Layar gets €10 million Funding
Posted by Stephen Downey in Layar on November 17, 2010
Layar have announced that they received €10 in a funding round led by Intel Capital joined by existing investors Sunstone Capital and Prime Ventures. This is great news for the company that have been at the forefront of Augmented Reality for the last 18 months.
Layar was one application that really excited me when I got my first Android phone and I just know this money will help to make a great company an amazing company.
Here is what Raimo van der Klein, Layar’s CEO had to say about how the money will effect them:
What does Layar hope to achieve?
We want to bring impactful Augmented Reality content into people’s everyday lives. Let’s have a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this simple sentence.“Bring” - This means that Layar is handling the transportation of content and connecting publishers and users on as many mobile platforms as possible. Soon, we will launch the Layar Player, an SDK that will bring Augmented Reality content to any iPhone application. But we don’t only want to be facilitators; we also want to help users discover the Layar content that is right for them at the moment they need it.
“Impactful” - We believe that Augmented Reality in its very core is designed to deliver experiences that can truly touch people. Remember the quote from Confucius? “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Augmented Reality is the closest digital experience to “doing” that there is today. We will continue to invest in capabilities that offer our developers the tools to create the most exciting mobile digital experiences.
“Into people’s everyday lives” - Augmented Reality is in its infancy, much like television was before the growth of massively successful content formats like soaps, live sporting events and reality TV. It’s also comparable to YouTube before we all realized that we love to watch videos of kittens. At Layar we don’t like to assume. We don’t know which formats will be successful in the medium of Augmented Reality. Therefore, we are structuring our platform in such a way that will allow for the successful formats to naturally emerge.
Layar will also be opening an office in the Bay area and are on the lookout for people to join their team. I wonder if they would consider a second European office in office in Dublin?
Is Layar packing its bags for Silicon Valley?
Yes and no. We really like it in Amsterdam, and we plan to stay here and expand our team here. We will, however, be opening a U.S. office in San Francisco soon. If you are interested in joining the Layar family in the Bay Area, here are a few of our American openings.
The best of luck to Layar, I am excited to see what the next level of Augmented Reality will look like.
Hey, Java Developers! Go develop Android apps
Posted by Stephen Downey in Android on November 11, 2010
More and more companies are focusing their efforts on the mobile market and offering an ‘app’ for their product or brand.
However, many are falling into the trap of only focusing on developing iPhone apps. As Gartner has reported, Android is now outselling iPhone as the smartphone of choice. In the future there is going to be a major effort from these companies with established apps to port them over to Android.
Android is an App market that companies can’t afford to ignore.
Gartner estimates Android phones accounted for 75 percent to 80 percent of Verizon Wireless’s smartphone trade in the third quarter of 2010. Manufacturers such as Samsung continued to launch high-end devices like the Galaxy S. But manufacturers also launched Android devices at lower prices to target different consumer segments. For example, ZTE launched a sub-£100 Android phone with Orange in the prepay U.K. market. For its part, Google is maintaining a fast pace of OS updates. Each version brings new features and polish to Android, and the level of innovation is a major differentiator.
So why is this good for Java Developers?
If you are a Java developer and thinking of making the transition to mobile app development, Android is a natural choice. It allows you to continue to develop in Java and progress your career to the next level.
The API is very well documented and there are lot of great tutorials in the dev guide. Google even have lots of sample apps and tutorials to get you started. If all that wasn’t good enough, there is also an eclipse plugin so you can continue to develop in eclipse.
The presentation below should be you a quick overview of the architecture and how to get started.
Conclusion
So, forget about learning Objective C and moving over to Mac, stick with the language you love and start developing Android apps in java.
Android UI Testing
Posted by Stephen Downey in Android on October 21, 2010
I have been a big fan of Selenium ever since I first used it a few years back. It takes so much of the pain out of testing web pages and with its Maven integration a very complex web app can be fully tested automatically every night. So naturally, I am pretty excited about Robotium. Robotium does for Android testing what Selenium has done for web based testing. Here’s the official line:
Robotium is a test framework created to make it easy to write powerful and robust automatic black-box test cases for Android applications. With the support of Robotium, test case developers can write function, system and acceptance test scenarios, spanning multiple Android activities.
Robotium is integrated with Maven via Maven for Android so all of your tests can be automated. Check out the video below for an example of how to get started or this example from Michal Szczepanik at Bitbar.
Developing applications for Layar Augmented Reality browser – Android
Posted by Stephen Downey in Android, java on December 3, 2009
I finally managed to get my HTC Hero via an upgrade to Meteor. After using the phone for only a day I am extremely impressed with the applications I have used and the ability of the phone.
The one application that I was really excited to use was Layar.
Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone.
Developers can create Augmented Reality layers that can be viewed in the browser. There are a few Irish examples out there like
I’m glad to see there are a few Irish developer doing a great job here. This video will give you an idea of what layar can do.
Here is a presentation from Dirk Groten of Layar on how to develop Layers. You can read more about the presentation on the layar blog.
I am really looking forward to developing applications for android and some layers for the layar browser.
If you are a java developer, download the eclipse plugin for android development and look at some of the sample applications out there. You will be amazed how easy it is to move over to android development. I can really see a lot of developers moving to android in the next few years. With so many java developers out there at the moment, this could be the driving force that pushes android ahead of iPhone.
If your in Business, get to BizCamp this Saturday….
Posted by Stephen Downey in Business, entrepreneur on September 17, 2009
This Saturday, 500 people from the Irish Business community are getting together to share their experiences and inspire each other at BizCamp. It is based on the barcamp conference style where people come together in an open forum. There are no sales pitches allowed as the rules for speakers clearly state.
I was at the first Irish Barcamp in Cork in 2006 and really enjoyed the openness of the “unconference”. It was mostly aimed at techies but Bizcamp is for people from any aspect of business. I was away for the first BizCamp Dublin so was pretty happy when I saw that registration was open for Bizcamp2.
As there are so many speakers this weekend, the time table has been already decided. You can have a look at the speaker line up here. I would advise deciding on what you want to see before you go as there are some great talks that clash with each other.
Here’s what I am going to try to get to:
| 10.00 to 10.45 | Joe Drumgoole Startups in Ireland. Where Do we go from Here? |
| 10.45 to 11.30 | Brian Flanagan Making financial projections for a business plan Or Steve Gotz Lessons from an Unsuccessful American Entrepreneur |
| 11.30 to 12.15 | Caelen King Online business models. I will looks at the value proposition of various online application and how these map into business models and how these revenue models can be adapted to maximise revenue. |
| 12.15 to 13.00 | Amanda Webb Facebook for business |
| 14.00 to 14.45 | Panel Discussion 3 Entrepreneurs talking about taking the rough with the smooth. Kevin Traynor, Colm Lyon & Jerry Kennelly |
| 14.45 to 15.30 | Claire Boyles Twitter as a marketing tool |
| 15.30 to 16.15 | Gerard O’Brien Approaching Enterprise Ireland for the first time – what we can support, what we look for in a start-up proposition and roadmap of supports offered |
| 16.15 to 17.00 | Steve Plunkett SaaS – The Servitization of the Software Industry. The software industry is undergoing a major shift. I will explore the implications and opportunities for software businesses in Ireland |
What talks are you going to?