New Nokia City Lens for WP8 and WP7

Published by Pino Bonetti on November 28, 2012

Update – The Nokia City Lens version described below is no longer in beta. Download it now from the Windows Phone Store for Nokia Lumia smartphones with Windows Phone 8 like Nokia Lumia 920 and with Windows Phone 7 like Nokia Lumia 800. If you already have Nokia City Lens on your Nokia Lumia, you will soon automatically get the update.

We recently introduced LiveSight, a technology based on a highly accurate, 3D map of the world. LiveSight provides the most precise and intuitive augmented reality experience and uses a phone’s camera viewfinder to make discovering the world as easy as lifting up a phone. After type pads, touchscreens and voice recognition, we want sight recognition to be another standard way to interact with the world around you.

Nokia City Lens, exclusively developed for Nokia Lumia devices, is the first application to provide a LiveSight-enabled experience and today we are pleased to announce that we are working on a new version that leverages the full power of this technology.

Because we want you to try these new features before anyone else, we are today making a beta version available for Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 for you to test and provide feedback for.

With your help we will make Nokia City Lens even better and soon all Nokia Lumia owners, including owners of Nokia Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, will get to enjoy the new features.

So let’s see what’s new in Nokia City Lens.

 All POI

Filtered POI

The current version of City Lens shows you all the places nearby, even around the corner or a block away. In crowded areas, that can be a lot to take in. Our new Sightline feature lets you switch your view to only what’s in your direct line of sight, making it easier to spot great places that are right in front of you.

Please note that this feature is only available in supported areas, where we have already collected highly accurate, 3D data. In these cases, you will automatically see the filter icon in Nokia City Lens.

When scanning your surroundings in camera view, you can now freeze your view and study your options without having to keep your phone pointed at the target. Just tap and the screen “freezes,” letting you browse the scene more comfortably.

Pause 

Now you can quickly view a place’s address without leaving your camera view. Just tap to view the information overlaid on your display while you keep scanning. When you’re ready to learn more about the place, another tap pulls up complete information of that place.

Quick Info

With this new version of Nokia City Lens we are making good use of the key features in Windows Phone. Nokia City Lens now lets you pin individual categories to your home screen, so you can jump directly to your favourite category searches with just a tap. Art buff? Create a Sights tile. Foodie? Create a Food tile. Wherever you are, you can instantly find what you love.

Pin to Start

But you can pin even more than just predefined categories, you can make Nokia City Lens even more personal by pinning your favourite searches to your start screen, whether it’s books or sushi. Wherever you are, you’ll be able to see your closest options within the live tile right on your home screen without even having to launch the app. Just glance and go. Or tap to see what else is nearby. 

If you want to test this all-new Nokia City Lens with your Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 800 or Nokia Lumia 710, download it from Nokia Beta Labs and let us know what you think.

image credit: kevin dooley

Comments

  • http://twitter.com/Benners76 Benners76

    Great improvements! Can’t wait for it to be available on my 920!

  • viipottaja

    Looks great! Hope the line of sight feature will work in the Washington DC area! :)

  • Sithick

    everything is okay….
    When will you push WP 7.8 update for Lumia Lovers ???

    • rajavelu_v

      jan 30

  • http://twitter.com/CODER_BEST CODER_BEST

    All ok, but how can i add some photos of places and add some comments?

  • http://twitter.com/bang1000 bjørn kaas

    City lens beta 1.5 on lumia 800 / freeze and “line of sight” are great options! some quick notes:

    i asked myself what gets me making a quick decision to pick a cafe / restaurant that appears in city lens…

    ## Click on an icon opens a top area with adress, etc. adress won’t help to make a decision, show the newest comment

    ## f.e. restaurants that have countryorientated food, show flag

    ## Show all ratings (stars) from the beginning

    ## Wich areas are supported for “line of sight” / map?

    and… if geolocation is deactivated, give us a chance to reach it with one click ;o)

    thank you. bj

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Thank you @twitter-23994958:disqus for your feedback, this has been forwarded to the team and some of your suggestions might make into the product.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1410581346 Gustavo Puente

    Finally!!!!! this is the first version that works on Ecuador, the previous versions showed attractions on completely wrong places

  • robax

    Some comments about this app:

    As someone else has already said – The quick-info needs to say something other than the address. It needs to provide information that help in making a decision – the address doesn’t do that.
    And also – I used this extensively on my recent holiday and the worst part was always finding outdated information. There needs to be a way to flag an entry as incorrect, no longer present, etc. It should also be possible to submit updated info, and even new entries. It is possible to add photos and reviews, but this should extend to other data as well.
    The same situation applies to Nokia Maps/Drive. I found several instance where speed limits and destinations were simply wrong, yet there was no way to flag that back to Nokia.

    Another painful part of using this is how the vast majority of entries here in NZ have no information at all other than the name and address. Can’t it make use of all the resources in Bing to pull in some useful information… if nothing else, a link to search the entry in Bing/Google would help immensely.
    Otherwise all great
    Rob

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Kia Ora @robax:disqus and thanks a lot for your suggestions. I will forward them to the team. The one about the quick-info is very interesting, we might include it in a future update.

  • Max Müller

    I’m an owner of an Lumia 820 and really like Nokia City Compass. But it’s kind of embarrassing that the guy in the video seems to use an iPhone 5 in his private life (1:53) as people niticed on YT. Not the best for his credibility in my opinion ;) Looks like an iPhone owner anyway…

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Well spotted. As you know, HERE is available on different mobile devices and OS. All those devices are used daily by our team members.
      During the edit of this clip, to introduce some more dynamic, we used some footage we are going to reuse in future videos.
      Apparently this has created a little inconsistency of devices used.

  • http://www.facebook.com/GIOMIC.CY Giorgos Michaelides

    How can I submit my own venue (BAR) to be displayed in City Lens?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Check out Nokia Primeplace: http://primeplace.nokia.com/

      • http://www.facebook.com/GIOMIC.CY Giorgos Michaelides

        I am not able to submit as my Country(Cyprus) is no longer Mapped or listed?!? The strange fact is that several of my surroundings are listed and benefiting from City Lens! How can we remedy this?

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Hi @facebook-665381388:disqus as soon as we have high quality maps in Cyprus, you will be able to add your bar with Nokia PrimePlace.

  • http://www.0101mj.blogspot.com/ Chris Yahya

    okay,, but has little lag while navigating,, i have 1 feedback, do you know The Weather Channel apps? it has AR (Augmented Reality) and i so excited, because the movement is sooo smooth.
    can you do this, Nokia?
    *sorry bad english*

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Thanks for your feedback @Chris_Yahya:disqus we are committed to improve the performance of all our apps.

      • http://www.0101mj.blogspot.com/ Chris Yahya

        Hello, can i ask? How to submit feedback for smartshoot apps? I have problems, i cant change cam settings in smartshoot, i cant change to backlight mode, so if i want shot any pic bright area i cant get good photo… #sorry again bad english

        • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

          Thank you for your feedback @Chris_Yahya:disqus I will forward it to the team.

          • http://www.0101mj.blogspot.com/ Chris Yahya

            okay :)