Nokia today announced Here, a new brand for a "location cloud" that will take advantage of the Finnish firm's mapping and location services to be utilized across different screens and operating systems. Here will take advantage of Nokia's maps technology and will feature things like a Map Creator, which will allow for user submissions to Nokia's maps to help keep them up-to-date, and Collections, which gives users the option to save their favorite locations. There will also be an Explore feature to shows users what's around them in a specific area.
Here already has a dedicated website, Here.net, which allows users to access Nokia's maps and sign in with a Nokia account to do things like save locations to a Collection that can be accessed on other devices. Nokia also says that it's planning to release a free HTML 5-based Here app on iOS. The app will be able to display maps, save areas of a map for offline viewing, give voice-guided walking directions, provide traffic info and driving directions, and save places that can be viewed later on the Here website. Nokia is also working with Mozilla to create Here Maps for Firefox OS and will also offer the Here Maps API to Android developers, which will allow them to plug Nokia's content into their apps.
Along with all of the Here news, Nokia has revealed LiveSight, a new tech based on a 3D map of the world that will provide for a "precise and intuitive augmented reality experience" that will first be used in Nokia's City Lens app. The Finnish firm also announced that it's acquiring earthmine, a company that collects and hosts 3D street imagery, which ought to help with Nokia's whole LiveSight tech.
One of the things that Nokia is known for is its mapping services, and it's kind of crazy to hear that Nokia will be releasing a Here app with maps built-in on iOS. The only information available about its release is that it's expected to arrive "in the coming weeks." Considering that many folks aren't totally content with Apple's new Maps app in iOS 6, Nokia may be able to do well with its Here app in the App Store, especially since Google's rumored iOS maps app may still be months out. You can find all of Nokia's announcements at the links below, and anyone interested in checking Here out right now can find it at Here.net. How many of you iOS users out there will check out Here when it launches?
Via Nokia, Nokia Conversations (1), (2)
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