The recent announcement of a $480 million US Army contract awarded to Microsoft over Magic Leap for supplying 100,000 augmented reality headsets shows just a how lucrative the enterprise (and government) sector can be for AR.
In their first head-to-head major contract clash, Microsoft has emerged victorious over Magic Leap, as the US Army has awarded a $480 million contract to the HoloLens maker.
Now that the Magic Leap One is out in the real world, the mystery behind the company lies not in whether it will actually ship a product, but when it will ship a consumer product. Or, does CEO Rony Abovitz steer the company in a different direction first?
Mystery is a tricky thing. Used correctly, it can give onlookers the impression that wondrous and perhaps valuable things are afoot. However, once the veil of suspension of disbelief is removed in any significant way, that same mystery can quickly turn into not just skepticism, but outright anger at what may have seemed like an attempt to dupe trusting onlookers.
The North remembers...that smartglasses are the future! Game of Thrones jokes aside, the smartglasses startup opened its doors, and we visited its Brooklyn store to get our hands the consumer-focused Focals smartglasses.
In recent years, Apple has assembled its augmented reality team and supply chain through a series of acquisitions, high-profile hires, and strategic investments, but at least one potentially major deal was recently ditched.
On Tuesday, Blue Vision Labs, one of three Google-backed companies working on AR Cloud platforms, announced its acquisition by ride-sharing company Lyft.
On Thursday, yet another piece of the Magic Leap puzzle fell into place at Twilio's Signal developer and customer conference in San Francisco.
Adding another arrow to its quiver of augmented reality acquisitions, Apple has reportedly acquired Spektral, a computer vision company with technology for real-time compositing (otherwise know as the "green screen" technique in broadcast TV and film).
This week, we continued our NR30 series highlighting the leaders of augmented reality space by profiling the venture capitalists and strategic corporate investors that sustain the industry.
The latest business move by Magic Leap could result in a significant boost to its spatial computing platform's performance and headset design.
While many of the latest content partnerships announced by Magic Leap appear to lean towards entertainment and gaming, a new partnership with medical technology provider Brainlab has Magic Leap getting down to more serious business.
Smartglasses maker ThirdEye has announced that its X1 model wearable will be updated by the slimmer, as yet unreleased X2 model. Both devices will be promoted and sold through its partner, brick and mortar technology retailer b8ta.
Leading augmented reality headset makers Microsoft and Magic Leap are among the companies now vying for a military contract for battlefield heads-up displays.
This week, Next Reality published profiles on the leaders in augmented reality hardware industry, with Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz topping the list. So, it should be no surprise that two app makers want to align themselves with Magic Leap's flagship product.
Two companies armed with web-based augmented reality tools, Vertebrae and Shopify, are ready to help online retailers boost their sales.
The march towards mainstream adoption of eSIM technology got a massive boost with the arrival of the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. We're now one step closer to ditching physical SIM cards altogether. If you're on the fence about this new technology, you may be surprised by the benefits it brings to the table.
This time last year, we got our first taste of what mobile app developers could do in augmented reality with Apple's ARKit. Most people had never heard of Animojis. Google's AR platform was still Tango. Snapchat introduced its World Lens AR experiences. Most mobile AR experiences existing in the wild were marker-based offerings from the likes of Blippar and Zappar or generic Pokémon GO knock-offs.
After parting ways with Papa John's, the National Football League has drafted Pizza Hut as its official pizza purveyor, and the company has hit the field with an augmented reality game to entertain hungry football fans.
Better known among consumers for its virtual reality apps, Jaunt is now pivoting toward solutions for augmented reality developers.
Google Photos integrates with Google's ecosystem to bring you awesome features like the ability to identify landmarks, track down products you've photographed, and so much more. Now, if you need to translate foreign words in any of your pictures, the app has you covered as well.
Although the Magic Leap One: Creators Edition is currently officially available in only six US cities, those living outside of Magic Leap's designed US cities now have a roundabout way to order the device.
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 narrative that Magic Leap has weaved for the Magic Leap One has focused on the freedom of spatial computing versus dated modes of 2D screens.
Based on its continued research, it appears Microsoft recognizes that the next HoloLens needs a wider field of view (FoV). Based on a recently-revealed documentation, the company's research team has found another way to accomplish that objective.
If touring the scenic vistas behind the Lord of the Rings film franchise doesn't persuade tourists to visit New Zealand, perhaps immersive content viewed through Magic Leap One will do the trick.
For years, Magic Leap has promised to deliver stunning augmented reality experiences that will outperform any other competitor, and a newly revealed partnership hints that the company may be able to deliver on those promises.
While Vuzix is beefing up the processing power of its next-generation smartglasses with the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1, the company will also give its devices an upgraded display engine.
Although retailers like Mac Cosmetics and Zara have been celebrated for deploying innovative in-store augmented reality experiences in their brick-and-mortar locations, a new report throws cold water on the practice.
A newly-filed patent application from Disney Enterprises, Inc. teases more augmented reality lightsaber duels, either for at-home gaming or for the media behemoth's forthcoming Star Wars theme park.
Some of the big guns developing augmented reality technology fired shots at their competitors with announcements and leaked plans this week.
Last month, we told you about U2's new augmented reality-powered music tour. But if you don't have the means to travel to the show, the group recently revealed an inside look at what it will be like and what inspired the band to dive into immersive technology.
Riding the coattails of one of the biggest movies this year, the first edition of the new Moviebill augmented reality magazine will be available at Regal Cinema theaters nationwide this weekend alongside the release Avengers: Infinity War.
Fast-casual burger restaurant Bareburger expects to soon replace all of its paper menus with 3D models of its burgers and other items rendered in augmented reality, but for now, the company is preparing some rather interesting limited AR interactions.
The future of augmented reality isn't on your smartphone or face, it's in the everyday items all around us. At least that's the belief of Gordon Meyer, the vice president of marketing at New York-based startup Lampix.
Just weeks after being acquired by comedian turned producer Byron Allen for $300 million, The Weather Channel has tapped augmented reality studio The Future Group to integrate immersive augmented reality experiences into its broadcast content.
Great ideas often strike at random times, but messaging friends and loved ones at an inopportune hour not only risks their wrath, but also increases the chances of your message not being paid proper attention to. Thankfully, there's an app that lets you create and post WhatsApp messages at the time you wish for maximum effect.
There's a fine line between order and chaos in group chats. With all the cross-talk, threads can easily devolve into a random mess that has nothing to do with the original discussion topic. WhatsApp group chats certainly aren't immune to this problem, but they've recently taken a step in the right direction.
Three months after its promise, Apple has pushed out an iOS update that gives you important information about the health of your iPhone's battery. This means you no longer need tools such as Geekbench and Battery Life to determine whether or not you need a replacement battery.
With its recent acquisition of 3D gaming engine PlayCanvas, Snapchat parent Snap, Inc. appears to be preparing a challenge to the existing players in the world of game development, particularly in terms of augmented and virtual reality gaming.
