There's nothing quite as exciting in the beta testing world as a new update. Battling overloaded servers to download the latest update as fast as possible, just to scour through the new OS looking for the biggest features to the smallest changes. It was only Thursday that Apple seeded iOS 13.2 developer beta 2, so count us surprised that we get to experience today's release of developer beta 3 so soon.
We public testers are in luck. Today, Apple released the second developer beta for iOS 13.2. As is the case with most beta releases, developers get theirs first, while public testers are left waiting. Will we get our update the same day, or will we need to wait? As it turns out, Apple decided to throw us a bone. The second public beta for iOS 13.2 is officially here.
The biggest feature in the iOS 13 update is a new system-wide Dark Mode. It's a simple switch that you enable to turn system menus and Apple apps dark, but it can also darken third-party apps if their developers elect to support it. Trouble is, most haven't yet, so half of your apps likely still have a blinding white background.
Microsoft is catching up by adding the revered dark mode feature to its suite of apps. The biggest name to get this treatment is Outlook, and it looks great. Dark mode is slowly rolling out, meaning only some people have it right now. So it's time to check and see if you have dark mode on Outlook.
Scanning pictures and uploading them to Google Photos is a great way to digitize your collection. With unlimited high-quality storage and text recognition capabilities, it's hard to pass up. And for your older family pictures, Google Photos will soon even colorize black and white images.
The mystery surrounding Overture, an app that showed up in the Magic Leap World app store along with the latest Lumin software release, has been cleared up.
If you've ever traveled to a country where you do not speak the language, you know there are times you need to translate text. Or maybe you just ordered a foreign good that requires text translation. Google Translate can easily solve this with its camera translation feature. It will translate any text you see in the real world into your desired language.
Android 10 goes all-in on gesture navigation. Unlike Android 9, all three buttons which made up the navigation bar are replaced with gestures, with the biggest change being the back button. The problem is this same gesture is already used within apps to access the side menu, so in Android Q, this has been changed.
Augmented reality has taken the advertising industry by storm, but the technology has a steep learning curve. Luckily for advertisers, Unity is here to flatten the curve a bit.
After one of Britain's "Brothers Bling" bought Blippar out of bankruptcy, the mobile augmented reality company is getting back to business with the addition of web-based AR capabilities to its platform.
After raising more $100 million in funding from some of the tech world's biggest names, Mojo Vision is finally ready to show the world the building block of its "invisible computing" platform.
The Avengers aren't the only shiny new toys available to Pixel handset owners, as the animated stars of the upcoming Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie have arrived in the Google Playground app.
With $100 million in grant funding already available to developers via its MegaGrants program, Epic Games is sweetening the pot with some gear for Magic Leap developers.
As one of the leading 3D engines for augmented reality development, a new release of Unity is a significant event that carries the potential to facilitate huge leaps forward in AR content creation.
One of the biggest advantages of the front-mounted ultrasonic fingerprint sensor found on the Galaxy S10 and S10+ is that you no longer have to physically pick up your device and reach around the back to unlock it. Instead, you simply place your finger on the screen for easier access and added convenience — at least on paper.
There have been concerns with how much personal information Google tracks and all the things they know about us. Of course, that's what makes Google services so useful, they can use that information to cater to each of us individually. So yes, it serves a purpose, but it's not great for personal data security.
It may sound like deja vu, but neural interface startup CTRL-labs has closed a $28 million funding round led by GV, Google's funding arm, for technology that reads user's nerve signals to interpret hand gestures.
While AT&T is gradually showing off the powers of its 5G technology in the US via the Magic Leap One, another major wireless company is doing the same in the UK using the world of fashion.
Whether it's for health reasons or just to look better, many of us want to get in shape. It's a long process that starts with nutrition, and dieting is never easy. Fortunately, there are some great food-tracking apps that will make it a lot easier to become a healthier version of yourself.
According to App Annie, the average person's phone contains 60–90 apps. Such a large amount can easily crowd an app drawer, especially since the same source states that only about 30 are used in a month. Having a way to organize apps in the app drawer can help you avoid wasting time searching.
These days, it's easy to cut the cord. Thanks to a new crop of streaming TV apps, you can get the same service offered by a traditional cable subscription at a fraction of the price. After some extensive testing, we believe we've found the absolute best apps for cord cutting.
You can mod every aspect of your phone's software with root, but if you want to make changes at the hardware level, you'll need a custom kernel. If you've looked into custom kernels before, one name undoubtedly kept coming up: ElementalX. It's easily the best custom kernel out there, and the reason for that is its awesome developer, flar2, aka Aaron Segaert.
Public beta testers will be pleased to know that the second iOS 12.1 beta has just become available for iPhones. The Tuesday, Oct. 2 update features an impressive 70+ new emoji for testers to enjoy, including bald emoji, emoji with red hair, gray hair, and curly hair, among many others, as well as a patch for iPhone XS and XS Max devices suffering from charging issues.
Apple released the first beta for iOS 12.1 on Tuesday, Sept. 18. The update comes just one day after the official release of iOS 12. For developers, it's the first beta release since the "gold master" version on Sept. 12.
The display is one of the most critical components in augmented reality hardware, and on Tuesday, one of the companies making that component, Avegant Corp., closed a funding round of $12 million to support development of next-generation AR displays.
Fans attending the US Open Tennis Championships in Queens, New York, which kicks off on Monday, will have the opportunity to meet tennis star Venus Williams in an augmented reality game sponsored by American Express.
Magic Leap just did something it didn't do during its recent Twitch hardware demo: show us some new demo footage of what augmented reality really looks like through the Magic Leap One.
With all the talk about the impending release of the Magic Leap One, some have forgotten a very important, competing release on the near horizon: the HoloLens 2.0. Well, now we have new information that tells us when (roughly) the device will be released, as well as a few other exciting tidbits.
The NBA Finals is underway, and now basketball fans with iPhones and Android devices can get closer to the action for free than they ever could with expensive courtside tickets.
Many Americans will celebrate the start of the summer this Memorial Day weekend with backyard cookouts, and two brands hope to solidify their invites to those parties through augmented reality experiences in Snapchat.
Amazon Web Service's do-it-yourself tool for building augmented reality experiences and VR has graduated from beta and is now available to all interested users.
Scavenging for weapons and supplies in PUBG adds to the element of excitement and dread of the unknown. But this feeling can quickly turn into annoyance as you attempt to swap your weapon for a better one on the ground, only to automatically pick up the gun you just dropped again.
Google updates the Play Store periodically, but the changes are usually subtle. A recent server-side update, however, is shaking things up quite a bit.
Although it sounds like a foodie's take on Facebook, what Calabasas, California-based FaceCake actually offers is more about augmented reality fashion marketing rather than food selfies.
One of the most overlooked components of talking about augmented reality and virtual reality is getting people to actually use the hardware and software associated with these platforms.
Okay, yes, 2018 has only just begun — but it's not our fault that Sony dropped some of the ugliest new phones on us since ... their last ugly phone in 2017. According to Evan Blass (@evleaks on Twitter), Sony will be "refreshing" their low- to mid-range phones (Xperia XA1, XA Ultra, and L) by debuting the Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra, and L2 at CES next week.
Around this time in 2016, the predictions for the next year had reached something of a consensus: 2017 would be the year of augmented reality. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future — nothing much, really. At least not for the first half of the year.
The knee-jerk reactions to Magic Leap's long-awaited augmented reality device, the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition, range from pent-up joy to side-eyed skepticism. That's what happens when you launch the hype train several years before even delivering even a tiny peek at the product.
The Gmail app on both Android and iOS has a powerful search engine that helps you find any email with a few keywords. Even more impressive is Gmail's ability to remember previous search queries for future reference. However, this list of past searches can become extensively long and needs to be reset from time to time.
If you're planning on picking up a new iPhone X, 8, or 8 Plus, or maybe a Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, or Note 8, you'll want to consider a wireless charger. While you might feel a bit fancy charging your smartphone without a cable, that pomp might come at a price. Thankfully, Black Friday is almost upon us, and we know all about the best deals.
