The last few weeks were fairly busy in the realm of augmented reality and remote meetings developments. Most of that activity was generated by some mammoth announcements from Snap and its Spectacles AR smartglasses, and Google, with its Project Starline experimental holographic video conferencing system.
Google and Snap held their annual conferences this week, and both companies managed to upstage their new AR software features with fantastic new AR hardware.
We've wanted them for years, and Apple has finally made widgets accessible on the home screen in iOS 14. These are not the same widgets found in past versions of iOS. They're more data-rich, more colorful, and more versatile. And best of all, both the home screen and Today View get access to them.
One of Android's biggest strengths is its flexibility. There's usually more than one way to perform the same task, which makes it easy to find an alternate method that works better for you. Android also has some hidden features that newer users might not be aware of, so we made this list to highlight lesser-known tips and tricks.
One of the best things about Android is the ability to customize your phone to your liking. From changing the layout of icons to finding the perfect wallpaper to reflect your current mood, there's a wide range of tools to make your phone yours.
Remember Brian sticking a 4-inch nail up his nose at Diggnation New York? Want to do it yourself? This time he shows you how it works!
Skulls. What spooky Halloween décor or staging of Hamlet is complete without a skull or two popping up? For ghoulish special effect and/or setting a dramatic scene, skulls are absolutely integral. Well, with some artistry, hardware supplies, and a good dose of patience, you can create your own inexpensive prop skulls for use however you please.
Apple's newest software update, iOS 17.5 includes one killer new feature for people who like word games: another lexical challenge to complement the crossword puzzles that Apple News already has.
Apple finally lets us fix sent iMessages, and I can honestly say it's a game-changer. Editing messages after sending them can prevent miscommunication and allow you to fix embarrassing mistakes before the other person notices them. It's one of the Messages app's coolest new features, but there are some important things for you to know about how it works.
Away from the hype around Facebook's smartglasses, the high-end fascination with the Microsoft HoloLens, and the unending rumors about Apple's AR wearable is the small but powerful darling of the enterprise AR world—Vuzix.
The emergence of Microsoft's HoloLens 2 as a cutting-edge US Army tool has focused a spotlight on the marriage between augmented reality and the military.
It's all fun and games until the technology is actually put into use and you realize augmented reality is now part of Death Star.
Ever since Facebook announced its partnership with Luxxotica brand Ray-Ban to produce smartglasses, the augmented reality space has been on high alert awaiting more details.
This week, Apple unveiled its own version of Google Lens in the form of Live Text. In response, Google just hit back with a new feature for its visual search tool called Places, a new search category that can recognize landmarks and return information on them within the camera view, which Apple touted as a capability of Live Text during its WWDC keynote.
Metadata might be a bigger concern than you might realize. In its continuous push to be a privacy-first company, Apple has released several new features with iOS 15 that allow you to adjust and permanently change the metadata stored within the photos and videos you take on your iPhone. But why would you want to do this?
Last week, Snap powered through a mountain of important software and (shock!) hardware updates, as well as a few very big business partnerships.
The big day for Snap that resulted in the debut of brand new augmented reality Spectacles smartglasses is turning into a big week.
During the Tuesday launch of Google I/O, the company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, pulled off a Steve Jobsian "one more thing" move near the end of his keynote address that was simply stunning.
Consumers who haven't already delved into the interactive wonders of augmented reality are about to be pushed into the immersive waters by market forces.
The enterprise applications powering the adoption of the HoloLens 2 are only just ramping up as developers continue to work with the still relatively new hardware.
After years of testing and modifications, the US Army is moving forward with its customized version of HoloLens 2 from Microsoft.
As if teasing its own smartglasses weren't enough, augmented reality gaming developer Niantic gave gamers a glimpse of how 5G speeds can revolutionize how they play mobile games in the near future.
As augmented reality space continues to move into the mainstream, the competition to offer immersive services is ramping up as well.
While Apple has been rather secretive about its work on AR wearables (despite the abundance of leaks revealing details about their unannounced devices), Facebook has been rather chatty about its plans for smartglasses.
The hype surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has reached astronomical levels over the past few weeks, and now the technology has intersected with augmented reality's orbit in a fantastic way.
Since launching its web-based AR platform in 2018, 8th Wall has continued to push the boundaries of what brands can do with AR experiences outside of native apps.
As businesses flocked to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and other video conferencing platforms to bridge the gap, we wondered aloud -- why aren't more companies leaning even more heavily on augmented reality?
Things tend to get noisy when you're in a big group chat, which is why the notification sound for that thread shouldn't be your standard, attention-grabbing ringtone. But you don't want to set the default notification sound to something too subtle, otherwise you'd miss messages that actually matter.
When it comes to mobile gaming, it's tough to beat Apple Arcade. With over 100 games and counting, there's something for everyone to play. That said, the ever-growing list of titles can make it difficult to find the games that are right for you. That's why Apple Arcade's sorting and filtering tools are essential for any subscriber.
Now that 3D display maker Looking Glass Factory is closing in on $2.2 million raised in its crowdfunding campaign for the consumer-grade Looking Glass Portrait device, the company now has a 3D content generator to go with it.
Many podcasts you come across will tell you to check out the episode notes for information and links about whatever that show's topic is. Easy enough, unless you're using Apple Podcasts, where these episode notes don't appear to be anywhere at all. Luckily, they're just hiding in plain sight.
Written language began with one of the most pedestrian tasks imaginable: accounting. The basis of poetry, epic mythologies, and novels initially involved marking down trades between livestock owners and grain suppliers. We rightfully think that literature is essential to the human spirit. But when contemplating how societies operate, spreadsheets are king.
Not including playback speed controls in a video app is a design flaw. These controls are useful tools that let you speed up or slow it down a video. Want to catch all the Easter eggs in Avengers: Infinity Wars? Slow it down. Want to rewatch the last season of Strangers Things before the new season arrives? Speed it up.
Android has finally got a proper alternative to Apple's AirDrop. With a few touches, Nearby Share lets you send files, links, and even tweets to Android, Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, or Linux. But AirDrop has not been without its share of issues, and thankfully, Google has learned from them.
Since its original release as a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982, Microsoft Excel has become the world's premier business software. If you think that it's only good for spreadsheets, you haven't been paying enough attention.
For all the benefits 5G brings to cellular data, it isn't without weaknesses, the biggest being privacy. Yes, the latest standard comes with breakneck downloads speeds up to 4.3 Gbps, but at what cost? Like with all things on the internet, 5G devices open opportunities for both good and bad actors.
In 2009, 4G LTE networks rolled out in Stockholm and Oslo, replacing 3G as a better upgrade to the mobile data technology that gives us the broadband speeds we have on our mobile devices. Over a decade later, and we have the latest, next-generation wireless network technology among us, 5G, but can you even use it?
Android 10 added the framework for OS-wide chat bubbles, a feature popularized by Facebook Messenger. The new system allows you to interact with incoming messages as if you were in the app — all without having to leave your current app. In Android 11, this feature is finally activated.
There are times when leadership is tested. This is one of those times. As government and business leaders around the world are grappling with the unfolding coronavirus pandemic, the real-time responses to the crisis from many leaders have been great and, at times, less-than-optimal.
The words of three of tech's most important executives in the last 48 hours are providing some valuable insight into the near term future of augmented reality and the cloud infrastructures that support it.
