Much more coverage: many more timetable cities + simple routing (before only Berlin/Brandenburg).
• Transport Nearby: search for a station around a certain spot and get all the departures from that station.
• Line information:  the stops along a line and its frequency.
• Integration of Nokia Maps: walk to or show your destination on the map using Nokia Maps.
• Coverage check: at the first time usage, a coverage check will show information about the supported coverage in the user‘s city. Besides, some legal information will also presented to the user.
• Localization: now supports all languages that are available on Symbian (before only English and German)
• Lots of visual improvements.