14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia unveiled to the world its first smartphones powered by Microsoft’s next mobile OS flavor, Windows Phone 8, and also announced a series of appealing applications that would make it inside these devices.
Among them, there was the Nokia City Lens augmented reality app, which has been available for Windows Phone for several months in a beta version, and which graduated last week to a commercial product.
Nokia’s City Lens makes use of a mobile phone’s camera to display info on various places located near the user. On the handset’s screen, the app delivers an augmented reality overlay view of buildings, while also highlighting places of interest.
“The app then provides information about each building or landmark in the area giving the user an at-a-glance understanding of what restaurants, museums, shops and others places of interest are nearby,” Nokia explains.
“Seeing a place of interest through augmented reality provides a wealth of information not available with the naked eye, allowing you to see the world around you using your smartphone instead of having to perform web searches.”
The application is available for download through the Windows Phone Marketplace for all owners of a Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710.
A new version of the mobile software is also expected to become available for download in the not too distant future, this time aimed at the newly launched Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones.
Both are running under Windows Phone 8, which is powered by the Nokia Location Platform, providing the handset vendor with the possibility to add some appealing new features into the mix.
“The first to be introduced will be a new 3D icons layout, which is going to make the augmented reality experience look even more realistic. We are also going to fix a common problem of augmented reality apps,” Nokia explains.
“If you don’t see a place in real life, because it’s hidden behind a building, you might want to see it or not among nearby search results. We give you the choice: you will be able to filter search results so that only those in the line of sight are visible.”
Nokia City Lens for Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 will take advantage of some unique Windows Phone 8 features as well, allowing users to easily pin to start any category tile, or find things faster. Moreover, the app can be personalized through adding favorite searches to its menu.
“Last but not least you can also use Nokia City Lens in both landscape and portrait mode,” Nokia concludes. The app should be available when both smartphones hit shelves, something that might happen in early November.
