June second and third the first major US AR event is on in Santa Clara: ARE. Almost all AR companies will be there. Layar co-founders Claire Boonstra and Maarten Lens-FitzGerald will be attending and speaking.

Mail or twitter Claire and Maarten if you want to meet up: maarten at layar.com, claire at layar.com, @dutchcowboy, @claireboo. Recognize them by their Layar bags.

Three chances to see Layar being presented on stage

• Watch Claire speak on Wednesday morning, the second of June, in the Augmented Reality Browser track


• Maarten will be speaking at 12 in the AR business models & opportunities track


• At 7:30 PM Claire will pitch at the Auggies, an Idols style competition and show

Wanna go? Get a $195 registration price ($200 off the $395 normal price) by using Discount Code: E195 during registration. This fee includes both conference days, lunch, reception and more.

You could already find the best sales with the Sales Locator or Local Sale Finder layers, buy things through the eLay Mobile Marketplace layer, or see what people around you bought with the JustBought.it layer. Now you can even walk into the Augmented Reality Hostage shop, and buy street wear from the French brand Hostage Wear. Layar developers take shopping to the next level.

The Hostage layer is a 3D shop linked to Hostage Wear’s existing e-shop and is a crossover between a real store and a webshop. We talked to the creator Herve Pellarin from hpsc.fr to explain us about this new shopping experience.

What’s the difference between a webshop and this new virtual shop in Layar? Herve: “The main difference, is the fact that you have to go to a specific location where the virtual shop is located, to see and buy the products (at least in the distance radius of the layer). These shops can exist anywhere, but at the same time are set to specific locations. This new online shopping approach offers many possibilities for creating special events or private sales around the Augmented Reality shop. For example: ‘Meet Hostage Wear Saturday May 29th from 8AM to 8PM on Broadway for a private sale.’ Users and customers will share an AR experience, but also a common happening at the same location.” What inspired you to create a virtual shop in a layer? Herve: “The whole idea is based on a simple question: Why should famous brands be the only one who can open shops in famous avenues of the world? Why could an unknow brand not have its own shop on these same famous avenues? In a layer, any shop can exist at any point, so smaller shops can open their virtual shops in the biggest avenues.”

So far, the Hostage shop has opened its virtual doors at the following places all over the world:

L.A (Venice Beach) Moscow (Red Square) Paris (Les Halles) Paris (Trocadero) London (Piccadilly Circus) Barcelona (Fuente Mágica) Tokyo (Harajuku) Santa-Clara (Convention Center) N.Y (Madison Square Park) Chicago (Millenium Park) Beijing (Forbidden City)

Amsterdam (Rietland Park) Sydney (Opera House) Cape Town (Mouille Point) Geneva (Jardin Anglais) Dubai (Jumeirah Beach) Seattle (Amazon HQ Park) Argonay (Soccer field) Madrid (Puerta del Sol) Rome (san marco place) Berlin( Wichertstraße) Marseille (Avenue du Prado)

Herve: “The shop will be extended in the future, so stay tuned ;)”

Other things you’d like to share:

Herve: “Thanks Layar, for providing such an incredible tool, imagination will soon be the only limit…”

We opened up a Slideshare account where you can find Layar’s presentations at conferences and other slides. There’s a group connected to our account, in which you can share your Layar cases. As you might notice the channel is yet quite empty, so we welcome you to join the group and start sharing your layer cases. Our newest useful presentation is the information for brands and publishers. If you’re a developer, you can use this info deck to talk to interested parties.

Also, we’re filling our Youtube channel to collect all videos about Layar that wander around on the internet (Remember Layar man? ;-)). Have you got a cool video about Layar or your layer? Let us know and we’ll add it to one of our playlists.

Also: everyone can now subscribe to the newsletter on our website, which will keep you up to date on upcoming releases, events and more. Sign up here and stay updated with the latest Layar news.

Check out our other social media:

Ever mixed AR coding and soccer? On Saturday June 19th you’ll get your chance. The day after the Layar NEXT event on June 18th, we will host a Layar Developer Day.

In the morning, we will discuss and explain new Layar features in detail. Developers will be given the opportunity to share lessons learned, tips and tricks and give feedback and ideas to the Layar team and other participants.

In the afternoon, the Dutch National football team will play a World Cup match against Japan. We will arrange a big screen so that you can either watch the match or do more socializing, coding, exchanging ideas etc.

You must be a Layar Developer (in possession of a developer key) to attend this event. Of course, new and inexperienced developers are more than welcome to join. Register via Meet-up.

Today iPhone users can buy paid layers with the latest release of the Layar Reality Browser. Download now, its available from the Apple App store. The iPhone release follows the release for Android of less then 4 weeks ago.

The Augmented Reality content store with its paid layers offers publishers a way to monetize their content and offers users more variety and quality in layers available.

The first payment provider is Paypal. The store is setup to support payments to residents of United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. More countries, currencies, payment methods and providers will be added regularly.

Publishers ready to start exploring the medium and monetizing their content can go to http://site.layar.com/create.

Examples of the fast growing paid layers collection
Spotcrime (USA), Sold House Price Data 2010, Walt Disney World, Album Cover Atlas, Dinosaurs, Disneyland, Explore South Africa, Greeting Cards, EyeTour Puerto Rico, Rhône-Alpes Tourisme Guides, TripSay and several Berlitz UK Travel Guides.