“Think of Augmented Reality as half virtual and half real. It takes existing physical spaces and supplements or “augments” them with information, objects, actions or interactions.”

Some applications include:

1. Location based Restaurant finder with reviews
2. Location based Travel points of interest
3. Virtual pet for the iPhone
4. Public transportation schedule and station finder
5. Virtual objects you can interact with in the real world

Look at the videos to see great examples:

More @ Demystifying Usability

Virgin Mobile in the US has launched an interesting website to promote their TXT service during the Valentine’s Day.  The purpose of the site is to help people learn the fine art of sexy texting while promoting their cell phones and text messaging plans.  A really good idea and implementation to engage users.  Try it.

Via ViralBlog

Random Culture has an interesting post about Quick Response Codes, which are being used extensively in Europe and Japan for mobile marketing campaigns.

 These codes, created in Japan in 1994 by Denso-Wave are being used in marketing for mobile users to take a picture of the code or read a the codes with the cameras to trigger action on their mobiles, it could be to download some piece of content, get a message or go to a website.

QR Codes might be placed in magazines, buses, signs, business cards to let users with the special software installed on the mobile to capture the image and executed the desired action.

For more information go to Random Cuture or the Wikipedia.