Layar releases version 5.0

Layar 5.0 has sure come a long way. I remember trying Layar 1.0 back when there were maybe 10 layers for it, and it seemed like a good idea even back then. 4 versions later and they are now at 2,000 of them! The update brings animated Layar icons and a 3D interaction element to the application, making it more immersive and fun.

Augmented Reality: Layar Bring Layers of Experiences

For those of you who haven’t tried out this application yet, it uses your phone’s back camera, GPS, internet connection, and “layers” made by third-parties to put a little augmented reality into what you see on the screen. A good example of this is the many different real estate layers, that show you how much a house is going for and who to contact if you wanted to buy. Another example would be tourist spots, giving you details about the specific place or thing you would be standing rather close to. It’s a real fun way to make use of most of your phones tech into one application!

The 5.0 update has the application running faster as well. I tried running it on my original Motorola DROID and Motorola XOOM (why does Moto always yell their product names at us?). It works great on the Droid, but the XOOM works only in portrait mode, and its not built for Android OS 3.0 (Honeycomb). With the amount of additions to this application like deeper social integration and in-app screenshots, I’m sure they have been working on this update before the full SDK came out for Honeycomb.

While it might seems a little out of place to move your 10-inch tablet around outside, it would be fun to try. Picture-taking with the larger tablets is a little awkward also, but I’ve used it on occasion. You can download it from the Android market here.

Any fellow Layar fans on our site? Let us know what you think of the all-new version in the comments!