First there was the original iPhone Augmented Reality app, Yelp Monocle:

And the Layer app, which is a kind of meta-browser where people can make their own layer and… um… layer it into the layer app, as well as share them. The social side is kinda cool – it allows a lot of people to get into AR, without having to know a lot of math (or any math!)

And the latest one I’ve come across is Cycle Hire from Presselite, which is a offshoot of their various travel apps. (you can read more about Presselite here. Nice to see they stole the name off the original Cycle Hire app. And no, I’m not linking to them).

The Presselite app was the one that made me really question AR, because it really doesn’t work very well at all – it’s just a bad experience, tho that may be their implementation. As an AR experience, it’s pretty shoddy, and as a cycle hire app, it’s next to useless*.

But it made me think: Whats the point of Augmented Reality?

I can see that it’s an impressive technical demo, especially on a phone. After viewing the iTunesU Stamford talk by Yelp, there is some serious math going on behind the scenes. I can see that a developer might throw it in as an “added easter egg”, which is what Yelp Monocle was originally. But as a “new form of navigation” or even a moderately useful method of finding things? Um, no. It might be useful if I had an eyePhone, I guess….

Also, if I’m standing on a street corner, holding my phone up at eye level, I expect two things: To look like a total twat, and to have someone passing by mug me for my £500 phone. Thanks. But no.

The only one I saw that looked useful is the GeoVector one**. But that was always, right back in 2004 or earlier, a location-centric information app. They even developed their own hardware (PCMCIA card with GPS and digital compass – sound familiar?). They actually deserve the patents they have in this area. (You are not going to hear me saying that often)

So for me, I’m saying a definite HELL NO to AR stuff. Stick it with Virtual Reality. I’ll stick with Real Reality. It’s a useful tech demo, but for actual use, it’s too unreliable, and just a gimmick.

* Yes, I have a horse in that race (London Bike App). If Cycle Hire was any good, I’d have no problem in saying so. But it’s not….

** Slight disclaimer: I helped with a very early version of the GeoVector stuff, on a PocketPC device (remember them?), using .NET Compact Framework v1.0 beta, in around 2004 or so! I also know the person whose company did the iPhone one.

I have enough money to say “fuck you” to anyone I would normally have to work for, as I can live off the interest.

Adam worked it out to be about 4.5 million NZD, or about £1.9 million. Quite a bit of money, tho not a massive amount, really. This would net an income of around 200K/year, which in New Zealand is a very nice amount to live on.

I/we have a few questions:

First, how many people do you know who have hit this before normal retirement age? What percentage of the population would hit it before retirement age? And what about after/on retirement?

I’d say very few. Maybe <1% of the NZ population (or the UK one for that matter) before retirement, and 1% or so after. Thats not a lot.

But how much do you have to have to live if you take away your biggest expense: your house? If you are not paying a mortgage or rent (or credit cards for that matter), your required income is a lot, LOT lower. That 200K a year could easily become 100K without effecting lifestyle if you dont have to pay rent or the bank. To get that you could do it with 3 million NZD, easily, maybe less. And living somewhere cheap – small house in NZ, outside a main city (or even close to one?) – or in Andrew’s case Sri Lanka – could make a lot of difference to the amount needed to get rid of that huge payment every month.

So, how to get to the FU money amount?

• Build and sell a business?
• Shares?
• Property?
• iPhone app? (hrmm, yeah, right…)

Anyone notice that “working for someone else” isn’t in that list?

Maybe something to think about for all the people with large mortgages on large houses they maybe don’t need….

So, one line review: Go get it if you’ve not seen him live or on video. If you get the idea of Cognitive Surplus, then maybe not….

But on a more relevant note: I’m going to stop reading this kind of book. I put this in the same category as the following, which I have read recently:

• Rework
• How to make money trading (which was actually VERY good)
• What would Google Do
• Wisdom of Crowds
• Wikinomics
• Anything at all by Malcolm Gladwell
• Generally, NOT Seth Godin’s books

To various degrees, these have the same problem: They could have been a 100 page book, if it wasn’t for the publishers wanting more “paper on the shelf”.

The 37 Signals guys went as far as to say this (here I think?) (paraphrased):

We had about 50000 words, and we went back for a final edit, and it was 25000 – well under what the publisher wanted. So we added the pictures, so it looked thick enough on the shelves to look like a business book

(if I ever find the actual quote, I’ll link to it, but that was the guts of it. Numbers may be a little off)

The two good ones in the list (Seth Godin’s stuff, and How to make money trading) were good exactly because they are short and to the point. That is what’s made me stop reading this kind of book (ok, with the exception of “being geek“, which showed up today):

All of those books could have been substantially shorter, without losing any important content. That way it would take me less time to read them, less paper to print them (think of the treeeeeeees!), less shelf space, and I’d be happier about the whole process.

Maybe I need to buy the condensed versions or something. But I’m sick of getting a 250 page book, to find it grinding at about page 100-150, and the last 100-150 pages being a total waste of my time – just rehashing the first part, with new examples. Gladwell is especially bad at that. At least the 37signals chaps were honest about it!

Seth Godin is a good anti-example of this: his books are usually short (100-150 pages), small (physically smaller than normal), and don’t have this problem. Might have to grab one for the flight back to NZ.

[yes, I am aware that this post repeats in rather a similar way to the books I'm talking about.....]