With Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us and December in full swing, it’s officially holiday shopping season. With that in mind, Orange España - one of the largest telecom providers in Spain - has decided to use Layar to help its customers find their way to retail locations. This marks the first time a telecom provider in Spain has used Augmented Reality in its marketing and promotions.

The layer is called “Tiendas Orange” (or “Orange Shops”) and is available to view in Spain. When using the layer, iPhone and Android users will be able to find Orange retail locations using Layar’s Augmented Reality view as they hold their phones up and look around.

Using Layar to locate various POIs in the real world is one of the tried and true use cases for Augmented Reality, but Orange - the 7th largest telecom provider in the world - has taken things a step further. When users locate the nearest store, they will also be able to view promotional materials, coupons and enter contests to win prizes like digital cameras, GPS receivers, camcorders, DVD players and more.

“With this launch, Orange, as a company committed to innovation applied to customer satisfaction, offers a new way of relating directly and intuitively through its commitment to augmented reality technology,” says Alicia Calvo, Director of Innovation at Orange España.

If you’re in Spain, be sure to use Layar look up the “Tiendas Orange” layer to find locations and view deals and promotions from Orange España.

Layer: Tiendas Orange
Location: Spain
Required: iPhone or Android device
More info: Orange.es
Developer: Orange

We are very proud to announce that earlier this week the 300th layer has been launched: Places.

The layer enables you to discover tourist locations around you. You can add your own places, send your pictures and post your comments. You can also vote for your favorite POIs.

The layer is available in Australia, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

The layer was made by Pablo Garcia-Morato, Jefe de proyectos, from Elipse AD in Spain. We asked him a few questions:

You have made the 300th layer, congratulations!! What is your first reaction on that?

Well it was really a surprise because although I follow all Layer posts and new coming layers, I did not realise about the counter. And it’s good to see how Layar is growing so fast with all those incredible developers working hard every day!

What do you think is the coolest part of your layer?

I tried to join many of the Layar new features with the traditional geo-location, so apart from just knowing which places he can visit in the area, the user can also interact adding his comments and recommendations, voting for places or creating custom POIs of cool places to visit.

What are your plans for the future layer plans?

In particular with this layer, we hope to improve 3D sceneries, I mean, by now only the POI is a 3D object, but we would like to show how lived people in some places and maybe why not, imagine which could be the future of a certain location.

In general in this Layar world, I think 3D+AR opens for us, developers, a huge world of opportunities trying to let users experience things that until now have been considered science fiction.

Pablo, thanks for your answers and we wish you and Elipse good luck with your plans! Of course we want to thank all of you who developed and launched their layers before as well for publishing such cool content, making the Layar Reality Browser what it is now. Keep up the good work!

eLay Mobile Marketplace

Description: From gadgets to cars, sell and buy any kind of goods on eLay. You can place ads with your phone and manage them on www.elaymm.com. You automatically receive a password by email when you place an ad.
Geographical spread: international
Developer: Tom Schuyten
Developer Company: T-Network.BE

Hot Pepper (グルメ) (Restaurants)

Description: Hot Pepperの検索
Geographical spread: Japan
Developer: Scott Halcomb
Developer Company: SystemK

Asturias 365 dias

Description: Vive y disfruta de Asturias todos los dias del año, sin perderte nada.
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer Name: Serafin Manuel Alvarez Zapata
Developer Company: Zenit Solutions

Where Am I?

Description: Locate your friends and enter your favorite places! - enter your position via the layer filter settings or http://www.whereami.es
Geographical spread: International
Developer Name: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

JustBought.it

Description: View what and where people are buying in your area using http://justbought.it
Geographical spread: International
Developer Name: James Cole
Developer Company: Pallian

Action plan Canada

Description: This Layer shows all project that receive funding from the Canadian government as part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan. The
information used for this application comes from www.actionplan.gc.ca
Geographical spread: Canada
Developer Name: Andree Toonk
Developer Company: NetKnowledge.ca - info@NetKnowledge.ca

Pubs Galore

Description: pubsgalore.co.uk - community run website, join in with reviews and corrections
Geographical spread: Great Brittain
Developer: Conrad Heard
Developer company: Novamarque Ltd

Product Finder

Description: Find the products you want to buy from nearby shops in the UK.
Geographical spread: Great Brittain
Developer Name: Paula Abrahamson
Developer Company: Thundre

Apartments For Rent

Description: Find the best Apartment. Official prices, pictures and floorplans. Get accurate, up-to-date and detailed information on apartments. Check Today’s Availability.
Geographical spread: US
Developer Name: Micah Nolte
Developer Company: Apartment Home Living

Alhambra

Description: Touristical information about the Alhambra. Select your language with radiobuttons: Spanish and English (Italian, French and German will follow)
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Hospital finder

Developer: Pablo Garcia
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer Name: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Elipse Pharma

Description: Encuentre las farmacias más cercanas a su posición actual.
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer Name: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Resolving Door

Description: Crowd Powered News happening around you.
Geographical spread: Boulder, US
Developer Name: Dan Schaefer
Developer Company: Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, School of Journalism and Mass Comm

Foursquare
Description: Foursquare on your phone gives you & your friends new ways of exploring your city. Earn points & unlock badges for discovering new things
Geographical spread: International
Developer: Johannes La Poutre
Developer Company: Squio

Flu Shot Finder
Description: Flu clinic locator, provides information on where to find both seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccinations
Geographical spread: US
Developer: Yiannis Doxaras
Developer company: Niobium Labs Ldt.

Spotted by Locals
Description: 22 cityblogs with tips by handpicked locals in 22 European cities - http://www.spottedbylocals.com/layar-augmented-reality
Geographical spread: Europe, currently 22 cities
Developer Name: Daniel Schoone & Martijn Heesters
Developer Company: d-Media

TripSay
Description: What kind of traveler are you? Rate places to get tips from likeminded travelers
Geographical spread: International
Developer: Juha Huttunen
Developer company: www.Tripsay.com

Ruta de las Tapas
Description: Sigue la ruta de las tapas de las principales ciudades españolas
Geographical spread: Granada and Madrid, Spain
Developer Name: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Allmenus
Description: Allmenus has over 255,000 menus across the country and online ordering in over 400 cities nationwide
Geographical spread: US
Developer Name: lev steshenko
Developer Company: allmenus

Schladming-Dachstein
Description: POIs around Schladming-Dachstein in Austria
Geographical spread: Schladming-Dachstein, Austria
Developer Name: Peter Hoeflehner
Developer Company: digitALPS

trataoproprio.com
Description: Site gratuíto para anúncios de imóveis. Procure e anuncie sem pagar nada
Geographical spread: Portugal
Developer Name: Rui Coelho
Developer Company: trataoproprio.com

UEM
Description: Bienvenido a la universidad interactiva en tu móvil.
Geographical spread: UEM campus, Spain
Developer Name: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Lizt Layar
Description: A Layer which contains all the entries from the business directory www.lizt.com.au
Geographical spread: Sydney, Australia
Developer Name: Max Valente
Developer Company: Loyalty Systems

Urzędy w Polsce
Description: Adresy Urzędów w Polsce -Here you will find the addresses of institutions such as municipal offices, municipal offices, service, zus, etc
Geographical spread: Poland
Developer Name: Grzegorz Motowilczuk
Developer Company: PROINFO Marketing & Consulting

FICOD 09
Description: Layer for the FICOD conference (international forum on digital content) on November 17-18-19
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer: Inigo Jimenez