When Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced earlier this year that the company would be abandoning the Symbian OS platform, nobody would at the time have predicted the kind of stuff that we are now seeing on new Nokia handsets.
Quite the opposite in fact - being a long time Nokia supporter, I got nicely bombarded from all quarters about what a sinking ship Nokia was fast becoming.
Even so, when it came to upgrade time, I stuck to my guns and patiently awaited my shiny new Nokia E7.
Thankfully, it was the right choice - for me at least. Not everyone likes the same stuff - that's just life and human nature.
Having already laid massive praise on the E7, I was getting a bit bored with the apps on my phone this week, so I decided to head over to Nokia Beta Labs - the place where Nokia puts up their pre-release apps.
Apps that you find here are often experimental and can be buggy, due to their Beta nature.
Not a problem for me - I don't mind a bit of Beta testing if it means some funky new apps for my phone!
The one that caught my eye is called "Nokia 3D World Gaze" - the title alone got me interested.
Now Augmented Reality is nothing new - in simple terms, it allows capable devices to give their users feedback about the world around them, or their immediate surroundings, by making use of GPS, AGPS, Accelerometers, Compasses and the Internet.
For example - you could point your phone at the sky, and the screen would display the constellations, star names and Meisser objects accurately, at that precise location, at that exact time of day or night.
It's a world of information in your hands, and it makes for a lot of fun in this new Nokia app.
Nokia 3D World Gaze first locates you via GPS and AGPS. It then works out your orientation via compass readings.
What you get is a virtual of view of the world around you, when you hold your phone up to the horizon, or even down, looking "through" the Earth.
Ever wondered where you would end up if you were to drill a hole straight down through the Earth, until you came out the other side?
Well guess what, if you are in South Africa, then it 'aint China!
According to Nokia 3D World Gaze, it is in fact, Hawaii!
The application also features layers that you can turn on and off - a News layer which provides contextually relevant headlines, a Photos layer which pops up photos of places in the area where you are aiming your phone at, and a places of interest layer, which provides info about places of interest related to where you are currently looking.
The software is nicely slick as well - move the phone around in a different direction, and the view and content update is quick and seamless.
Check out some screenshots:
Well done Nokia - this is some seriously cool software, and it is good to see that despite partnering with Microsoft (which in itself will prove a great move, I think), there is still a whole lot of work being done to keep Symbian competitive while Nokia devices still carry the software.
The recent Symbian Anna update has also added a lot to the operating system, with the upcoming Symbian Belle update promising a whole lot more.
Keep 'em coming Nokia!
Quite the opposite in fact - being a long time Nokia supporter, I got nicely bombarded from all quarters about what a sinking ship Nokia was fast becoming.
Even so, when it came to upgrade time, I stuck to my guns and patiently awaited my shiny new Nokia E7.
Thankfully, it was the right choice - for me at least. Not everyone likes the same stuff - that's just life and human nature.
Having already laid massive praise on the E7, I was getting a bit bored with the apps on my phone this week, so I decided to head over to Nokia Beta Labs - the place where Nokia puts up their pre-release apps.
Apps that you find here are often experimental and can be buggy, due to their Beta nature.
Not a problem for me - I don't mind a bit of Beta testing if it means some funky new apps for my phone!
The one that caught my eye is called "Nokia 3D World Gaze" - the title alone got me interested.
Now Augmented Reality is nothing new - in simple terms, it allows capable devices to give their users feedback about the world around them, or their immediate surroundings, by making use of GPS, AGPS, Accelerometers, Compasses and the Internet.
For example - you could point your phone at the sky, and the screen would display the constellations, star names and Meisser objects accurately, at that precise location, at that exact time of day or night.
It's a world of information in your hands, and it makes for a lot of fun in this new Nokia app.
Nokia 3D World Gaze first locates you via GPS and AGPS. It then works out your orientation via compass readings.
What you get is a virtual of view of the world around you, when you hold your phone up to the horizon, or even down, looking "through" the Earth.
Ever wondered where you would end up if you were to drill a hole straight down through the Earth, until you came out the other side?
Well guess what, if you are in South Africa, then it 'aint China!
According to Nokia 3D World Gaze, it is in fact, Hawaii!
The application also features layers that you can turn on and off - a News layer which provides contextually relevant headlines, a Photos layer which pops up photos of places in the area where you are aiming your phone at, and a places of interest layer, which provides info about places of interest related to where you are currently looking.
The software is nicely slick as well - move the phone around in a different direction, and the view and content update is quick and seamless.
Check out some screenshots:
Well done Nokia - this is some seriously cool software, and it is good to see that despite partnering with Microsoft (which in itself will prove a great move, I think), there is still a whole lot of work being done to keep Symbian competitive while Nokia devices still carry the software.
The recent Symbian Anna update has also added a lot to the operating system, with the upcoming Symbian Belle update promising a whole lot more.
Keep 'em coming Nokia!
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