We know that you all have an idea of what’s going on in the mapping scene – better walking directions, 3D, street view and so on. So, have heard about the new new kid on the block?

Recce is the name of the app (you guessed it right, short for reconnaissance) and is developed by Ian Hetherington, co-founder of Psygnosis and Google engineering director Rian Liebenberg, who formed the London-based developer eeGeo.

Now, what’s special about the app? Couple of things; for starters Recce is free so it won’t hurt to try this one out. It presents 3D, animated bird’s eye view of a city, and what is going on in it. The app works in real time, but it also has an offline mode, which stores the latest update on your tablet or smartphone.

What you essentially get is a searchable map that provides location-based services. The app puts together dozens of data feeds from other services ranging from mapping providers to those building listings of places to eat, and social networks like Twitter to do its job. Also, you can use the app to update services like Twitter.

Currently, Recce provides maps and data for centralLondon, though San Francisco and New York will get them soon.

Before we forget to mention it, Recce is also a location based gaming platform. Cool, isn’t it?