Augmented reality is getting good promotion with Verizon using Layar to promote its latest Droid phones in their TV commercials. We are loving it. Thanks Verizon!

After some incredible hard work from our Android Dev Ronald (@jsourcenl) and some testing, from our “Guy with a Droid” Dylan (@mykoan), we are so proud to say that we are finally available on Android Market for all Droid users.

So for the Techies: What did go wrong? Well, on the Droid we had encountered some difficulties in the OpenGL overlay over the camera image. After certain actions, the camera image would be placed on top of the AR world. We did not have this problem with the other Android handsets. That is the reallllly short version ;-)

Minor bug fix: This update also fixes an issue with the sleep/wake functionality that caused Layar to sometimes steal focus when turning on your phone. Sorry about that one..

Verizon Wireless, Motorola and Google thank you for your patience and support.

Now it is time to celebrate the weekend!

Layar is currently not compatible with the Verizon Droid by Motorola that was launched today in the US.

This is due to an API change in the Android implementation on this device. It breaks a feature that was enabling Layar to draw a camera view in portrait mode and overlay it with the well-known Layar interface elements. Unfortunately this is not something that can be fixed easily. Therefore Layar is not available for users of Verizon’s Droid phone at this moment. Note that the Verizon Droid Eris phone is supported, as it runs on a different Android implementation.

The upcoming major version of Layar (v3) will change this and we will also support Android 2.0 devices in this new version. We expect this version to hit the Android Market in a few weeks. For all of you with a Verizon Droid, thanks for your patience.