Brightkite is a free iPhone and iPod touch social networking app that allows you to meet people based on the places you go. You can browse profiles of people near you, see what your friends are up to, and post photos and notes to places you have been for others to see. The app is also available for the Android platform, and that version recently received the ability to see all of this in 3D via the Layar Augmented Reality Browser. This bit of news made me a tad jealous to say the least, but thankfully only for a moment because an iPhone 3GS version should be on its way "shortly."
Brightkite has partnered with the up and coming Layar to bring three dimensions to their social networking app. Brightkite with Layar allows you to view the world around you through your phone's camera to see real-time information, such as posts your friends have made, superimposed over the top of their real-world locations.
Brightkite with Layar is only available for the Android platform at this moment, but we spoke with Rob Lawson, the co-founder of Brightkite, and he said they have every intention of bringing this new and exciting feature to the iPhone.
"The iPhone is very important to many of our users, and you can expect to see us launch an Augmented Reality service on the iPhone shortly."
Apparently Brightkite will be providing this service for the iPhone with Layar as well. SPRXMobile CTO Dirk Groten, the company which created Layar, has revealed via the company's blog that they will be bringing their augmented reality browser to the iPhone 3GS soon enough.
“The next platform on which Layar will be available is the iPhone 3GS. We are currently investigating other platforms that support our functionalities.”
This is nothing but good news for us jealous iPhone 3GS owners!
So what do you think of these augmented reality apps? Are they the real deal?
Check out the video embedded below of Brightkite's augmented reality app in action. Note: Video is only available in Flash at this time.
