They say it is always darkest before the dawn. If that's the case, then perhaps there's a light ahead for Magic Leap after more unfavorable news in the form of executive departures.
It's that time again. Snow days, Thanksgiving dinner, holiday presents ... and great Black Friday deals. Starting the Friday after Thanksgiving (or sometimes a few days before), millions of items will go on sale, including your next Android phone.
The week in AR business news started out with a bang with two bombshell reports that cast a shadow on the AR industry as a whole.
Whether you love Motion Sense or think it's a gimmick, one thing we can agree on is that its functionality is limited. It's currently limited to switching tracks on a playlist, snoozing alarms, silencing calls, lowering the volume of alerts, and checking notifications. But a new mod will help you do so much more with it.
Semi-untethered jailbreaks are here to stay, as evidenced by iOS 11's Electra method, Chimera for iOS 12, and even the new bootrom-based Checkra1n tool for iOS 13. While not as convenient as fully untethered, re-enabling a semi-untethered jailbreak is still pretty easy once you get used to the steps involved.
The Pixel 4 is one of the most talked-about phones of 2019, so you know there will be lots of third-party developer support. Mods are already popping up, so you'll want to get Magisk installed as soon as possible to get root access. The current method used to gain root is the quickest way yet, thanks to the recent TWRP custom recovery support for the Pixel 4.
Augmented reality gaming pioneer and Pokémon GO mastermind Niantic is putting the pieces on the gameboard to prepare developers and gamers for the launch of its AR cloud platform.
Despite the fact that over 600,000 Snap Lens filters have been created since Lens Studio debuted in 2017, and Facebook is reporting that more than a billion users have interacted with its Spark AR filters across Facebook properties, social augmented reality filters get a bad rap in the AR industry.
Over the past year, Magic Leap has teased its cross-platform vision of the AR cloud, which it dubs the Magicverse. While the company shared a timeline for its debut next year, it also served up new developer tools for the present.
Apple's iOS 13 has been quite the disrupter. The initial update featured over 200 new features and changes, while its successor, iOS 13.1, brought another 22 to the mix. With the company's latest update, iOS 13.2, you'll see an extra 22 amendments on your iPhone, including new emojis, Deep Fusion on iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, and Announce Messages with Siri, just to name a few.
Finally, Spotify now works with Siri! It's been a long time coming, but as of Spotify Music version 8.5.6 for iOS 13, you can make Siri or Hey Siri on your iPhone play and control music in your Spotify account. But what commands can you use? We've built a list of everything you can tell Siri to do on Spotify right now, and as time goes on, the list may grow even more powerful.
Starting Sept. 13, you can preorder the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max from Apple, wireless carriers, and various e-commerce websites. However, unlike with Android smartphones, there is only one set of iOS phones that come out each year, so they're pretty hot items. That means being the first to get your hands on one could be a challenge, but we're here to help you out.
While Magic Leap doesn't yet have a consumer edition of the Magic Leap One, that hasn't stopped AT&T from building apps for mainstream audiences for the headset.
Augmented reality gaming startup Tilt Five is ready to reinvent old school Dungeons & Dragons-style games for the modern age with its augmented reality headset and tabletop game system.
The fifth annual Amazon Prime Day is upon us. Starting July 15, Amazon will offer thousands of deals on products across its site, kicking off at 3 a.m. EDT. This year, it will only run for 48 hours, so you have even less time to act. To save you some of that time, we made a list of the best deals for smartphone accessories.
When it comes to augmented reality (AR) on Android, you might be wondering how you can get those cool new games and apps on your unsupported phone. Google has an officially supported device list for its ARCore platform, which usually consists of the more modern devices. You won't find very many older devices on the list for a reason, but that doesn't mean your "old" phone can't use ARCore still.
When you get a new phone, the last thing you want to deal with is a ton of preinstalled programs staring back at you. They not only clutter your home screen with apps you'll probably never use, but they're also wasting space on your internal storage and potentially draining battery. To truly uninstall them, you'll need root — but even then, it can be hard to pin down all the apps that should be removed.
Google's has expanded ARCore support to numerous Android flagships like the Galaxy S10, so if you have a compatible device, you get access to all the cool new apps that can augment the world around you. One of ARCore's most sought-after features, AR Stickers, is normally exclusive to Google's Pixel lineup, but by sideloading the Google Camera app, you can try it on any ARCore device.
When it comes to customizing Android, there's nothing quite like Magisk. You can potentially combine dozens of modules to create a one of a kind user experience tailored to you, but not all modules will work well together. You might run into a bootloop by accident once in a while, which could cause some issues on its own.
In recent months, the Magic Leap One has frequently tied promotions to groundbreaking entertainment properties, but the latest may be the startup's biggest coup yet.
One of the best things about Android is the ability to customize every aspect of your device to make it your own. However, unless you have prior knowledge or experience with every single setting available to you, you might have missed a few critical features without even knowing it. Some settings are easy to find, while others might be tucked away in another menu of their own.
Dark mode support has steadily made its way to mainstream acceptance, with big-name apps like YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter adopting the feature to satisfy user demands. In this regard, Facebook is lagging, yet to offer the sought-after feature for easier viewing in low-light conditions. If your iPhone is jailbroken, however, you don't have to suffer like everyone else.
Depending on how you use your phone, you may have noticed your status bar is a bit crowded due to various icons being enabled. While some icons make sense to have, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the VPN key icon can be redundant, especially if the app uses a notification. Good thing, there is a way to get rid of the icon.
Mixed reviews of Magic Leap One aside, it would be hard to deny that Magic Leap has had a big year. And the AR unicorn isn't coasting to the finish line, with a number of new apps dropping and prescription frames finally arriving to bring relief to those who wear eyeglasses.
The idea of augmented reality isn't new, but the world of smartphones is looking to push it forward in a big way. As with any platform, both product demand and technological advancements have to catch up to the industry before it can become a viable solution for daily consumer life. Apple and Google are working to introduce the smartphone consumer to AR for the first time with basic features for now.
Anyone remember Google Goggles? Well, it's back with a new name: Google Lens. But this time, there's more machine learning and it's integrated into many different Google apps and services. The latest is the Google app for iPhones.
Haptic feedback and vibration of our smartphones have come a long way in recent years. These features are much more premium now than they once were, but most users are still unable to adjust the intensity for notifications or phone calls. Most higher-end devices make less noise on surfaces than in the past, but adjusting these values can still come in handy even today.
This week, inside sources divulged details of how Apple nearly acquired Leap Motion, twice. Otherwise, companies offering or working on augmented reality technology had more successes than failures to talk about.
Many apps claim to record phone calls on Android, but very few actually deliver. There's just too many different devices floating around out there for one app to be able to support them all — or so it would seem.
Excessive cell phone use was issue that Apple decided to tackle with iOS 12. Starting with the iPhone's 2018 update, a new "Screen Time" feature give you the ability to set App Limits to encourage more balanced usage, and there's another setting that gives you control over when certain apps can be accessed.
There are dozens of apps like Glympse, Family Locator, and Find My Kids that let parents see where their children's phones are, but they all have one fatal flaw: It's incredibly easy to spoof locations to make it look like the phone is somewhere else.
When BlackBerry made the move to Android OS, they were aware of the limitations it presented. Unlike with BB10, they didn't create the operating system and would have to deal with the vulnerabilities already included. As a result, they added numerous security enhancements, and at the heart of this is DTEK.
If you ever want to root your OnePlus 6, install TWRP, get Magisk and Xposed, or flash a custom ROM, the first thing you'll need to do is unlock your bootloader.
It's no secret that Android has a messaging problem. iPhone users can turn to iMessage as a one-stop shop for all their messaging needs — features like read receipts and the ability to text from a computer have been standard with Apple products for quite some time. Android has no such solution, but Google's looking to fix that with a huge update to the Android Messages app.
Instagram has long-resisted easily resharing content. While it's been testing a "regram" feature for a long time, it still lags behind apps such as Twitter and Facebook when it comes to resharing content. But while Instagram is a bastion of original material, there is a feature in place for you to reshare stories from those you follow. Your friends can reshare your stories too.
When you hear people say the iPhone "just works," it's because of all the finishing touches Apple adds to iOS. A perfect example of this is the new QR-scanning feature in iOS 12 — by tapping a single button in the iPhone's Control Center, you can scan a QR code within seconds.
As Magic Leap prepares to ship the Magic Leap One later this year, the company is putting its focus on mentoring developers and creators to build a content ecosystem for the spatial computing platform.
While numerous startups are competing to convert the AR Cloud from a pie-in-the-sky to a reality, Wikitude is thinking smaller with the latest edition of its augmented reality SDK.
When it comes to traveling from one location to another with the aide of your iPhone, ensuring your navigation app works as it should keeps you one step ahead of potential hassles. One feature often overlooked is audio settings, and while having no voice prompts is easy enough to ignore while walking or commuting, having no sound to guide you while driving can spell disaster.
I love my iPhone, but it would be a lie to say there aren't some Android features I wish would find their way to iOS. While iOS has plenty of its own advantages, Android has pulled ahead in many other areas. With iOS 12 coming later this year, we're hoping Apple takes a hint from Google and adds some of these awesome features to the iPhone.
