As the Nokia World 2011 festivities roll on, we've been grabbing the chance to play with the latest services. Among the most exciting of those being talked about is Nokia Live View - an app that uses augmented reality technology to discover shops, restaurants and places to visit. Currently in testing at Nokia Beta Labs, we tried it out at the show.

Nokia Live View just might be one of Nokia's smartest ever location-based apps. It uses augmented reality technology to display the location of nearby places of interest. Live View does this via the camera of any compatible Nokia device.

At Nokia World 2011 we got to see how easy finding nearby shops and restaurants can be. After shaking the app slightly to calibrate it, locating nearby places of interest appeared as easy as holding your Nokia in front of you, and looking around your vicinity.

Names of restaurants and the distance to reach them are clearly marked. To find out more about the places displayed, users can tap a green icon next to them to bring up a phone number, photos of the location, and customer reviews. The benefit is you'll know where to avoid, and where to hit up.

Another nice feature is the ability to automatically bring up driving and walking directions to each place. Live View will automatically show you how to get there. If you like where you've been Live View gives the option to share it.

Live View even works well in crowded areas full of high rise buildings. Markers are laid out in collapsible form, like a folder so that you don't get the problem of too many points of interest being displayed, clogging up the screen at once.

We're sure there's more to come from Live View in future. Live View is currently available for users to test in Nokia Beta Labs, as Nokia continues to get the most from before a full release. But before then, take a look at our hands-on photos below:

DOWNLOAD: Nokia Live View on Nokia Beta Labs

Check out our Nokia Live View hands-on at Nokia World 2011 photo gallery:

Check out the  Nokia Live View video: