Half an hour ago, I just had an iPhone 3GS. Now, I have an iPhone 3GS with Layar installed.

It was one of the main questions I had for the Dutch company, which markets an augmented reality browser, when they launched at the Mobile 2.0 Europe event in Barcelona last year. When would they be complementing their Android program with an application for the iPhone?

They said it’d come in the fall of this year, and while there have been a number of AR applications made available on the App Store in the meantime, Layar’s finally arrived a couple of hours ago and it’s worth a second look. (iTunes link)

In case the concept of augmented reality is still new to you, basically it’s the placement of a digital layer of information on top of a real-life view of the world around you, as seen through e.g. a mobile phone’s camera lens. Using augmented reality, you could be using your smartphone to glance around the main square of a city you’re visiting and get up-to-date information about nearby restaurants, ATMs, real estate offers, and more on-screen, bolted on top of what you’d be seeing if you weren’t looking through the lens.

And if you’re not familiar with the place you’re at, you can ideally place it on top of a map to help you get the right directions, and if you find for instance a sea food restaurant even fetch user reviews to check out if it’s considered to be a decent place, as well as contact information to book a table right from where you’re standing.

Layar does all that, and does it well. I used the iPhone application – which is entirely free, by the way – to find pizza places here in the Brussels region, and I was able to locate dozens of places where I could get one simply by rotating the camera around my house. If you want, you can filter the distance in between 1 and 10 kilometers to narrow your search down.

Layar also boasts its own little developer ecosystem (and even 3D support), so it has so-called ‘layars’ in place mostly made by third-party developers that you can use to enhance what you’re able to see through the camera lens using the app (e.g. for viewing Twitter contacts around you). There are two options in the menu: ‘Featured’, extra layers that were selected by the startup, and ‘Popular’, obviously based on usage. Finally, there’s an integration with Google Local Search which lets you launch searches for places you find using the ‘Reality Browser’.

Layar is great, but it’s not the only AR app in the App Store. First, there’s Mobilizy with their Wikitude browser and then we recently wrote up Robotvision, which does much of what Layar does but is powered by Bing. Gawker recently covered a few more.

All hype or game-changing? It’s still early days for augmented reality, but I’m bullish on it.

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Layar Brings Augmented Reality Browser To The iPhone (Screenshots)

Layar is one mobile application that has definitely managed to get quite some tongues rolling and keyboards rattling this past week, including at the Mobile 2.0 Europe conference in Spain where I just got back from (video demo below).

Layar is a so-called ‘augmented reality browser’, an application that turns you mobile phone’s camera viewer – only on Android-powered phones for the time being – into a full-fledged information portal and local business search engine. It essentially puts an information overlay on top of your camera view, bringing digital data of various sorts into play whenever you’re looking at or for something in the real world.

Imagine being on the look-out for a great new place in a street nearby your current apartment or house and seeing all the real estate listings, with some details and pricing included right from your mobile device as you’re walking down the street. Imagine watching status updates your friends pushed to social networks roll in with location information attached to them (e.g. ‘Tweets Nearby’). Imagine finding information on ATMs, public transport etc. in a city you’re visiting just by starting up the camera on your mobile phone. And thanks to an integration with Google Local Search, how about being able to look up contact information and reviews for businesses (e.g. restaurants, bars, etc.) in your direct neighborhood with one-click dialing capability?

These are all things that are or will be possible with Layar, and there are so many use cases I could think of in under a minute that you’d really have to make an effort to miss the enormous potential of this application.

Layar is typically one of those cutting-edge things that aggressively shoves you nose-first into the enormous potential of the next-generation smartphones and platforms, giving you an idea of what you can expect from inventive developers and service providers thankfully making use of their ever-increasing capabilities in the near future. I can only hope for Layar that they’re not entering the game too early.

Check out this Engadget video for more hands-on coverage. And in case you were wondering, you can expect a Layar application for the iPhone 3G S this Autumn (and not Springtime, duh).

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Layar’s Augmented Reality Browser: Literally More Than Meets The Eye

I’m here at the Mobile 2.0 Europe conference in sunny Barcelona and today had a great conversation with GetJar founder and CEO Ilja Laurs which I recorded and uploaded to our YouTube channel. GetJar, in case you don’t know, is a platform and device-agnostic central marketplace for mobile applications which Laurs bills as the world’s largest independent, open application store. The company is backed by $6 million in venture capital from Accel Partners and flirts with running a cash-flow positive operation.

GetJar hosts over 45,000 applications, supports a community of more than 200,000 mobile app developers and sees over 36 million downloads of applications a month, with some of the top developers seeing downloads numbers ranging up to 20 million per unique app. Besides this enormous distribution scale, the two main other reasons mobile developers would decide to put their apps up in the GetJar marketplace, Laurs tells me, is that the company offers a range of services like stats, analytics, a beta testing environment and tools for distribution as well as a set of tools that enables developers to monetize their apps more efficiently. GetJar is currently testing a pilot program for in-application advertising together with some developers, and aims to release this solution publicly in the near future.

Asked which platform he would choose to create apps for if he were an independent mobile app developer with limited resources, Laurs remains diplomatic and says a lot depends on the business model, target audience, type of application and what kind of developer you are.

I was also curious about the effect the rise of all the different application stores from handset vendors and mobile operating system makers has had on GetJar as a destination site that pre-dates all these platforms by a margin. Laurs tells me the introduction of Apple’s App Store had an overall positive effect on the GetJar network, doubling its growth in a very short time, because it raised awareness about centralized application marketplaces in general and validated the mobile app development industry to a certain degree. Long term, he admits that there are negatives to the app store hype too, obviously the most important one being the increased competition.

Check out the video if you’re curious in finding out which devices Laurs uses and what his personal favorite mobile application is.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Read more here:
Mobile 2.0 Europe: Video Interview With GetJar CEO Ilja Laurs

The Mobile 2.0 Europe conference is coming up in June and it’s shaping up to be pretty cool. Experts and thought leaders from all aspects of the mobile ecosystem will be descending on Barcelona, and TechCrunch will be descending on it too in the shape of myself and Robin Wauters. Having been last year I can attest that this event is one of the few to really bring together some of the best mobile startups in Europe. The Mobile 2.0 Europe conference will be on Friday, June 19, 2009 at the Espacio Esade Forum, with the Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Day the day before. There is also a Startup Demo Launch pad.

So it’s our pleasure to also be hosting the official TechCrunch Mobile 2.0 party after the event on Friday and after the speaker’s dinner. We are pre-releasing the first 100 tickets here (there is a small ticket fee to prevent no-shows). We are also looking for sponsors of the party, who will obviously be branded at the event and in posts about it. Please email our events organiser petra(at)twistedtree.co.uk.

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TechCrunch Meetup At Mobile 2.0 Europe, Barcelona, June 19

T-Mobile UK has announced that it will be exclusively carrying the “titan black” version of the LG Arena, leaving other carriers to make do with the standard silver handset.  The touchscreen feature-phone has a 5-megapixel camera, Dolby Mobile 2.0 audio and 8GB of onboard storage, together with an integrated FM transmitter.

Other specs include access to the carriers’ Mobile Jukebox audio download service and access to YouTube.  Finally there’s 3G HSDPA supporting up to 7.2Mbps, WiFi, A-GPS and a 3.5mm headphone jack. 

The LG Arena “titan black” will be available from T-Mobile UK this month.  Prices have not been announced, but we’d imagine you’ll probably be able to get it free with a high enough monthly contract.

Press Release:

Clash of the Titan

T-Mobile announces exclusive on the LG Arena in titan black

T-Mobile LG Arena in titan black “ key features:

§ High quality music and viewing experience with built-in Dolby® Mobile 2.0 for crisp, clear sound with MP3 files and video files

§ High performance touch-screen and easy-to-use on-screen virtual scroll-wheel to access internet, music, and Mobile TV on the move

§ 8Gb internal memory to store even more tracks

§ Expand your music collection with T-Mobile Mobile Jukebox, a one-stop destination for music downloads, news and merchandise

§ Surf the whole internet as you could on your PC or use the phone as a modem for your laptop via T-Mobile web˜n’walk

§ In-built 5 Mega pixel camera

LG Arena in titan black photography available on request

London, 26 March 2009: The new LG Arena will be exclusively available on T-Mobile in titan black, the mobile network announced today. The LG Arena comes with built-in Dolby Mobile sound for music fans who want a quality sound experience and is also designed to have a large screen to make it perfect for surfing the internet via T-Mobile web˜n’walk. The phone boasts the latest Dolby®Mobile 2.0 technology which means that you can enjoy video and music files in surround sound.

The phone is exclusively available from T-Mobile in a high-gloss, titan black and has a sleek touch screen with a clever little on-screen virtual scroll-wheel for easy access to music. The LG Arena also boasts a host of other features that make it ideal for music lovers, including a large screen which is perfect for watching music video downloads and access to Mobile Jukebox, T-Mobile’s mobile music download service, which offers instant access to full length music tracks and videos. The large screen also makes it ideal for customers who want to use the phone to watch their favourite YouTube clips and access social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Daniel Meredith, Head of Handset and Device Marketing, T-MobileUK: The LG Arena is not only a great looking handset, but it also comes with the sound quality credentials such as the Dolby Mobile sound that music fanatics will love. This phone is also top notch in terms of all-round performance and speed and it’s perfect for accessing our Mobile Jukebox service which connects our music-loving customers to the artists, news and music they want, whenever and wherever they want.

Jeremy Newing, LG Head of Marketing Mobile, added: We’re really proud of the LG Arena. We wanted to design a phone that would bring music closer to our customers. The Arena does this with its 3D user interface and on-screen virtual scroll-wheel for easy access and browsing. We designed the Arena with music in mind, placing a 3.5mm jack on the top of the handset and equipping it with an FM transmitter so our customers can play their tunes on any radio and even in the car.

The LG Arena in titan black will be available from T-Mobile stores from March 2009. For more details please visit: www.t-mobile.co.uk.

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LG Arena “Titan Black” to be T-Mobile UK exclusive

TechCrunch is hosting a Roundtable and Meetup in Warsaw on Thursday March 19, 3pm-6.30pm. “TechCrunchTalk Central & Eastern Europe” will feature an afternoon of panel discussions and some evening networking with CEE startups and the investment community. The event will be live video streamed. Please grab a ticket here. Read on for details:

The TechCrunchTalk event – put on by TechCrunch UK & Europe – is aimed at bringing together the Web/mobile startups and the VC community. It will be the day after the Mini Seedcamp event for startups.

TechCrunchTalk CEE will feature two quick-fire panel discussions with the hottest entrepreneurs and investors selected for their leading views on the market, with topics focused around the following themes:

• Central and Eastern Europe is a hotbed of tech talent, but how best does it capitalise on this?

• What will help CEE countries create the next Internet giants of the future?

• What do startups need the VC community to do better?

• What are investors looking for? What are the hot trends?

Why Warsaw? In the past 15 years Central and Eastern European countries have experienced dynamic growth in the last few years. EU accession significantly lowered risk profiles which has led to the inflow of foreign capital and now entrepreneurship, producing new technology companies and, in turn new, hunting grounds for VCs. Poland is the largest country in the region and an emerging hub for CEE startups.

Please contact our event organiser Petra Johansson on petra [at] twistedtree.co.uk for any enquiries about demo tables or sponsor packages. Press enquiries for press passes to rassami [at] rassami.com.

The event will be followed by product pitches from three to five companies (products or startups that actually launch at the event will receive extra consideration, but it is not a requirement). If you have a startup ready to launch then and would like to give a demo, send a brief pitch to TechCrunch UK & Europe Editor Mike Butcher.

And I’m happy to report we’re also getting some help from our friends at Warsaw-based New Europe Events, who’s TMT.Ventures’09 Warsaw conference (http://tmtevents.eu/) is happening on March 5, at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Poland.

More Upcoming TechCrunch UK & Europe Events

London
21st April
Topic: A day-long event for UK & other European startups. More details to follow
Sign up for further info

Stockholm
27th May – Nordic and the Baltic states event for startups and VCs
Topic: Connecting Northern Europe – Where are the strong and weak links?
Sign up for further info

Berlin
10th June – More details to follow
Topic: How does Berlin and Germany become a key node for European Tech?
Sign up for further info

London
9th July – TechCrunch Summer-Party
Topic: Party!
Sign up for further info

Past TechCrunchTalks:

Barcelona
19th February – “Mobile 2.0″ event alongside Mobile World Congress
Topic: The future for Mobile 2.0 startups.
Archive here

Paris
25th February
Topic: Building the Tech scene in France, scaling across Europe and the world. Please check at TechCrunch UK for the video archive shortly.

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Original post:
TechCrunch Roundtable & Meetup In Warsaw, March 19

TechCrunch is hosting a Roundtable and Meetup in Paris on Wednesday next week, Feb 25. “TechCrunchTalk: What Next For France 2.0?” will feature an afternoon of panel discussions and some great evening networking with French startups and the investment community. The event will be live video streamed on TechCrunch. Please grab a ticket here. Read on for details:

The TechCrunchTalk event – put on by TechCrunch UK & Europe and TechCrunch France – is aimed at bringing together the Web 2.0 startup and VC community to debate the next phase of the French startup world. It will feature two quick-fire panel discussions with the hottest entrepreneurs and investors selected for their leading views on the market, with topics focused around the following themes:

• What are the strengths of the French tech scene?
• Where and how can it be improved?
• Should French startups concentrate on France, or scale across Europe and the rest of the world?
• Is the VC community doing enough for entrepreneurs?
• What is the VC community looking for from French entrepreneurs?

France is a key nation in Europe but can it build the next Google? French entrepreneurs are renowned for their savvy, smart take on technology – but does France face a brain-drain as French startups seek their fortune in Silicon Valley?

To help us explore these questions we’ll have on hand:

Roundtable Discussion
Salman Malik, co-Founder of Firefly
Steph Bouchet, ex-Joost
Laurent Féral-Pierssens, Silentale.com
Olivier Schuepbach, Wellington Partners
Colette Ballou Lamotte, Ballou PR
(Other panelists will shortly be confirmed)

Roundtable Moderator:
Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK & Europe

Details: TechCrunchTalk France 2.0 will be on on Wednesday, 25 Feb 2009 3pm-6pm, followed by networking over refreshments till 9pm. It will be held at La Cantine, 12 passage Montmartre, Galerie des Panoramas, 151 rue Montmartre, in Paris, the innovation and co-working place owned by Silicon Sentier. Tickets here..

Please contact our event organiser Petra Johansson on petra [at] twistedtree [dot] co [dot] uk for any enquiries about demo tables or sponsor packages. Press enquiries for press passes to rassami.

The event will be followed by product pitches from three to five companies (products or startups that actually launch at the event will receive extra consideration, but it is not a requirement). If you have a startup ready to launch then and would like to give a demo, send a brief pitch to TechCrunch UK editor Mike Butcher.

Our video streaming partner for the event is Floobs. Floobs Ltd is Helsinki based start-up which is developing Floobs -services for live streaming and a platform for commmunity created LIVE tv-channels.

We’ll be holding a series of TechCrunch events in Europe this Spring and Summer, all focused on bringing together and networking the European tech community. If you wish to be on the mailing list for information about all the up-coming events, sign up on our Amiando account here. And there is lots more information here.

Warsaw
19th March – Central European event for tech startups & VCs
Topic: Re-engineering the Central European tech scene – What’s next?
Get Tickets

London
21st April
Topic: A day-long event for UK & other European startups. More details to follow
Sign up for further info

Stockholm
27th May – Nordic and the Baltic states event for startups and VCs
Topic: Connecting Northern Europe – Where are the strong and weak links?
Sign up for further info

Berlin
10th June – More details to follow
Topic: How does Berlin and Germany become a key node for European Tech?
Sign up for further info

London
9th July – TechCrunch Summer-Party
Topic: Party!
Sign up for further info

Past TechCrunchTalks:

Barcelona
19th February – “Mobile 2.0″ event alongside Mobile World Congress
Topic: The future for Mobile 2.0 startups.
Archive here

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Read more from the original source:
TechCrunch Roundtable, Paris, Feb 25: What Next For France 2.0?

TechCrunch is hosting a Roundtable and Meetup at Mobile World Congress today. The live video stream is being piped in right now, so come on in and join us. “TechCrunchTalk: Mobile 2.0 – Where next?” features an afternoon of panel discussions with mobile startups and the investment community. Plus we’ll be having some startup pitches. The whole thing will run for three hours from 3.30pm to 6pm (Barcelona time).

Featuring:
Davor Hebel, Fidelity Ventures
Ben Holmes, Index Ventures
Bob Last, SVP Taptu
Ken Johnstone, Co-Founder INQ Mobile
Jean Schmitt, Sofinnova Ventures
Peter Vesterbacka, Founder, Some Bazaar
Marc Rougier, Co-founder, Goojet
Andrew Scott, Founder, Rummble
Jennifer Grenz, VP of Marketing, Shozu
Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK (moderating)

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Live From Mobile World Congress : TechCrunch Roundtable on Mobile 2.0

TechCrunch is hosting a Roundtable and Meetup at Mobile World Congress on Thursday next week. “TechCrunchTalk: Mobile 2.0 – Where next?” at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will feature an afternoon of panel discussions and some great evening networking with mobile startups and the investment community. The event will be live video streamed on TechCrunch. Please grab a ticket here.

2009 promises to be the year many of the predictions made about the rise of mobile may start to come true. Startups in the space are poised to take advantage of affordable mobile Internet access and sophisticated handsets like the iPhone. The question is, can they do it? That’s what TechCrunchTalk will seek to tease out from the assembled entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists that back them.

TechCrunchTalk Mobile 2.0 will be at Hotel1898 Barcelona on Thursday 19th of February, 3pm-6.30pm, with networking over drinks till 9pm. Please contact our event organiser Petra Johansson on petra [at] twistedtree [dot] co [dot] uk for any enquiries about demo tables or sponsor packages.

The topics will focused around a number of themes, including:

- What will be the mobile trends over the coming year?

- What are VC’s looking for?

- Can the power of the operators really be disrupted?

- What value can be created in the mobile world in difficult economic times?

To help us explore these questions we’ll have on hand:

Roundtable Discussion

Davor Hebel, Fidelity Ventures

Jean Schmitt, Sofinnova

Peter Vesterbacka, Some Bazaar

Bob Last, Taptu

Marc Rougier, goojet.com

Andrew Scott, Rummble

(Two more to be confirmed)

Roundtable Moderator:

Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK

The event will be followed by product pitches from three to five companies (products or startups that actually launch at the event will receive extra consideration, but it is not a requirement). If you have a Mobile startup ready to launch on February 19 and would like to give a demo, send a brief pitch to TechCrunch UK editor Mike Butcher.

The event is currently sponsored by LiveCLIQ Inc. Other sponsors slots are still available.

LiveCLIQ Inc.

LiveCLIQ is a leading provider of 2-way, 3-screen Digital Media Streaming, able to stream network and user media on Mobile, Internet and TV platforms. The Company offers its hosted services to media properties, consumer brands and mobile carriers. LiveCLIQ’s user media site, www.livecliq.net, that enables people to stream live and recorded video from their mobile phones to public and community destinations on the web. LiveCLIQ’s Magellan interface provides a media overlay upon Google Earth in which geo-located media are displayed with user, title and tags enabling contextual media searches. The Company’s founders include product and business leaders from Apple, Microsoft Xbox, Netscape, Motorola and MobiTV. LiveCLIQ is based in San Francisco, California.

In addition, we’ll be holding a series of TechCrunch events in Europe this Spring and Summer, all focused on bringing together and networking the European tech community. The week after Mobile World Congress is TechCrunchTalk in Paris. If you wish to be on the mailing list for information about all the up-coming events, sign up on our Amiando account here. And there is lots more information here.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

View original here:

TechCrunch Roundtable At Mobile World Congress: Mobile 2.0 – Where Next?

Here’s a heads-up about some TechCrunch events we are planning to put on in Europe in the first half of this year. The format of the events follows a simple formula: afternoon panel discussions involving tech startups and the investment community, followed by relaxed evening networking. Where possible we will live video stream the events onto TechCrunch. We bill these sessions as as “TechCrunchTalk”. The aim is to both network the disparate community of European startups together, whilst also providing an insight into how the European tech scene works for those outside.

We have done our best to “synchronise” with other events on the European circuit like like Seedcamp, OpenCoffee so that we’ll be in a city around the same time as many of the key players on the scene. We’ve also tried to avoid clashes with larger European events like Plugg, The Next Web, Next 09, and Le Web, among others.

For each event we’ll be looking for entrepreneurs and VCs for the panel discussions in the locations listed. So if you are potentially available, throw your hat into the ring by contacting Mike Butcher of TechCrunch UK. And some events may also have a ’startup pitch’ element as well, with startups selected by TechCrunch UK editorial.

We are always interested in hearing about venues in these locations – ideally someone with a big office space that can host about 150-200 people.

TechCrunchTalk events will be covered on TechCrunch UK and cross-posted to TechCrunch.com. Plus, wherever possible, they will be video streamed live onto TechCrunch so you can get a heads-up on the European scene from wherever you are. We already have a live streaming partner for one event, Floobs, but we’re interested in hearing about more.

And of course we have a range of sponsorship packages available. If you would like information on the sponsor packages please email our European events co-ordinator Petra Johansson of Twisted Tree Events on petra@twistedtree.co.uk

If you are a member of the press wanting to cover any of the forthcoming events in some way, please email our PR co-ordinator Rassami Hök Ljungberg of Rassami PR on rassami@rassami.com

If you want to come to any of these events please go grab tickets where they are available for the early bird prices. An if you wish to be on the mailing list for information about ALL the up-coming events, sign up on our Amiando account here:

We also now have a dedicated page on TechCrunch UK for these events.

Outside of these dates I (Mike Butcher) will be attending many of the other European tech events and am available as a speaker or moderator.

The dates we have so far (other events are planned for the second half of the year) are:

Barcelona
19th February – “Mobile 2.0″ event alongside Mobile World Congress
Topic: The future for Mobile 2.0 startups.
Get Tickets
More Info here
Sponsors so far: LiveCLIQ Inc.

Paris
25th February – The day after Seedcamp
Topic: Building the Tech scene in France, scaling across Europe and the world.
Get Tickets

Warsaw
19th March – Central European event for tech startups & VCs
Topic: Re-engineering the Central European tech scene – What’s next?
Get Tickets

London
21st April
Topic: A day-long event for UK & other European startups. More details to follow
Sign up for further info

Stockholm
27th May – Nordic and the Baltic states event for startups and VCs
Topic: Connecting Northern Europe – Where are the strong and weak links?
Sign up for further info

Berlin
10th June – More details to follow
Topic: How does Berlin and Germany become a key node for European Tech?
Sign up for further info

London
9th July – TechCrunch Summer-Party
Topic: Party!
Sign up for further info

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Join The Travelling Circus Of TechCrunch Events In Europe