The company behind the much-hyped Layar Augmented Reality browser has decided to withdraw its iPhone app from the iTunes App Store due to repeated crashes reported by users. Layar has been the most eagerly anticipated entrant yet into the field of AR, a class of technologies that place data from the web on top of a camera view of the physical world. AR has been big this year, from Layar’s hyped launch to Yelp’s sneaking the first AR app into the iTunes store to Lonely Planet and even McDonalds announcing their own AR apps this week. The field has been plagued with technical difficulties and disappointments so far, though. Layar wrote today on its blog that it doesn’t know exactly where the problem with its app is but that it’s a memory management issue that’s been present since the app was built. Resolution will take weeks, not days, the company says. Sponsor Layar remains available and robust in its Android version. Its primary competitor is probably Wikitude . Of course there are countless AR apps that are available on the iPhone, Android, webcam and other platforms – but Layar has been the most publicly visible AR app yet. It symbolizes the popular vision for AR, which in reality often feels more clunky than demo videos suggest. People who believe the leading examples of AR apps are heavy on hype and light on engineering have another data point now. The current crop of Augmented Reality apps, high-profile map overlays for smartphones like the iPhone, are criticized as lightweight and overhyped by many AR pros that have been working on more heavy-duty applications intended for more technical use. Many of those critics haven’t shipped products, though, and Layar has done more than any but a few other companies to extend public awareness of the Augmented Reality concept. Blake Callens, an AR software engineer at the company that created the Webcam Social Shopper , has been very critical of the crop of consumer smartphone AR apps popping up. He’s called them “innacurate mobile browsers and web based eye candy”. Callens comments aren’t directly aimed at Layar, but Layar does symbolize the most visible part of the AR market for many people. “Seriously, hand me a 3D model and I can literally throw it in AR in 5 minutes. It’s hardly a ‘stunning’ example at all,” Callens writes “And yet, at least once a week, I see someone else pimping their new, ‘totally awesome’ AR app that’s nothing more than a 3D model dancing around.” We like Layar, but as the most high-profile AR app on the market, it doesn’t reflect well on the state of the industry for the company to have to pull its app from iTunes. Discuss

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Layar Pulled From App Store, Bad News for Augmented Reality

Apple has just booted a major iPhone developer out of the iTunes App Store along with their catalog of 1,000+ apps, a number so high it represented almost 1% of all the apps in the store. The developer, Molinker Inc., has been accused of attempting to game the ratings system where application users are allowed to review the various programs using a 5-star system. As discovered by an unnamed internet user and a reader of the iPhoneography blog , the ratings scam involved a set of iPhone application reviewers who only rated Molinker apps, giving them each a five-star review. Most of the apps in question ended up with 50 or so of these five-star reviews, representing what was clearly an attempt to boost sales by pumping up ratings through artificial means. Sponsor According to the user who unearthed the scam , the highly ranked reviews were poorly written and the reviewers in question had only rated applications from Molinker. Despite this fact, one of the applications (“ColorMagic”), had made it to the front page of the App Store where it was featured under the App Store “Staff Favorites” section. (On a side note, this makes us wonder whether those “Staff Favorites” are genuine picks from Apple employees or if there’s some sort of automated algorithm that simply highlights high-rated applications.) In a detailed letter to Phil Schiller , Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, the accuser noted that the developer was likely using their promo codes (every developer receives 50 per app) on 50 of their own accounts to create the reviews. Shortly after receiving the letter, Schiller confirmed that this was indeed a scam and the developer apps “have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either.” Cheating Won’t Get You Ahead, But What Will? While obviously we don’t support unscrupulous developers who attempt to game the system in order to get ahead, we do understand the temptation. At present, the Apple iTunes Store houses over 100,000 applications and development shows no sign of slowing down. Developers who have invested their time, energy and money into building an iPhone application business are becoming desperate for ways to make sure their apps get noticed. The problem has become so bad that an entire ecosystem of “app discovery” services and websites has risen up to fill the void. Although Apple recently launched an ” Apps for Everything ” section on their website to allow for category-based discovery and extended their “genius” recommendation technology to include the App Store back in September, none of these solutions have really addressed the discoverability problem. For some developers, it has become a case of “desperate times call for desperate measures,” apparently. We wouldn’t doubt for a second that this ratings scam is the only one of its kind. It probably won’t be the last one either – developers will just be more careful to not be as obvious as Molinker was. Unfortunately, the real losers here aren’t the cheating developers, but iPhone owners. Without a trustworthy ratings system in place, it’s harder than ever to pick out the best app from a handful of similar applications. Can you count on the stars as an indicator? Are the reviews out-of-date? Are the complaints referring to problems fixed ages ago through updates? Is the download count a true indicator of popularity? As more and more applications filled the virtual shelves, users will need a better ranking system than what’s currently in place. We hope the geniuses at Apple are working on something like this right now. Discuss

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Apple Kicks Cheating Developer Out of the App Store

If the rumors are true, then something is afoot in the Apple music camp. According to a recent article in Bloomberg , Apple is in talks to acquire online music service Lala . If a sale is finalized between the two companies, a number of new music monetization models can emerge and with Apple holding the supply chain from devices to players to downloads, a streaming music component may prove devastating to others. Sponsor Tiered Pricing : With a Lala purchase, Apple could easily employ a tiered pricing model for a streaming service. Users would continue to purchase streams on a per-song basis while also having the option to download songs through the iTunes store. Full Subscription : In contrast to this model, Apple could also follow MOG’s lead and launch a full subscription service with links to purchase Apple downloads. Full Subscription with Download Limit : And finally, different still, there’s the opportunity to employ Microsoft’s Zune Pass model. The company could offer a $15 dollar per month subscription streaming music service with the option for users to download their ten favorite songs per month to keep. If Apple decided on this route, downloads would still prove lucrative as users in excess of their download limits would be driven to iTunes for additional sales. Discuss

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If Apple Acquires Lala: 3 Models for Service Integration

There’s a new iPhone application from Favstar.fm which launched late last night in the iTunes App Store. Like the Favstar website, the new Favit app (iTunes link) aggregates the “best” Twitter posts based on the number of stars they receive from other Twitter users. Although in theory starred tweets should point to interesting and useful content that people want to save for later viewing, the Favstar service tends to favor humorous tweets instead. The new iPhone app does the same which makes it the perfect addition to your collection of time-wasting apps for curing boredom. Sponsor Nearly all iPhone users have at least one if not more applications whose sole purpose is to help kill time. Whether you’re sitting in a a waiting room or standing in a long line, these apps are lifesavers for those of us who are so digitally connected that a few minutes of boredom feels like a death sentence. For many people, these apps include casual games. But outside of that genre, there are plenty of other apps for quick-fire entertainment meant to be consumed in small doses. For example, FML (iTunes link) is a personal favorite. This app lets you read through people’s posts of their unfortunate, embarrassing, and downright hilarious personal stories. Trivia-based Cool Facts (iTunes link) is another. (And yes, both were discovered thanks to a high-school aged family member. Don’t judge!) The new Favit application fits right into this category of casual, entertainment apps. Using Favit With a very simple interface, Favit displays one Twitter post at a time on the screen. After reading the tweet, you can flip to see the next one using a finger swipe. If you see a tweet you want to star yourself, just tap the giant star button beneath the tweet. You can also swipe down on the tweet for more interactions. Doing so reveals the author and then lets you re-tweet their post or email it to someone. In addition, clicking on the “+” (plus) sign lets you add the author to a special Favstar.fm list which is synchronized with your saved lists on Twitter. This allows you to build your own personalized list of favorite twitterers, accessible from Twitter.com or any other Twitter client supporting lists. What’s Missing Although the iTunes app description notes that Favit has a celeb and tech filter built in, we couldn’t find these settings in the application itself. However, you can follow these pre-filtered lists via the Favstar website’s Leaderboard section. We hope this feature is coming to the application in an update because it would be great to be able to switch from the funny and entertaining tweets over to the tweets from tech and social media set and then over to celebs, depending on whatever interests you at the time. Another missing feature from the application is one of our favorite features from the Favstar website – the ability to see who has been favoriting your tweets. The Favit app could offer a quick and easy way to track those people and then add them to a list or follow them, but sadly it does not. Still, that’s hardly a deal-breaker since Favstar offers RSS feeds for this purpose via their website . Besides, it’s clear the app is meant to be more of a fun toy for casual users rather than a handy utility meant for data-obsessed folks like us. If you want to check out the new Favit application (iTunes link), you’ll have to fork out a little cash. Favit, unlike similar time-wasters including the above-mentioned FML and Cool Facts, doesn’t come in free and pro versions. Instead, it’s one price only: $2.99. That may seem like a lot for an app just meant to amuse you, but the next time you’re terribly bored, you’ll be glad you downloaded it. Discuss

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Star That Tweet! Favit Launches in iTunes App Store

As part of our annual tradition, this week Read Write Web will present you with our “best of” posts for 2009, a series of articles that will examine the top web products in categories that range from consumer web apps to RSS and syndication platforms. Today, we’re kicking off the series with a look at the top mobile web products of the past year. This is a subjective list of editorially selected products, but one which includes some of the biggest names in mobile web applications for 2009. Sponsor Facebook 3.0 (iPhone) Although Facebook is an application available on many different mobile platforms, none can hold a candle to the iPhone version, updated this summer to version 3.0. The latest mobile version of this must-have social networking application was so good, some even proclaimed that it was more useful and more usable than the Facebook website itself. Designed by engineer Joe Hewitt ( who later controversially declared he quit developing it and all other iPhone applications ), Facebook 3.0 for the iPhone didn’t just deliver a new way to socialize while on the go, but essentially became a portable “little black book” keeping you connected to your friends, events, and communication streams. For those who don’t spend their days behind a computer screen, the new app also made Facebook a more useful service, allowing you to quickly browse and upload photos or videos (the latter if you have the iPhone 3GS). Finally, the simplified layout, which displays just 9 buttons in a grid-like pattern is a testament to good user design, boiling down the complexity of Facebook to one easy-to-use interface that even the newest of mobile users can understand. If any application deserves an “app of the year” award, it’s Facebook 3.0 for iPhone. Tweetie 2 (iPhone) Another popular application for the iPhone was this year’s revision to the Tweetie application. This “update” was actually a complete reworking of the app which introduced so many new features that the developer, Loren Brichter, decided to release it as an entirely separate application which costs the same as the original. This decision, in turn, led to a vicious backlash of complaints as Tweetie users whined that they now had to “pay twice” for the application. The claims for the most part were just ridiculous – the $2.99 price point was hardly a burden and no one was “paying twice” – you were buying a brand-new application. However, the debate highlighted some of the issues Apple has with upgrade pricing – that is, “no paid updates” are permitted. That left Brichter with no other choice to recoup on his investment of time and energy that went into the building of Tweetie 2.0 but by charging again for the new version. In the end, after the outcry died down, most everyone just forked over the piddling amount to get the new app which introduced features like video tweets, offline mode, geolocation, and more . And nearly all are happier for doing so, too. Twidroid (Android) It’s hard to not favor the iPhone in this list given the 100,000 apps now available for the platform, but Android apps deserve a mention too. Among the apps installed first by new owners of Android smartphones is Twidroid , the popular Android Twitter client. This mobile application has improved over time and now offers a clean and easy-to-use interface where the most frequently used features (@Mentions, Direct Messages, etc.) are accessible via buttons available at the bottom of the app, no matter which screen you’re viewing. An updated version just launched today , now takes this application to a whole new level with its brand-new plugin architecture. Thanks to this feature, third-party developers can now extend Twidroid with their own services. This changes the application from being just another Twitter client representing one company’s point of view as to what features it should offer to being an app that’s completely customizable and tailored precisely to an end user’s needs. In fact, it was this last minute year-end update forced us to add Twidroid to the list – apps that support plugins may very well be the next big thing for mobile. Foursquare (Cross-platform) Last year , we thought the mobile social network to beat was Brightkite . While we still like that service, there’s no doubt that Foursquare is this year’s location-based breakout hit. At the beginning of 2009, the service was limited to only a handful of cities, but lately, that list has been expanding quickly to include a number of new cities worldwide. Essentially, this geolocation-based service turns mobile social networking into a game. You “check in” as you arrive at new places in return for points, prizes, badges, and the honor of becoming the “mayor” of a place if you’re the one with the most check-ins there. Additionally, Foursquare users can leave tips for others arriving to that locale so when they check in, they can see recommendations – like the best entree at the restaurant or where the nearest Starbucks is to that hotel, for example. Some may claim that Foursquare’s influence is still limited to the early adopter tech set for now and hasn’t really become a mainstream hit just yet. Maybe that’s true to a point, but considering the service just got a shout-out on The Simpsons not too long ago, we think Foursquare’s days of being an “undiscovered gem” are limited. Google Voice (Blackberry, Android) Perhaps most notable for prompting an FCC investigation into Apple’s secretive app approval process , Google Voice is one of the year’s best mobile applications even if it’s not available on the iPhone. According to Google , Apple rejected the app from the iTunes Store because it duplicated the iPhone’s core functionality. Meanwhile, Apple claimed they were “still reviewing” the application because it alters the iPhone’s functionality and user interface. The general consensus is that Apple isn’t exactly being forthcoming here. A slew of other applications already available in the App Store “duplicate” the iPhone’s functionality in some way, making Apple’s rejection more suspicious. As of now, Google Voice is still not available in the App Store. However, Blackberry and Android users are able to take advantage of this innovative mobile app which lets you set where your phone numbers should ring to while also aggregating your voicemail from all your different lines. Those messages are then transcribed and emailed and/or SMS’d to you. Via the mobile application, your outgoing calls appear to be coming from your Google Voice number and not the number assigned to your handheld. This mobile app is so popular that it alone has caused some high-profile users to make the switch from the iPhone to Android. Spotify (Cross-Platform) Sadly not available in the U.S. as of yet, Spotify deserves a mention for its notable achievements overseas. A complement to the desktop-based music streaming service, Spotify’s mobile application lets users access their accounts, make playlists, and listen to music when offline. Given how heavily this service competes with iTunes, many feared that Apple would reject Spotify as they did with Google Voice (see above). However, the FCC investigation must have made Apple nervous because Spotify for iPhone was readily approved for inclusion in the App Store. Expected to launch stateside sometime in 2010, Spotify represents the next revolution in mobile music. Instead of purchasing and owning individual tracks, this subscription-based service lets you stream music to your mobile device. And unlike similar mobile music apps, Spotify lets you pick exact songs from a catalog of millions which instantly sync to your mobile device. It even works without an internet connection. Spotify goes where iTunes has not and makes music more of a web-based experience than something requiring disk space on physical hard drives. In other words, Spotify represents the future of mobile music and a threat which Apple will soon need to address. Google Maps Navigation (Android) Can we say GPS killer? That was the feeling when Google announced their new product, Google Maps Navigation which mimics the functionality of GPS devices like those from Garmin and TomTom. On launch day, stocks at those companies tumbled to unprecedented lows despite the fact that the mobile application was only available for Android 2.0 devices at that tim. It just goes to show that when Google enters a particular market, companies take notice. Not only does this mobile app deliver all the best features of Google Maps including satellite and street views, it also includes mobile-appropriate features like traffic views, voice search, and turn-by-turn navigation, the latter recently launching on Android 1.6 devices (and up), too. BNO (iPhone) Who says you have to abandon the real-time web just because you’re going mobile? BNO , short for “breaking news online” is an iPhone application that complements the 24/7 news service available via Twitter, iPhone, email, and as a news wire. With BNO News (iTunes link) for the iPhone, the app taps into the iPhone’s push notification functionality to deliver real-time news alerts that pop up on your device without using up your text messages. This app may be for serious news junkies only, but these days, isn’t that everyone? BNO also uses a unique pricing structure which we’re surprised we don’t see more of: in addition to the purchase price of $1.99, the app also requires a monthly subscription fee of $0.99. Layar (iPhone, Android) Mobile application Layar may have gotten more media exposure than its functionality deserves, but this app represents the next big step for mobile: augmented reality. By displaying data layers on top of your phone’s camera viewer, Layar literally “augments” reality with additional information about what you’re viewing. Information like restaurant reviews or real estate listings, for example. Earlier this year, we called Layar the most exciting of the AR apps because of its nature as a platform. That means third-party developers can build their own “layers” for the app using the company’s provided API. While the application doesn’t always deliver the experiences it promises, that hasn’t stopped co-founder Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald from proclaiming that AR apps will be second only to voice on mobile phones in the coming years. He may be right…eventually, but that time hasn’t come just yet. For now, Layar just gives us a glimpse of what’s possible and for that, we’re grateful, excited, and highly anticipating what AR may bring in 2010. Your Favorite Mobile Game (Cross-Platform) Although not an app itself, we have to add “mobile games” as a general category to this “best of” list. To not do so would be to ignore one of the biggest mobile trends of the past year: mobile devices becoming “real” gaming platforms. While most mobile gaming development advances have taken place on the iPhone, these days more people than ever are using their mobile phones for games instead of portable gaming handhelds like the PSP. These games include everything from quick time-wasters to internet-connected multi-player challenges to in-depth “story” games that previously only existed on PCs and game consoles. While your favorite mobile game will no doubt differ from your friend’s, there’s no doubt that practically every single mobile device owner has at least one game installed if not more. What About Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.? You’ll notice this list is a bit biased towards certain mobile platforms over others. That’s not because there aren’t other worthwhile apps out there, but when you’re comparing apples to apples (for example, Facebook for Blackberry vs. Facebook for iPhone), there’s a clear winner in terms of user interface, design, and feature set. In fact, two Blackberry users here at RWW noted this same problem when we rounded up our personal favorite apps last week . Jolie exclaimed Blackberry users have “few options and fewer favorites,” while Alex wrote “the experience is just awful.” That being said, we can at least rejoice in the fact that today, every mobile platform at least has an App Store filled with apps to choose from – even if they’re not all that great. Your Favorite Apps As mentioned above, this list is subjective and editorially selected to highlight the most notable applications of the year. However, we recently collated your responses to our question about favorite mobile apps , too. If your favorite didn’t make the list above, it may have made the one below. According to your comments, the top 20 favorite apps of RWW readers are as follows: Facebook Tweetie Google Maps Foursquare Evernote Shazam Google Mobile Echofon Gmail Mobile Pandora TweetDeck Twitterrific Dropbox Kindle Spotify Yelp Beejive IM Flickr Opera Mini Qik Do you agree or disagree with our list? Let us know why or why not in the comments. Discuss

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Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2009

The holidays are now upon us and after today’s turkey is digested, it will be time to strap on your most comfortable shoes and prepare for an early day of marathon shopping. “Black Friday,” the unofficial retail holiday that lands the day after Thanksgiving, kicks off the season with deals and doorbusters…not to mention crowds and chaos. However, those of you with an Apple iPhone can get a leg up on the other shoppers who have to fumble through old-fashioned newspaper printouts that list each store’s bargains. You can have you all the deals at your fingertips thanks to new iPhone applications that list everything on sale. And that’s not all, either. Read on for our guide to preparing your iPhone for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season beyond. Sponsor 1. Apps That List Black Friday Deals First and foremost, you need to download the apps that list this year’s Black Friday Deals. Our favorite is the Black Friday app (iTunes link) put out by Dealnews . This app not only features the “official” deals already revealed through company press releases, but also includes “leaked” deals that have found their way to the net without the company’s consent. Although today’s paper is likely to now reveal those leaked deals to the world, we already trusted their accuracy thanks to a Best Buy employee who fact-checked a few of them against what he knew would be on sale. Spot on, he told us. The Black Friday app is simple to use as there are only three buttons to deal with: a deals buttons that lets you scroll through a long list of tomorrow’s bargains, a Black Friday button that list deals by store, and a shopping list button which stores the save while browsing through the other two sections. A search box at the top of the stores listing also lets you find a store by name instead of having to scroll for even faster lookups. Another bonus about this app is that its life extends beyond Black Friday. After tomorrow, the app will be updated to show you Cyber Monday and After-Christmas sales, as well as year-round deals. Other contenders: Powered by TGI Black Friday and DealCatcher.com, another great app (iTunes link) lists deals and stores, too. Plus, this app lets you search by category and browse through the latest ads. 2. Price Comparison Having already established itself on other mobile platforms, ShopSavvy (iTunes link) finally made its way to the iPhone just in time for Black Friday. This barcode scanning application lets you know if you’re really getting a deal by comparing the store’s price with more than 20,000 other retailers who provide their pricing data to ShopSavvy. The app isn’t limited to online deals, either. It also compares prices with local stores so you can find out if it’s just a matter of heading down the street to save a few more bucks. ShopSavvy works on all iPhones (2G, 3G, and 3GS). Just aim the red laser over any barcode and the pricing info will automatically appear on the screen. Other contenders : Red Laser (iTunes link) is another popular barcode scanning application for the iPhone, but unlike ShopSavvy which is free, this app costs $1.99. The Amazon Mobile app (iTunes link) is nice to have as well thanks to its experimental feature called “Amazon Remembers.” Using your phone’s camera, you can snap a picture of an item to store it in a virtual shopping list. The app will then seek out that item on Amazon’s website and post the pricing information and other details to the app for you to view. 3. Store-Specific Apps A few big name brick-and-mortar retailers also have their own iPhone applications listed in the iTunes App Store. With these store-specific apps, you can search for deals, reserve products, check local availability, makes lists, and more. Some of the best apps in this genre include the following: B&N Bookstore : Browse products or search through millions of books, DVDs, and CDs. You can also use your phone’s camera to snap a photo of the cover of the item in question to get product details, reviews, ratings, and local availability. Best Buy: The electronics retailer offers two iPhone applications – Best Buy Weekly Deals and the Best Buy Gamers Club . The Weekly Deals app lets you scour through the weekly ads (great for after Black Friday is over, too) to get product details, read reviews, see the ratings, and even purchase using a special mobilized version of the Best Buy website. The Gamer’s Club app is similar, but focuses just on video games, consoles, and accessories. Wal-Mart : Wal-Mart does have an app, but it’s nothing to get too excited about since it just focuses on electronics. And when you need to get more details, it redirects you to the company’s mobile website. However, it’s worth installing if only to remind you to compare that big screen TV you’re eyeing with the often cheaper prices found at Wal-Mart. Target : Target’s app is a bit better since it lets you search for all products at your local store. You can check availability and it even shows you where inside the store the item is located. Great for scoping out your Black Friday route in advance! Plus, if you don’t know what to get someone, a handy gift finder feature will make recommendations based on age, gender, price, or other attributes. Toy “R” Us : The Toys “R” Us app lets you virtually shop through the company’s “big book” for toys by popularity or category. You can see product details, read reviews, and add toys to a list of favorites which can later be emailed to you. A “Find a Store” button also helps you find the closest store to your current location. 4. Don’t Get Lost – Download Mall Maps to Your iPhone MEDL Mobile’s Mall Maps app (iTunes link) is an essential download for Black Friday shoppers. Featuring the maps and store lists for over 1,000 shopping centers across the U.S., this app saves you time as you no longer have to fight the crowd gathered around the mall’s directory board. Instead, you can view detailed floor plans and store lists with corresponding numbers all within the palm of your hand. This app isn’t free (it’s $2.99), but committed shoppers will agree the price is worth it. 5. Didn’t Find It? eBay It Instead If your shopping expeditions left you empty-handed, there’s still eBay. But now you don’t need to be at a computer to find items, bid, watch, or makes purchases. The latest update to the eBay Mobile app (iTunes link) also takes advantage of the iPhone’s pop-up notifications to remind you when an auction is about to end or if you’ve been outbid. A new eBay app called eBay Deals specifically focuses on finding you deals based on personalized searches that you can create, edit, and save. This is handy if you’re looking for a hard-to-find item that isn’t always available on the site or if you like regularly browsing a particular category or genre. Like the main application, eBay Deals is also free. Discuss

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How to Prepare Your iPhone for Black Friday

The latest edition of mobile navigation app Waze has just launched in the iTunes App Store and on the Android Market Place with the Symbian and Windows Mobile versions available on the Waze website. In this updated version, the company has added even more features to their already popular “munching” game which sends a Pac-Man like character loose on the roads to help build the company’s mapping database and validate the roads already in place. Unlike other mobile navigation apps, Waze “crowdsources” its map-making process, reliant on its users to switch the app on when driving around town. Then, using the phone’s built-in GPS capabilities, Waze uses the information sent back to create base maps and determine traffic patterns in order to warn other users of traffic jams ahead. Sponsor Although Waze is an application dependent on critical mass to become successful, they’ve already had good results since their original launch in Israel. In less than a year’s time, Waze was able to map 91% of the country thanks to user involvement. The company believes they will have similar results here in the U.S. with highly populated urban areas being mapped first with the rest of the country following over the coming months. Making Maps is Just a Game To encourage users to contribute to the map-building process, the company came up with an idea to make it more of a game. Originally, the Waze character would appear and munch dots on the screen when you ventured onto a road that didn’t previously exist in the company’s database. Now, with Waze 2.0, the gaming elements have been enhanced even further. Users will now munch on other goodies like cherries, hammers, and small gift packages which generate bonus points. The extra goodies will be placed on locations where the map has issues with the higher-point items on maps with the most issues. To kick off this new release, the company is also hosting a contest dubbed the “Holiday High Points Challenge” which runs from November 25th through December 9th. During this time, which includes the busy traveling period of the Thanksgiving holidays, Waze hopes to tap into the high number of drivers who will be trekking around town and across the country to visit relatives. The top three users who earn the most points during this period will win Amazon gift cards in the amounts of $500, $300 and $200, for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places respectively. Crowdsourcing: Better Maps, Faster The Waze application was one of the more innovative companies to appear at the most recent DEMO conference where they launched their turn-by-turn directions feature . Because they’re not using map data from Tele Atlas or Navteq – the two big names that license map data to other companies for use in applications – Waze saves money while also being able to sell their own data to other companies at reduced rates. The company also claims that their crowdsourced method has dramatically shortened the months-long update cycle for maps. While Waze may not be ready to replace your in-dash GPS just yet, it gets closer every day as more roads are mapped and more users join the service. Early adopters who want to contribute to the project can download the mobile application from the company’s homepage here . Discuss

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Navigation App Waze Makes Crowdsourced Map-Building a Game