When I get weather information, I prefer to receive it in a straight-forward, minimalistic fashion. Living in California, I could care less about wind speeds, humidity, or any other calculations that I can't analyze in a second. I essentially use the information to help decide whether I'll be wearing shorts or pants on a given day, so give it to me bluntly.
Unless you're a business executive or movie star, most of us aren't afforded the luxury of having a personal assistant. Wouldn't it be nice to wake up in the morning and just have everything taken care of?
If you've spent most of your life in one geographic location, you're probably pretty familiar with the weather there (unless you're a hermit). If you live in a tropical climate (and haven't done much traveling), maybe you've never even seen snow.
Apple's new iOS 16 software update is finally here, and there are over 350 new features and changes for you to enjoy on your iPhone. There are major lock screen and home screen improvements, a pleasant surprise for the Contacts app, and tons of new upgrades to Safari, Mail, Messages, and more.
So you finally decided to make the switch from iOS to Android, huh? Well first off: welcome to the world of tomorrow. And secondly: good call, mate.
Mobile augmented reality developer Blippar has escalated the augmented reality advertising arms race, introducing a new rich media ad format that enables augmented reality experiences without a dedicated app.
The good news keeps on coming for Samsung! According to the market research firm Strategy Analytics, the Korean giant sold a whopping 7.2 million Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones in the first quarter of this year. That totals 55 million of the company's flagship smartphones sold since their launch in March 2016.
It turns out that the new Galaxy Samsung S8 Active (codenamed Cruiser) will be headed for AT&T in the US later this year, just like previous Active models. SamMobile revealed that the device would be exclusive to the network with a model number SM-G892A.
It looks like Samsung is stronger than ever, as evidenced by their quarterly forecast, which suggests a global profit of $8.8 billion, the company's highest mark in three years. Impressive, considering the spectacular failure of the Note7, Samsung's last flagship prior to the new Galaxy S8.
Widgets exist to offer quick access to certain features in the apps we use most. On the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, home screen widgets let me do pretty much anything, from checking the forecast to browsing my emails.
In a world where more features are king, sometimes it's a good thing to breathe, take a step backwards and keep it simple. With home launchers, this isn't often the case, as developers add a galore of features to their apps in order to be at the top of the game.
Apple's built-in search on iPhone is an incredibly valuable tool you shouldn't ignore or underutilize, and we're here to show you why. So, buckle in because this list covers hidden and lesser-known Spotlight features that will leave you wondering how you ever lived without Spotlight Search on iOS.
The OnePlus 6 is finally in customers' hands along with its top-of-the-line specs — and yes, a notch. But you can start getting some of their stock apps as early as today, thanks to XDA user erayrafet, who ported this Weather app directly from the source.
This week, saw two companies leaning on AR to prop up their financial futures. On one hand, Apple made quite a bit of AR-related news ahead of its quarterly earnings report next week. On the other hand, Vuzix launched a pre-order program for its Blade smartglasses and closed the largest financing deal in the company's history to fuel its ongoing headset production.
If CES 2018 is the starting gate for this year's race to release smartglasses, then Vuzix is already racing down the augmented reality track with its Blade smartglasses.
The Google Assistant comes in several different flavors. There's the baked-in Google app on Android, the dedicated Google Assistant app on iOS, and the Assistant-powered Google Home smart speaker. But no matter how you access it, your Assistant will only get better if you take some time to personalize things.
A report by PwC highlights that immersive experiences in augmented and virtual reality represent the fastest growing segment of the entertainment and media industry over the next six years. News from two companies working in the industry, Fox and NetDragon, underscore the growth forecast.
According to Alex Kipman, HoloLens inventor and futurist at Microsoft, the smartphone is already obsolete. In an interview with Bloomberg, Kipman boldly stated that the HoloLens will eventually replace the smartphone and drive society right into a new augmented normal.
Out of all the new changes in iOS 10, the most noticeable difference is a handful of fun new features that were added to iMessage. Not only can you now send GIFs directly from the Apple-exclusive messaging platform, but there's now an entire App Store dedicated to bringing fun new stickers and other cool add-ons to iMessage.
The stock AccuWeather widget on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is great if you want a super quick way to see the current time, date, and weather forecast for your area, but personally, its design just doesn't do it for me. It's big and bulky and I find that the background weather imagery is distracting. Developer ElMartinoAT feels pretty much the same, and brings us nine alternatives to choose from when it comes to the stock AccuWeather widget on Galaxy Note 3 devices running Android KitKat.
If you're anything like me, you rely heavily on your calendar to keep on track throughout the week, month, and year. While Android's built-in Google Calendar provides an excellent cloud-based solution for keeping our schedules properly maintained, it's not perfect.
One of the scariest things about the COVID-19 virus is that you can show no symptoms but still be infected (and contagious). Naturally, we all want to know whether we're carrying the new coronavirus, but if you're showing signs of COVID-19, how can you be tested to know for sure? Websites are popping up to help with that, screening for symptoms, and directing you to a testing site if needed.
A week after the L.E.A.P. Conference, our cup of Magic Leap news continues to floweth over, with the company's content chief giving us some insight into the company's strategy, and Twilio sharing what its virtual chat app looks like.
This week, Next Reality published its annual feature on the leaders in the augmented reality industry, the Next Reality 30. So it's no coincidence that the companies represented in the top four spots of the NR30 also made business headlines in AR this week.
There are a lot of things that make iOS great, but lock screen widgets are not among them. If you want more information on your lock screen other than the date, time, and notifications without having to swipe to a sidebar of widgets, you'd normally look toward Android. However, iOS 12 aims to shake that up a bit with a secret Weather widget for the lock screen — not for the Today view.
IFTTT is an application that allows you to automate certain tasks on your iPhone or Android. It can communicate with a myriad of apps and services on your phone by creating applets that perform actions automatically — actions you'd normally have to do manually. Finding those applets, however, can be a little difficult.
Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. This week's column is led by two companies cashing in on visual inputs.
Disengagement report numbers for self-driving car testing in 2016 on public roads in California were just released, and the biggest point we can make about them is that Waymo is very far ahead of their competitors in almost every metric.
Using mathematical modeling, researchers suggest weather and warming created the "perfect storm" that drove the Zika outbreak in 2016.
Among the many changes in Android 7.0 Nougat, a less talked-about feature may very well be one of the most interesting. As part of a new system-wide API, apps can now create their own Quick Settings tiles, and it doesn't require any complicated workarounds like it has in versions past.
Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated personal assistant, originally launch on Windows Phone, but is now built directly into Windows 10 complete with "Hey Cortana" voice search (take that, Apple). It can help you locate files, set up reminders, control music.
You can check stock quotes, make quick calculations, see the weather forecast, get reminders, and view upcoming calendar events all from the Notification Center on your Mac. But if that's all your using it for, you're just barely scratching the surface.
With an Android device, you can replace almost any default app with a third-party offering. Don't like your home screen app? Replace it. Tired of the text messaging interface? Upgrade it. The same can be said for Android's lock screen. But while many third-party lock screen apps are available, so far, only one has been designed with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and its fingerprint scanner in mind.
Why is transferring contacts from an old smartphone to a new one still insanely difficult? I can check my bank account, upload a picture to Instagram, email someone across the globe, and check the weather forecast on my phone—all in under five minutes.
The biggest complaint I have with my Nexus 7 is the lack of support for different types of media files. I have a lot of movies and music that I've downloaded off the web, in many different formats, and I want them on my tablet.
Apple's just ushered in a new era for widgets on your iPhone. With the iOS 16 update, each of your lock screens can have up to five widgets. While Apple's apps were the first to get lock screen widgets, third-party developers can code their own ones into their apps — and here's a list of every app we know so far that does.
Apple just pushed out the iOS 10.3 update to everyone on March 27, so if you haven't installed it yet, make sure to do so by going to Settings -> General -> Software Update. Trust us, you'll want to.
Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL flagships are some very powerful smartphones, but as with any high-tech gadget, they're only as capable as the user allows them to be. So if you're a proud new Pixel owner, it's time to bone up on a few new features to help get the most out of your device.
Let's say you're flush with Google Opinion Rewards credits, or you just got a Google Play gift card for your birthday. This is a perfect opportunity to remove ads and unlock new features by upgrading some of your free apps to their paid counterparts, or to finally purchase that app you've been lusting after that doesn't offer a free version.
Facebook will let you do pretty much anything via a text message, but unless you still have a flip phone, it's more of a novelty than actually useful.
