NR30: The AR Hardware Leaders of 2018
It is almost indisputable that smartglasses and head-worn displays are the future of augmented reality. However, at this precise moment, they are still a very niche market.
It is almost indisputable that smartglasses and head-worn displays are the future of augmented reality. However, at this precise moment, they are still a very niche market.
Welcome to the first annual Next Reality 30, our list of people who've made the biggest impact on the augmented reality space in the last 12 months — and what a 12-month roller-coaster ride it's been. Apple introduced ARKit-powered apps last fall, Google launched ARCore for Android soon after, Snapchat began monetizing AR, and the Magic Leap One headset finally came out. These are historic times.
Give an 18-month-old a shoe, check back 10 minutes later, and it's a very big maybe he will have it on his foot. But give him your smartphone, and in a mere five minutes, he can take 100 pictures of the carpet, send weird messages, and delete essential apps. Imagine what your child could do if they were able to harness this technical aptitude and put it to good use — and they can, with learning apps.
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.
Andre was enjoying the carefree life of a 12-year-old with his friends, riding his bike and playing sports, like all kids that age. Schoolwork wasn't hard for him, and his grades showed that.
It always looks different when it's not about you. The Internet is our world's Alterego. Those many bits don't really make sense unless we want them to be valuable, to mean something.
Being able to sleep deeply and fully is one of the foundations for real health. When you go without it, you feel subhuman and incapable of dealing with the world—just ask a student who's had to pull an all-nighter or the parents of a newborn. In fact, many studies have shown that lack of sleep or irregular sleep is linked to acne, weight gain, and depression.
I obviously do a lot of Steampunk projects, but there are a ton of things out there that I haven't tried yet. So, in an effort to broaden my horizons, I recently taught myself how to use Arduinos, which I plan to incorporate into some of my future Steampunk builds.
With iOS 18, you get better note-taking capabilities in the revamped Notes app, advanced features like conversions and results history in the more powerful Calculator, and interactive Math Notes, a feature in both apps that's a game changer for students and professionals dealing with complex equations. But Apple didn't forget about Reminders, which has become more than a simple to-do-list app.
What started as an accessibility setting for hearing aids turned out to be a super helpful tool for anyone with a good set of Bluetooth headphones. The problem is that most iPhone and iPad users still don't know about it. If you're one of them, you need to see what this underrated gem in iOS and iPadOS can offer you.
In case you missed it, Apple has added a lot of new features and enhancements to the Music app on your iPhone, changes that benefit both Apple Music subscribers and non-subscribers. Chances are, you haven't seen all the changes yet, especially since many of them weren't released when iOS 17 first came out, but we'll go over them all with you.
Apple likes hiding things in its software, including secret apps, hidden iMessage effects, status bar customization, nameless icons, and red screen mode, but some of its best Easter eggs are right in front of you on the Home Screen.
If you're like me, you take more than just a few screenshots throughout the day, and they add up fast on your iPhone. When you snap that many images of the screen, your Photos app's "Screenshots" folder can swell beyond triple digits if you don't manage it, and your "Recents" folder will become a cluttered mess. But there is a trick to keeping screenshots in check, and you can have total control over it.
If you can't curb your TikTok obsession, at least make it more efficient by taking your hands out of the equation. So when you're eating breakfast, working on your computer, or using your hands for another non-TikTok task, you don't even have to touch your iPhone or iPad to scroll through all of those videos in your feed. Instead, you can just tell it what to do, and it'll listen.
Your Pixel's Now Playing song discovery tool received a few updates in Android 12, and the feature is finally comparable to other music recognition services.
Downloading content from TikTok is relatively easy, even if the video is protected, but the same can't be said of Reels, Instagram's version of short-form videos. Instagram doesn't make it easy to download content unless it's your own, and that's especially true with Reels. However, there is a way to bypass Instagram's restrictions on your iPhone and save videos locally without ever leaving the app.
With the holidays right around the corner, it's easy to miss a big software update on your iPhone, and by that, I mean iOS 15.2, which was pushed out Monday, Dec. 13. There's a surprising amount of new features and changes in the updated firmware, and there are a few big ones you need to know about.
It's already been a banner year for mergers and acquisitions in the augmented reality industry, with WaveOptics and Ubiquity6 among the notable companies acquired. Two of the more active M&A players, Snap and Epic Games, continued their respective buying sprees this week with major deals supporting their AR strategies.
Spotify has caught up to Apple in monthly podcast listenership and is even forecast to surpass Apple soon, but Apple just made some serious changes to its Podcasts app for iOS and iPadOS that could keep Apple at the top.
Snapchat may trail Facebook and Instagram in terms of daily active users, but a new partnership with Samsung may get those innovative AR Lenses onto the mobile devices of a lot more users.
You should feel relatively safe to watch and post videos on TikTok, but like with any online service, you're always at the mercy of hackers.
If you want to try out one of Apple's beta programs on your iPhone — whether that's by becoming a developer, joining the public beta, or using an IPSW of an available beta update — there's always a possibility that you'll want to go back to the stable iOS version you were using before. Likewise, if you updated to the latest stable release but liked how iOS worked on the previous version.
The iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max all have positive coverage surrounding their refreshed design, camera upgrades, and 5G connectivity. One piece of negative press you might've seen, however, is about the charger. Specifically, that there's a Lightning to USB-C cable in the box but no power adapter. That means you'll need a charger, and we've got some good recommendations for you.
The iPhone's built-in Reminders app got an overhaul last year with iOS 13, giving us a more modern design and plenty of new features, and iOS 14 doesn't mess with a good thing. Instead, iOS 14 brings lots of small tweaks all over the app to smooth out the experience and make Reminders more powerful and more customizable than ever.
According to the CDC, one in four U.S. adults has a disability, where limitations can involve vision, cognitive function, hearing, motor skills, and more. That's why the iPhone has accessibility features; so that everyone can use an iPhone, not just those without any impairments. Apple's iOS 14 has only made the iPhone even more accessible, and the new tools benefit everyone, not just those that need them.
If you've ever been into custom ROMs, you likely know the Dirty Unicorns name pretty well. It's been synonymous with unique features and awesome tweaks when compared to stock. Recently, Dirty Unicorns has returned again in a big way with some neat features for Android 10.
Once the laughing-stock of the navigation app market, Apple Maps is now a powerful, reliable travel companion. Apple rebuilt the platform from the ground up, placing the app in league with Google Maps. That said, there's always room for improvement, as demonstrated by its impressive new features set in iOS 14.
Cases and stickers are always great, but they aren't the only way to customize an iPhone. The software on your device is full of customization options, from a better-looking home screen and cooler lock screen wallpapers to app icon changes and a system-wide dark mode. There's literally over 100 ways to make iOS on your iPhone genuinely unique, some of which are hiding in plain sight.
Procrastination is an ugly beast. At first, it seems so innocent to spend five minutes checking Reddit or Twitter. You'll get started on work right after. Next thing you know, it's 1 a.m. and that paper is due in seven hours. Before you start another YouTube video, know you don't have to be like Spongebob. You can be like me, taking control of your productivity with the right app.
If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?"
Life's pretty good for iOS public testers — we get to check out new iPhone features months before the general public even knows they exist. That said, we aren't first to the party. Developers get priority during beta testing, as evidenced by yesterday's iOS 13 dev beta 6 release. It's not all bad though since Apple just released the public version of that software, public beta 5, this afternoon.
Trying to figure out which music streaming service to subscribe to can be a difficult task when the playing field is so crowded. Each has its benefits, as well as downsides, so finding the right one for your needs and wants can take a lot of overwhelming research. But we've done all the research for you to help you find the best music subscription your money can buy.
Starting in iOS 13, Apple introduced a robust suite of video-editing tools to its Photos app. The majority of editing tools were only available for images in iOS 12 and older, but iOS 13 leveled the playing field to allow even a novice to tweak videos like a pro before sharing.
Your phone's keyboard is one of the most commonly used apps. Whether you're typing out status updates, sending private messages, or just bombarding everyone in sight with as many emoji as you possibly can, you probably couldn't get by without a good keyboard app.
Overall, iOS is more impressive than ever with its stability enhancements, security tools, suite of apps and services, and intuitive user interface. With each passing update, things just get better and better for iPhone users. But don't think for a second that this is all because of Apple's genius — many of these features were at least partly inspired by tweaks made by the jailbreak community.
This year's big iPhone update, iOS 12, aims to solve many of the issues that arose during iOS 11's controversial, buggy tenure. With that in mind, it may be tempting to jump on board the new software immediately and leave iOS 11 in the dust for good. Here are some reasons why you might want to reconsider joining the iOS 12 beta.
When it's time to calculate a tip at a restaurant or bar, I usually try some mental math at first, but sometimes I resort to opening the Calculator quickly from the Control Center on my iPhone and doing a quick calculation. But with Apple's Shortcuts app, there's an even easier way, and you don't even have to leave your lock screen to get the results.
Apple's iOS 11 is finally here, and while they showed off several of the new features it brings to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch back at WWDC 2017, they've only just touched the surface of what iOS 11 has to offer. There are a lot of cool new (and sometimes secret) features to explore, so we've collected them all here for you.
Mikoto, from Karen Tsai (aka angelxwind), is a free jailbreak tweak unlike any other. With Mikoto, you can customize features in your favorite iOS apps to an extent that you would've never thought possible.
There's a powerful tool on your iPhone that can fine-tune your iOS experience based on what you're doing and when, and it's completely customizable. With it, you can control what notifications appear or are silenced, who can call you, which Home Screen pages you want to view, the Lock Screens you can pick from, and more. And you can automate it based on a variety of triggers.