Hasta La Gadget!

Remember Vuforia? Qualcomm’s augmented reality platform allows you to scan real world objects and create “interactive experiences” on your smartphone or tablet. The technology had its limitation though, only scanning photos against a local database of 80 images. Now Qualcomm has announced that by adding the cloud into the mix, so the platform can perform image recognition against over one million images.

That will make it much easier for developers and partners to use the platform, with American Apparal fully onboard with the program. The company demoed Vuforia at Uplinq 2012. The company has customized an app that would see customers scanning items on their smartphones to bring up the full details on the product, such as pricing and reviews. It would also lets customers buy products that they can’t find in the store.

American Apparel gave a little demo for us at the event, and everything seemed to work as advertised. The company says that what we saw was still a prototype, but that a full version “should be available soon.”

Qualcomm extends Vuforia augmented reality to the cloud is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The fine fellows at Strategy Analytics have been crunching some numbers behind the scenes and discovered that Apple’s iPhone has generated around $150 billion in revenue since it first launched back in 2007. On top of that, the firm believes that around 250 million iPhones have been shipped in total across the world. It marks just how popular the iPhone really is, not to mention how lucrative the mobile market has become.

It’s not all good news though. Neil Mawston, an executive director at Strategy Analytics, says that Apple may face some trouble going forward: “Some mobile operators are becoming concerned about the high level of subsidies they spend on the iPhone, while Samsung is expanding its popular Galaxy portfolio and providing Apple with more credible competition.”

That’s a safe assumption to make. It was recently reported that Apple and Samsung account for 55% of the smartphone market, with the two companies gobbling up 90% of the profits. Samsung even overtook Apple in phone shipments, shifting 43 million in the first quarter compared to Apple’s 35 million. Previous reports have also indicated that the lion’s share of Apple’s profit comes from the premium that carriers pay to offer the iPhone, hoping that the handset will give them an advantage and retain customers.

Strategy Analytics: iPhone has generated $150bn in revenue is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

One of the features that Apple demoed at WWDC 2012 was PassBook for iOS 6. The app would store gift vouchers from various retail stores and other services that could be redeemed by scanning the code on the phone. 9to5Mac has discovered that NFC controllers are currently being used in iPhone prototypes. The latest piece of information was spotted after they took a closer look at hardware code dumps.

Putting two and two together, it’s not hard to imagine that Apple may make a big play for the mobile payments market. Combining NFC hardware with PassBook’s ability to store vouchers (and potentially credit card information) would allow Apple to offer wireless payments straight from future iPhones. That would put it against offerings such as Google Wallet, and Microsoft’s own wallet feature in Windows Phone 8.

Patents have detailed Apple’s intent to offer an “iWallet” in the past, although that would see the company making customers manage financial information through iTunes. 9to5Mac was also previously tipped by a developer, saying that Apple was working on NFC behind the scenes in addition to hiring the necessary talent to make everything work.

Latest iPhone prototypes reportedly feature NFC is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.