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Yelp iPhone Application Adds Augmented Reality Easter Egg

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Apr 12, 2001
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Mashable reports on a discovery that the latest update to the iPhone application from popular business establishment review site Yelp [App Store, Free] contains an augmented reality easter egg called "Monocle" that allows users to view business ratings overlayed on a video stream from their iPhone's camera. The feature is only compatible with the iPhone 3GS, which contains the necessary digital compass for properly assessing the device's orientation.
Download the new Yelp app (came out yesterday). So you shake your iPhone 3 times. That activates a feature called Monocle. A message should come up if you activated it. A blue box will come up saying "the Monocle has been activated." It will create a button in the top right corner. Now you should be able to look at the bars, restaurants, etc. Only works on iPhone 3GS.
Click to expand...
Augmented reality applications have been under development for some time, but Apple is waiting for the release of iPhone OS 3.1 to officially enable the feature, which explains why the augmented reality feature in the Yelp application was included as a hidden easter egg to avoid detection by Apple's reviewers.

Mashable has also provided screenshots and put together a brief video demonstration of how the feature works.


163834-monocle.jpg
163835-monocle2.jpg





Article Link: Yelp iPhone Application Adds Augmented Reality Easter Egg
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/27/yelp-iphone-application-adds-augmented-reality-easter-egg/
Wow, very impressive. How long before Apple pulls the app for a second review?
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A400 Safari/528.16)

This is neat. Wish I had a 3GS totry this out. I think that these augmented reality things are going to catch on.
 
"which explains why the augmented reality feature in the Yelp application was included as a hidden easter egg to avoid detection by Apple's reviewers"

Hilarious! I wonder how long before this gets pulled down.

On a side note "For iPhone 3Gs only" Boo!!:mad:
 
^^^^^ You need the compass- there's no other way of implementing it. That's like being mad that you can't use 3G on a 1st generation iPhone.



Wow, it is pretty amazing. :eek:

Works very well for me, very cool!

I was already an avid Yelp user, but now I'll get even more use out of that app!
 
3goldens said:
Quite frankly I do not see the point.
Click to expand...

If you were vistiting a new town and needed to go to a good bar with ratings for you to see in real time. I bet if you would THINK about it you would see a million of uses for it.
 
I just redownloaded Yelp and tried it. The compass directions are off even after calibration. Seems kind of useless unless you have no idea where you are and need to find food/bar.
 
creon said:
If you were vistiting a new town and needed to go to a good bar with ratings for you to see in real time. I bet if you would THINK about it you would see a million of uses for it.
Click to expand...

You could just click nearby and see what is around and look at a map- the augmented reality directing you there will be a nightmare because it is not taking you there by streets but by compass directions. I'm not hating on it but I agree with Surely above me, it is nice to see new technology that can be more useful one day (maybe tomorrow!)
 
So will this now embolden app developers to start trying to sneak all sorts of Easter eggs past the Apple reviewers? They're going to have to shake every app 20 times just to be sure!
 
Gotta download!

Gotta download it now before they pull it off. Yelp is giving other developers idea on how to easterized egg their apps so Apple won't detect them. Like shake to unlock your iphone included in you game apps or shake to bypass wifi only apps to access the internet like Skype and so on and so forth.
 
TheSlush said:
So will this now embolden app developers to start trying to sneak all sorts of Easter eggs past the Apple reviewers? They're going to have to shake every app 20 times just to be sure!
Click to expand...

Up up down down left right left right B A
 
I can see why this is a hidden feature — it just doesn't work very well. Tilting the phone backwards or forwards (ie, to look slightly up or slightly down) makes it freak out. One for people who are very good at holding their phone level only.
 
Sue Apple!

TheSlush said:
So will this now embolden app developers to start trying to sneak all sorts of Easter eggs past the Apple reviewers? They're going to have to shake every app 20 times just to be sure!
Click to expand...

Then these reviewers will sue Apple for work related injuries for too much shaking. Sweet!
 
Jigsawjammer said:
You could just click nearby and see what is around and look at a map
Click to expand...

Ok, you keep doing that on your phone while my dad only uses google on his desktop computer while my grandpa only uses a yellow pages phone book.

Each generation will stick with what's "good enough for me, darn it" while the new folks come up with something new.

Me? I'm not ready to jump off the progress-train and become stuck in the past quite yet.
 
Thomas Harte said:
I can see why this is a hidden feature — it just doesn't work very well. Tilting the phone backwards or forwards (ie, to look slightly up or slightly down) makes it freak out. One for people who are very good at holding their phone level only.
Click to expand...

It just crashed the app as well for me- I guess that's why it is hidden.
 
Those of us with Android phones have been enjoying this exact functionality for quite some time now. Welcome to the club, I guess.
 
Small White Car said:
Ok, you keep doing that on your phone while my dad only uses google on his desktop computer while my grandpa only uses a yellow pages phone book.

Each generation will stick with what's "good enough for me, darn it" while the new folks come up with something new.

Me? I'm not ready to jump off the progress-train and become stuck in the past quite yet.
Click to expand...

Actually- I prefer to use a real compass and paper map to get around places and I use carrier pigeons to send mail:rolleyes:

I said earlier I'm not hating on it!
by the way- nice avatar. I wish I had one even though they are slow.
 
Awesome

I'm going to shake every app I have and see if anything happens but I doubt it.:eek::D
 
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