The mobile ecosystem is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of transformation.  At the centre of this transformation is GSMA Mobile World Congress held 14-17 February, in Barcelona, Spain.

Layar will be present of course and we would love to meet you.  Here’s where you can find us:

• Our CEO, Raimo van der Klein, will join the panel discussion: “Augmented Reality: Is Reality Ready to be Augmented?” (Tuesday, 4PM - Hall 5 Room 5)


• We will be present at Mobile AR Marketplace


• Every day from Monday until Thursday from 12PM to 1PM we’ll have an Augmented Reality Meetup at The Fountain.

If this doesn’t fit your schedule, choose the person you want to talk to and send him an email to set something up.

The Layar Team at MWC11:

Raimo van der Klein			Maarten Lens-FitzGerald			Dirk Groten
CEO &			VP Business Development &			CTO
Co-Founder			Co-Founder
raimo@layar.com			maarten@layar.com			dirk@layar.com
King Yiu Chu			Martin Ahe
AR Strategist			Business Developer EMEA
king@layar.com			martin.ahe@layar.com

With the Layar Reality Browser 5.0 beta release for Android we’re introducing some great new features integrating richer augmented reality experiences into people’s everyday lives. Layar 5.0 allows for sharing, more interactivity, and more attractive layers. So what’s new? Integration with social networks We’ve made it easy to share your augmented reality experience with your friends and followers. Just log in and connect to Facebook or Twitter (either from the “Settings” menu or from within a layer) to share your favorite layers. You can easily post screenshots and status updates of all your achievements.

For developers, by customizing (using the Sharing API) and posting messages on popular social networks, your layers get pushed into the spotlight and drive additional traffic.

Enjoy the experience
The new animation API includes the option for interactive objects to perform any of several predetermined animation effects. This allows developers to create even better augmented reality experiences by bringing their 3D objects to life and engaging the user.

Find your way around in Augmented Reality
Easy exploration is key in this release. After extensive usability testing and feedback from our community, we re-designed Layar 5.0 to be more user-friendly and intuitive.

One notable change is that Layar 5.0 emphasizes full layers rather than individual spots within each layer. The start-up screen now shows the user’s favorites, rather than spots nearby. The “Nearby” stream is now part of the “Popular” section, and it displays nearby layers instead of spots.

Start-up screen	Nearby view in the popular section

How do I get Layar Reality Browser 5.0 beta for Android?
Download the Layar 5.0 beta release for Android, try it out and let us know what you think. New features will become available for iPhone soon.

Try it out yourself
Visit our wiki to learn more about the following topics:

• New Navigation


• Animation API


• Sharing API


• User Interaction Dialog


• API 5.0 Tutorial

After a few visits to the Layar office from photographers, videographers and writers, Reuters has published a special report on augmented reality featuring an interview with Layar co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald.

The piece focuses on the industry of augmented reality, where it originated from, where it is now and - most importantly - where it’s going in the future (with Layar at the helm).

“While revenues from AR alone amount to no more than a few tens of millions of dollars, that number is set to double annually to reach $350 million in 2014, according to New York-based ABI Research,” writes the article’s author, Tarmo Virki. “The impact across the broader mobile and computer industry could be much bigger, convincing consumers to use their mobile devices even more than they already do.”

Be sure to click through to the Reuters article and read all about augmented reality and Layar’s role in the future of the technology. Also be sure to check out this video (embedded below) shot by the Reuters crew which features many examples of great layers as well as an interview with Maarten.

Photo above by Reuters.