Here.net by Nokia (3D Maps) | Hacker News Reader

Here.net by Nokia (3D Maps)

here.net

17 pointsjasondavies10 comments

Honestly, I still don't get why people find this 3D globe so "awesome". Without much more mapping information (country names, city names, road network, borders, neighborhood, points of interest), it's really just a gimmick, and is completely useless. The 3D data comes from C3 Technologies which was bought by Apple for their 3D fly-overs. Apart from this, it's still in the same exact state as when this was released about one year ago, I think (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3428427).

Extremely impressive. Especially the 3D view. I think Nokia realized the value of maps really late. I still believe they've a chance to compete against Google Maps than anyone else!

>I think Nokia realized the value of maps really late

What are you talking about? Nokia was working on maps long before Google.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Maps

I initially zoomed into Paris and was very unimpressed with the 3D view as all of Paris was flat. However, I tried clicking on "See all cities" in the top right, found my city, Toronto, and took a look.

http://i.imgur.com/ldgtc.jpg

VERY impressive. Especially considering how smoothly it works in my browser.

New York is pretty impressive too!

http://here.net/40.7084939,-74.0077031,17.14,0,72,3d.day

Still a little lumpy, but they're getting there.

SF http://here.net/37.822767,-122.4737476,17.91,138,77,3d.day

London http://here.net/51.5036954,-0.1183393,16.91,322,77,3d.day

Sydney http://here.net/-33.8589561,151.2111098,16.88,224,77,3d.day

Definitely getting there. Panning, pivoting (with SHIFT key) and zooming in 3D mode are all quite smooth.

Quite nice feature is that when you double click on the road you will get the street view, and clicking on the buildings will move the viewport in actual 3D instead of series of images. In some places it's actually quite accurate, although they probably aren't using their LIDAR data yet (at least not in hi-res).

I'm more impressed by the lack of enthusiasm. A true Google Maps competitor is a really positive thing. And people here should have a better understanding as to how difficult a task this is... especially given recent shortcomings by other companies in this area.

Very impressed! That alone would make Nokia a very purchasable company for some 'other' company trying to gain traction on, let's say, Maps.

Wow, it's like Google Earth, except faster, and loads instantly in my browser with no plugins. Consider me impressed.

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