Amazing view
Perusing the digs
Innovation's kitchen
Verizon's CEO
After Verizon CTO David Small addressed the modest gathering, Big Red's CEO, Dan Mead, officially opened the Application Innovation Center for business. Mead emphasized the relationship between the San Francisco Application center and its sister site, the LTE Innovation Center for devices, based in Waltham, Mass.
LTE is going to make things we didn't think possible within our reach," Mead said.
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Instant 3D gaming
I slide on a pair of 3D glasses for this demo of a development platform, created by BSquare, that can turn 2D games into 3D games on the fly. Here, I'm using a prototype handset with a 1Ghz Qualcomm dual-core processor to see "Desert Winds" on a flat-panel display. The platform uses 3D APIs and the OpenGLS gaming standard to nudge conventional games into 3D territory.
Since this was a demo, there was no actual game play, but I did tap the screen to toggle between 2D and 3D. I'll admit, the graphics in some action sequences did look pretty cool.
App Wall
The new era of the jukebox
More than music
Cashing in
Augmented gaming
Launch a game on a smartphone to play merrily away but come across a pre-defined "target" of any kind--a landmark, some Skittles, or even a ticket to a ball game--to bring the game into a new dimension.
This basketball demo game uses Qualcomm's augmented reality toolkit to create a game that comes to life when the camera "sees" (or senses that it's near) the paper ticket. You can peer through the static gaming elements to see the real-world table top and another sheet of paper on the smartphone screen.
Verizon-proof room
It's not all fun and games at Verizon's new developer hangout. After today's event, showrooms will become office spaces, and this austere little closet will become a hive of activity for developers testing various slices of Verizon's LTE network in a controlled environment.
Developers will be able to work with Verizon engineers to test their apps and services on multiple instances of Verizon's real-time network, by accessing the LTE core Verizon has located in its Waltham, Mass., innovation center. The heavy door on the left effectively blocks out local interference from Verizon's network.