Augmented Reality. What?

Posted November 18th, 2009 by Albert Banks

yelp-monocleIf you haven’t heard of Augmented Reality, here’s the scoop. AR is a live view of the physical world merged with virtual digital information and/or imagery. The concept has been around in the military and industrial applications for years.

You’ve probably seen the technology in use without realizing it. Those first down lines on field during the television broadcast of football games? Yep, that’s AR!

Recently, this technology has gained popularity in many consumer settings.

Advertisers are using it to promote new products via cool interactive experiences. Service providers are using it to present relevant location aware information. Many cities, museums and theme parks are using it to add virtual objects to their existing  physical environment.

Like any technology of the brink of popularity, we have to question if it is fad or future. Fast Company recent addressed this exact question. Myjive believes this one is here to stay. All you have to do is look at the many potential applications already being explored.

Yelp’s iPhone App Monocle feature
Augmented Reality Contact Lenses
Canon’s MR Aquarium
Jack’s Links Living Sasquatch

As we like to say here at the office, “The future is going to be so cool.” And with AR, the future is here.

iPhone Calendar is Worthless

Posted August 5th, 2008 by Albert Banks

iPhone Calendar IconAs an early adopter of the iPhone I have suffered through the perpetual annoyances of missing features in the iPhone software. Some of them have been added, mostly via the recent 2.0 software update.

But there is one application that continues to be, well, worthless. The Calendar application that comes with the iPhone simply is not functional. I’m not referring to the interface on the phone. My primary issue is how the calendar gets events.

Sure, you can now use a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync or the buggy new Mobile Me for push. But what about the rest (most) of us?

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