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Have you been waiting for more practical implementations of augmented reality (AR) technology outside of gaming and marketing initiatives? So have we. That's what makes the technology Zugara is launching now so interesting. It has teamed up with U.K.-based online clothing retailer Banana Flame to offer a virtual dressing room of sorts which lets online shoppers "try on" the clothes featured on the retailer's website.

Using the computer's webcam and Zugara's AR e-commerce software dubbed "Webcam Social Shopper," shoppers can immediately see what clothes look like on them and can ask friends for an opinion via Facebook and Twitter.

Layar, maker of the Layar augmented reality platform for mobile, has today announced Layar Vision, a platform extension that enables phones to "see" and recognize real-world objects, including posters, magazines and newspapers. With Layar Vision, the goal is to provide brands and print media publishers' with new ways to engage their audience using augmented reality experiences.

Qualcomm has released its Augmented Reality (AR) SDK for iOS, which now joins the Android version launched back in April. Like the Android SDK, the new iOS toolkit will enable mobile developers to create high-performance, interactive, 3D experiences, which are triggered by pointing the device's camera at real-world objects.

Are you ready for some augmented reality (AR) apps that aren't gimmicky and pointless? So is Qualcomm. The chipset maker released its AR software development kit (SDK) for Android last fall and is preparing to launch an iOS version next month,  in addition to supporting Unity's game engine for cross-platform development.

But Jay Wright, Senior Director of Business Development for Qualcomm, says criticism that AR has, so far, produced no "real world apps" are valid. He also told us he's working with two big-name retailers to put out some of the first truly useful apps leveraging the technology - instruction manuals served up as AR-enabled mobile applications. These apps will show you, as opposed to telling you, how to perform complicated tasks.

"Mobile is the largest technology platform in history," began Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, leading the opening keynote at his company's Uplinq conference this morning in San Diego. "And it has become a force for social change."

Jacobs focused his talk on the continuing evolution of mobile, the opportunities for developers and how advances in mobile computing are empowering developers to change the lives of people everywhere. He talked about augmented reality, 3D technologies, peer-to-peer gaming, sensors the "Internet of Things" and other chipset-based innovations both arriving now and expected in the future.

Miami University's Augmented Reality Research Group developed an Android app that helps librarians find mis-shelved books and determine where they should go. It's a simple idea, and one that could save librarians hours of drudgery (or cost many temps their jobs, but that's another story). Sounds a lot more useful than virtual mirrors for trying on sunglasses, doesn't it? As I've written before, I've long been of the mind that AR will be more useful in the workplace than as a consumer technology. And based on this poll, most of you can imagine uses for AR in your workplace. So when will we start seeing more business-focused AR?

On May 17th and 18th, technology thinkers such as Jaron Lanier, Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge and Will Wright and many more and will gather at are2011 in Santa Clara, CA to discuss AR's present and future. Workplace AR will be among the topics discussed.

I won't be able to attend the event, but Sterling and Vinge were kind enough to share some thoughts on the future of AR in the workplace with us in advance of the event.

It's been a big week for mobile app developers, thanks, for the most part, to the AppNation conference held in San Francisco. From Qualcomm's AR platform to Opera's new developer program, many of these mobile announcements made headlines across the Web. Others, however, flew a little under the radar.  Below we've rounded up some of our favorite stories from the past week, including those from the event and elsewhere.

There is no denying that Steve Jobs has mastered the art of the keynote, but some might say his style is getting a little old and predictable. Many of Jobs' presentations are certain to kickoff with some statistical data overview, then launch into descriptions of new products loaded with verbiage like "magical," and of course, "boom." And who could forget the ever-popular "one more thing."

Perhaps Jobs needs to add some flare to his next presentation - mix things up a bit. If that's the case, then he need look no farther than SingTel's Bill Chang who used augmented reality to wow the audience at i.luminate, the company's business innovations conference.

Today at the RIM (Research in Motion) developer conference, the BlackBerry makers introduced a new member to it's family - the BlackBerry PlayBook. The PlayBook is a 7-inch "professional" touch screen tablet device which features a 1024x600 display, multi-touch gestures and a 1 GHz dual-core processor. One of the more interesting features, for fans of augmented reality (AR) at least, is the device's pair of front- and rear-facing cameras, both of which can shoot HD video.

Earlier this summer, we posed the question of whether or not native mobile applications would eventually be made obsolete by the mobile Web. Many agreed that the power of the mobile Web and cloud over native apps may be an inevitability, but according to a survey released today, four out of five app developers say their customers prefer a native experience. With this demand from customers, which features are they looking for most in a mobile experience? Here are some results from the survey that may surprise you.