Market Reality: Perfect Corp. & EchoPixel Close Series A Rounds on Interactive Apps
Investors are ready to throw their money at augmented and virtual use cases that demonstrate a business purpose and a return on investment.
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News: Where Is the Free App of the Week in iOS 11?
The Free App of the Week is as cool as it sounds. Apple features one app every week on the front page of its App Store that comes completely free. Once you download it, you have access to all future updates, just like you would if you purchased the app in full. Sounds great right? There's just one problem — it's missing.
News: Windows Mixed Reality Headsets Now Available for Pre-Order
At their event in San Francisco today, Microsoft announced that they have begun accepting pre-orders for Windows Mixed Reality headsets from Acer, Dell, Lenovo, and HP, with the devices arriving on Oct. 17 along with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
Market Reality: Snapchat's World Lenses Are Just the Tip of the AR Advertising Iceberg
Snapchat is mostly credited as the first AR social network, and, like most social media companies, its revenue model is nested largely within advertising. As such, the company now has a new avenue for branded content.
Apple AR: Kaon Interactive Ports Their Marketing Apps from Tango to ARKit
Apple has billed ARKit as a means to turn millions of iPhones and iPads into augmented reality devices. The refrain is similar for Kaon Interactive, a developer of product catalog apps for businesses.
News: The Walking Dead Doubles Down on AR with Another Mobile App
It seems like it was just last week that AMC and Next Games unveiled their location-based zombie game based on hit TV series The Walking Dead. (Wait, actually it was just last week.)
Brief Reality: Exhibitors Pitch Their AR Ideas at IFA 2017
While not specifically an augmented reality conference, IFA 2017 packed a plethora of presentations with AR themes, including devices with AR features from Sony and Motorola, a smartphone-based AR headset from Lenovo, and a new processor from Huawei that will facilitate AR experiences.
Market Reality: Businesses Invest in the Expansion of AR Services & Content Creation
As augmented reality gains popularity, the demand for delivering related services and generating content increases. This is demonstrated by a pair of investments from the past week, one in the expansion of a technology lab and another in the form of seed funding for a content studio.
Apple AR: Take a Look at the Entire Star Wars Galaxy from Your Living Room
Think you're a true Star Wars fan? I bet you haven't created a demo using Apple's ARKit that creates a map of the entire Star Wars galaxy. How's that for being a fanatic?
Apple AR: The Universe Is in Your Floor with New ARKit Portal Demo
You'd better start watching where you're stepping because there are portals opening up everywhere thanks to Apple's ARKit.
Dev Report: Urho3d Could Be a Development Bridge Between HoloLens & ARKit
Developers looking to create shared experiences that support both HoloLens as well as ARKit may be able to get it working in Unity since that the engine supports both platforms — though, the amount of effort it might take to get that working could be a bit much. Up to this point, Unity has been the only real approach to attempt this combination — at least, until now.
Apple AR: Demo Shows How Augmented Reality Will Make Advertising More Immersive
Companies are already clamoring to figure out strategies for integrating augmented reality into their advertising platforms. AR is going to become a huge asset to marketers, and Apple's ARKit is only going to help that along. Mixed reality producer Bilawal Singh Sidhu has given us a sneak peek of what the world of advertising could be with the ARKit.
News: Google Glass Enterprise Edition Open for Business
Perhaps in tribute to the season premiere of Game of Thrones, Google Glass is demonstrating that what is dead may never die, as Alphabet's X (formerly Googlex) has revealed that the Enterprise Edition of the smart glasses are now available to businesses.
News: AR Investor Says Apple ARKit Apps Face Same Challenges as Other Mobile Apps
In a recent series of tweets, investor and entrepreneur (and NR50 member) Amitt Mahajan summarized the challenges and opportunities for iOS developers looking to leverage Apple's ARKit for augmented reality experiences.
News: Continental to Shop Driverless Platform from BMW, Intel, Mobileye Alliance
Leading tier-one supplier Continental has confirmed it will sell driverless platforms developed from BMW, Mobileye, and Intel's previously announced alliance, giving the company a potential edge over competitors by widening the range of technologies it offers directly to OEMs.
News: Chinese VCs Spent Over $900 Million on Driverless in Q1
Millions of dollars continue to pour into the Chinese driverless market. Now, according to research firm CB Insights, $929 million have been invested in the first quarter of this year.
Online Dating Moves to Reality: 'Bumble' App Opens Dating Lounge in NYC
Single and living in NYC? Forget bars, the female-empowered dating app, Bumble, has just opened a place where you can meet up with your online lovers.
Market Reality: Upskill Acquires Pristine
This week's Market Reality covers a variety of business news from acquisitions and partnerships to competitive and technology assessments to quarterly financial results.
Brief Reality: Healthcare Industry Prescribes Innovations Through Augmented Reality
In this Tuesday's Brief Reality report, there's a trio of stories from the healthcare world where augmented reality is helping out with surgical microscopes, asthma treatment, and other diagnostic and treatment tools. There's also something for all of you AR/VR storytellers out there.
News: Increasing Road Deaths Due to Smartphone Use Make the Case for Driverless Vehicles
You would think most people would agree that you shouldn't use your smartphone while driving. Apparently, most people would be liars, according to recent data from the National Safety Council (NSC) and Zendrive.
News: Sony Develops New HDR Camera Sensors for Self-Driving Cars
In the driverless race, technological advances can sometimes just add more tension to an already heated competition, if Waymo suing Uber over their allegedly stolen LiDAR technology is any indication. Now, Sony is offering a new camera sensor, one that should help self-driving cars "see" the road with much more accuracy than any other camera sensors available for vehicles currently.
News: VRLA Expo Prepares to Host Mixed Reality Easter Egg Hunt
The Easter Bunny is about to get his first experience with mixed reality. Virtual Reality Los Angeles (VRLA) will host its third annual expo in April, and this year's attendees will get to experience a fun Easter egg hunt sponsored by AfterNow and VRLA, in partnership with mixed reality king, the Microsoft HoloLens.
News: ASUS Rumored to Turn AR & VR Departments into Independent Startup
ASUS is gearing up to move its augmented and virtual reality departments into an independent startup named Glamorfy, according to a recent report from tech news site Fudzilla.
News: Adobe Integrates with HoloLens for Personalized Marketing
At Adobe Summit 2017 this week, Adobe announced they are looking to occupy a new space in the market by combining their analytic capabilities with augmented reality. Teaming up with Microsoft, the company has combined Adobe Sensei software with the HoloLens, reports GeekWire. Together, the tech and software create a new tool for retailers to track their consumers' habits.
News: 'Turkish Crime Family' Demands $75,000 in Bitcoin from Apple in Exchange for Hacked iPhone Accounts
Rumor has it that a gang of hackers—or possibly, one lonesome individual—holds the power to remotely wipe millions of iPhones and iCloud accounts, unless Apple coughs up some ransom money by April 7.
News: Vodafone Set to Become India's Biggest Mobile Contender
Vodafone India has merged with telecom company Idea Cellular to become India's largest mobile player this week.
News: Bixby Is Official—Meet Samsung's Siri Competitor
The rumors have been confirmed by Samsung themselves: Samsung has developed a virtual assistant of their own, named Bixby.
News: VAR Football Gives Coaches Another Tool to Train Sports Teams With—The HoloLens
The HoloLens is a natural medium for 3D data visualization, which offers a far more ideal approach over 2D screens to managing multiple resources simultaneously and grasping the bigger picture. We've already seen how management is using holograms to oversee cities, firefighters, and the military, and now training for sports teams is being addressed with VAR Football.
News: Waveguide Developer Wins Big in New Round of Funding for Augmented Reality Displays
DigiLens, a company specializing in optical waveguide technology, recently announced that they had closed a $22 million round of strategic investment, also known as Series B funding. This round brought in Sony, Foxconn, Continental, and Panasonic, as well as more traditional venture investors such as Alsop Louie Partners, Bold Capital, Nautilus Venture Partners, and Dolby Family Ventures.
News: Alibaba Leads InfinityAR's Latest $18M Round—Diversifying Their Augmented Reality Portfolio
China's e-commerce site Alibaba has been making heavy investments in augmented and mixed reality startups. In February of this year, they led a $793 million round of Series C financing of Magic Leap. And now they've just invested in Israeli-based InfinityAR, which acquired $18 million in its Series C financing.
News: Meta Delays Shipments of Developer Kits Until the End of the Year—& That's a Good Thing
The future for the Meta 2 augmented reality headset will have to wait. While shipments were supposedly on their way out back in June, Meta revealed today that they need a bit more time to provide the best possible experience—and that's really for the best.
News: Leap Motion's Interaction Engine Brings Natural Gestures into Virtual Worlds
Leap Motion created gesture control for all sorts of things, including virtual reality, long ago, but developers must build in support for their tracking peripheral to use its full potential. As a result, they've created an "Interaction Engine" for Unity, the primary platform for developing virtual and mixed reality experiences, to try and take gesture interaction to the next level.
News: Apple Releases Developer Beta 6 to Put the Finishing Touches on iOS 10
Apple has been aggressively smashing bugs with its last few updates to iOS 10, so it seems like all of the major work is done. With the iPhone 7 release date approaching fast, it's a good sign that the only remaining hurdles are relatively minor and cosmetic tweaks (though they still need to add the song lyrics they showed off a few months ago).
News: Strange New Technologies Explore the World of Virtual Taste, Touch, & Smell
Virtual, mixed, and augmented reality all provide different but compellingly immersive experiences that draw us in through sight and sound. But what about our other senses? A few strange inventions are already exploring the possibilities.
News: Mixed Reality Is the Future of VR Gaming
Don't Miss: The Difference Between Virtual, Augmented, & Mixed Reality
News: Designing Software for Mixed Reality Requires a Massive Shift in Thinking
We started with a static page and evolved to dynamic screens, and making that 2D surface interactive was a relatively straightforward transition in design. But when you can put holographic objects literally anywhere in the room, the way you design apps, games, and experiences requires a different mode of thought entirely.
News: The First Meta 2 Mixed Reality Headsets Will Begin Shipping in Two Weeks
Microsoft's enjoyed being the only mixed reality headset on the block for a little while, but the Meta 2 intends to join the party very soon. According to UploadVR, in a couple of weeks they'll begin shipping alpha versions of their headset with improved hand tracking.
News: Microsoft's Windows Holographic Is Breaking Free from the HoloLens
Not content with bringing the first untethered mixed reality headset to market, Microsoft wants to expand their Windows Holographic operating system beyond HoloLens into vastly more robust technologies.
News: How Zero-Day Exploits Are Bought & Sold
Most of you already know that a zero-day exploit is an exploit that has not yet been revealed to the software vendor or the public. As a result, the vulnerability that enables the exploit hasn't been patched. This means that someone with a zero-day exploit can hack into any system that has that particular configuration or software, giving them free reign to steal information, identities, credit card info, and spy on victims.