Rutgers University has made the iPad 2 an integral part of its Digital Mini-MBA program. The school's Center for Management Development (CMD) will be providing an iPad 2 as part of an upcoming four-day executive program it will be offering in September. The tablet will be preloaded with all instructional material as well as several augmented reality apps.
Layar has announced the release of Layar Vision, an extension of its open source augmented reality platform for mobile devices. Layar Vision allows the device to recognize real world objects and show digital content layered over them. The Layar platform includes audio, video and animated objects, as well as location-based layers. The company claims the Layar software is installed on over 10 million mobile devices worldwide, including Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft during its MIX11 event caught up in app development in significant fashion with a handful of major Windows Phone 7 apps that will take advantage of its fall 2011 update, Mango. Skype was unveiled first and will take advantage of Mango's deeper access to hardware like the microphone. The app on demo didn't make any mention of video chat, though Mango so far doesn't have front camera support.
The app store for virtually all smartphone platforms that is GetJar on Wednesday announced it has rejected the Opera Mini web browser from its offerings. Citing a competitive conflict, GetJar CMO Patrick Mork, explained that Opera Mini has an app store embedded in its browser. This was after the company posted a tweet that stated Opera Mini violated GetJar's terms and conditions.
Time today provided a minor surprise by giving the Motorola Droid a first-place finish in its Gadget of the Year countdown (video below). The Android phone won for including free turn-by-turn GPS through Google Maps Navigation as well as having both a large (3.7-inch) touchscreen and a hardware QWERTY keyboard. In comparison, the iPhone 3GS only reached fourth place, earning the spot for popularizing augmented reality through apps like Layar and Yelp.
