MANILA, Philippines – I like maps because I don’t like getting lost in the city. When travelling, I always get the free city map at the tourist center or at the airport. In Manila, I know my way around but sometimes you get that unfamiliar street name and you probably know it when you are on the street itself but trying to figure out which one it is might be the problem.

But imagine getting rid of messy, large, folding paper charts of street names and boulevards and think of a 2D or 3D diagram of the city right in your cell phone. That’s what Nokia and their Internet service Ovi is offering with their all new Nokia Maps 3.0 Beta. While there is no downloadable map for Manila, maps for other countries in Asia are available, such as Hong Kong, Thailand, China. Maps for most of Europe and a lot of countries of America and Central America are available.

Download the map into your computer and plan your routes then upload it into your mobile device so you can activate it without having to connect to the Internet abroad. This can help save you from looking like too much of a tourist, though it will keep your phone out in the open but to never get lost in a strange, foreign city is not such a bad deal.

According to the website, Nokia Maps have different modes such as walk or drive. The drive function has visual lane assistance to guide you to the correct line before junctions and it feeds you traffic updates straight into your phone to help you avoid the traffic jams. You can also save any place or landmark ahead of time so that you can get directions to that location later when you are actually there.

Going to New York for a scholarship? Visiting London for a vacation? It’s not going to be helpful to look like a tourist in these hard times. Know exactly where you are going with a switch of your phone. First, it was a communication device. Then it became a music device. Now, it’s telling us where to go. I wonder what else they are going to come up with next?

Nokia Maps 3.0 Beta is compatible with E71, E66, 6110 Navigator, N95, N82, N96, N85, N79, 6650, 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic and N78 handsets. For more information check out maps.ovi.com and see the world in a totally different way.