4 Ways for Augmented Reality to Get Past the Hype

With 197 million augmented reality-capable smartphones set to be in the global market by 2012, up from nearly 91 million in 2010, the building blocks are falling into place for people to merge digital information with their view of the physical world. But while we’re just getting to the point that normal users can see the promise of augmented reality for themselves, there’s still a long way to go.

Go out with Gowalla… and Incase

This week at various Apple Stores around the world, a number of lucky people who check in at an Apple Store and get the virtual Incase Slider are also going to receive an *actual* Incase Slider, courtesy of Incase!

Wanted: Your Weather Reports, GeoTagged and Tweeted

After all, no amount of technology can ever be a substitute for an accurate report of what’s actually happening on the ground. Because of the new Twitter geolocation API and the increasing number of applications that support it (TweetDeck for iPhone is the latest to add geotagging support), it’s become very simple for the public to submit severe weather reports and for the NWS to pinpoint where they happened.

Nokia Press Release

Nokia has announced a million dollar venture challenge to encourage innovators to create a mobile product or service that raises the standard of living or enhances the lives of those in growtheconomies. The Growth Economy Venture Challenge is part of Nokia’s globalCalling All Innovators competition announced on January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Palm (like Apple) Tries to Patent Location-based Serendipity

Palm is applying for a U.S. patent centered around the concept of notifying a mobile device based on the proximity of another one. Such a feature could come in handy when you happen to be within range of a friend and you don’t know it. The patent was filed in March 2009, but just recently published online (found via GoRumors)

Google Rolls Out “Near Me Now” Search for Mobile Phones

The next time you drop in to a new city, or just wonder into a new part of town you’re not familiar with, Google wants to make it easier to find your way. Even if you don’t have Google Mapsinstalled on your Android or iPhone handsets, you can find the nearest ATM, coffee shop, bar, or restaurant with a single web page.

Become an Augmented Shooter with iPhone Application Gunman

GunMan is a game that makes direct use of the iPhone’s built in camera, superimposing a gun scope and minimalistic interface, and combines these with color recognition technology to take the concept of shooter games out of the virtual world and into the real one.

Will 2010 Finally be the Year of Location?

For most of the first decade of the new century, we all talked about the emergence of location-based services. These services, leveraging GPS chips, were going to revolutionize the world. I remember hearing numerous pitches that envisioned Starbucks offering coupons when you walked by the store. But the future, it seemed, was taking its own sweet time, with the LBS dream constantly being deferred. Fast-forward to today — thanks to new services such as Geodelic, Where andFourSquare, we’re beginning to see that mythical future become an actuality. (Related: our posts on Geodelic,Where)

Being able to ask for all the interesting places within a 10 block radius or within a county opens up all sorts of possibilities. Creating geo apps is getting easier and easier with all of these geo platforms springing up. And of course there is nothing stopping developers from mixing and matching different layers of geo data from different APIs.

It’s not a long article and well worth your read.

Welcome to the Location Based Games Blog.  This is the second iteration of this blog, the first one was burned into a messy digital pile of 1s and 0s.  We are hoping to build the the best resource in the world for all things Location Based and games related so if you have any thoughts or feedback let us know.  Besides that, hang tight and get ready for a heck of a ride.