Nokia City Scene gives you a full-on visual location-aware experience

If you’re into exploring places but you don’t like leaving the house, or you find yourself not having the time to travel and go on long holidays, Nokia has the app just for you. Called Nokia City Scene, this app lets you “explore places before you get there to get a feel for the local environment or to find out what that place you’ve always wanted to go to looks like in 3D, right from your Nokia N9.”

The app was created from the Nokia Research Center and makes use of NAVTEQ street imagery, building models and terrain data to give users a compelling experience when exploring places. Users are treated to an interactive panoramic street scene that they can walk through with on-screen arrows for more details. Buildings can also be clicked on, bringing users into it to see what they have.

In addition to free exploration, the app also links to Foursquare and Facebook which lets you view your friends’ latest check-ins so you can take a virtual tour of where they’ve just been. The usual location sharing options are there for you to let your friends know places you’ve discovered or add to your list of places to visit.

At the moment, the Nokia City Scene covers London and a dozen cities in the US, but Nokia plans to continue expanding it. The app is still in beta, so you can get it from the Nokia Labs website for your Nokia N9. Check out the video demonstration: