Category: Apps

The automaker’s supercar is not only advanced on the road, but also in its mobile compatibility.

The Volkswagen XL1 is already being seen as one of the most advanced vehicles in the world, as well as being among the most fuel efficient, but now the auto manufacturer is taking the additional step of adding augmented reality to its repair manual in order to ensure that this automobile keeps itself on the cutting edge right down to the finest detail.

This additional mobile feature is available to iPad users for extensive ownership and maintenance information.

Through a partnership with Mataio, Volkswagen created an augmented reality iPad app that gives the device user the ability to view step by step instructions for the repair, replacement, dismantling, and reassembling of each of the 261-mpg supercar components. Although this is not the first time that an auto maker has added AR to its manual, this is by far the most extensive use of the technology as it has been applied for every intricate component and not just general information about basic maintenance.

The automotive environment lends itself very well to the use of augmented reality technology.

Metaio was selected for the augmented reality repair manual as the company is currently a leader in AR apps, from printer repairs to catalogs. Auto repair fit right into the type or project that they create.

Audi, corporate cousins of VW, have already released an augmented reality app that allows owners of the A3 to better get to know their vehicles and their features. This technology can also be very helpful in guiding mechanics around the complex component systems located under the hood of the vehicles, and that is just the additional step that Volkswagen has taken.

Before beginning any work on the Volskswagen XL1, mechanics now receive a set of instructions regarding the use of the augmented reality app so that it can be initialized for the specific task that must be accomplished. The mechanic is provided with a virtual silhouette of the vehicle which, when viewed through the iPad screen as a kind of viewfinder, overlays the image on the actual vehicle.

Once the augmented reality image is aligned, the mechanic is provided with a number of steps, including the tools that are required, tolerances, double checking real and virtual parts (in 3D relation to one another).

There is a rapidly growing interest in that country for paying through the use of a smartphone.

In response to the growing interest in mobile payments and money services among the Nigerian people, Fortumo has now launched its latest product, which allows for these transactions within that West African nation.

The connectivity rates and the smartphone based money services in the country are now widely available.

In fact, there are now an estimated 114 million smartphone and other device users who have access to mobile payments across Nigeria. At the moment, the penetration of smartphones among all cell phone users still remains quite low, but Fortumo has taken that into consideration in the design of the services that it has launched in order to cater to nearly anyone who has a mobile device.

A special mobile payments platform that will even work for feature phones has been designed.

Even though most people in Nigeria do not have a smartphone, Fortumo has built a “special flow” for its cross-platform “mobile payments for feature phones.” This helps the company to be able to provide these services to the majority of the population that use devices without all of the latest bells and whistles.

At the moment, in the country, the smartphone based internet is still in the lead. In fact, 75 percent of all subscriptions to internet services are managed by way of smartphone based platforms. This represents approximately 35 million users. Only one quarter of all of the cell phones in Nigeria are currently smartphones.

Nigeria has made itself an important mobile payments services marketplace in Africa, as it has made specific efforts to use this technology to enhance the ease and convenience with which people can exchange funds or pay for the products and services they want to buy. It is the hope that the use of cell phones as opposed to credit cards or debits for bank accounts – or even cash, for that matter – will help to give the local economy a much needed shot in the arm, and to empower users with additional options for shopping in person or online.