In the realm of social media, all roads lead to one destination: cracking the code of continuous partial attention dopamine hits. We learned this back in the days of Vine, before Twitter foolishly killed it. And I pointed my lens at the emerging trend back in 2016 when I highlighted Musical.ly for Mashable, just before it was snapped up by China's Bytedance for $1 billion and merged into what is now TikTok.
AirPods are not only a great way to listen to audio on your iPhone, but they're also a great way to activate Siri and control your music using simple gestures. If the default actions aren't quite what you're looking for, you can easily change them, and each AirPod can perform a different action.
For the average consumer, augmented reality is a fun way of dressing up photos and videos for social media. However, AR is also gaining momentum as a medium for storytelling, particularly in sharing powerful messages.
For the last three years, Apple has hosted its Worldwide Developers Conference at the San Jose Convention Center, but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWDC 2020 is now an online-only event. So what can you expect from the new virtual format and when and how can you watch the keynote and developer sessions?
The "Albums" tab in Photos is great for sorting through the images and videos on your iPhone since you can narrow things down by your recent pics and recordings, apps used, media types, people, places, and so on. If you never look at all of those folders, however, it could feel like an overwhelming cluttered mess. Plus, there may be some collections you don't want others to see.
Alongside Sesame Street, the Dr. Seuss universe has been a constant presence in the formative years of several generations of children in the US.
The "what (blank) are you" augmented reality filters on Instagram have become so popular that more and more Hollywood giants are following the augmented reality-powered social media meme train, with the latest example coming via Snapchat.
Spreading your reach to new audiences on Instagram takes time and effort. It's not only about taking unique photos and curating an exciting feed. You should choose the time of day wisely, connect with popular brands, and take advantage of hashtags. Unfortunately, hashtags can make it seem like you're trying too hard, but you can make them invisible — in stories, at least.
While tweetstorms were a part of Twitter since the beginning, threads, which makes tweetstorms more viable, didn't show up until late-2017. Still, threading multiple tweets at once to create long-form stories, opinions, tirades, and other lengthy Twitter posts, can be hard to digest. However, you can make reading them easier with just a single message.
Whether you're trying to become an influencer or just want to share better photos and videos, the best camera to start with is your smartphone. It is likely the only camera you always have on you and it's probably capable of excellent pictures and video capture. But with a little help, it could definitely be better.
We have seen Kickstarter-launched wearables before, but this one is particularly unique and may even have you blinking a bit in wonder when you see how it functions.
Slack is meant for business, but it's inevitably used for personal reasons too, or even just to goof off with colleagues. However, you never know who's looking over your shoulder (nosy coworker? boss?), and you could get in trouble for something sent to you. That's why you might want to hide images and GIFs to help keep your conversations private.
Apple revealed its newest line of iPhone models on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at its "by innovation only" event in Cupertino. While the release date for iOS 13 wasn't announced at the event, Apple issued a press release with the date. If you missed the event, you can still watch it from your computer, smartphone, Apple TV, and any other device that YouTube works on.
The venture arms of Samsung and Verizon Ventures, along with Comcast, are among the strategic investors backing startup Light Field Lab and its glasses-free holographic displays in a $28 million Series A funding round
The longer it takes Apple, Snapchat, Facebook, and other tech giants to build their own version of augmented reality headsets and smartglasses, the longer runway of practical experience Microsoft gains with the HoloLens and its sequel. The latest example: AR cloning.
Tuning into a favorite station on Pandora has become part of a routine for many, and it's easy to see why. The app automatically plays songs tailored to your tastes to ensure a relatively hands-free experience. And if you're a subscriber, Pandora even has you covered in moments where there's poor cellular service by letting you keep listening to your go-to tracks uninterrupted.
The photos and videos you take with your iPhone contain bits of information, known as metadata, including the location where they were taken. This metadata makes it easier for Photos to organize your media, but put these photos and videos in the wrong hands and anyone can find out where you live or work. Luckily, iOS 13 makes it easy to wipe the geotag from images and videos before sharing.
On Twitter, quote retweets are a great way to share someone else's tweet with your view of their message. Twitter has expanded on this idea by giving us the ability to attach images, video, and GIFs to quote retweets. With these extra options, you should have no problem adding your own unique perspective on that funny, serious, or professional tweet.
While painting in augmented reality is not a groundbreaking pursuit, the ability for Magic Leap One, iPhone and iPad, and Android users to collaborate remotely on virtual artwork would be.
If you use the mobile Slack app, whether for work, school, or play, you know that the background color in discussions for channels, threads, and direct messages is white and that most of the text is black. Unlike with the sidebar, there's no way to customize the colors that appear here, but you do have one other option: dark mode.
When you don't want certain friends viewing your account or just need to take a break from social media, Instagram lets you do so. While you can completely delete your Instagram account, then start over when you're ready again, it makes much more sense to just disable your account temporarily. Doing so will hide your profile, photos, comments, and likes from everyone, including your friends.
On Instagram, you can write text over any picture or video in your Story, but it may be hard to get your message across with a distracting background. Although there is a "Type" option for Stories, which allows you to write text over colorful gradient backgrounds, the selection is limited to just over twenty options, and there are no options for solid colored backgrounds or translucent overlays.
Instagram is all about the hook. If you want followers to stick around, you need to keep your content interesting and engaging. Rainbow text can really make your Stories pop, but it's not really an Instagram "feature," meaning it's not an easy task to accomplish. There is, however, an easy hack that takes all the work out of rainbow-colored text, making your Stories better overall.
Spotify integration in Bumble has been around for a few years now, allowing prospective matches to view the artists you listen to the most on the popular music streaming service. It definitely helps people connect, but sadly, it doesn't work as well as it should because it rarely updates to show what you're listening to now.
The augmented reality industry has a bright future built on innovation and growth, but that doesn't mean we can't look back at the close of the year to see what the industry has accomplished from a business perspective.
Every photo you take is brimming with metadata such as iPhone model, date and time, shooting modes, focal length, shutter speed, flash use, and geolocation information. Share these pictures with friends, family, or acquaintances via texts, emails, or another direct share method, and you unwittingly share your location data. Even sharing via apps and social media sites can compromise your privacy.
While many retailers have introduced try-before-you-buy features in their apps, Walmart has gone in another direction by bringing shoppers an augmented reality tool to help them compare products they want to buy.
Your childhood "social networking" may have been to go outdoors to the neighbor's — and outdoors is a great place for kids to be. But these days, the terms educational, digital media, entertainment, and toddlers don't have to be mutually exclusive. Like most things in life, it's about balance, and these apps can aid your child with social-emotional development when not playing with friends.
The mainstreaming of augmented reality won't happen overnight, but it's becoming increasingly clear that traditional media is leading the charge in the effort to introduce the public to immersive computing. A recent example came from none other than USA Today via its 321 Launch app.
When you want to post a breathtaking landscape or picture-perfect portrait that you just took with your DSLR camera to Instagram, Facebook, or some other social platform, there's an easy way to do so — even if you don't have a computer handy, which is typical when you're out and about.
For those of us who love to multitask, picture-in-picture mode is a godsend. The feature, introduced in Android 8.0 Oreo, lets you enjoy videos in a floating window overlaid on top of another app. However, while the OS does have native support, only a select number of apps support the feature.
In iOS 12, Apple included new, Snapchat-like effects and stickers for photos and videos in Messages. While these new options are fun, they're missing something that takes away from the appeal, especially since Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and similar apps already let you do it.
The next big event Apple is holding is WWDC 2018, its Worldwide Developers Conference, is about to happen. If you want to see the first glimpse of iOS 12 for yourself, as well ARKit improvements, Apple Watch news, and maybe even some macOS announcements, here's how you can tune into the event right at home from your computer or mobile device.
Spotify is a great music subscription service, but constantly streaming songs can really run up your monthly mobile data. Fortunately, you're able to download music from Spotify on Android and iOS in order to preserve your precious data cap.
It appears we're in the midst of an augmented reality art boom, because in the same month that the famed Christie's auction house launched its mobile AR app, leading art gallery and art seller Saatchi Art has also announced its entry into the AR space.
In an effort to help its advertising partners close sales with its sponsored augmented reality camera effects, Snapchat has launched a set of e-commerce tools designed to encourage users to buy products directly in the app.
While it may not be an obvious feature, Apple actually built a way into iOS that lets you hide specific pictures and videos in the Photos app that you want to keep on the down-low, for your eyes only. If you show off your photos a lot or stream slideshows to your TV, this is a great way to keep less appealing content private.
A new smartglasses powerhouse is rising in Europe, led by two of the region's leading brands, optical systems company Zeiss (also known as Carl Zeiss) and telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom.
With the big reveal of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition in December 2017, and now the update on Feb. 13, 2018, we no longer have to speculate as to what the augmented reality headset will look like or when (in general) it will be available.
Essential recently launched their Android Oreo Beta Program, open to all owners of their PH-1 flagship. We detailed a quick and easy method for installing the beta on your device. With every beta program, there are bound to be plenty of new features and a few bugs, as we found out with the Galaxy S8 Oreo Beta. Let's take a look at what's new with Android 8.0 on the Essential Phone.
