Nokia rebrands Drive, Maps and Transit for Windows Phones: it's all about Here (video)
The jewels in Nokia's Windows Phone crown have been its Here location services -- anyone wanting them on Microsoft's platform has usually had to snap up a Lumia or make do with the Drive+ beta. Nokia is about to share that wealth, as it's bringing Drive, Maps and Transit to other Windows Phone devices under a new name. Don't switch your shopping plans to include an HTC 8X just yet, though. Apart from a lack of specific timing, Nokia is limiting the availability to certain regions, and it's promising that the "first and best" Here experience will remain on its own smartphones. We'll still take the leftovers if they give the overall platform a boost.
If you'll recall, Nokia actually enabled its homegrown mapping arsenal to spread to other Windows Phone products some time back, but it's taking things to a new level with the Here platform underneath.
Update: All three are available now in the Windows Phone Store at the source links.
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HERE expands its reach
Nokia also announced that while HERE, its new brand for location experiences, will continue to offer first and best experiences on Lumia, HERE Maps, HERE Drive and HERE Transit would become available for non-Nokia Windows Phone smartphones in selected markets.
The new HERE Maps comes with the integration of LiveSight™, Nokia's set of augmented-reality technologies. LiveSight™ uses "sight" as a fundamentally new way to discover and navigate the world, recognizing what people see through their phone's camera and layering that view with relevant, place-based information. LiveSight™ also powers Place Tag, a new digital lens introduced for Lumia today. Combining Nokia's unique capabilities in location and imaging, Place Tag adds location stamps to photos with relevant information about pictured places.
