iPhone's first augmented reality app appears on App Store

Over at Mobile-Ent a new iPhone app has been brought to light from French developer PressLite, which has added augmented reality functions to its Paris Metro Subway application.

iPhone 3GS users can now view all manner of information overlayed on a real life image from the handset's camera, which makes use of the digital compass to determine the direction the handset is pointing.

Augmented reality boasts massive appeal to mobile developers, but the belief was that Apple intended to block such applications (more to do with accessing the camera than anything else) until it had prepared a new version of the 3GS firmware.

So it seems this first augmented reality application either got through the approvals process by mistake, or Apple has relaxed its attitude toward the function. If this is the case, we can hopefully expect all manner of new applications and games blending the real world with cyberspace to start flooding onto the App Store.

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