The year leading into fall is turning out to be packed with a flurry of augmented reality activity. Most notably, TikTok is adding another major weapon to its AR arsenal. Also on deck are the powers of Hollywood horror in the form of an innovative approach to AR marketing that uses sounds.
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.
When it comes to augmented reality wearables, it's currently an enterprise world. As such, Magic Leap's latest Lumin updates are centered on features that appeal to enterprise customers. And Epson and Spinar are joining forces with a solution for distributed workforces.
When you look at the top corner of your phone, what do you see? Upon upgrading to Android 11 or iOS 14, you'll see either "5G," "5G+," or "5G E" if you're connected to the right network. But what exactly do these symbols mean? They indicate not only if you're using 5G, but also what type you're connected to.
Over half of all Americans have listened to at least one podcast, and that number is growing every year. With over one million podcasts and 30 million episodes in existence, there's no end to discovering new voices expounding on a range of topics.
If there's any silver lining to being stuck at home right now, it's the fact that many of us have way more time to take care of those things that have been sitting on our back burner for ages, like beefing up our resumes.
Alternate US history is the go-to move for hot new cable and streaming shows, from HBO's Watchmen to Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, reimagining how things might have turned out is an endless well of narrative inspiration.
Though Microsoft has had trouble keeping up with the demand for HoloLens 2, the company has been able to supply modified headsets to the US Army.
Snapchat is probably used to Facebook copying its features by now, but Apple borrowing a page out of its playbook is likely a bit more surprising.
The first headset running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset from an original equipment manufacturer is official.
Brace yourselves: Nreal Light clones are coming. Since the China-based startup wowed the crowd at CES 2019 with its consumer-centric smartglasses, a number of followers from Asia have emerged, and all with very similar aesthetics to Nreal Light.
Sure, it's the giving season, but sometimes you've just got to treat yourself to some cosmetics. If you're shopping at Walmart, L'Oreal just made that a shade easier when shopping for Garnier hair color products with an assist from Google Lens and the Modiface AR platform.
While Elon Musk is in Los Angeles showing off the future of personal transport via the Cybertruck, another, unaffiliated group is taking one of his most popular ideas to market, with augmented reality as a key part of the plan.
While "Baby Yoda" from The Mandalorian threatens to overshadow it, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives in theaters next week, which means it's time for Disney and Lucasfilm to ramp up its promotional strategy.
There may be questions from some about the future of Magic Leap, but in Japan, The Force is with the augmented reality startup.
Friends and family receiving new Portal devices for Christmas will have some extra stocking stuffers in the form of new AR features.
The HoloLens 2 hasn't even reached most of the market, but it's already a big-time TV star. Microsoft's augmented reality device made its primetime debut on FOX TV last night on an episode of the hospital drama The Resident.
After three years and change, no one seems to be able to knock Pokémon GO off its augmented reality throne. Zombies, dinosaurs, and ghosts have all met defeat at the hands of the pocket monsters. Heck, not even the world's most popular wizard and Pokémon GO's developer can replicate the original's success.
After entering into settlement talks with Epic Games over the gaming giant's trademark challenge, Nreal is now ready to open up the floodgates to potential early adopters in the augmented reality space.
After recently renewed enthusiasm for the arrival of Apple's long-awaited AR wearables -- the subject of multiple reports and rumors over the past few years -- some of that excitement may now be dampened a bit.
Halloween is barely in the rearview mirror, but Coca-Cola is ready to bypass Thanksgiving altogether to accelerate the arrival of Christmas, and the brand has enlisted augmented reality as an accomplice.
The prospect of loss or theft is something we constantly live with. Stolen iPhones fetch a premium price on the black market for parts like OLED display assemblies, frames, and charging ports. Making matters worse, if someone were to steal your phone, they could simply turn it off to avoid anti-theft features like Find My iPhone.
As one of the household brands in creative software, Adobe is now ready to lay its claim to the artistic side of augmented reality.
Bus stops can provide shelter in the event of rain, and now they also protect you from augmented reality squid.
Big-box retailer Target has been on a bit of an augmented reality advertising shopping spree via Snapchat lately.
Dark mode themes for mobile apps are all the rage these days, but YouTube is taking that a bit literally with its latest augmented reality experience.
Sure, Tony Stark was able to build the original Iron Man suit in a cave with a box of scraps, but can the average do-it-yourselfer replicate the EDITH smartglasses from Spider-Man: Far From Home in a similar fashion?
Less than a month after launching its augmented reality Swim Goggles, wearables startup Form is preparing to add a major new feature for aquatic athletes.
Mobile gaming has exploded in recent years, with experts predicting 2.4 billion global mobile players by the end of 2019. It already accounts for 47% of the worldwide gaming market, besting console and PC. No wonder we've seen the rise of gaming smartphones, a class of phones that specialize in mobile gaming.
After teasing what smartglasses powered by Snapchat might look like with two product cycles of camera glasses, Snap has now added augmented reality capabilities to its third take on Spectacles.
OxygenOS is often described as one of the best skins for Android on the market. It's fast, clean, and has a ton of useful features that appeal to just about everyone. However, it's also faced a significant issue for the longest time — overly aggressive battery optimizations that frequently kill background apps, including Gmail services.
With the latest version of ARKit and a new set augmented reality development tools set to arrive this Fall with iOS 13, Apple has taken an unprecedented step in recruiting Chinese developers to fill the App Store with mobile AR apps now, likely with an eye to the future.
Fans of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man have yet another way to experience the web-slinger in augmented reality.
With the third season of Netflix's hit series Stranger Things set to debut July 4, it's time to crank up the hype machine, this time, in augmented reality.
It's no secret that the enterprise sector is hot for augmented reality, but the move into the enterprise AR software market by one of the biggest names in industrial engineering announces the technology's arrival loud and clear.
After testing the waters with a few pop-up stores along the West Coast earlier this year, North is bringing its smartglasses to more cities across the US and Canada.
The natural marriage between fashion and augmented reality is charging onward, but not just from the major brands we already know about.
Smartglasses maker Vuzix rushed out of the gate to be the first company to announce hardware powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 for augmented reality wearables, but now the company is buying time until the product is ready to ship.
The long and somewhat tumultuous journey of Leap Motion has come to an end, thanks to another startup.
The software updates from Canadian smartglasses startup North keep coming, each with a unique new twist.
