At its height, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many auto showrooms to close their doors. As the pandemic persists, many consumers are still hesitant to let their socially distanced guard down.
VR gaming has developed rapidly in the last few years, moving from a fantasy to a product you can actually afford. As the VR industry grows, so do the ways you can experience virtual reality. The Dragon VR Gaming 3D Stereo Headset with Bluetooth Controller is the ultimate in VR gaming, offering you top-of-the-line performance for only $99.99 while it's on sale for 50% off.
The new WandaVision series is perhaps the hottest TV show on the Disney Plus streaming service since...well, its own The Mandalorian wrapped up its second season late last year.
Amid the coronavirus chaos, two companies at the forefront of augmented reality technology took starkly different approaches to their upcoming developers conferences, as Facebook has canceled its annual F8 conference and Magic Leap plans to invite a limited number of attendees to its Florida headquarters for LEAP Developer Days.
Back when I worked in the music industry, I never imagined there would be a day that I'd be able to sit in a room surrounded by virtual album covers while listening to beats, but that day is really here.
While the long-awaited HoloLens 2 officially arrived this week, details leaked about another, arguably longer-awaited AR headset, the fabled wearable from Apple, and a previously undisclosed partner assisting the Cupertino-based company with the hardware.
With its 3D engine being responsible for approximately 60% of augmented and virtual reality experiences, Unity is continuing to place a premium on tools that not only keep developers working in its development environment but also make their workflows easier.
Before smartglasses makers can dream of taking smartglasses to mainstream consumers, they must first determine the right mix of form, function, and price that will drive customers to buy into what they're hoping to sell.
Now that Samsung upgraded DeX in the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+, more users will be looking to use their phone as an "anywhere PC." With a simple USB-C to HDMI cable or adapter, you can turn your Note 10 into a desktop, complete with full access to your apps.
There's something extremely satisfying about hunting down your online adversaries and knocking them out with a well-placed shot, which probably explains why shooting games are still one some of the most popular time killers for iOS and Android.
This week, while Apple was the subject of thinly sourced reports that it had canceled development of its oft-rumored smartglasses, the Cupertino was actually laying the foundation for its AR hardware future with a new initiative focused on mentoring Chinese developers in mobile AR development.
The future of smartglasses for consumers seems ever dependent on Apple's entry into the market. Coincidentally, the exit of Apple's long-time design chief Jony Ive has shed some light on that eventual entrance.
While a viable version of consumer-grade smartglasses has yet to find mainstream success, two more contenders emerged this week, as Vuzix confirmed that a leak of a fashion-forward design is legitmate and Vivo introduced tethered smartglasses designed to pair with its new 5G smartphone.
For all its faults, you can't say that Facebook hasn't been instrumental in connecting friends and family together, no matter where in the world everyone is. That's why one of its upcoming features — watching videos together with Facebook friends directly in Messenger — is so novel. It's just another example of the internet bridging gaps that couldn't be bridged just a short while ago.
In recent weeks we've talked about the growing trend of smartglasses makers moving the brains of their devices to smartphones, and now a veteran of the space has joined that movement.
While Magic Leap turned heads at the Game Developers Conference with AR experiences at the Unity and Unreal Engine booths, news broke that the company was the winning bidder for ODG's patents.
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.
Last week, Twilio showed off how avatar-based chat communications will work on the Magic Leap One, and now a new startup has unveiled yet another way that augmented reality telepresence and remote collaboration can take place on the device.
Late last year, we got a little surprise from Razer. The gaming company released its first smartphone, and as expected, it targeted gamers. Branded as a gaming phone, it started a trend which several other companies followed soon after, including ASUS, Xiaomi, and even Samsung. So as you can imagine, many are excited about its successor.
It wouldn't be iPhone season without a new controversy. Chargegate, Apple's latest PR nightmare, is the name being used for charging issues on some iPhone XS and XS Max devices. If you plug in your iPhone at night — or whenever — then wake up or come back later and see that your iPhone has even less battery power, you're affected. But there is a fix you can implement right now.
Despite the launch of ARKit a year ago, and ARCore this year, a true killer app has not arrived for either platform, that's according to the head honcho for one of the leading development environments for 3D applications.
While Magic Leap has gained attention for its ability to raise capital, the company (now with an actual product on the market) still faces an uphill climb against the titans of the industry.
The hype train that left the station years ago has reached its first stop, and now we finally have access to the Magic Leap One, the device many have claimed would revolutionize the augmented reality space at launch. But is that really true?
It doesn't matter how cool or groundbreaking a particular technology is, if it doesn't offer the promise of big returns on investments, you'll have trouble drawing interest from both Silicon Valley and Wall Street. That's why we're increasingly seeing existing augmented reality players doing everything they can to focus in on revenue generation, which was the message coming from Snap Inc. this week.
With the reveal of Magic Leap's developer documentation last week, many questions have been answered—and several new ones have been raised as well. But since the Magic Leap One (ML1) isn't simply called the "Leap One," these are questions that the company probably has no interest (at least for now) in answering. Understandably, Magic Leap wants to keep some of the "magic" under wraps.
In this series, we are going to get you to the edge of building your own cloud-based, cross-platform augmented reality app for iPhone, Android, HoloLens, and Meta 2, among other devices. Once we get the necessary software installed, we will walk through the process of setting up an Azure account and creating blob storage.
Over the past week, we've had a number of important launches take place in the Android community. Samsung is in the middle of their rollout of the Galaxy S9, with preorders in the US shipping this week. Google also rolled out the first Android P developer preview last week. While these may seem unrelated, there are actually a number of Android P features inspired by Samsung software.
Ever since Google CEO Sundar Pichai took the helms of the world's most valuable brand, he has made it his mission to bring smartphones to lower-income communities. Born in India, Mr. Pichai has created several programs to address the needs of the Indian market, particularly the lower income families.
In its goal to push the visual quality of real-time rendering to a new level, Unity is starting the new year off right by releasing a sneak peek at its upcoming interactive rendering improvements via a short, three-minute first-person interactive demo called "Book of the Dead."
While Animal Crossing's emphasis has always been on making friends with the animals that populate your world, each subsequent game following its initial release has stressed relationships with human players more and more. In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, making human friends is a crucial part of the process with the inclusion of market boxes, Shovelstrike Quarry, and giving "kudos."
For all those times when an app either isn't available or simply won't cut it, your phone's internet browser provides access to your favorite websites and services. But some browsers are flat-out better than others, and chances are, the browser that came pre-installed on your phone isn't the best option out there.
The next frontier for AR hardware is the consumer headset, and tech companies of varying size and tenure are working hard to strike the right mix between comfort, cool factor, and cost. How these companies handle the hype and flow of information vary wildly.
Now that the the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have been revealed, we've been eager to see how the new devices will stack up against top-of-the-line Android phones like the Galaxy S8 and S8+. We can't compare real-world usage right now since the new iPhone models haven't been released yet, but we can see how they stack up on paper to get an idea of which one is the better buy.
When Apple announced their ARKit platform in June, they immediately staked the claim to the largest augmented reality hardware platform, with millions of iPhones and iPads compatible with iOS 11 becoming AR devices this fall.
Apple likes to make their products simple. However, sometimes that simplicity leads to a confusing user-experience. Take the Apple TV, for example. How do you turn it off? Just press the power button, right? Sorry, there is no power button. Okay, so it's like an iPhone and has a nondescript button designated as a power button, right? Nope.
Zenge came to my attention as a free game on the Google Play store — it will remain free until midnight, so anyone catching this review on the 25th, download it ASAP — but I imagine it would be worth the typical $0.99.
What makes YouTube such a special platform is that anyone and everyone can upload their own content. Big players upload their videos to the same site that the little guy does.
The herpes simplex virus (HSV) can cause devastating complications for infected newborns whose mothers have genital herpes. Understanding risk and research can help you, and your baby, when the time comes.
Four augmented reality companies made deals this week to grow their businesses. Two companies, TechSee and Car360, completed funding rounds, while DAQRI signed with a production partner and Decalomania landed a prime spot with a top retailer.
The sun-drenched people of Phoenix can now sign up to ride in an automated car, for free, courtesy of Waymo. The Alphabet affiliate announced its "early ride program," which will (hopefully) demonstrate how self-driving cars will fit into people's everyday lives. Highlighting a challenge Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has spoken about that faces the driverless industry.