Maybe AR is new to you, but AR isn't new to me (I worked with video overlay AR in college in 2002), and I fail to see why anyone should care about these mobile phone AR systems. Cell phones have poor video quality and frame rate leading to a mediocre video overlay system at best. Combine that with the screen space wasted on a street level perspective, and a shaky hand, and you have an application that sucks all around. Regardless, I have to watch people pat these developers on the back as if it were difficult to combine a GPS signal with accelerometer and compass readings and project some boxes into a 3D scene.
Please take this with a grain of salt: nobody cares. Users want an easy to read, easy to navigate map, with good review data. The built in Maps application nails the first two (it even uses the compass), and does an okay job on the last one. You should be concentrating on what isn't already done well.
I agree, but didn't want to be a complete downer since these guys no doubt worked hard on the app and are emotionally invested. (I'm also a hyper-critical person, so I try to censor myself. My wife would have divorced me already otherwise.)
Maybe this first iteration is really just a starting point for them, and they will rethink their approach? Releasing something is more than most people do. I think some of the praise they're receiving is because people respect their effort and their GENERAL conceptual direction.
I certainly don't want to judge based on a first cut, but I don't see any of the fundamental problems solved. AR has been around a long time, and has never been as everyday popular as first impressions have suggested. Show me usability improvements, a compelling subject matter, or at least a superior implementation given the hardware limitations. I see none of that here, just another echo of flashy AR demos (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=670645). To me, this is the result of web programmers hearing about augmented reality for the first time, or realizing that the iPhone is the first everyday computing device capable of AR, and hacking something together over the course of a couple months.
I have mixed feelings about 'augmented reality' (especially with regards to those bluetooth jerks), but this seems like it would be extremely useful with HUDs.
But seriously, this is awesome. Great work!