Ovi Maps 3D – a whole lotta wow

You remember that 3D mapping stuff we saw examples of WAY, back showing off some pretty cool implications for the future of maps under Nokia and Navteq’s tutelage??  Well Nokia have made good on that promise,  announcing their Ovi Maps 3D beta for browsers everywhere. Imagine Google maps 3D on steroids and you should have a pretty idea of what the entire furor is about.

Only a few cities are available right now (London, New York, Miami, Wein, Barcelona, Venice and a few others) but the idea of this running on a smartphone or tablet that I carry with me is exceptionally exciting. Of course, they’ll have to topple Google’s current stranglehold on mapping and search services but this is where the partnership with Microsoft will become invariably handy.

The 3D view isn’t overly high-resolution but the addition of a street view is much appreciated. Now to get this on to some high-powered hardware Nokia?

Hit the link below to install the plugin and get to browsing through one of these cities right now.

Via Engadget

Update from Jay:

Crickey, I’m impressed. I hope to be this astonished when Nokia release their high end devices. When I saw the screenshot in this post, I was wondering why we had a photo of London and not the supposed 3D. With the 3D cities available, it’s a joy to explore. I also love how I fell into streetview.  My browser viewed it in really widescreen panorama – this is just a short snippet, crudely destroyed by jpeg.

The little blue bubbles/circles is where your mouse is and where you can jump/fall into streetview

Interface on PC

Update from LLAADD:

Note: there are a couple of places where it looks like the screen has gone blank and the panning “stutters”, but this is not the Ovi Maps 3D, it’s my graphics card playing up, so hopefully when you try your self it works a lot better!

video source

Tags: 3D Maps, Beta, featured, Navteq, Ovi Maps

Category: Nokia