Nokia launched Ovi Maps 3D beta - competes with Google Earth

So you thought that Google Earth's 3D view of the world is the only way to see 3D maps in your PCs? Not until today though. Nokia have launched the Ovi Maps 3D (press release). The map, which you will be able to view on your browsers will give you a bird's eye view of metropolitan centers across the world. Not every city though gets the 3D stuff. These are the cities that can be viewed using the 3D view:  Barcelona, Boston, Chicago, London, Copenhagen, Florence, Helsinki, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Madrid, Miami, Milan, New York, Oslo, Prague, San Francisco, Stockholm, Toronto, Venice, and Vienna. Press release after the break.




Nokia launches photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas for Ovi Maps
Published April 19, 2011
- Unparalleled degree of 3D realism and scale helps people get a feel for places before they get there
- Major step in Nokia's plans to bridge real and virtual worlds

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas for the web version of Ovi Maps. This immersive and free feature adds a new dimension to the Ovi Maps experience and enables people to explore places in a completely different way.

Introduced at the Where 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, California, Nokia's 3D offering is the most realistic available and goes beyond rendering limited areas and buildings by making entire cities, including suburbs, available for exploration.

Starting with a bird's-eye view, people can scale up and down and move around objects such as buildings and trees from their desktop, experiencing a virtual but super realistic perspective of new places. Road-level imagery completes the experience with a detailed 360-degree panoramic view of streets.

With the beta service featuring 20 metropolitan areas, the number of photorealistic 3D models will increase over time. The road-level imagery is now available for five cities, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and San Francisco.

With the goal of bridging the real and virtual worlds on both mobile and web, Nokia's Ovi Maps for mobile covers 180 countries, nearly 100 of them navigable in 53 languages. Ovi Maps on the web covers 180 countries, 93 of them navigable, in 29 languages.

"Ovi Maps' photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas are a significant step towards our vision of bridging the real and virtual world, with location-based services being the glue," said Michael Halbherr, senior vice president, Nokia.

"With Ovi Maps on mobile, Nokia has shown its ability to transform a useful feature into a mass market experience that lays the foundation for innovation in location-based services beyond traditional routing benefits. With its efforts to expand the service to the web, Nokia is proving that it offers a holistic service," said Daryl Chiam, Principal Analyst, Canalys.

Nokia's photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas initially include:
- Barcelona
- Boston
- Chicago
- London 
- Copenhagen
- Florence
- Helsinki
- Las Vegas 
- Los Angeles
- Madrid
- Miami
- Milan 
- New York
- Oslo
- Prague
- San Francisco 
- Stockholm
- Toronto
- Venice
- Vienna




Try out the new Ovi Maps 3D Beta by heading there directly. I am using Google Chrome and it prompted me to install an extension.

Source: Endgadget

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