As part of BlackBerry® Dev Con Asia taking place in Singapore this year, Wikitude has announced additional support for smartphones running on the BlackBerry® 6 operating system (OS). With Wikitude being preinstalled on all new smartphones running the BlackBerry 7 OS, bringing Wikitude to smartphones running BlackBerry 6 will help answer considerable demand expressed by users who want to experience Wikitude’s extensive content offering including more than 2,000 content Worlds consisting of approx. 150 million places around the globe. Users of the popular BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700, 9780,9788 and BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphones can download Wikitude on BlackBerry® App World™ starting today.

Although smartphones running BlackBerry OS 6 do not support the Augmented Reality view, which requires specific hardware features available in BlackBerry 7 based smartphones, the Wikitude app does fully integrate with BBM™ enabling users to find their BBM friends on a map and to communicate with one another based on their location. Users opting to allow their whereabouts to be displayed can even make new friends.

After being crowned “The Most Addictive Social App Using the BBM Social Platform” at BlackBerry DevCon Americas in October, Wikitude most recently won the BlackBerry® EMEA Innovation Award for “Best BBM Connected App”, awarded in Alicante 1st December. “Extending the Wikitude platform to millions of BlackBerry 6 smartphone users will make the BBM experience richer than ever before. We are extremely happy to finally bring this version of Wikitude to even more BlackBerry smartphone users,” says Martin Herdina, Wikitude’s CEO.

Alec Saunders, VP Developer Relations, Research In Motion, said: “We’re delighted that Wikitude has integrated BBM support within their app. Integration with BBM can allow much greater viral discovery for apps, as well as enrich and transform the user experience with important social elements.”

With the P’9981 smartphone the premium brand introduced a technology packed luxury accessory to the market. Serving the upscale clientel, this unique piece of eye candy sets itself apart from mainstream devices. Beneath the solid one piece aluminum shell with leather-covered back, the P’9981 is equipped with BlackBerry’s 7 Operating System on the inside, which integrates all the sensors and high performance chips needed to run Wikitude’s sophisticated Augmented Reality (AR) software.

Wikitude has been customized to work seemlessly with the Porsche Design user interface. Taking advantage of the BlackBerry platform, P9981 owners will also be able to experience BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) in AR allowing them to find their BBM friends and other BBM users around them – a great way to interact and meet other Porsche Design enthusiasts.

View the official BlackBerry Porche Design P’9981 video below.

With Wikitude you can explore more than 150 million places around the world including restaurants, tourist sights, clubs and much more. In addition to more than 2,000 content providers or content “worlds”, as they are known in Wikitude lingo. You can also engage the “Porsche Design Store World” to locate points of sale for Porsche Design merchandise around you. But that’s not all, P’9981 owners are able to create their own places by using a simple map based tool available on www.P9981.me . So if you have found a special fine dining restaurant that you think your fellow Porsche Design smartphone owners should know about, just go to the web and create this place with a few clicks. Seconds later, it will be available to the P9981 device community in Wikitude’s augmented reality.

“It has been an exciting journey working with Porsche Design to reinvent Wikitude for this very unique device” explained Andy Gstoll, Wikitude’s CMO, “We were infected by the their true passion for design from day one.”

Read the official Porche press release here.

Wikitude’s CEO Martin Herdina presented the integration of BBM into Augmented Reality with RIM’s very own Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis

The BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco is the annual platform for BlackBerry’s latest innovations. As one of RIM’s strategic developer partners, this was an event we could not miss out on. Both Martin and Nic made their way across the Atlantic to be part of this exciting event in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The show kicked off yesterday with a keynote presentation from Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s co-CEO announcing BBX, BlackBerry’s all new Operating System combining the legacy BlackBerry OS with QNX, RIM’s recent technology acquisition. As part of the technical Keynote, the sweet marriage between Wikitude and BlackBerry Messenger was presented to thousands of viewers both locally present and around the world watching the live webcast.

To see Martin on the big stage, click the image below for the video and scroll forward to 101:30 mins.

Wikitude’s participation didn’t end there as we were present with a booth on the developer floor to demonstrate the best that Wikitude on BlackBerry has to offer. Wikitude also participated in the press tour where we showed journalists how Wikitude can shine, from discovering surroundings to using BlackBerry Messenger to contact friends, all in the immersive Augmented Reality view. The interest was high and Martin and Nic relished the enthusiasm and excitement for Wikitude that came from the stand visitors.

Martin was also interviewed by the Inside Blackberry Developer Blog where he went through the use cases of Wikitude as well as how we developed Wikitude for BlackBerry.

A further highlight of our participation is yet to come as today, Wednesday 19th October, Martin Herdina will take part in a panel discussion on how to provide app users with the best possible experience. With members of the RIM Business Development Team and other community experts, Martin will discuss consumer apps, the mobile marketplace and shared insights on app development, deployment and commercialization.

Martin’s first impressions of the event were enthusiastic, “demonstrating Wikitude to a full conference hall during the Keynote was such an amazing experience and it was a real honor to share Wikitude with this large audience. The event was buzzing with developers and it was great to see the passion that is out there for Wikitude on BlackBerry”.

This has already proved itself to be a great event and Wikitude looks forward to the next BlackBerry DevCons coming up soon. Meet Wikitude at the BlackBerry DevCon in Asia, Bangkok on 7-8 Dec 2011 or in Europe, Amsterdam on 7-8 Feb 2012. We look forward to seeing you there!

iOS 6.3 comes with a brand new design and exisiting users will be able to see the changes straight away. Wikitude has a new look and feel to it with refreshed icons, new layout, updated colours and high resolution images.

But we at Wikitude don’t just make cosmetic changes. After downloading Wikitude iOS 6.3 you will find a spanking new home screen with category containers holding points of interest across all worlds / content providers. Check out the Restaurant category container for example, this lists all the restaurants around you presenting results form different providers.
We’ve also added containers for pubs, cafes, events and WiFi hotspots so that you can find out what is around you quicker.

With Smart Search, Wikitude iOS 6.3 is now even more user-friendly. Start typing your search term and Wikitude will show you search suggestions as well as Worlds and Points of Interest that match your search as you are typing – very cool.

Other brand new features include, new filters in the All Worlds functions, Points of Interest now show elevation, which proves very handy if you live in mountainous regions like us in Austria. You will also find a performance improved camera view with a radar visualized on the compass.

All in all, Wikitude iOS 6.3 is a whole new browsing experience redesigned and improved enabling you to explore your surroundings in a smarter, more exciting way.

New to Wikitude? Have no fear, iOS 6.3 includes some first time intro slides which give you a quick tour on how to to discover your surroundings with Wikitude.
Download now in the App Store and check it out!

Go to our Flickr page for more images of the all new Wikitude iOS 6.3.

The optimized tablet version of Wikitude offers SONY Tablet S users a split screen view enabling them to see the Augmented Reality (AR) view and the content selection menu at the same time. With this special feature, it is easy to switch between the different AR experiences around you without losing the camera view or having to return to the home screen.

“It is absolutely phenomenal that we were able to engage with SONY on optimizing Wikitude for this high end Android tablet” said Andy Gstoll, Wikitude’s CMO. “Our job of course is to make great software, but in combination with well designed hardware such as the Tablet S, the user experience can be taken to another level.”

Wikitude World Browser 6.3 features more than 2,000 AR content experiences, also called content “Worlds”. These aggregated content datasets add up to more than 150 million points of interest like sights, restaurants, mobile coupons, coffee shops and WiFi hotspots around the globe. No need to be overwhelmed by this high quantity of content as Wikitude allows you to customize your home screen according to your lifestyle and preferences, so you can manage and find the things you care about quickly.

The optimized tablet version is also available for other Android tablets and can be downloaded here.

Click here for a high resolution image of Wikitude on the SONY Tablet S.

This cooperation with Coupies is the first of its kind and users in Germany can redeem the coupons they find around them in one of around 7000 Schlecker drug stores. Using the Wikitude World Browser and GPS, the smartphone finds the location of the user and links them to their surroundings displaying any digital Nivea or Garnier coupons available. With just one click, information about the offers, the distance to the store and opening hours can be viewed and the user is just a few steps away from saving money on their purchase.

Smartphone mobile couponing is an exciting development, especially when combined with Augmented Reality. This kind of Location Based Service not only delivers the user with information but saves them money as well!

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) announces the formation of the OGC ARML 2.0 Standards Working Group (SWG). 

ARML (Augmented Reality Markup Language) 1.0 is a descriptive, XML based data format for mobile Augmented Reality (AR) applications. ARML focuses on mapping georeferenced Points of Interest (POIs) and their metadata. Defined in late 2009, ARML was developed by the creators of the Wikitude World Browser to enable developers to create content for Augmented Reality browsers.

The work program for the OGC ARML 2.0 SWG is to expand the definition of ARML v1.0 in several ways, such as enabling dynamic modification of properties, event handling, sophisticated 3D visualizations and audio or haptic representation, and also enabling connection to other widely used AR tracking methods, including audio tracking. The SWG will be soliciting public comment on their work as well as collaborating with a number of participating AR experts, AR stakeholders, and representatives of other standards development organizations.
“We see this as an important step toward establishing an open ecosystem for mobile augmented reality,” said Martin Lechner, CTO at Wikitude. “More than a thousand developers throughout the world already use the ARML 1.0 which we first introduced to the industry not long ago. Wikitude natively supports ARML and we are looking forward to working with others to make ARML an adopted OGC standard that enables AR applications to connect well with thousands of other OGC-compliant geospatial resources.”
The charter members of the ARML 2.0 SWG are: Feng Chia University, University of Huntsville, CACI, Wikitude and Salzburg University. These OGC members invite the participation of AR developers, location based services (LBS) developers, AR service providers and browser vendors, location based content developers and publishers, companies seeking to be represented in AR applications, and game developers. The ARML 2.0 charter, which includes technical details about the scope and intent of ARML 2.0, is available at https://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=45439.

The first official meeting of the working group will be held Monday, 19 September 2011 at the OGC Technical Committee meeting in Boulder, CO in September 2011.

Official OGC press release here.

Martin is “delighted to be part of this exciting event and I am looking forward to sharing my hands-on experiences, some do’s and don’t's and helpful anecdotes with this great crowd of young enterpreneurs attending the Startup Week 2011.”

Alongside the main programme, 12 focus events in locations around Vienna have been planned from workshops to live-streams and lectures on current hot topics such as design, digital media, gaming, heath 2.0 and social enterprise. 50 startups from all over Europe will be challenged to perfect their pitches, vying to be one of the 10 finalists to present their innovative idea in front of a top class investor panel as part of the Startup Challenge on 3rd and 4th October.

Tickets to the Startup Week 2011 are still available and Wikitude looks forward to seeing you there!

Augmented Reality on small screen smartphones is one thing but holding a 10 inch display in your hands takes it to a whole new level of user experience. With a special user interface, Wikitude is now the first Augmented Reality Browser which is Android tablet optimized and is available on all Android Honeycomb devices (Android versions 3.0 and 3.1). Some of the popular devices which are compatible with Wikitude include the LG Optimus Pad, Samsung P4, Motorola Xoom and Asus Eee Pad Transformer.

“With so many great tablets coming to market, we are excited about this new version of the Wikitude World Browser with specifically tablet users in mind. This tablet optimized version of Wikitude offers a split screen, which enables you to see the Augmented Reality view and the World selection screen at the same time. It’s now really easy to switch between the different worlds around you without losing the camera view or having to return to the home screen” explains Andreas Hauser, Head of Android Development at Wikitude.

Split screen also available in the Map View

The Wiktiude 6.1 update for Android is not only a tablet version but also contains upgrades for Wikitude Android smartphone users. Changes include language support in Czech, Polish and Portuguese as well as some great UI updates.

Check out Wikitude on Flickr for some more screenshots and impression of Wikitude 6.1 for Android.

Wikitude 6.1 for tablets and smartphones is available in the Android Market today. Download this latest version here.

Every year at Augmented Planet, the Augmented Reality community votes for its favorite Augmented Reality applications. Similar to last year, the race was on again for Wikitude, Layar and Junaio. Having won the category of “Best Augmented Reality Browser” already in 2009, Wikitude was able to retain the crown in 2010.

Martin Herdina, Mobilizy’s CEO comments on the success: ‘Here at Mobilizy we are proud and excited about retaining Wikitude’s crown for the Best Augmented Reality Browser in 2010. We dedicate this award to our community, which keeps providing the support and the feedback we need to continuously improve our products. Stay tuned – Q1 will bring even more exciting features and partnerships to strengthen Wikitude’s perception by our community and the readers of Augmented Planet.

“We have come a long way building the Wikitude ecosystem and are glad that we have created a platform where content providers and developers can enable their innovative AR ideas and concepts. We can’t wait for all the new AR experiences, which our ever growing valued developer community will create in 2011″, says Andy Gstoll, CMO at Wikitude.

Augmented Reality browsing is still a very new concept. Similar to browsing the Internet, people can browse the reality with smartphones. Augmented Reality is a fantastic concept to make this happen, overlaying the reality, as seen through the smartphone’s camera, with additional information.

‘Augmented Reality browsing is still so new, that nobody really knows for sure what people really like. Winning the People’s Choice Award “Best AR Browser 2010” is a wonderful confirmation that people love our concept of Augmented Reality browsing. We’re continuing our quest to improve Wikitude to have interesting, local, high-quality content Worlds, an intuitive user interface, and a flexible eco-system and API, that gives developers many options to contribute.’, says Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis, founder of Wikitude.

A glorious 2010 filled with awards

The Augmented Planet’s Readers Choice victory rounds up a series of many prestigious awards Wikitude was able to claim in 2010. Other highlights last year were the World Summit Award for Mobile Content in Abu Dhabi, The Galileo Master at the European Satellite Navigation Competition and of course the Global Championship at the Navteq Global LBS Challenge. More detailed information on Wikitude’s awards can be found here.

About Wikitude / Mobilizy GmbH

Mobilizy is an early pioneer in mobile augmented reality (AR) and the creator of the internationally renowned Wikitude World Browser for iPhone, Android, Symbian and Bada. Most recently Mobilizy has launched Wikitude Drive, the first AR navigation application with global coverage. Wikitude engages in the research and in-house development of location-based services and augmented reality experiences for smart-phones. www.wikitude.org

More information about Wikitude: http://www.wikitude.org

Wikitude Social Media Channels:
twitter.com/wikitude

facebook.com/wikitude

flickr.com/wikitude

youtube.com/wikitude

For media requests please contact:

Bernhard Lehner

bernhard [at] i5comm.com

Phone +43 664 439 86 09

Please read the complete story at Augmented Planets’ Readers Choice Awards 2010 Winners.