ReadWriteWeb

You're walking down the street. Your phone buzzes, a map or a screen overlay pops up and you're shown a note left in that location by one of your friends - along with an ad for your favorite pizza. Walk into the pizza place and your phone buzzes again - your friends have something to say about the guy behind the counter. That might have sounded far-fetched a few years ago, but it doesn't so much anymore, does it?

18 months ago Yahoo! filed a sophisticated patent on VIRTUAL NOTES IN A REALITY OVERLAY and that patent was published last week. Check out the patent sketches below.

The big news of the week was the keenly awaited announcement of Apple's new tablet, called the iPad. Read on for our extensive coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web, Internet of Things and Augmented Reality.

New! We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week (in this case, iPad). Let us know your thoughts on the new format.

Been living under a rock these days? There's this hip new tablet device from Apple called the iPad. Most are in agreement that the new toy is pretty slick, but they also agree on where the iPad fails - there's no camera. iPod Touch fans were disappointed last year when Apple announced that the iPod Nano would be getting the much coveted camera, and now fans of a different sort are feeling the same dejected feelings.

Augmented reality is a technology that allows 2D and 3D objects to be placed onto a live video feed, creating unique user experiences. AR applications entered the mainstream with a few advertisements and installations for automobiles in 2008. Since then the technology has found its way onto our home computers with things like the GE Smart Grid campaign, and onto our cell phones with mobile AR browsers like Layar and Wikitude.

Augmented Reality, technology that places data or images on top of our view of the world around us, is hot. Under development in research labs for decades and in use in industry for years, Augmented Reality (AR) began to hit the mainstream consumer market in 2009. Hundreds of AR applications were launched last year, around products like Topps baseball cards and GE's Smart Grid.

Consumer AR, whether it be on your mobile phone or delivered through your computer's webcam, tends to be a mixture of utility and advertising. How far will those types of content go and what balance do we want between them? London Architecture Graduate Student Keiichi Matsuda has produced a gripping video placing these questions inside a scenario of pure eye candy. Check it out.

Out of the labs and into the marketplace, Augmented Reality (AR) became a hot topic in 2009. Technology that places data and images on top of our view of the world around us is increasingly common in media and marketing, but the bulk of the promise appears to be in the future.

A group of AR industry leaders have announced the first-ever Augmented Reality industry event on June 2nd and 3rd in Santa Clara, California and ReadWriteWeb intends on being a big part of it. Event organizer Ori Inbar is a supporter of the ISMAR (International Symposium on Mixed & Augmented Reality) conferences but says those are more focused on research and this event will focus on industry and practice.

Once again, the weekend is upon us - time to unplug, unwind and relax!

But lest your brains turn to jelly during your time offline and away from work, load up your iPod with our weekly selection of podcasts sure to entertain and inform. The topic of this week's parade is augmented reality (AR), the technology used to add a layer of data and visualizations over the real world in which we live. Download these discussions of a hot new area of tech, and give them a listen at your leisure!

There's still 142 days, 18 hours and a few minutes until the 2010 World Cup launches in South Africa but the first use of cutting-edge promotional technology is already making an appearance. Sports have been where a lot of technology in the new Augmented Reality category first went mainstream - from Sportvision's down-line TV overlays to IBM's Wimbeldon Seer.

Augmented Reality (AR) is technology that places data on top of our view of the world around us. The first World Cup 2010 AR made an appearance at a small event in London last week.

Call us cheesy, but the video below is just adorable.

Hallmark, manufacturers of fine greeting cards and pointlessly sentimental holdiays, have launched augmented reality (AR) greeting cards. Like some of the prototypes we've played around with, the whole affair involves a little real-world hardware (in this case a webcam and a Hallmark card) and a little AR magic. The cards come to life with animation and sound, and the recipient is presumably swept off his or her geeky little feet.

According to a new patent that was just granted to Google, the company could soon extend the reach of its advertising program in Google Maps to Street View. This patent, which was originally filed on July 7, 2008, describes a new system for promoting ads in online mapping applications. In this patent, Google describes how it plans to identify buildings, posters, signs and billboards in these images and give advertisers the ability to replace these images with more up-to-date ads. In addition, Google also seems to plan an advertising auction for unclaimed properties.

Today marks the official start to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas where all of the biggest electronics manufacturers show off their coolest and newest products. While CES is mainly a gadget show, entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing should pay close attention to the innovative ideas being pushed into the consumer market.

The big show is just getting underway, but we are already seeing some trends emerge that could point to new opportunities for startups in 2010.