After some incredible hard work from our Android Dev Ronald (@jsourcenl) and some testing, from our “Guy with a Droid” Dylan (@mykoan), we are so proud to say that we are finally available on Android Market for all Droid users.

So for the Techies: What did go wrong? Well, on the Droid we had encountered some difficulties in the OpenGL overlay over the camera image. After certain actions, the camera image would be placed on top of the AR world. We did not have this problem with the other Android handsets. That is the reallllly short version ;-)

Minor bug fix: This update also fixes an issue with the sleep/wake functionality that caused Layar to sometimes steal focus when turning on your phone. Sorry about that one..

Verizon Wireless, Motorola and Google thank you for your patience and support.

Now it is time to celebrate the weekend!

We’ve just deployed a new version of the publication site giving developers some cool functionality to stage their layer development:

• Duplicate layers: You can now just copy a layer’s content to a new layer. This results in a new layer (you can choose the name) in the testing stage.


• Replace live layers: Layers that have been approved for publication can replace existing live layers. Say you want to upgrade your v2 layer with some cool new 3D functionality. You can duplicate your live layer to have a good starting point, then start making the changes to your layer and test them. Once you’re ready you request publication and we approve it. Now instead of publishing your layer (ending up with two different layers published) you can replace your current live layer. We recommend you use this method, as the layer name is the identifier on the clients and just removing the old one (freeze) and publishing the new one won’t update layers marked as ‘Favorite’ by end-users.


• Delete frozen layers: You can now delete a layer that has been frozen. Clean up the clutter on your dashboard!

Because the ‘Replace’ process is a bit complex, here’s a detailed description of what happens. When you replace a live layer (‘B’) with the contents of layer ‘A’ ready for publication, the end state will be:

• The contents of your layer are copied into the live layer without changing the name or the change history. You end up with layer ‘B’ that has the contents of layer ‘A’.


• The old live layer gets backed up into a new layer with status ‘frozen’, named ‘B_1’ (or _n if previous ones are taken). You can re-copy into the live layer should something have gone horribly wrong. Or just delete it.


• The original layer ‘A’ is kept but goes back to ‘testing’ stage, so you can use it for your next big upgrade

We hope you’ll find it easier now to upgrade your layers with cool new features.