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How To: Every Hidden Special Character on Your iPhone's Keyboard That You Can Unlock Right Now
Almost 190 secret characters are hiding behind your iPhone's default keyboard, and I'm not talking about what you see after tapping the "123" or "#+=" keys. These special composite characters can include accents, dots, and other diacritics, and you'll even see some strange typographical characters like the section sign, inverted marks, and per mille symbol. Here's how you find them.
News: How to Get a Pair of Snap's New Spectacles AR Smartglasses
The tech world was taken by surprise this week with the unexpected unveiling of Snap's augmented reality Spectacles smartglasses.
News: Apple's Second iOS 14.6 Release Candidate Available for iPhone Devs & Public Beta Testers
Apple released the second Release Candidate for iPhone on Friday, May 21. The new update, build number 18F72, comes four days after the company seeded the first 14.6 RC to developers and public testers, and two days after the first beta for iOS 14.7.
How To: Download Spotify Songs & Podcasts on Your Apple Watch for Offline Playback
The Apple Watch is rapidly becoming a standalone device that you can use without an iPhone or internet connection, and Deezer and Spotify have just helped make that even more true by adding support for offline playback on the watch.
News: Snap Acquires Wave Guide Maker WaveOptics for $500 Million
The big day for Snap that resulted in the debut of brand new augmented reality Spectacles smartglasses is turning into a big week.
News: Snap Spectacles Finally Evolve into Full AR Smartglasses with Standalone Immersive Superpowers
The biggest win in the race for consumer augmented reality smartglasses to date belongs not to Apple, Facebook, or Google, but Snapchat's parent company, Snap.
News: Snap Now Lets You Build Lego in AR Remotely with Others, Reveals AR Tie-Up with Disney, Plus AR Business Tools
The surging activity in augmented reality in both the business and consumer sectors is being matched with a wealth of updates and partnerships from Snap Inc.
News: Snap Releases Lens Studio 4.0 with 3D Body Mesh & More, Upgrades Scan as Fashion Assistant
Throughout Thursday's virtual Snap Partner Summit, Snapchat's parent company made a profound statement: If you use Snapchat, you're a creator.
How To: Disable the Startup Sound on Any Android Phone
Android's open source nature means it gets modified quite a bit. First, the phone manufacturer will add their customizations, then your carrier will add even more on top of that. Between the two, someone almost always adds a startup sound so that you and everyone around you will hear their jingle every time your phone reboots.
News: Apple Releases iOS 14.7 Beta 1 for iOS Developers & Public Testers
Apple released the first beta for iOS 14.7 today, Wednesday, May 19. The update (build number 18G5023c) comes two days after Apple seeded testers the RC (release candidate) for iOS 14.6. The new update adds the ability to set timers for HomePod on your iPhone via the Home app.
News: Google Adds Raw Depth API to Improve Spatial Awareness & Depth Data for Android AR Apps
For most mainstream users, LiDAR sensors for precision depth sensing remain the exclusive domain of Apple iPhones and iPads, but Google is helping Android device makers close the depth gap on the software side via its ARCore toolkit.
AR Snapshots: These Snapchat AR Lenses Let You Use Your Entire Body to Create Visual Masterpieces
Snapchat's first foray into augmented reality started with the selfie camera and face-tracking technology, with the app's AR capabilities expanding from there.
How To: Finally See What's Under the Fridge with an Endoscope Camera
A good endoscope camera can be an incredible tool for a variety of jobs. Whether you have to look under something heavy before you move it, look down a pipe before you clean it, or just give yourself extendable, bendable vision, an endoscope camera can be a fantastic tool when it works.
How To: You Need a DAC to Enjoy Apple Music's Hi-Res Lossless Audio — Here Are the Best Options
On May 17, Apple announced that Lossless Audio playback for Apple Music was finally coming to subscribers in June. The long-awaited option will let users stream songs at a much higher quality than ever before. Still, in the fine print, Apple noted that you wouldn't be able to listen to the best sound quality — Hi-Resolution Lossless — on your iPhone without a DAC.
News: Google's Project Starline Promises 3D Video Conferencing Like We've Never Seen Before
During the Tuesday launch of Google I/O, the company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, pulled off a Steve Jobsian "one more thing" move near the end of his keynote address that was simply stunning.
News: Google Adds Sports Athletes to AR Search, Includes Virtual Street Signs in Live View AR in Google Maps
Since bringing augmented reality features to Search and Maps, Google has made them arguably the most useful augmented reality products in its portfolio.
How To: Unlock Your iPhone After a Restart Using Just Your Voice
You know the drill: After booting up your iPhone, you need to swipe up or press the Home button, then punch in the passcode to unlock Face ID or Touch ID. It's the way things have always been — but it doesn't have to be. Instead, you can unlock your iPhone using just your voice, even after a restart.
News: DigiLens Forges Reference Design for Smartglasses with 50 Degree Field of View
In the great smartglasses race, component makers, such as those that supply the crucial waveguide displays that make visualization of virtual content possible, have a vested interest in pushing the industry forward in order to ship units.
News: Facebook Reality Labs VP Hugo Barra Abruptly Heads for the Exit
Facebook Reality Labs just experienced its first major executive exit since the pandemic began. Hugo Barra has announced that he's stepping down from his position as vice president of VR at Facebook.
News: Google Offers Virtual Photo Booth Web App Ahead of Socially Distanced I/O Conference
Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic is showing signs of winding down, nevertheless, Google will still hold its annual I/O developer conference as a virtual affair, with keynotes and sessions available as live streams and on-demand videos starting Tuesday, May 18 and concluding on Thursday, May 20.
How To: Remove the Annoying Photos Widget from Your iPhone's Today View to Stop Showing Potentially Embarrassing Pics
Apple's iOS 14 introduced a new world of iPhone customization thanks to its updated widgets that can live on both the home screen and Today View. While they're incredibly useful, they're not very interactive, they restrict what's shown, and you can't resize them afterward. However, those issues pale in comparison to the annoying Photos widget in Today View's auto-generated Smart Stack.
How To: If 'Messages' Consumes Too Much iPhone or iCloud Storage, Don't Delete Your Conversations Just Yet
When iOS starts barking at you that you've run out of iCloud or iPhone storage, a quick trip to your settings to see what the culprit is may show that Messages is one of the worst offenders. But if deleting message after message doesn't free up your storage much, it's likely because "Messages" doesn't really mean messages.
News: Apple Releases iOS 14.6 RC for iPhone, Adds Option to Unlock iPhone Using Voice Control
Apple pushed out the Release Candidate for iOS 14.6 on Monday, May 17. The 18F71 build includes new features and bug fixes, including an option to unlock your iPhone with Voice Control. It comes just hours after Apple announced Spacial Audio and Lossless Audio playback for Apple Music, new features that will require iOS 14.6 to run.
News: Epic Games Restarts Lawsuit vs. Nreal as Settlement Talks Collapse
One fight for augmented reality branding that we thought had been settled has suddenly turned into a full-fledged legal battle—again.
How To: Get a Jump Start into Cybersecurity with This Bundle
Cybersecurity is an industry that isn't going anywhere. After the mass move to online work, the need for more cybersecurity professionals skyrocketed. That demand isn't going away because more and more industries are keeping online and cloud services going for their workers.
How To: Hack Networks & Devices Right from Your Wrist with the Wi-Fi Deauther Watch
The Deauther Watch by Travis Lin is the physical manifestation of the Wi-Fi Deauther project by Spacehuhn, and it's designed to let you operate the Deauther project right from your wrist without needing a computer. That's pretty cool if you want to do all the interesting things that the Wi-Fi Deauther can do without plugging it into a device.
Market Reality: Microsoft's Consumer Smartglasses, Apple Invests in Corning & Niantic Launches Lightship Beta
Sure, Microsoft has mostly marketed its HoloLens headsets towards enterprises and developers, but we learned this week that, like every other tech giant, the company is working on a consumer-grade AR wearable. Speaking of consumer smartglasses, Apple made another strategic investment this week that has implications for Apple's AR future.
News: Microsoft Brings Chromium-Based Edge Browser, Swipe to Type & More to HoloLens via Windows Holographic Update
Since its launch two years ago, the HoloLens 2 has been the best AR headset available, and nothing has come close to touching it since.
News: Microsoft's Alex Kipman Confirms HoloLens Consumer AR Smartglasses Being Developed & Describes How It Can Happen
The story of the HoloLens has been a mix of work and play. But while many developers have devoted time to creating gaming and entertainment apps for the HoloLens 1, with the HoloLens 2, Microsoft has been encouraging everyone to focus more on the enterprise side of things.
How To: Disable the iMessage Typing Bubble Indicator So Others Don't Know You're Currently Active in the Chat
Apple's iMessage is one of the main reasons to use an iPhone, and there's a lot you can do in chats without being overly complicated. But there's one issue that continues to drive people nuts, and that's the blue typing bubble indicator with the moving ellipsis (•••). Can you stop it? Not officially, but there are workarounds.
News: Microsoft Mixed Reality Developer Shows Off the Full Power of Hand Tracking & Occlusion via the HoloLens 2
The experience of actually using the HoloLens 2 can be difficult to describe to anyone who hasn't had a chance to directly interact with the device in person and be blown away by its immersive capabilities.
How To: Read a Whole Book in 12 Minutes Flat with This Subscription
As much value as you can get out of reading, finishing a book takes a while, even if it's a best seller or a unique and valuable piece of work. To save you time while still giving you the value of reading, 12min Micro Book Library: Lifetime Premium Subscription provides access to hundreds of micro-books that can be fully read in just 12 minutes, and you can get it for $39 while it's on sale.
News: NBCUniversal Teases Augmented Reality-Powered Shopping via TV
Consumers who haven't already delved into the interactive wonders of augmented reality are about to be pushed into the immersive waters by market forces.
How To: Bulk Add or Change Captions for Photos on Your iPhone Instead of Doing It One by One
One of the most underrated features that came out with iOS 14 was being able to add captions to images and videos in the Photos app. It's an amazing tool to take advantage of if you ever need to search for a specific picture and Apple's AI fails to recognize the query in your library. The only problem is that you can only edit captions, also called descriptions, one by one.
How To: Sync Your iPhone Reminders in iCloud & Other Accounts Across All Your Apple Devices
Apple's iCloud is a fantastic way to ensure that all of your photos, messages, notes, and other important data are backed up and appear on all of your connected devices. However, you may have information like reminders attached to accounts other than iCloud, which won't appear when signing into iCloud on a new device. Here's how to get the full picture of where your reminders are stored.
News: The History of Europe Gets Immersive via HoloLens 2 Experience at St. Peter's Church in Belgium
In recent years, the tech innovation space has been dominated by the US and Asia, with Europe weighing in, but still being mostly lauded for its art history and architecture.
How To: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Download SoundCloud Music Files to Your iPhone as MP3s
If you like to listen to popular songs from huge musicians and hard-to-find music from obscure indie artists, SoundCloud is for you — and you don't have to pay a dime. When you find a song you really love and want to play it back even when you're not connected to the internet, SoundCloud has offline listening, but there is a way to download your favorite tracks onto your iPhone for longevity.
How To: Gain Experience Coding for a Price You Decide
One of the hardest parts of entering the IT and computer science field — other than the difficult material and intense competition — is the time and financial cost of learning everything you'll need. Learning to code isn't just learning one language; you have to learn a variety of languages used for different purposes, and then you have to get experience using them.
How To: Send Audio Messages on Your Apple Watch Instead of Transcribed Text
If you're a fan of sending audio messages on your iPhone, you might be disappointed when tapping the microphone button in the Messages app on an Apple Watch. You'll see it when crafting a message, but it won't send any audio because it's for Dictation, which turns your speech into text. If you'd rather use it to compose and send audio clips, there's a way to do just that.
News: Niantic Opens Private Beta for AR Cloud Platform Now Called Lightship
Niantic first unveiled its AR cloud back in 2018, using it to enhance the immersive capabilities of its gaming portfolio.