News: Snapchat Claps Back at Facebook by Letting Users Create Custom AR Lenses with Lens Studio
On Thursday, Snapchat opened up its walled garden of World Lenses to the masses of creators with the launch of Lens Studio.
Booming Business Search Results
Instagram 101: How to Natively Regram Other Posts on Your Feed Without Leaving the App
You can retweet on Twitter, and you can reblog on Tumblr, but you cannot regram on Instagram. Until now, that is. For years, third-party apps have made it their business to help Instagram users share content from other users. With some new developments, Instagram looks to render those apps obsolete by adding a native regram button to the official Instagram application.
News: Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel Revamps App's Content Strategy, Keeping Camera & AR at the Center
On Wednesday, Snap, Inc. unveiled a revamp of its Snapchat app that draws a hard line between content from your friends and content from professional media organizations.
How To: Everything You Should Know About Google Lens on the Pixel & Pixel 2
Google just rolled out a revolutionary feature to its Pixel devices — Google Lens. Previously, Lens had only been available in the Photos app, but now, whenever you want to learn about something in the real world, you can just bring up Google Assistant, turn on the camera, then let Google's famous AI analyze the scene.
News: Transformers Really Are More Than Meets the Eye in New Movie Tie-in AR App
Just as the Transformers animated TV series of the '80s were basically half-hour commercials for toys, a new Transformers AR app for iOS similarly functions as a promotion for the latest installment in the film franchise.
News: HoloPlayer One Achieves Holograms Sans Glasses Within Reasonable Price Range
A Brooklyn-based startup has launched a glasses-free holographic display for less than the cost of an iPhone 8 Plus.
News: MAC Cosmetics Stores Get AR Makeover with Virtual Try-on Mirrors
While AR apps by Modiface and Perfect Corp. have made it easier for people to shop for makeup without setting foot in a store, MAC Cosmetics wants to give its brick-and-mortar customers the same experience.
News: Snapchat's 'Stranger Things 2' World Lens Transports You to an Alternate Reality
It's finally that time. Stranger Things 2 dropped today, just days before Halloween. And to get you in the mood, Snapchat has quietly launched a spooky new filter that lets you immerse yourself in the world depicted in the hit Netflix series.
News: The Macallan Showcases Art of Making Scotch Through HoloLens Gallery & ARKit App
For those who enjoy the finer things in life, premium Scottish distillery The Macallan is bringing an augmented reality art gallery, viewable through the high-priced Microsoft HoloLens, to select cities in celebration of whisky season.
Market Reality: Perfect Corp. & EchoPixel Close Series A Rounds on Interactive Apps
Investors are ready to throw their money at augmented and virtual use cases that demonstrate a business purpose and a return on investment.
News: Now Noobs Can Create AR Apps for Ubimax's Enterprise Platform
Augmented reality software provider Ubimax unveiled their graphical authoring and publishing tool for their Frontline enterprise platform to attendees at Augmented World Expo Europe today.
Snapchat 101: How to Reserve Tables, Get Rides & View More Information About Snaps
Not that long ago, Snapchat was an app with only one purpose — to send and receive self-destructing picture messages. The app has clearly grown since, adding many features that both adhere to its original function as well as ignore it. One of these new features is Context Cards. You may have heard about them, but what exactly are they?
News: DAQRI Focused on Growth as It Promotes Former Qualcomm Exec to CEO
Augmented reality headset maker DAQRI today named chief product officer Roy Ashok as the company's new chief executive officer to accelerate the company's growth.
News: Avegant Light Field Technology Now Available to AR Display Makers via Development Kits
Avegant Corporation has begun shipping display development kits based on its light field technology that other companies can use in their augmented and mixed reality devices.
Apple AR: Lowe's Builds Pair of AR Apps with ARKit
Lowe's Home Improvement has been an early adopter of augmented and virtual reality in their business practices, so it was a bit of surprise that their name was absent from the ranks of companies launching ARKit apps last week.
Market Reality: Mira Closes Funding Round as Cappasity Prepares Blockchain Crowdsale
If competition in the augmented reality space was a spectator sport, then ARKit, ARCore, and HoloLens dominate the prime-time broadcasts on ESPN.
Brief Reality: Plattar, NativeScript & Gadget Flow Offer Tools for ARKit Apps
The release of iOS 11 and ARKit is probably the biggest event for mobile developers since the advent of the App Store.
News: Research Papers & Patents Point to Magic Leap's AR Ambitions
In June at the eMerge Americas investors conference, Magic Leap founder (and NR50 member) Rony Abovitz proclaimed that the launch of their flagship product was "not far away."
Market Reality: Businesses Invest in the Expansion of AR Services & Content Creation
As augmented reality gains popularity, the demand for delivering related services and generating content increases. This is demonstrated by a pair of investments from the past week, one in the expansion of a technology lab and another in the form of seed funding for a content studio.
Apple AR: Marxent Prepared to Deploy Content for ARKit Apps
While IKEA is collaborating with Apple for its ARKit furniture app, Marxent is ready to help the rest of the interior decorating and home improvement crowd with their apps.
Today's Top News: Ford Tries to One Up Waymo with Removable Steering Wheel & Pedal Design
Google largely helped to pioneer the concept of a steering wheel- and pedal-free self-driving experience when it began testing its Firefly pod-like vehicles a few years ago.
Today's Top News: Tesla Quietly Upgrades Autopilot Hardware
Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk has repeatedly said this year all Tesla models made since October 2016 have the requisite hardware for "full self-driving" capabilities, yet the company has reportedly begun to add a second graphics processor (GPU) to its computer platform for Autopilot — without officially saying why.
News: GE Aviation Pairs Google Glass with Smart Wrench to Improve Process Quality
GE Aviation and their software partner Upskill are seeing success by giving their mechanics smart tools and smart glasses, the latter in the form of Google Glass.
Brief Reality: Business Uses for AR Range from Scavenger Hunts to Accurate Holographic Solutions
When it comes to applying augmented reality to various business functions, as the saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
News: Blippar Unveils Positioning System That Bests GPS in Urban Areas
Augmented reality developer Blippar has created a new visual positioning service based on computer vision that is two times more accurate than GPS in urban locales.
Today's Top News: Lyft, Faraday Recruit Top Brass, but Finding Driverless Engineers Remains a Struggle
The ride-sharing firm Lyft and Faraday Future, a troubled electric carmaker and potential Tesla competitor, have quietly appointed new top executives, but like the rest of the industry, they struggle to find talent for their driverless programs.
Today's Top News: Maverick Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt Hires Controversial Jeep Hackers
Cruise Automation, General Motors' (GM) driverless car arm, has hired two hackers who were once seen by many as a safety threat to help find vulnerabilities in its self-drive car network.
Messages 101: How to Leave Group Conversations on Your iPhone
Group chats can get out of control. One minute you're in the middle of a thoughtful debate, the next minute everybody is sending gratuitous stickers and emojis like nobody's business. If you're at work or school, this can obviously get a little frustrating as your notifications fill up, even with your iPhone on silent. Luckily, there's a simple option — leave the group.
News: Multi-Cores, AI & Computer Parallelism — How Gaming Chips Drive Cars
Long before Nvidia figured out how to embed neural networks in its graphics processor units (GPUs) for driverless vehicles, it and other chipmakers were already making the same kinds of devices for 3D games and other apps.
Today's Top News: OpenAI Hacks Machine Vision and the Results Aren't Pretty
Research group OpenAI, a research institute co-founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, says it is possible to trick driverless cars' neural networks into mistaking images for something else.
News: Children Can Now Go on an AR Adventure at Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport's most recent arrival isn't a flight, but rather an interactive children's game featuring augmented reality technology.
Today's Top News: Uber Demands to Know What Exactly Lyft & Waymo Are Doing
Waymo and Lyft have remained highly secretive about their driverless car programs, but may be forced to reveal a lot about their plans after a judge in a US federal court granted Uber's request to review documents about Waymo and Lyft's partnership.
News: Zillow Invests in Augmented Reality Interior Design App Hutch
Hutch Interiors, Inc., makers of an eponymous augmented reality home design app for iOS and Android, has closed a series A round of funding, led by online real estate company Zillow Group, totaling $10 million.
Facebook 101: How to Upload Photos & Videos in HD
If you are a frequent poster on Facebook, then uploading your photos and videos in HD is essential for your viewers. There's nothing worse than realizing that the Boomerang you just uploaded is grainy and probably won't get any views.
Market Reality: Lampix, Nokia, Xiaomi & More Invest in AR
Over the past week, companies took a variety of approaches to investing in augmented reality. Lampix is backing its own effort to build an ecosystem for augmented reality platforms. Nokia and Xiaomi are teaming up on numerous fronts, potentially including augmented reality.
Twitter 101: How to Permanently Pin a Tweet to the Top of Your Twitter Profile
Pinning a tweet to your profile is a fantastic way to get people to view and engage with your most important content on Twitter. In fact, it could very well be the best way to improve your overall Twitter strategy.
News: Layar AR Creators Want Their Company Back, Believing Blippar Is Ruining It
With augmented reality making its way into the mainstream, consumers have been expecting a company bloodbath for a while now, one that will have a ton of casualties. Blippar has been expected to be one of those casualties due to the reported loss of millions of dollars earlier this year. Now, their situation might be made worse as the creators of the Layar app, Raimo van der Klein and Martin Lens-Fitzgerald, are rumored to be asking for their company back.
News: Nokia & Xiaomi Agree to Explore AR Collaborations in New Partnership
A new cross-licensing patent deal signed by Nokia and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi will bring increased collaboration between the two companies. One area of focus in which both Nokia and Xiaomi have already agreed to work together is augmented reality.
News: Motive.io Opens Early Access to Location-Based AR Development Tool
About a year ago, a certain watershed mobile augmented reality game based on a familiar video game franchise was released into the wild. Today, a number of imitators and emulators have introduced their own location-based games with hopes of similar success.
News: Finally! These 5 MLB Stadiums Now Accept Apple Pay
Baseball fans can now leave their wallets behind at specific stadiums throughout the country. A new upgrade by Appetize to the foodservice and retail technology used at ballparks means you can now use Apple Pay to make purchases at 5 Major League Baseball stadiums.