Interview with Wikitude

We had the honor of exchanging a few words with Wikitude’s Chief ARchitect Mr. Wolfgang Damm and, as it couldn’t be otherwise, it’ll be a pleasure to share it with you all.

For those of you who have just arrived from another planet or just in case you have lived in a bunker for a while, Wikitude was, and is, one of the pioneers in augmented reality (AR) apps. We’ve talked a little about the origins of Wikitude and, more important, about the imminent release of ARquitect and what all of this will mean for AR apps in the future.

- Tell us about Wikitude. How does it start?

Our founder Philipp Breuss Schneeweis started experimenting with Augmented Reality (AR) in 2008 when Google came out with the very first AR capable smartphone, the Android G1 which had GPS, accelerometer and most importantly a digital compass. Since then we have built an AR platform where more than 2,500 content providers with about 150 million points of interest (POIs) meet more than 10 million users worldwide across Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Symbian devices.

- Where is it going to? What can we expect of Wikitude and AR apps in the near future?

We will continue to build on the platform approach. We provide state of the art AR technology, particularly now with ARchitect, and a huge user base which is perfect for content owners to expose their content through exciting AR experiences to a very wide audience.

- Let’s dream a little further: what will users be able to do in five years time? Or ten? Where are we going?

Nobody knows where this will go exactly, but there is no doubt in our minds that the camera is a key sensor inside of the smartphone to experience and understand your surroundings better. In 3-5 years from now you will be seeing mainstream people using their smartphones to point at objects, locations and people to know more about them. As typing and even audio input can be quite tedious on a mobile, visual search is a natural, easy and intuitive way of absorbing information around you.

- Any advice to a starting Android developer?

AR is no longer complicated, we enable developers to build great AR experiences with simple web technologies like html, javascript and css. If you have these programming skills, you really don’t need any advice, all you need is a bit of imagination to build your first AR World and make it available on Wikitude World Browser.

- Wolfgang, what is ARquitect?

Currently available for the Android platform, ARchitect is a brand new developer kit from Wikitude for an open, flexible and powerful tool for creating Augmented Reality content by using common web technologies.
- How did ARchitect come about?
The idea for ARchitect was born out of the need for a more dynamic Augmented Reality experience. With the Wikitude World Browser we only showed static information but we always felt that this was only the beginning and that Augmented Reality should be even more engaging! Right from the start weʼve been an open company and provide content partners with the right tools to help them leverage Augmented Reality for their businesses. Therefore it was clear that we needed to build something everyone can develop for and we needed something that is easy yet powerful and built on something everyone knows. This was my starting point and from there I started to explore different methods to see what could be achieved with the help of modern smartphone Operating Systems. When it became clear that HTML5, Javascript and CSS could be used as a developer language to create Augmented Reality experiences the whole team got really excited. Once you get your head around the basic principle of ARchitect youʼll find itʼs just a website in front of the Augmented Reality view and it is just like developing a normal web app but with amazing results.
- So what can developers really do with ARchitect?
With ARchitect developers can create Worlds based on standards and technology trusted by billions of websites like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They are able to control their Augmented Reality window and decide how and what the users can see. Developers can build powerful Worlds as soon as they have downloaded the ARchitect Developer Kit. ARchitectʼs advanced features open unlimited possibilities with interaction, animations and media playback.
- That sounds great. Is releasing a free developer kit your own version of Android’s free source spirit?
The Wikitude World Browser has always followed an open approach, that’s really what we have been known for, we have no intention of changing this. You can become an ARchitect now and make your AR ideas available to the world free of charge!
- We’re impressed. Thank you very much!

Discover more Android apps

This interview was conducted by Peter Warrior, AndroidZoom EiC.

Things to come

Some time ago, we talked about applications that never got their chance in Android and are not expected to in the near future. Today, on the other hand, we’re focusing our attention on the other side: those apps that are being launched soon for Android after a long period of waiting, some of them having previously tried their luck with iOS.

Some are widely known and have been discussed before, some others are new incursions in the app world and are willing to achieve a great success by generating expectations and creating buzz. Anyway, 2012 has actually started and all omens point to the greatest and most wonderful Android year so far, so it shouldn’t strike anyone that apps and games to come will be also the greatest so far, at least of course till 2013. Let’s take a look at them.

Although there is a handful or so of photo editing apps for Android as good or better than Instagram, even when there are apps that offer unbeatable quality on HDR, tilt shift and any odd filter you can imagine, Instagram staff announced a month ago that they’re developing the Android counterpart of their bestselling iOS app. It’s up to them, of course, and we’ll be here to review it and share our thoughts with you. Meanwhile, play around with the keywords “photo editor” on our search bar: there are several 5/5 and a bunch of 4/5 rated apps that work outstandingly. Maybe they don’t have the Instagram community, but it shouldn’t matter as much if you are going to share your pics via Facebook, Twitter or G+ in the end.

If we talk about games. the one that we’re are really expecting Dragons vs. Unicorns, a new casual game in which the name itself already catches our attention. The main theme is that unicorns have been dragon’s enemies for centuries and have launched a battle for supremacy. The game is set in a fantasy somewhat lysergic landscape, enables multiplaying and provides intuitive controls. Beyond an ancient war between  a fluffy brethren and a scaly evilhood, with boxing kittens, pirate turtles, suicide bats and wind-up bunnies involved, we can see what it seems a fun game for nearly all audiences with funny characters and lots of fighting and pinches of strategy.

Friday is probably one of the most expected apps. In the developer’s words: “It captures your life” and you will never forget anything ever again. Apparently, Friday answers questions about your life, friends, locations, writes a diary by itself (although you can add notes and voice memos) and keeps track of your activities with your contacts: how many calls do you make, who sends you mails… It has potential, yes. We hope it can live up to the expectations as it could be the next big thing. Perhaps it may become the start of a new generation of smart assistants that will overcome Siri and the last proof we need about how apps can be extremely useful not only to youngsters and adults, but to oldies as well.

My Brute is a successful iOS game that has achieved success and it’s coming to Android soon (although it was scheduled for this past Christmas). My Brute is a combat fighting game that combines role playing and improving your martial arts’ skills. The game provides many features and tools to use and given the many downloads and reviews, we’re looking forward to try it out and see it for ourselves. As there’s also a browser version, we’ll be talking about an absolute cross-platform game. Oh, and there are pets, too.

Last, but not least we have Zombie Wonderland 2 Outta time!, which seems an entertaining and hyperactive zombie killing game that enhances the first iOS version and brings in more weapons, locations, features and fun. What we can see in the teaser video is a bunch of scenes with many fighting seen from above and great detailed graphics. Definitely, one game to take into account and to demonstrate that all this zombie-stuff isn’t a passing craze. If you’ve paid attention, you should have realized that all these games and those to come attach importance to gameplay above all, the same way that apps will prioritize usefulness alike.

Pedro Guerrero (aka Peter Warrior and any other translatable combination)
is our editor-in-chief and an enthusiast of things that so not exist yet.

Siri’s shadow

Even though Google began working with voice search years ago and could be considered the pioneer in this initiative, Apple’s Siri created lots of expectation and obtained as a result a great success among users; it works well, has a simple but aesthetic design and has re-created the slogan: “your wish is its command”.

However, Android’s responses were soon launched.

Thus, we’ve decided to try some of those apps and compare them, the results of which are presented below.  We hope you find them equally useful and interesting.

The four chosen apps have been: Iris by Dexetra; Pocket Blonde 2 by i-Free, Skyvi by Blue Tornado and Andy by 74 Technologies.

HOW TO USE IT

Iris: Tap on the bottom button and speak

Pocket Blonde 2: You can talk tapping on the right bottom button or answer with multi-choice questions: Yes/No/Tell me more/Not interested

Skyvi: It has a menu which provides options. To speak, tap on the button and start.

Andy: Tap on the mic and ask away.

UNDERSTANDING

Iris: Doesn’t understand very well, mostly typical questions like who’s Lady Gaga

Pocket Blonde 2: Pretty well, as it uses multichoice mostly

Skyvi: Pretty well.

Andy: Needs to work on this.

DESIGN, UI, EASE OF USE

Iris: Clean design, simple and easy to use.

Pocket Blonde 2: EverFriends: Spoony and Brainy. The assistant works as a tutorial, really easy. Great graphics. More customized.

Skyvi: Menu with several options, more confusing than others. Simple design.

Andy: Clean design: just the mic and answer.

FEATURES

Iris : Call someone, Text someone, Search something, Look up for a contact

Pocket Blonde 2: Alarm clock, Reminder of events, Horoscope, Radio, Notes, Maps, Encyclopedia, Flashlight, Wallet,

Skyvi: Directions, Notification when near a restaurant, Notification to check mail, Remind to pick up dinner when leaving work, Update Facebook  and Twitter, Weather information. No call or text.

Andy: Encyclopedia, Directions, General knowledge questions, Weather information, People Asking,

SMOOTHNESS

Iris: It force closes sometimes. Understandable since it’s an alpha (?) version.

Pocket Blonde 2: It takes some time to answer the question.

Skyvi: There are times when you tap on an option and it doesn’t respond.

Andy: Takes really long to answer, sometimes it doesn’t even respond.

In conclusion, we could say that these four apps still have a long way ahead of them in order to compete with Siri and become a point of reference. However, each one of them has its advantages and disadvantages, being Everfriends the one that stands out the most.  It’s the most personalized and less automatic, and it gives you the chance to answer with multi-choice questions if you’re having trouble in making yourself understood. It includes two assistants and it has a long list of features.

Iris and Skivy are not bad choices but they don’t always understand what you mean or work smoothly enough; with a few improvements they would be much better. Skyvi can be used mostly for directions and reminders while Iris does simple tasks like initiating a call or a message.

The one that needs to work most on its improvements is Andy, which has a simple and easy-to-use design but it takes too long to load some answers which aren’t actually even that long and it has problems understanding some questions.

All four only accept clean English inputs, so it shouldn’t strike anyone that we witness a race in the months to come to launch assistants in other major languages. Likewise, this has just started. The possibilities are far beyond our imagination. Why not voice controlled games? There have been some shy tryouts before without much success -or no success at all, in fact-. Did anyone say Android karaoke?

We’ll be glad to re-try these apps and see where they are at after some updates.

Discover more Android apps

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Discover more Android apps

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Discover more Android apps

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Discover more Android apps

Santa Claus came and left us a brand-new website

Merry Christmas discoverers!

These last months have been as intense as challenging regarding Android news, ideas and projects. We’ve launched AndroidZoom Weekly and Pocket Videoreviews and AndroidZoom Cartoon Contest. We’ve kept reviewing apps as well as expounding interesting issues Android-related every week in our blog. Above all, what we’ve been doing these months is listening to your wishes and paying attention to your suggestions on how to make our website more both user-friendly and developer-friendly. We’re proud to announce the fruit of that labor which is our best Christmas gift: a brand-new AndroidZoom.com. We invite you to give it a go and to take advantage of all its features.

As you can see the homepage has been re-designed to highlight what really matters to you: apps and games. We haven’t removed any features, we’ve just tidied it up to make even easier the discovery of the best apps and games. Thus, you can find our classic features like Today’s Leaders, Pick of the Day, Browse Categories, Latest Apps or On Sale. However, we haven’t changed to stay the same: there a new features that you already can enjoy at the homepage and others that will be implemented in the following weeks. In this sense, you can check out from “Latest App Reviews” the last apps and games that have been reviewed by our Editor’s Team. What’s more, AndroidZoom’s Developers Team has worked hard on making the homepage smarter: we want it to recognize your searches and preferences, that’s it, individualize the homepage to highlight what you care about. And when we say you, we don’t mean you all, but YOU.

All of this would haven’t been possible without your suggestions: you’re part of the feedback chain made up by users, editor’s team and AZ developers. Please, help us to keep pumping blood to the circuit.

Happy new AndroidZoom website discovery!

Feel free to reach us at hello@androidzoom, Twitter, Facebook and G+.

5th Edition of AndroidZoom Cartoon Contest released

Here we are again, with a new edition of AndroidZoom Cartoon Contest. Christmas is just around the corner and its spirit has possessed Android or rather the opposite: Android has grabbed Christmas spirit. It seems that this Christmas is going to be greener than ever: Android growth is unstoppable and it’s expected that throughout Christmas a mob of new users will join the Android community. We took these three ideas: Christmas, green and Android community, to give birth the 5th Edition of AndroidZoom Cartoon Contest, this time starring The Grinch, although from a different approach.
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As you can see, the bubble is blank: we expect you to fill it with witty, fun and original dialogues. Participating is as easy as attending this Facebook Event and posting your proposal on the wall. You can propose as many dialogues as you want until the deadline: December 19th at noon.

The winner will be chosen by AndroidZoom among all the dialogues posted. Although likes will be taken into account, other regards like wit, humour and originality will play a decisive role. Bear in mind that any user, developer, website or brand can post dialogues. It’s open to everyone. Indeed, this cartoon is unfinished because we expect all the members that made Android community up to work together on it. This is what Christmas spirit is about, isn’t it?

The complete cartoon with the chosen dialogue will be signed by the winner as a prize. Check out the AZC Album of previous editions to know how it works. Likewise, his/her name will be published on Facebook, Twitter and AndroidZoom blog the day after the deadline (December 20th).

You can get a personalized Android-like Christmas gift. It all depends on your wit and creativity.

Do you accept the challenge?

Black Friday’s fever on AndroidZoom.com

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Thanksgiving is a lovely day to catch up with family and to celebrate the beginning of Christmas Holidays. However, what most of the people really love is what comes the day after: Black Friday, the day to update your wardrobe, to start Christmas gifts shopping or simply to make the most of the big deals that brands offer during the weekend. We all keep in mind those images of people waiting for the shopping mall opening, getting mad to reach first the best deal. Although, for some items you still have to face that situation, there’s a place where you can easily find big deals with no struggles and no queues: AndroidZoom “On Sale” tab. There you can find those Android apps and games that are offered with % off as well as those that have become free. A smart way to discover at a glance, the best Black Friday’s deals.

Lots of developers have already announced that are offering discounts on their apps and games during the whole Black Weekend. For example, Gameloft is offering some free games for a two-hour period each day and some other titles at $0.99. They will unveil the titles on Twitter throughout the weekend. Likewise, other titles like paid Plants Vs. Zombies, Swiftkey X, Shazam Encore and many many others seems that will offer at least a half off. Instead of looking at Twitter, Facebook or hundreds of developer’s official websites, we recommend you to check “On Sale” tab on our website to get all the deals that will be launched throughout the weekend. There you will find all the deals put together and updated every few minutes.

We’re really glad to see that these traditional marketing strategies (that are actually right) are undertaken by Android apps & games developers. We expect this kind of initiatives to expand because they benefit both: users and developers. Given that we believe this will happen ever more, we provide you the tools to make even easier the discovery of Android apps & games.

Have a great Black Friday!

AndroidZoom: two light-years

Dear AndroidZoomers,

Two years ago today, AndroidZoom took off. When we started, Android had just been updated to version 2.0 Eclair and the most used OS was BB RIM. Android had only a few more than 20,000 apps. There were a few more than a million Android devices around. Angry Birds hadn’t been launched yet.

In that scenario, we had to bet. We had to zoom in on something. Those subtle vibes that tell you whether something is going to be okay had to be acknowledged. We had to give time and pay due attention. If we were going to start something, we should be able to be faithful to it till the end.

Although it’s hard to believe at this point, AndroidZoom wasn’t developed. It was crafted, done with the right mix of business, eager ambition, hope and talent. Then, that charming green bot grew and blessed us when it gave us the go-ahead in its own, quiet way.

It seems that our bet was right, though. It seems indeed that those vibrations haven’t betrayed us, because if they had, neither we’d be writing this nor you’d be reading it. Big smile here.

Nowadays, AndroidZoom is still a small family where we see each other’s faces every day and where we can keep the innocence needed to not lose the users’ point of view of everything. We’re glad that AndroidZoom is also a place where we can try to help a young starting developer at the same time that we chat with large and well-known companies. We’re proud of every new “congrats”, “think you should” and “thanks” we receive. It can sound as a cliché, but there’s still room to learn something, however small it may be, from every concise comment sent to us. We share what we know, as we firmly believe that’s the only way for Android to glow and grow. Beyond the discourse about how open source philosophy may become something useful to make the world a better place, there’s also a strong commitment with users and developers alike. That’s us and that’s how we work. We wouldn’t know how to do it otherwise.

During the last few weeks, we have been working frantically on a lot of improvements invisible to the naked eye, but that will soon allow us to offer a thousand and one new features. In the meantime, AndroidZoom remains a leading site for Android apps and games, somewhere to glance through, read any of our nearly two thousand reviews done to date and let yourself amaze by discovering applications you wouldn’t even imagine. Since we’re talking here about reviews, let us tell you that, from the early beginning, we chose that AZ would be a place where users go through the best Android apps at their whim. At that point everything was rather messed up, so we tried to tidy it all in the best possible way. Later, we add our reviews to the pot, which explained pretty quickly how much an app is worthy of downloading and whether we’ll like a game beforehand, as if they were that close friend we’re always asking about. Reviews had to be –and so still are- brief and straightforward instead of long and boring technical explanations, ideally conceived to be read on a mobile device.

At the same time, if you kindly visit our Facebook you’ll find, to name just one thing, AZCartoons every other week. Here at this blog, our editor team excels at presenting new apps that have passed over other sites and we launched, not so long ago, our brand new Youtube Channel where we find out great Android videos and (be this a big AND written in caps) our videoreviews are uploaded each week. Lastly, those of you who follow us on Twitter are up to date with remarkable reviews and news. Ultimately, let’s wonder at all how much can be done with our favorite toys.

There’s a huge competition among developers, and keep in mind that the best is yet to come. Market will be as good as they are its best apps. We’re expectant for natural selection to show off in the Android ecosystem. At the moment you are reading this, there are more than 150 million Android devices roaming out there, we’re celebrating the imminent advent of Android 4.0 and there are more than half a million apps uploaded.

Seen this way, the wholesale transformation Android has undergone in really seems to had started more than two years ago, two light-years away indeed. Two long light-years that have gone by quickly for Androidzoom, and that’s only the start of a journey we don’t know where it’ll take us.

That’s about it. Thank you; wish you all have a great day.

AndroidZoom team.

AZ New feature: Badges

We live in a world surrounded by an ocean of Android applications. That is why any sign whatsoever that helps us detect the best apps will always be welcome.

Here, in AndroidZoom, thanks to all your suggestions and comments, we’re willing to improve our task every day so you can find everything you want effectively; and even discover new and interesting applications you wouldn’t have found any other way.

Today we’re presenting a new feature called “Badges”. From now on, next to every application’s name you’ll see several icons that show the app’s most remarkable merits: some related to the number of downloads, some referring to its rating and some that indicate other qualities worth enhancing.


No medal is given to those apps with weaknesses or defects, so don’t hesitate to put your mouse over the symbols and see why the app stands out and which are the fields that make it succeed. Thanks to this new tool, some applications will stand out in your search and we will be able to ease your path to discovering the best apps out there.

Keep an eye on our site because you will soon enjoy more AndroidZoom features and, of course, be sure to suggest your own ideas.

Developer’s Dashboard enhanced

Today, in Android Zoom, we want to introduce our new improved section, the developer dashboard. As you can see now, we’ve made changes to the old layout and we’ve also added new features.

So if you’re a developer and you’re wondering what you should do, the first step would be to register yourself as one, that is, clicking on the top link “Are you a developer”, located under an app’s rating. After that, you can have access to your dashboard just by tapping on “My Menu” and selecting “My Applications”.

In this new dashboard, you can customize your personal page by adding the logo of your company as well as writing a brief “description” about the company’s history and other useful information. Those features and the “Monitor detailed statistics” are the main innovations that we want to stand out. This particular statistics show graphs about the app’s page views and downloads for a given period.

Besides that, there are other existing features also available, such as the “.Apk Upload”, which enhances the user experience by increasing downloading channels. This would particularly help some of the users who cannot download the apps directly from the Android Market.

Last but not least, there is the “Issues received” section, where you can receive feedback from your app’s users in order to acknowledge their opinions and requests.

To sum it all up, the improved AZ developer’s dashboard helps you offer a better service to your app’s users. What’s more, it becomes a platform to introduce yourself and your apps to the Android community.

Happy new developer’s dashboard discovery!

Developers are beginning to give priority to Android

It is widely known that until now, maybe not all but most of the popular apps available for Android were firstly created for iOS, and Android users had to wait for their version to come out after it had succeeded with the iPhones.
Examples such as Whatsapp for Android proved two important things: first of all, iOS had a good app ecosystem after many years in the market; and secondly, app developers were beginning to pay more attention to newcomers like Android, who were making a great effort to gain more users with the help of phone manufacturers.

However, it’s not only about having a bigger number of users but also for the possibilities that Android itself offers…

Developers were trying to fill a gap in a new market and their trust in Android became even more evident when successful iOS apps were brought to Android for free. Some of them were Whatsapp (free the first year) and the much talked about Angry Birds, one of the most downloaded iPhone games, whose users couldn’t help but feel surprised when faced with Android users claiming “I also have it, it’s free for Android”.

The truth is that the app developing tendencies are starting to change. Earlier, most of the applications were developed for iPhone, where they had an excellent reception and a great number of users surrounding a single device. However, factors such as the 500.000 daily Android activations and the possibility of broading its horizons to more phone manufacturer brands are causing developers to focus more and more on Android and even to consider it their first option.

That’s exactly what’s happening with FourSquare, one of the best check-in services based in geotagging and also one of the most populars regarding the new tendency of combining related offers. Foursquare has recently included a new function, Notifications (internal notifications), only available for Android users (for now).

These new notifications let you know about check-in comments and pictures, advices, friends registers, etc. This feature is only available for Android users, whom FourSquare dedicates the following statement:

Android needs some early-access love!” – Dennis Crowley (FourSquare Co-Founder)

Some people point out that Android could start being used as a testing ground before launching new functions or applications to iOS, but on the contrary, we believe that plenty of developers and companies are starting to pledge their commitment to Android and its increasingly potential is becoming a major point of reference.

[via elandroidelibre]