Wikitude announces TripAdvisor AR app for BlackBerry

Wikitude has announced the TripAdvisor Augmented Reality (AR) app for BlackBerry smartphones, which allows BlackBerry customers around the globe to instantly access an immersive view of hotels, restaurants, and attractions listed on TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor Augmented Reality works with a smartphone's camera to help travellers find the best places within their immediate area to eat, sleep, and play. Featuring over 75 million traveller reviews and opinions for destinations around the world, it's easy to find great advice wherever a user happens to be.  “TripAdvisor Augmented Reality gives travelers a new and interactive way of looking at the world around them,” says Rory Kenny, Director of Mobile Partnerships for TripAdvisor. “The future potential of augmented reality is without limit, and we’re happy to help drive it forward by partnering with Wikitude.” With the same easy access as any favorite app, users can simply tap the TripAdvisor/Wikitude icon on their Home screen to instantly view their surroundings through an Augmented Reality lens. With the addition of this app, customers can use their BlackBerry smartphone to access TripAdvisor’s travel content. With the Wikitude-powered app on BlackBerry smartphones, once a venue is chosen, customers can quickly dive in to get more information about the location. In one simple action, they can find detailed traveller-submitted reviews, average prices, and more. As with all Wikitude worlds, a tap on the “Bring me there” option provides them with turn-by-turn directions to their desired destination. The app also integrates with BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), allowing the user to instantly interact with their BBM friends, a feature only possible on the BlackBerry platform. The TripAdvisor Augmented Reality app is making its way to BlackBerry “Partnering with TripAdvisor on this all new app concept has been phenomenal and it shows how Wikitude can be utilized as a go-to-market platform” says Andy Gstoll, Wikitude’ S CMO. “With this immersive AR experience, we are very excited to bring TripAdvisor’s valuable content to the BlackBerry user community”, he adds. The TripAdvisor Augmented Reality app is another example of Wikitude’s commitment to providing solutions to content owners, brands, agencies and individuals through AR technology. Wikitude’s most recent product launch is the Wikitude SDK, which allows third parties to develop their own AR apps. The company is also preparing an SDK for BlackBerry 10. The TripAdvisor Augmented Reality app is only available for BlackBerry smartphones. The app is a free download and requires BlackBerry 7 OS or higher. Research In Motion released an update to their developer alpha devices for BlackBerry 10 OS in July. One of the biggest features in the new build of BlackBerry 10 was the voice command feature with an operator whose voice sounds very similar to Apple’s Siri. The voice command feature is accessed by pressing the voice command button set between the two volume buttons in the developer alpha devices. It is still an early beta build so the voice command has limited functionality, but N4BB demonstrates that it has a universal search function, apart from calling and sending text messages. It may not yet be ready for prime time use, but it sounds very similar to Siri from Apple’s iPhone.

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