Filed under: iPhone, App Review
Augmented Reality to the max with Layars for iPhone 3GS
Every so often an app comes along that you just get excited about. Well, I'm excited about the Layar Reality Browser [iTunes link], and even better: it's free! This app has been available on the Android platform, and iPhone users have been eagerly awaiting it. Wait no more.
The Layar app will only run on an iPhone 3GS because it really needs that built-in compass. So what does it do? Quite a lot. The app displays real time information based on your location and the direction you are facing, overlaying the camera with locations and information that you are looking for.
Yes, like other apps with augmented reality, it can find food and shopping, but that's only the beginning. You can find apartments for rent, Flickr photos taken near your location, mountain peaks, tourist information, and the list goes on and on. The Layar screen shows your live camera view, a radar-like display showing you a 360 degree view of 'hits' near you, the accuracy of your GPS fix, and the number of items it has located.
The Layars app is based on an open architecture, so it can interact with an unlimited amount of information set up to talk to the platform. It is globally aware, not just U.S. centric, and lots of 3rd party developers are jumping in.
In operation it generally worked very well. I didn't see any crashes, but at times some of the many servers supplying information did not seem to be up and running. When I wanted to see some information on the mountains in my area, it worked great one time, and the next time it said there was nothing around, even though I was standing in the foothills of some 5,000-foot peaks.
Generally though, the app was well behaved, and as you explore the riches it contains your mind races with all the possibilities an app like this has. You don't have to use only the camera view. You can get a list of nearby points of interest or see everything on a 2D Google map. Wikipedia is even available. When I brought it up, it gave me some information on my town, a nearby school, and some info about nearby parks.
I hope this app really grows, because the potential here is limitless. Try it for yourself. There's no cost, and no risk. You'll be surprised at all the stuff around you. I'm going on a trip soon, and can't wait to explore with Layars.
Let us know how it works for you.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paul Mensah said 6:43PM on 10-15-2009
I hate the icon so I won't be downloading this one.
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Hawkeye said 6:51PM on 10-15-2009
Would've loved to d/l but requires 3.1
Not ready to give up free tethering yet :)
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airmanchairman said 6:55PM on 10-15-2009
After tiring of the metronomic ease with which it showed me how far away and in which direction I could find taxis, music shops, tweets, gas stations and universities, I decided for the heck of it to push the envelope and try searches like "strippers" - to my surprise (and mild shock) it showed me 4 venues in my vicinity (a sleepy one-horse town in Hampshire, UK) where both male and female strippers were on display!!
I'm still trying to think of new ways to test the app, but so far, so impressed.
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mex said 3:45AM on 10-16-2009
if you show your iPhone you can have a discount on the strippers thought!
hkip37 said 9:13PM on 10-15-2009
Really buggy for me. After I do a search and it shows my results, the app closes if I click on anything
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William said 8:17AM on 10-16-2009
Buggy and crashy. Not usable. They've labeled it as a 2.0 but I think they got the numbers backwards. Should be v0.2
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Balazs Varga said 8:56AM on 10-16-2009
Hi,
I tried it in Budapest, Hungary. It is nicely integrated with google, so when i searched for "posta" (post office), it immediately gave me the results. When i hit the more info button, the interface changed into german language though...
I searched for atms, hospitals, and post offices until now, and the program seems to be a bit inaccurate in showing directions.
Accuracy changed between 17 meters (city center) to 3 km! (the suburbs where i live).
Otherwise i still think it is an amazing application.
Balazs from Hungary
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brian said 11:58PM on 10-16-2009
Szia! :-) Nice to know it'll work if I ever make it out there. (Which I hope to someday.)
eric said 12:12PM on 10-16-2009
It looks like this multi-service aggregation in map space is really picking up. Also see Centrl.com (and the corresponding iPhone app) for another take on this.
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Jonathan Chapman said 12:55PM on 10-16-2009
Is anybody else's compass really wonky? Mine never seems to be accurate at all, though I am always enclosed in something (car, train, house, work) when I try it. Would this affect it? It literally tells me I am facing South when I am facing North sometimes, other times not quite so bad, but never really accurate. Is this worth taking into the genius bar to get looked at?
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