Over 100 partners worldwide developing content layers including well known brands

AMSTERDAM, August 17th 2009. Layar, which was first launched in June 2009 in The Netherlands, announces that it’s second generation Reality Browser is now available globally on Android devices. Many new content layers are available in the Reality Browser which vary from Wikipedia, Twitter and Brightkite to local services like Yelp, Trulia, store locator’s, nearby bus stops, mobile coupons, Mazda dealers and tourist, nature and cultural guides.

Layar Reality Browser 2.0
To discover new content quickly and with ease, the new Reality Browser includes sections for ‘Featured’ and ‘Popular’. All layers are also accessible via a keyword search in the search function. Layers that are used often can be saved to ‘Favorites’. In addition to the enhanced augmented reality camera view, it is now possible to select Map or List view. For every Point of Interest (POI), several actions can be taken such as: linking to a mobile site for more information, playing a live location based trivia game, linking to a video or sound clip, clicking to call for reservations, and looking at a route description to the POI. Content partners can fully customize their layer to provide a distinctive experience for the user.

500 more developers
Over 100 developers worldwide have been given access to the Layar platform by means of an API key, and are currently developing layers.

Scott Halcomb of SystemK from Japan, who developed 22 layers including the ‘Sapporo Hotspots’ layer:
“With the Layar API and support of the developers community, creating layers has been a pleasure”.

Dave Elchoness of GoWeb3D from the USA/ India, with 11 layers published including FlickAR:
“We strongly believe that Layar represents the next evolution for mobile applications and feel privileged to participate”.

Michael Coutinho, Technical Manager at Trulia, USA:
“This is a great idea. I was able to develop our layer in about three hours.”

To further grow the community of developers, Layar has released an additional 500 new API keys. The supporting wiki (http://layar.pbworks.com), with developer instructions and documentation, are all now available.

Layar for all
Starting from today, Layar is available for everyone with an Android phone anywhere in the world.  The Reality Browser can be downloaded in all local Android Markets and is pre-installed on the new Samsung Galaxy (i7500) in the Netherlands.

Dirk Groten, CTO:
“The next platform on which Layar will be available is the iPhone 3GS. We are currently investigating other platforms that support our functionalities.”

Raimo van der Klein, CEO:
“With the release of this Reality Browser we believe we have created a worldwide platform that will bring both fun and relevant Augmented Reality experiences in one application to a growing audience of users.”

Boilerplate
The Layar Reality Browser displays real time digital information on top of reality in the camera screen of the mobile phone. While looking through the phone’s camera lens, a user can see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, tourist information of the area, play a live game, etcetera. Layar first launched on June 16th, 2009 and announced the opening up its platform by means of an API on July 8th, 2009. The Layar platform serves as an enabler for mobile location services - any database with geo-location information can easily be turned in a content layer. The Layar Reality Browser is globally available for mobile phones running the Android operating system. Layar is a company based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Contact Maarten Lens-FitzGerald at press@layar.com for press inquiries

View all material at www.layar.com/press

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Press release: The first mobile Augmented Reality browser premiers in the Netherlands

Five Dutch content providers to participate in the worlds first AR browser

AMSTERDAM, Tuesday June 16th, 2009. Mobile innovation company SPRXmobile launches Layar, worlds first mobile Augmented Reality browser, which displays real time digital information on top of reality (of) in the camera screen of the mobile phone. While looking through the phone’s camera lens, a user can see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, jobs, healthcare providers and ATMs. The first country to launch Layar is The Netherlands. Launching partners are local market leaders ING (bank), funda (realty website), Hyves (social network), Tempo-team (temp agency) and Zekur.nl (healthcare provider).

How it works
Layar is derived from location based services and works on mobile phones that include a camera, GPS and a compass. Layar is first avaliable for handsets with the Android operating system (the G1 and HTC Magic). It works as follows: Starting up the Layar application automatically activates the camera. The embedded GPS automatically knows the location of the phone and the compass determines in which direction the phone is facing. Each partner provides a set of location coordinates with relevant information which forms a digital layer. By tapping the side of the screen the user easily switches between layers. This makes Layar a new type of browser which combines digital and reality, which offers an augmented view of the world.

Dutch launch
The premier launch is for the Dutch market. Launching content partners are ING (ATM’s), Funda (houses for sale), Hyves (social network hot spots) Tempo-team (jobs) and Zekur.nl (healthcare providers). Layar will be launched per country with local content partners in order to guarantee relevent results for the end user. SPRXmobile is planning further roll-outs, together with local partners, in Germany, the UK and the United States this year. SPRXmobile wil continue with regular releases of new layers after each local launch. The Layar application will be available via the Android Market. Other handsets and operating systems are in development with a prime focus on the iPhone 3G S.

SPRXmobile

Layar is developed by SPRXmobile, a mobile innovation company.

“Eventually, the physical and the virtual worlds will become one. Many visions on Augmented Reality have already been developed, but we are proud to be able to bring this one step closer to reality”, says Raimo van der Klein, co-founder of SPRXmobile.

More information:

http://layar.eu en http://www.sprxmobile.com.

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Claire was asked to explain why operators should embrace open internet in all its aspect. And not close off voice calling over 3G via Skype. Dutch operators currently don’t allow Skype calls over 3G. Only over wifi. In the video Claire demonstrates Fring on iPhone as a workable alternative which can call over 3G (when your iPhone is jailbroken), also to Skype users. And is also free and available for iPhone.

This video is the Qik stream of the all the recording work. The edited item will be broadcast on Monday on Dutch TV. As soon as we have it we will post the final item.

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I first heard of this term, “T-shaped people”, on the blog of David Armano. This concept always stuck with me. Below a part of that blogpost

David Armano’s work

“We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they’re willing to try to do what you do. We call them “T-shaped people.” They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T — they’re mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That’s what you’re after at this point — patterns that yield ideas.”

Tim Brown IDEO

Now that we as SPRXmobile are growing and expanding we are in search of T-Shaped people aswell. We currently have two vacancies for a fulltime contract at SPRXmobile.

Instead of making a job profile we are just going to communicate which expertise or skills we are currently lacking within our organization.

• Project management
• Sales & Marketing
• Interaction Design
• Graphical Design
• Mobile Web Developer
• Web Developer
• iPhone(& Android) Developer
• Copywriter

So… Do you think you can make a nice and original T-shape from the above categories and be a great member of the team send us a mail at raimo [at] sprxmobile.com. Hope to hear from you soon!

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Just hilarious!!!

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Last week I gave a presentation at the MWG Congress in The Netherlands. The topic of the event was Experimentation. Personally I don’t believe in experimentation. In this incredible dynamic market, where there is no status quo anymore, one needs to have clear intentions.. During my presentation I used the metaphor of trying to lift one’s leg.. I asked the audience to try to lift their left leg.. Everybody reacted by lifting there leg.. I explained that they raised there leg and did not TRY to raise their leg.

Trying is nothing. You either do or you don’t!

Below you see the presentation and an interview(in dutch) by Ronnie Overgoor touching the topics of the presentation.

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Mr. Enver Tanriverdi from the Dutch town of Nieuwegein has fully automated his house. Although I have seen many of these examples in lab-situations, I never saw this implemented to such a level in a normal home. Where an entire family lives!

The cool thing is that this guy has installed and programmed it all himself, and is controlling his curtains, lights, heating, webcams (in children’s rooms) through his mobile.

Watch the video and full article here (in Dutch, source AD):

http://www.ad.nl/multi-media/3005552/Hele_huis_in_mobieltje.html

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If you read our blog you know we like Augmented Reality and are always looking for mobile services that have an relation with the (physical) world. The compass is one of the sensors that will create a complete new era of services. First time we saw the power of the compass is ofcourse the StreetView demo of Google. Later it was Wikitude..

Well the guys that brought us PhonePhight, LastMinute.com Labs, show us a new way how to integrate the compass in mobile services. It is called NRU. Have a look at this great application for Android (only available in the UK). A great graphical innovative and intuitive interface!!

nru (near you) is the latest innovation from lastminute.com’s labs team. Using technology provided by T-Mobile’s G1 running Google’s Android software, lastminute.com can now show you things to do near you, from bars and restaurants to cinemas and cafes.

It does this using the GPS and compass found in T-Mobile’s G1, the only phone on the market to date with these features.

So what do you think about the use of compass information? Will it be big in 2009?

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PEW has a new report out and it tells us that the mobile will be the primary device for online access. Also voice-recognition improves and artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life. THats nice to hear.

It based on a survey of internet leaders, activists and analyst.

Here are the key findings on the survey of experts by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that asked respondents to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020:

• The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.
• The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.
• Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.
• Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.
• The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.
• Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.

View PDF of Report

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Yesterday I spoke at the Marketing Pioneers event. It was a great event in a very exciting venue. There was a kind of runway for the speakers. This made it all very lively and intimate. I really enjoyed giving my talk there. Further I met some great people. So Multiscope and @jkivit great job!

Anyway here is my presentation. I talked about what I see happening at the edges of the Mobile Services space.

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