News: Toyota Rolls Out Web-Based AR Advertising Campaign via 8th Wall
While Toyota ranks as the leading automotive brand in the world, the company is a follower when it comes to augmented reality.
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How To: Force Safari to Use Desktop View by Default for Specific Sites in iOS 13
In Safari for iPhone, as far back as iOS 7, you can request the full desktop version of websites. The process was streamlined starting in iOS 9, but the process remains relatively hidden and easily missed. Now, iOS 13 shines a light on it, as well as adds functionality to set the desktop view for individual websites indefinitely.
News: iOS 13 Developer Beta 1 Available for iPhone with a Lot of Kinks to Work Out
The first developer beta for iOS 13 is available to install on iPhone models, but the process for doing so may be a bumpy ride. Apple has not included configuration profiles for the developer beta yet, and many developers are having issues installing iOS 13 even with macOS 10.15 Catalina installed. Plus, since this is the first beta, there are a lot of problems with old and new features to work the kinks out of.
How To: Make Texts & iMessages Stand Out on Your iPhone with Bold Subject Lines
The subject line is a crucial part of an email, but you don't see it very often in texts. That's mostly because many people don't even know it can be done, and even if they do, why would they use it? Just like with emails, subject lines can make iMessages and SMS texts seem more important and more professional. Plus, they can help with organization and searching past messages, as well as make text bold.
News: Apple Just Released iOS 12.2 Beta 6 for iPhone to Developers, Adds New 'Warranty Status' in Settings
Apple just released the sixth beta release for iOS 12.2 today, Monday, March 18. Just as expected, the update to the developer version dropped just past 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT), and comes with new changes and features from iOS 12.2 beta 5 and beyond, including a new warranty status in the "About" page in Settings.
How To: Set Privacy-Focused DuckDuckGo as Chrome's Default Search Engine on Your Phone
While Google would rather you use Google as the default search engine in Chrome, there's a way to switch to the more privacy-geared DuckDuckGo search engine for all your web browsing needs. With DuckDuckGo, the company does not track anything you search or allow anyone else to track it, so you can effectively search from your iPhone or Android phone anonymously.
How To: 10 Things You Should Do to Improve Your Privacy on WhatsApp
WhatsApp is the go-to messaging app for millions worldwide and its easy to see why. The app can be considered the Swiss Army Knife of texting thanks to numerous features like Group Chats and Status Stories, in addition to striking a great balance between ease of access and overall security.
How To: Purchase Tweaks & Apps That Work with Sileo for Jailbroken iPhones
Sileo is an ideal marketplace for developers to showcase apps, tweaks, and themes that Apple would never allow in the App Store. While a majority of these packages are free to try out, there are jailbreak apps that cost money for your iPhone. But actually paying for mods can be a bit tricky.
How To: Disable Those Annoying Looping Videos When Playing Songs on Spotify
Back in 2018, Spotify began testing a new mobile feature that has grown very tiresome: three to eight-second looping videos that take over the entire screen. Known as Canvases, they effectively hide the cover art and lyrics of the current song — and they're still very much around to annoy and distract the hell out of you. Thankfully, Spotify has also included a way to get rid of these things.
How To: Use Custom Background Colors & Translucent Overlays in Instagram Stories
On Instagram, you can write text over any picture or video in your Story, but it may be hard to get your message across with a distracting background. Although there is a "Type" option for Stories, which allows you to write text over colorful gradient backgrounds, the selection is limited to just over twenty options, and there are no options for solid colored backgrounds or translucent overlays.
How To: App Over 150 MB? Here's How to Download It Using Cellular Data on Your iPhone
These days, cellular connections can be just as fast — if not faster — than traditional internet providers. That, coupled with the prevalence of unlimited data plans, means less worrying about hopping on a Wi-Fi network to download something. However, try to install an app or update over 150 MB, and your iPhone will insist you switch to Wi-Fi. We don't think this is very fair, so here's a way out.
How To: The Official One UI Beta Just Went Live for US Galaxy S9 Users — Here's How to Get It
Thanks to leaks that let us try out the latest Android Pie beta on the Galaxy S9, we already have a good idea of what the update has in store for Samsung's flagships moving forward. As we've come to expect, Android 9.0 brings a slew of notable updates, such as the addition of a system-wide dark theme and an all-new TouchWiz replacement called "One UI."
How To: Personalize Your Messages with Stickers in WhatsApp
Stickers are a staple in most messaging apps. Facebook Messenger and Apple Messages, among others, are all compatible with still or animated stickers to personalize your chats. Now, WhatsApp is stepping into the sticker arena with a new update, bringing the popular feature to one of the most used chat apps in the world.
News: Samsung Is Bringing the Galaxy A6 to the US — Budget Phone with a Flagship Screen
Samsung makes more than just the Galaxy S and Note series. With a large portion of the world not able to afford phones with flagship specs, Samsung makes several different series that focus on price. The latest is the Galaxy A6, a budget option with a flagship feature.
How To: 5 Easy Ways to Speed Up a Lagging Android Phone
All phones (yes, iPhones too) slow down over time. As your device gets bogged down by various apps and you begin to run out of storage, it's just an inevitability. That doesn't make it any less frustrating ... I mean, is there anything more annoying than a slow phone? My answer: No. Of course not. It's the single most annoying thing ever.
News: BlackBerry KEY2 LE — $250 in Savings Comes at a Cost
When BlackBerry first announced the KEY2 back in June, the biggest gripe we heard was about the price. It was reasonable criticism, as BlackBerry was asking a lot of its consumers at $650. Knowing this, BlackBerry went back, made some downgrades, and cut the price, creating the KEY2 LE.
News: Transcribe Audio for Free with This Awesome Cross-Platform App
Despite its fifth-place finish in our ranking of the best transcriber apps on iOS, Voicera is still worth highlighting due to numerous factors that set it apart from the crowd. Besides being completely free to use on both iPhone and Android, the app's AI-based transcription service performed extremely well in our testing.
How To: Use Gmail's New Confidential Mode to Send Private, Self-Destructing Emails from Your Phone
Back in July, Google rolled out a new design for the web version of Gmail. The rollout included new features alongside the visual changes, one of which being Confidential Mode. This new privacy-centric feature has now finally arrived on the mobile app version of the service, and here's what you need to know.
News: Through the Magic Leap Looking Glass, First Look at What AR Looks Like on the Magic Leap One
We've spent years waiting to see what all the secretive fuss was about, and now that the device is in our hands, we can finally begin showing you images of what the Magic Leap One experience looks like.
News: Magic Leap Unveils Two New Demos Showing How Spatial Computing Works
The long and slow road toward the actual release of the Magic Leap One appears to be accelerating, with a couple of new demonstrations of how the system works revealed in this week's creator's portal updates along with the company's developer documentation.
Opinion: Here's Why Magic Leap's Exclusive AT&T Deal Could Be the Key to Its Success, or the Start of a Rocky Rollout
On Wednesday, the tech world woke up to fairly shocking news with the announcement that AT&T would be the exclusive wireless carrier for the forthcoming Magic Leap One, as well as an investor in Magic Leap.
How To: Use Instagram's Q&A Sticker in Stories to Get Viewer Responses on Any Question You Have
Your Instagram followers deserve to be heard. Whether through polls or DMs, Instagram offers your followers a unique way to share their thoughts and opinions with you on any subject you can think of. Now, the social media giant is expanding these options with the introduction of a new "Questions" sticker for your stories.
News: Niantic Reveals Augmented Reality Platform for Multiplayer Gaming & Interaction with Real World Objects
Location-based gaming pioneer Niantic has offered a preview of its augmented reality cloud platform that could change the immersive content game yet again.
News: Every Picture-in-Picture Compatible Android App
For those of us who love to multitask, picture-in-picture mode is a godsend. The feature, introduced in Android 8.0 Oreo, lets you enjoy videos in a floating window overlaid on top of another app. However, while the OS does have native support, only a select number of apps support the feature.
How To: Get a Transparent Quick Settings Panel on Your Galaxy S8 or S9
With the re-emergence of Samsung's Good Lock app, you're once again able to tweak parts of your Galaxy's interface with no root or major modifications required. One add-on in particular even lets you fully customize the Quick Settings panel on your S8, S9, or Note 8 in a full spectrum of colors to truly make it your own.
How To: Customize Gmail's Swipe Actions So They're Not Just 'Delete' & 'Archive'
For a while, Gmail only had one swipe gesture, and it could only perform one of two actions: Archive or Delete. Not that it wasn't useful — you could eliminate most spam emails in a matter of seconds by swiping left or right on any email in your inbox. But now, Google has finally added more custom actions to its swipe gestures.
How To: Keep Data-Thieving USB Accessories from Connecting to Your iPhone in iOS 11.4.1 & Higher
While privacy and security are cornerstones of Apple's ecosystem, your iPhone isn't bulletproof. Creating a strong passcode will protect you from most threats, but there exist tools that can break through even the toughest passcodes via the Lightning port. Luckily, Apple has implemented a new security feature to disable your Lightning port and keep your data safe and secure.
News: Magic Leap Finally Delivered a Live, Public Demonstration of the Magic Leap One, Here's What Happened
On Wednesday, June 6, the people at Magic Leap finally (FINALLY) decided to give the public a dedicated, slow, feature-by-feature walkthrough of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition. How was it? About as good as it gets without actually getting to see what images look like through the device when wearing it.
News: Former Meta Exec Launches DreamGlass AR Headset, Shipping at End of June for $399
Just a year after facing trade secret theft allegations from his former employer, ex-Meta Company employee Kevin Zhong and his new company are ready to ship the product that triggered the lawsuit.
News: Adobe's Project Aero Takes on Unity & Unreal for AR Content Creation Supremacy
Using the ARKit 2.0 announcement as its springboard, software maker Adobe is looking leap up to the level of Unity Technologies and Epic Games, the companies making the go-to tools for creating augmented reality experiences.
News: 7 Features iOS 12 Stole from Android
The great thing about competition is it drives innovation. But when a company tries to one-up its competitor, it's not always with something brand new. Sometimes, one party will draw heavy inspiration from the other — but hey, it's still all good, because the consumers benefit either way.
Animoji: How to Create a Personal Memoji on Any iPhone Running iOS 13
There are currently 27 available Animoji to choose from in iOS 13, but you're not limited to Apple's animated emoji characters — you can make your own. They're called Memoji, an available feature since iOS 12, and they're highly customizable.
News: 'Messages in iCloud' Finally Available for Macs, Not Just iOS Devices
Apple pushed out iOS 11.4 on May 29 to iPads and iPhones, which included the long-awaited Messages in iCloud feature. The company did not release macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 at the same time, limiting the usefulness of being able to sync messages in the cloud since 10.13.4 is not compatible with Messages in iCloud. But three days later, Apple finally released macOS 10.13.5.
News: 5 Secret Snapchat Lenses That Will Make Your Weekend — Infinity War, the Chainsmokers & More
One word to sum up this batch of Snapchat lenses: complex. Lens creators like ApocTheLegend and Jinnie the Wew have been at it long enough to start making some really cool stuff, stretching the limit of what's possible using Lens Studio. I'm really looking forward to what they continue to pump out in the future.
News: Google Lens Gets Smarter with Text Selection, Style Recommendations, & Real-Time Search
During Tuesday's keynote at the I/O developer conference, Google unveiled new capabilities for its Lens visual search engine and expanded the availability of the platform in smartphone camera apps.
News: Microsoft Unveils Remote Assist & Layout, New HoloLens Apps Aimed at Workforce Productivity
On Monday, at its annual Build developer conference, Microsoft revealed two new apps for the HoloLens apps.
How To: Create Your Own Search Engine for More Privacy & Zero Trust Issues
While there are a variety of privacy-focused search engines available like StartPage and DuckDuckGo, nothing can offer the complete trust offered by creating one's own search engine. For complete trust and security, Searx can be used as free metasearch engine which can be hosted locally and index results from over 70 different search engines.
News: Why the LG G7 ThinQ's New Super Bright Display Is Actually a Game-Changer
The LG G7 ThinQ will likely be lambasted for its notch and awkward name, but one thing they seem to have gotten right is the new display. The G7 ThinQ will give many a first look at a new type of panel with lots of promise. While it was previously limited to TVs, from what we know, it should really shine on a smaller screen.
News: ARCore Closes Gap with ARKit via Image Recognition from Viro Media
Upon Google's release of ARCore in February, the platform wasn't only playing catch-up with Apple and ARKit in terms of downloads, but it also lagged in capabilities, as Apple already had vertical surface recognition and image recognition on the way with ARKit 1.5 for a March release.
Market Reality: Bareburger & Zara Use AR for Marketing, While vTime Gets a Cash Infusion to Move from VR to AR
Modern "mad men" are buying into augmented reality for marketing, with the two latest examples being trendy burger maker Bareburger and department store chain Zara.