French app development shop PresseLite appears to have the first Augmented Reality (AR) supporting iPhone app live in the iTunes store, though we don't know how they did it. It's called Metro Paris Subway, and while the app isn't new, it released a new version last week that added an AR overlay that displays information about Paris businesses when you look at the city through your iPhone's camera.
Augmented Reality is the term for a long-developed set of technologies that place layers of information on top of a view of the real world. Developers and AR-watchers have believed that no AR apps would be able to go live in the iTunes App Store until the next version of the iPhone OS is released in Fall. No one we've talked to has seen any others, but this one is for sale for 99 cents. It's possible that it was allowed in by mistake, or that it's a partial implementation of AR, but we're waiting to hear back from the developers for more details.
In our recent post about the top 50 web properties in the U.S. according to comScore, we noted that Demand Media is on the rise - moving from #36 to #24 in the past 12 months. Demand Media owns a number of successful sites, including ehow.com, Pluck and eNom (the second or third-largest domain registrar in the world). The company also proclaims itself to be "the leader in social media solutions." Demand Media provides social media platforms to corporations and has a strong SEO business, creating niche website content tailored to search engines.
In short, Demand Media knows how to get page views.
On the third and final day of the ninth annual Gnomedex conference in Seattle, Washington, the tired but ever-ready members of the ReadWriteWeb gang convened to dish some dirt about the apps, hardware, speakers, and fellow attendees they'd seen over the weekend.
From a 3D printer churning out plastic copies of Darth Vader's head to the show's most geektastic game (hint: not Rock Band this time), Gnomedex left very little to be desired from our intrepid staff. Gather around and hear the tale of another great conference from Marshall Kirkpatrick, Steven Walling, Frederic Lardinois, and Jolie O'Dell.
What is Magma? Well, it's best known as molten underground rock waiting to explode out of a volcano and flow viscously through your run-of-the-mill Polynesian village. But as of today, Magma is also a video site created by Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron. Baron launched the site in the hopes that it fills a need for audience-focused content. Just as TV Guide and the Billboard charts offer entry points into their industries, Magma offers an entry point into web video. The company hopes to become the new search interface for video exploration.
The Omidyar Network, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's philanthropic and investment organization, announced today that it will give the Wikimedia Foundation, parent organization of Wikipedia, a $2 million grant over the next two years.
At current spending levels, Omidyar will be contributing just over 10% of WIkipedia's full expenses. The Foundation has been concerned about the global economic climate's impact on donations and is about to enter into a major new period of its history in which the free-form editing of Wikipedia will be slowed by a new approval process that has long been expected.
Do you remember YouTube sensations like Otters Holding Hands, David After Dentist or Dramatic Hamster? Of course you do. You probably Dugg, Tweeted and ClikBalled them until the mash-ups came out. From there, you probably repeated the process until a full-fledged meme was afoot. In the same way that it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a mob to raise a meme. In the past, YouTube's Partner Program has worked with prolific community stars to help them monetize. As of this morning, Google announced it is extending its program to incorporate its one-hit wonders.
Since the launch of Bing, watching the developments in the search engine market is finally interesting again. According to the latest data from Compete for July, Bing continues to grow slowly but surely. At the same time, though, Compete notes that Bing has not been able to convert its growing search share into a rise in paid clicks on ads on the site. In July, Bing's sponsored click rate fell slightly to 5.5%, even though in June, it still saw an impressive growth in paid clicks.
Google today announced that Google Maps can now display live traffic data for more roads. Until now, Google only showed data from major highways. That data came directly from local highway authorities, but now, Google will also tap into data it receives from GPS-enabled phones that use Google Maps with the My Location feature. As users move around a city, Google can see how well traffic is flowing along any road and will update its live traffic data accordingly.
Sony today announced that it will sell a wireless eReader device for $399 by Christmas. The Reader Daily Edition will be powered by AT&T's 3G network. That in itself is interesting news, especially given that Barnes & Noble announced a similar device in partnership with Irex yesterday. What's gotten somewhat lost in all the excitement about the hardware, however, is that Sony has also partnered with a number of independent booksellers in the US. These include over 200 members of the American Booksellers Association, as well as BooksOnBoard, Net Galley, and Portland, OR-based Powell's Books, the world's largest independent bookseller. In addition, Sony also plans to make it easier for users to check out eBooks from their local libraries.
The Republic Project, which offers one of the most interesting ways for artists to monetize their efforts that we have seen recently, is coming out of closed beta this week. The Republic Project gives bands and fans a new way to connect. Fans can pre-order a band's forthcoming album on the site and then watch as the band produces the new album. Once an album is finished, the Republic Project will deliver DRM-free MP3s to its users, and musicians will be free to sell their music on any other service.
