Download HERE Transit

1. Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
2. Scan the QR code
3. Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
4. Install the application from the Windows Phone Store

Analogously to HERE Maps and HERE Drive(+), with HERE Transit we want to cover all the transit systems in the world. 700 cities in 50 countries is a good start, but we aren’t stopping there, we are working hard to bring HERE Transit in more cities and urban areas.

To accomplish this challenging project, especially if we want to integrate detailed information about the route, such as departure times, we work with every single transit company out there. In the process, we have to take into account different aspects and variables.

Different countries have different approaches to transit systems: in China, busses usually run with a given frequency, but without a specific timetable; in Denmark, local trams and long-distance trains are all part of the same integrated system. Also the role mass transit is playing in people’s lives is very different from place to place and the systems have evolved accordingly. In this fun chart published by xkcd few weeks ago you can see that one third of North American transit stops are in NYC.

But even within the same city, we have to take into account differences between systems. Did you know that in only few NYC subway lines trains can provide their real-time location? And in London, many different transit agencies are involved to run buses, underground and other public transport systems.

So why don’t we just use, in some cases, the info openly available by these agencies?

It’s all about the reliability of the HERE Transit experience. If too many people are requesting transit routes in the same city, the free and open systems may quickly saturate and stop working. This is of course something we don’t want to happen to you, which is why we have particular agreements with the local transit agencies.

We work with every single agency so that you can enjoy a seamless journey experience with HERE Transit. For example  the routes you get on HERE Transit are exactly the same routes and options you would get directly from your local transit agency. They know their routes best – so we just make sure to integrate the routes seamlessly to our platform.

Most importantly, no matter in which city you are, where HERE Transit is available, you can always count on the same experience. With coverage in over 700 cities in 50 countries around the world, you won’t need to download a separate local transit app every time you visit a new city. Also, thanks to the integration with HERE Maps, you can always know how to walk to the first stop on the route and from the last stop to your destination.

By the way, if you’re curious to know where HERE Transit works, have a look the HERE Transit coverage page; we recently added a bunch of cities in UK and Russia!

Sustainable practices already run through Nokia’s entire manufacturing and design process, nowadays they also inspire a new generation of services. With HERE, Nokia is already helping commuters to avoid traffic or, even better, to use public transport. Projects like Ford Evos leverage our location know-how to help drivers save on fuel and/or reduce carbon emissions.

Today an increasing number of enterprises are acknowledging the benefits location-based services can bring to their business. SAP selected HERE as location backbone for their TwoGo car-sharing service because it delivers the world’s best maps and location experiences across multiple screens and operating systems.

But what is TwoGo exactly? With TwoGo, employees can share their commutes to work so that they can be better networked and be more productive. At the same time, their companies can reduce costs for corporate fleets, parking infrastructure and travel expenses. TwoGo works in the cloud, it is instantly ready and it automatically organizes employees into carpools.

TwoGo has been specifically designed for large companies, because it works with corporate calendar applications, so that rides are synched with the employee’s daily work schedules.

Thomas Cook is already adopting TwoGo, which is currently available for companies in Germany and the US (with carpools anywhere in the world), with more countries available soon. If you want to know more about TwoGo, check out the website at www.twogo.com.

Do you already use car sharing services at work? What do you think of TwoGo? Let us know in the comments section below.

image credits: Pink Sherbert Photography, kennymatic

This is why authorities are limiting the use of smartphones while driving.  They are even questioning navigation services designed to ease the driving experience.

How can we then drive safely while staying connected? At HERE, we think that the risk isn’t coming from the information per se, but how we present information to people and enable them to use it.

Connected driving

Indeed, over time drivers have been able to receive more and more information. From sensors about pressure levels to front-mounted radars that detect imminent collisions – more information for the driver now equals more safety. The next evolutionary step is a connected car via smartphones or embedded systems.

At HERE we believe that a connected car is part of creating a holistic connected driving experience that keeps drivers safe yet connected, while allowing them to communicate and enjoy entertainment too. It solves the problems that people face as they move through their daily life, both in and out of their car, helping to save time, fuel and money.

HERE driving experience

On smartphones, HERE Drive is optimized for in-car use. The interface has been designed to use at arm’s length; voice commands are clearer because they have been recorded in studio; destinations can be pinned to start and with just a tap on the destination tile you can start turn-by-turn navigation.

In-car systems with HERE rely on sensors to capture more accurate map data such as road height, slope and curvature. Integrating that detailed map content with the car system makes safety features like adaptive cruise control, adaptive front lights, curve speed warnings, driver alerts and speed limit advisories possible.

“Features like those provided by HERE appeal to a consumer’s desire for fuel efficiency. Landmark navigation has been a need of a significant portion of consumers that connected systems can finally fulfil”, said Chris Schreiner, Director of Automotive Consumer Insights at Strategy Analytics.

Human driving

Our aim is to make the driving experience more human and to help drivers make sense of the world around them, whether or not they are in their cars.

The HERE connected driving experience transforms the car into a powerful smart device to help people around the world meet the challenges of driving today such as traffic congestion, pollution and parking. 

The home beacon

With HERE you can always know how to get home on foot, by train or by car. Just pin your home address to the Start screen from HERE Maps, HERE Drive or HERE Transit. The last option is particularly useful after a night out in the cool bars of your city.

The traveller

It’s easy to collect places you want to visit on your travels. You can add them as favourites on the go on your smartphone or at home on here.com: they’re all automatically synchronised. But this isn’t everything. You can pin the directions to that particular art gallery with HERE Maps. No matter how many detours you take on the way, you can always get to the destination with a tap.

The foodie

If you love to try out all the restaurants in the city, you can pin the eat&drink category of HERE Maps to your Start screen. No matter which neighbourhood you’re roaming around, you always know what’s hot.

But you can also be more specific with your restaurant search. Let’s say you are a sushi lover, you can search for it with HERE City Lens and pin it to the Start screen. The next time you are craving for some maguro nigiri, you’ll find a sushi restaurant by just looking through your smartphone camera.

These are just few examples and the possibilities are endless. You can also use kid’s corner to create a location dashboard. Are you pinning any destinations, directions or place categories to your Start screen? Let us know in the comment section below or tweet to @heremaps.

image credit: puliarf

We believe that HERE delivers more than just apps. We like to call them experiences. They are the industry’s most comprehensive set of location services, built to work seamlessly together. As such, it’s easy to transition between walking, driving and transit as you move through your day. This is possible because HERE Maps, HERE Drive(+), HERE Transit and HERE City Lens are making the most of our platform, which is the foundation of the location experiences on Windows Phone 8.

Contrary to competitive solutions, we didn’t want to build a single app that’s all things to all people. Instead, each HERE experience is optimized for specific uses, so you get exactly the information you need whether you’re walking, driving or catching the train. Additionally, the HERE experiences work together so you don’t have to stop and switch apps. Let’s see how, with some easy examples.

When you look for a nice restaurant on HERE Maps you can easily plan your route there. HERE Maps automatically suggest the best way, but you can always decide whether to go on foot, by car or by public transport. If you’re on foot, HERE Maps provides turn-by-turn navigation specifically designed for pedestrians.

If you prefer to take your car, HERE Maps shows you the route and with a tap provides the option to start HERE Drive(+) for voice guided turn-by-turn navigation. Last but not least, HERE Maps shows you the optimal route by train or local public transport (available in over 700 cities in 50 countries). If you need more alternatives or schedules, you can start HERE Transit with a tap, too.

If you are like me and commute via public transportation, you might be a heavy user of HERE Transit and probably have pinned to start your home address to figure out how to get home from anywhere in the city. But sometimes in an unfamiliar area, although HERE Transit is providing you with all the information and schedules, you might feel more comfortable to be guided to the train stop. This is why you can now get HERE Maps turn-by-turn walk navigation from HERE Transit.

And when you are using HERE City Lens to discover places nearby, you can easily open HERE Maps to get more information, see photos and read reviews about what you have found.

Have you been in similar situations and seamlessly switched between any of the HERE experiences? Let us know in the comments section below.

Reminder: Pino will be taking part in a Twitter Q&A about HERE experiences, hosted by the folks from @NokiaUS later today.

‘HERE’s aim is to be a location platform widely available across the web and, of course, within Windows Phone 8 – it’s a horizontal business. The more people use the platform, the better the quality of data it will provide. In its own phones Nokia will work on the quality of the apps as a differentiators. Other manufacturers can either take the basic Nokia apps, or develop their own’ said Martin Garner, SVP Internet, CCS Insight.

Windows power 

In a joint effort to further strengthen the Windows Phone ecosystem, Microsoft and Nokia are making HERE Maps, HERE Drive and HERE Transit available to people with any Windows Phone 8 smartphone. This exclusive offer is available in U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

With the HERE suite, your Windows Phone 8 smartphone is going to be a great companion for everyday experiences like finding places, driving your car or riding the bus.

HERE Maps has been designed to help you find places anywhere, get reviews, photos and then plan a route.

HERE Drive is for anyone who gets behind the wheel of a car. It has a unique user interface developed for in-car use. This particular version for all Windows Phone 8 smartphones includes navigation for your region.

HERE Transit is for public transport commuters who want to know the best time to leave the office or for partygoers who want a one-tap access to information on the next bus home.

Since these are Windows Phone applications, you can even save your favourite destination as Live Tiles and then wherever you are the app will calculate a route based on your current location and the predefined end point.

HERE Maps, HERE Drive and HERE Transit for Windows Phone 8 come with helpful features like offline capabilities, voice guided navigation, speed limit warning, venue maps, place reviews and train schedules. And they also work seamlessly together. You can start HERE Drive or HERE Transit from within HERE Maps to plan a route to your destination. All your places are also saved in the HERE cloud so that you can access them from here.com, HERE Drive, HERE Maps and HERE Transit.

You can download the HERE suite now from the Windows Phone store in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Italy or Spain (a local SIM card required).

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The HERE experience is built on the world’s most complete and accurate map data based on 25 years of mapping technology leadership. We offer today the only true offline maps experience, the largest indoor map inventory, and the largest public transport coverage of any location service to date.

HERE represents our love for maps and for cartography, and the location experiences we are offering on smartphones, on computers and in cars are gradually being renamed accordingly.

Today we are introducing HERE for Windows Phone 8. HERE Maps, HERE Drive (with regional navigation), HERE Drive+ (with global navigation), HERE Transit and HERE City Lens are available now on the Windows Phone Store.

But there is more than meets the eye. The new HERE experiences are connected and work seamlessly together, making it easy to transition from walking to driving to public transport as you move along your day. In particular, from HERE Maps you can launch HERE Drive(+) or HERE Transit if needed. In HERE Transit you now get a map overview of nearby stations and stops, and when you need walk navigation to get to the stop or to the final destination, you can start HERE Maps from there.

We have also recently introduced LiveSight, a technology that integrates sight recognition with live map information. LiveSight is a UI revolution that uses sight (instead of keyboard, touch screen or voice) to interact with your smartphone. HERE City Lens already uses this technology, and soon we will introduce it also in HERE Maps and in our newest camera lens, Nokia Place Tag. When you are taking photos with the Place Tag lens, your Lumia will capture the image and also record the Points of Interest (POIs) that are visible in the viewfinder and the name and address.

On top of the new features outlined above, we have also added some new features. In the next days we will take a closer look at each of them to see what’s new. All your places are also saved in the HERE cloud so that you can access them from here.com, HERE Drive(+), HERE Maps, HERE Transit and HERE City Lens.

On the newly introduced Nokia Lumia 520 and Nokia Lumia 720, HERE Maps, HERE Drive and HERE Transit are preinstalled, so that you can experience HERE out of the box.

HERE works best with Nokia Lumia, but in a joint effort to further strengthen the Windows Phone ecosystem, Microsoft and Nokia are making HERE Maps, HERE Drive and HERE Transit available to people with any Windows Phone 8 smartphone. This exclusive offer is available in US, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

‘These announcements firmly establishes HERE as a horizontal brand and thoughtfully-tiered service offering. It should benefit broad developer communities, generate significant new value for Nokia, and let Nokia retain the ability to differentiate its Lumia products with unique experiences’ said John Jackson, Research VP, Mobile & Connected Platforms, IDC.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

So why do we still believe we are offering the best offline solution in the market? We compared Nokia Maps on a Nokia Lumia 920 with Google Maps on a Samsung Galaxy SIII to explain.

As you can see in the video, offering offline maps is not only about giving the option to cache some data offline for later use, it’s a complete experience: it’s about points of interest (POIs) available offline to enable offline search, it’s about navigation voices (over 70 of them, btw) available on-device and offline rerouting.

How do we do this?

We believe that a digital map can be more than just a digital version of a paper map: this is why our maps are computed on your Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone 8. In other words, part of our engine, the HERE platform, is in the palm of your hand instead of on a remote server.

As a result you can enjoy a powerful and reliable location experience. Nokia, Microsoft or 3^rd party apps that use the HERE platform will feature fast maps you can easily interact with. You are not going to experience any lag when panning or zooming the map, no service interruptions when you are in the subway and of course no additional roaming costs when travelling abroad.

Are you a regular user of offline maps?

When people talk about digital maps, naturally the option of navigation immediately springs to mind. For example, when commuting to work or driving in unfamiliar places using voice guided turn-by-turn navigation comes in handy. Additionally, traffic info plays a key role in getting us to our destination, safely and quickly.

We have been helping to paint this picture for the last decades as a pioneer of digital mapping and in-car navigation. We continually strive to provide fresh content and services to meet the needs of our automotive customers. Currently, four out of five cars with in-dash navigation are powered by HERE.  This means that automobile manufacturers can deliver innovative solutions and we can help fulfill the requirements of the automotive industry. 

The latest automotive brand to select HERE to power their next generation Touch&Go navigation and infotainment systems is Toyota, who are in good company with the likes of BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Hyundai. Toyota has signed up to use our search with high-quality industry mapping information and community-generated content, including millions of ratings, reviews and images fed directly into their cars from early 2014 in Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

With HERE, Nokia is the leading mapping company providing end-to-end mapping, navigation and location solutions for the automotive industry. But with maps, and specifically with our location platform, our partners can build services that go beyond navigation. That’s the beauty of our business; we can support different kinds of services.

Nokia Lumia 620

Compact, vibrant, and lots of fun.

The family is growing.

We lead the way with our maps, which are used over 100 million times a day in a wide variety of devices, services and apps around the world. In fact, wetter.com, Europe’s largest German language weather portal with 13 million unique visitors, is using our API for integration into its expanding European web and mobile weather mapping services.

The first application to benefit is the online Niederschlagsradar (precipitation radar) service in which the map data is overlaid with information from radar stations and satellite imagery. You can track rain and snow cloud movement and see whether light showers, heavy rain, sleet hail or snow are heading your way. By zooming in and out, the current ‘precipitation’ situation can be viewed over an area as small as a street up to a town, a country or even an international region. The information is updated every 15 minutes and is available in Austria, France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

Image credit: Zigar

Innovative collection technologies (e.g. LiDAR, the recent earthmine acquisition, etc.) and a team of local experts are at the heart of this process. But only when we compute all this fresh, detailed content are we able to create close to perfect digital copies of reality.

Recently, we have updated the maps that represent the backbone for all our products, from here.com to the latest Nokia Maps on Windows Phone 8. In fact if you have downloaded maps on your Windows Phone 8 smartphone, you should have been prompted to update them and enjoy the latest improvements. If you haven’t done so yet, go to settings > applications > maps > check for updates

Here’s a rundown on some of the highlights.

Maps for Serbia and Israel

Because we are committed to extend the coverage of our detailed maps to the whole world, we have added Serbia (including Kosovo) and Israel with this release. You can now search for places and calculate precise routes in these two countries too and soon we will also introduce turn-by-turn navigation with Nokia Drive.

High definition maps

Other improvements are happening under the hood, providing a better representation of the reality, more clarity and easier orientation.  Every detail of our maps has been designed to provide the best experience. This abstraction is getting so precise, that may not need to look at satellite images anymore, if this is what you used to do to better orientate yourself.

Shapes are highly precise and detailed to better represent roads, coastlines and streams.

In Russia, Norway and Sweden we now collect and show higher details in wooded areas, improving orientation.

Pedestrian paths have been extended to more areas, including lesser-known parks, providing better walk navigation.

We also show more detail in less populated areas of Greece, France and Ireland.

Added or amended roads

To provide accurate and fresh maps, in the last 18 months we added or amended 133,000 km of roads only in the UK as you can see in the animation below.

Similar or larger numbers are valid for many other countries too. In Italy, for example, we already added the tunnel under Roma Tiburtina or in Germany the roads to the future main Berlin airport.

That’s it for this post, but as you can see, the improvement is continual and comprehensive. Not just in the apps, but in the data that provides their lifeblood.

Image credit: vivekrajkanhangad, James Jordan