Nokia today unveiled an augmented reality app for its Windows Phone-based Lumia devices that uses the phone's camera to show you the restaurants, stores, and other venues in your immediate vicinity.
Dubbed City Lens, the app lets you scan the horizon with your phone's camera and see what's available. It will display reviews and star ratings for that location for a quick rundown of the neighborhood. If you find something interesting, tap to call for more info or share your destination with friends via social networks, SMS, or email.
If you're in a congested, urban area with many overlaying options, tap the screen for a vertical list. Tilt it sideways for a map view, which will provide walking directions with one tap.
"What I like the most in this app is that you can keep you head up when you're using it. Instead of looking for a place on a map and look down on your smartphone, with Nokia City Lens you are actually looking at the world around you through your smartphone," Nokia said in a blog post.
All searches are saved for easy access if you return to the area.
City Lens is currently available for the Lumia 710, 800, and 900 via Nokia Beta Labs. The company is asking users to leave their feedback "while we are polishing and refining its feature set."
In a video demo (below), Nokia said City Labs offers a solution that's "simple, fluid, intuitive and gets me to the information I want that much faster."
In March, Nokia Maps and its voice-guided, turn-by-turn walk navigation were released for iOS and Android via an HTML5 Web app.
Last week, meanwhile, Nokia was hit with a class-action lawsuit that takes the phone maker to task for claims it made about its Windows Phone lineup.