augmented reality

Here’s a little secret that’s not many have caught on, but Nokia and Foursquare have tag teamed to re-do the official Foursquare app and no joke, it’s quite awesome. It’s the Foursquare app that Windows Phone deserves (we still love 4th & Mayor, but official apps should set the bar themselves).

Nokia released a self branded Foursquare app last year, which differed very little, but now it's clear the two were already collaborating for something bigger.

We've followed the development of Pictures Lab, by René Schulte fairly closely since it was unveiled to be updated for Windows Phone 8. The latest release adds more functionality, applies performance improvements and more for users to take full advantage of. While the app itself sports Lens support in Windows Phone 8, Schulte has released Face Lens on the Windows Phone Store.

Nokia has pushed an update to its City Lens augmented reality app, which is available from its collection in the Windows Phone Store. As is generally the case with Nokia app updates, no changelog is presently available. We can only imagine that minor improvements are included as no big features have been highlighted.

The same crew at NokiaGang who brought the earlier video OIS test with the Lumia 920 have a short video showing off the matte-black version.  The video itself doesn't reveal too much, though we have seen less of the all-black variation of the 920 since Nokia seems to focus on yellow for most product shots.

Interestingly, the handler does get the privilege of magically swiping to the right to see the programs list. Shocker, it's the same as Windows Phone 7 though we do quickly see a Transfer my Data app in that list. The program is never launched and we're unsure if this is part of the cloud-backup solution for saving app data that we showed in the SDK video or if this is a Nokia app to further augment that service (e.g. from any other smartphone).

Nokia is working on a separate version of its City Lens app with plans to release it for new Windows Phone 8 devices – the Lumia 820 and 920. We previously touched on Nokia’s augmented reality (AR) app earlier this month when the company took it out of beta for current Lumia generation Windows Phones.

In an official blog post, we’re told Nokia is working hard at adding ‘more features in the Windows Phone 8 version.’ With the latest version of Microsoft’s mobile OS coupled with advances in Nokia’s in-house technologies, the company is able to continue to make the augmented reality experience on Lumia smartphones more realistic.

Nokia City Lens - from beta to official

It was just over two weeks ago that Nokia’s City Lens app, which allows users to find “things to do” using their compass, camera phone and accelerometer, received an update and now the official release is out. The augmented reality app has proven to be quite popular with users, so it's nice to see it finally go official.

Billed as version 1.1, the app is neither listed in the Nokia Collection nor available by search—but we managed to get the link for you folks to use now (as soon as the app propagates to your Marketplace servers).

The Weather Channel app re-imagined by Nokia

In what has to be a surprise continuation of Nokia’s commitment to their Lumia line of Windows Phones, they have gone ahead and re-imagined the Weather Channel App (which is simply called ‘Weather’) by bringing new features and a re-design that greatly enhances the experience.

The app is at version 2.0 and only found in the Nokia Collection meaning regular Windows Phone users won’t be able to use the supplied link below. This may also be a US-limited feature...we're trying to confirm now. [Edit: UK is confirmed]

So what’s new in Weather 2.0 from Nokia?...

With all the hype Nokia devices get especially with their onslaught of custom software, we figured we'd throw a bone to the rest of you who aren't on the Lumia train.

In case you missed it, Nokia launched the beta of City Lens today. A nifty little app that uses the camera, gyroscope, compass, GPS and internet to show you in real-time where shops, coffee houses and restaurants can be found. It's certainly well done but not particularly original (see LG's ScanSearch app from 2011).

But in case you own an HTC or Samsung phone and want to have the same functionality there's a great free option already out there: Wikitude.

Actually, Wikitude does even more than City Lens since it's more robust with search features. It's been around for awhile and is found on competing platforms making it more widely supported. It hooks into Yelp, Twitter, Flickr, Starbucks and more. Heck, their system even has APIs so dev's can integrate Wikitude's services into their own apps.

Did we mention it's also a lot fun? Sure, seeing people literally tweeting around you is borderline creepy but it's also a bit fascinating.

The app is free too meaning there's little reason for you not to give it a try, even if you use Nokia's City Lens. We found the service to be quite accurate and useful when traveling around the city.

Pick up Wikitude here in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Let us know in comments how you think it compares to City Lens (if you have both).

A few weeks ago we broke the news that Executive Caddie, the premier and highly rated golfing assistance app for Windows Phone, was getting a makeover and an upgrade for the Nokia Collection. That means that if you own a Lumia 610, 700, 800 or the big 900 you're entitled to a custom version of the app made for your phone for free.

At the time we reported on those "exclusive" features for Executive Caddie +:

• Tournament scoring
• Real-time leaderboards
• Group heckling with toast notifications
• Additional social features
• Themes to match the Lumias, including Cyan, Magenta, White and Nokia Blue

But the biggy was an augmented reality tool called Golfscope described as

"...an augmented reality view of players on the golf course with live player and scorecard information. Basically, a player can point his phone at any other player on the course and the player’s avatar and round summary will appear in the overlay. The overlay can be tapped to see the other player’s scores, stats, and other round information in real-time. GolfScope is a patent pending technology."

We promised we'd show you what that actually looks like and as you can see in the video above, GolfScope is ready to go. We should note that what you see in that video is not a simulation, that's an actual live demonstration of GolfScope from a Nokia Lumia 900 that has vide-out capabilities (yeah, devs get some great tools).

We're expecting the exclusive Nokia version of Executive Caddie + to land in the Nokia Collection in a few weeks. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you golf and don't have a Lumia you can still get the regular Executive Caddie for free in the Marketplace.