Editor's Note: Augmented reality has been a hot topic on the blogs lately as the release of iPhone OS 3.1 is supposed to enable use of the camera, GPS, and compass to layer virtual data over our physical world. While this is not supposed to be live yet, Mashable just announced today that Yelp sneaked it into their new app release via an easter egg technique.
I just installed this and even up on the 4th floor of Organic's San Francisco office it seems to work pretty well. Once you've completed the Yelp app update, shake your iPhone 3GS three times to turn on the 'Monocle' button in the UI. From there you'll see the 'video camera' screen with Yelp links hovering over places or in the direction you're pointing your phone.
Observations so far:
- Well designed and impressive to see Yelp data on top of the 'real world'
- The icons 'hovering' can be a bit jittery as you move your phone around. I found it hard to hold my phone still enough so that I could select the icon on the screen for a Yelp review
- Both portrait and landscape mode work with the Monocle feature; portrait lets you see a taller 'stack' of Yelp icons but landscape seems more intuitive for moving your device from side to side panoramically
As the Mashable post notes, apps with AR are not supposed to work until the next OS release sometime next month. It should also be noted that other devices already support AR functionality. Overall, this first entry in AR apps works great and demonstrates the potential AR has for location-based services on the iPhone and other mobile devices. Could a flood of AR feature updates to other current applications be available in the near future? I'm betting on it ;)
Jay Bain
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apps, emerging platforms, going mobile
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