I'm a new parent and I just moved into a new home. The first thing I wanted to do was ensure my toddler's safety in his new digs. That meant buying a bunch of baby-proofing products from Amazon, realizing most were junk, then buying some more until I found solutions for all my needs.
We're a few weeks away from the fireworks associated with New Year's celebrations, but that doesn't mean you can't start a little early — in augmented reality.
We have seen Kickstarter-launched wearables before, but this one is particularly unique and may even have you blinking a bit in wonder when you see how it functions.
True home automation doesn't require interaction from the user. But let's be real, no system is going to be 100% autonomous. You'll always need a manual override for situations programming can't account for. So what's the best manual override system? I'll tell you right now, it doesn't involve yelling at Alexa or Google.
Apple Maps has had a rough lifecycle. After completely dropping the ball during its inception, Apple has been slowly improving its usability and feature set. After six and a half years, users still prefer third-party apps in iOS 12 over Apple Maps, with Google Maps stealing a large 67% market share. But iOS 13 for iPhone may finally close the gap.
After hosting an augmented reality experience using its Snapchat Landmarker technology at the Statue of Liberty, Snap is now giving creators the opportunity to create their own Lenses with Lady Liberty.
Apart from the flashlight, camera, and apps you access via notifications, widgets, location-based alerts, and the Control Center, there's no way to open other apps straight from the lock screen that you use frequently. If you have a jailbroken device, however, you can remedy this and add the home screen's Dock to the lock screen to get into your go-to apps even quicker.
Some of the Pixel 3's coolest features are software related, which means you can get many of them on non-Pixel devices. "Flip to Shhh" is a perfect example of this. It lets you quickly put your phone into do not disturb mode by placing it face down, and this can be replicated on other Android phones with the help of a simple app.
While Toyota ranks as the leading automotive brand in the world, the company is a follower when it comes to augmented reality.
When it comes to customizing Android, there's no better way to make it your own than by installing a custom ROM. You gain new features that were not accessible on the stock firmware that came with the phone, and you get complete control over how your system looks and feels. But there's definitely a learning curve.
When it comes to resistance to the elements, Samsung seems to believe in the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." They've carried over the IP68 rating under IEC 60529 that was first found on the S8 all the way to their tenth-anniversary flagship, the Galaxy S10. While this certainly sounds great on paper, it's natural to want to dig a little deeper and find out what the rating means.
Already a powerhouse for its graphic design tools, Adobe is making a run at the 3D content creation realm dominated by Unity and Epic Games by acquiring software maker Allegorithmic.
Among a crowded field of AR cloud companies aiming to power the future of augmented reality by creating a world of persistent holographic content that lives in a cloud, accessible across devices and accounts, Ubiquity6 is hoping it has found a way to differentiate its platform.
The saga of augmented reality startup Meta appeared to be at end, but there are new developments unfolding in real time that may either sink Meta deeper into trouble, or provide a tenuous lifeline for the beleaguered augmented reality company.
Despite funding difficulties that forced Meta to place employees on temporary leave in September, the augmented reality headset maker is reminding enterprise companies that it remains a viable option for visualizing and working with 3D design models.
Hollywood has already proven that it's on board with augmented reality, with examples ranging from Avengers: Infinity War to Ralph Breaks the Internet. But one startup wants to make the augmented reality content that's being used to promote TV and film entertainment smarter.
On Thursday, Mojo Vision, a startup comprised of former engineers from Apple, Amazon, Google, and other Silicon Valley mainstays, emerged from stealth backed by $50 million in funding for a hands-free augmented reality platform that runs without smartphones, tablets, or other devices.
Augmented reality content makers often position the technology as a new storytelling medium. And who loves stories more than children?
Microsoft is adding another important piece to its growing immersive computing arsenal by putting its newest Mixed Reality Capture Studio in the center of the movie business: Hollywood.
The mainstreaming of augmented reality won't happen overnight, but it's becoming increasingly clear that traditional media is leading the charge in the effort to introduce the public to immersive computing. A recent example came from none other than USA Today via its 321 Launch app.
There are dozens of apps like Glympse, Family Locator, and Find My Kids that let parents see where their children's phones are, but they all have one fatal flaw: It's incredibly easy to spoof locations to make it look like the phone is somewhere else.
At I/O 2018, Google showcased features that would make the Google Assistant easier to communicate with. While some people were impressed with (and maybe creeped out by) Google Duplex, one feature that was well received was the ability to talk to the Assistant without the constant "Hey Google" before each question.
This time last year, computer vision company uSens introduced a stereo camera module capable of hand tracking. Now, uSens can achieve the same thing with just a smartphone's camera.
Confirming a previous report from last week, Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon X1 platform designed for augmented and virtual reality devices during an event at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on Tuesday, with Meta and Vuzix among the first manufacturers to adopt it.
Thanks to its advanced cameras, the Galaxy S9 can capture videos at an astonishing 960 frames per second (fps). To put it in perspective, you now have you the ability to record the world around you in ways that previously required expensive professional camera equipment. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
There are some nasty iOS bugs out there, many determined to crash the Messages app. For example, in February 2018, we saw a Telugu character render the iPhone messaging app totally useless. While that bug has been fixed, the nightmare continues in a new bug, aptly dubbed the "Black Dot."
The price tag for the Microsoft HoloLens might be out of range for the average consumer's budget, but for enterprises, like BAE Systems, adopting the AR headset is yielding a return on the investment. And for those with even slimmer wallets, Best Buy just made the Lenovo Mirage, part of the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges package, more affordable.
Cosmetics maker Coty is hanging an augmented reality Magic Mirror on the wall of its Bourjois boutique in Paris that will tell customers which shade of makeup will make them the fairest of them all.
With the Galaxy S9 finally making its debut, flagship season is officially underway. But even though Samsung's latest offerings are the newest phones out there, they already face some stiff competition — namely, the LG V30.
This month, the power of artificial intelligence will be coming to more augmented reality developers as a leader in the game and 3D software development space and a major force behind the current school of cloud-based AI have officially announced a new partnership.
The latest and greatest in Qualcomm's long line of mobile processors, the Snapdragon 845, is now set to touch down along with the Galaxy S9 and S9+. And as gorgeous as Samsung's newest flagships are, the processor that powers them under the hood is just as highly anticipated.
While it may seem to some like investors are just throwing their money at augmented reality companies simply because the tech is heavily hyped, these money managers do actually want to see a return on their investments.
While 2017 saw the rise of "bezel-less" smartphones, none truly lived up to the name. Samsung shrank its bezels significantly, while Apple went with the infamous "notch." However, Samsung seems on the verge of kicking bezels out the door with a new patent application that embeds the front camera into the display.
Among consumer brands, cosmetics companies rival furniture retailers as the quickest to adopt augmented reality as a means to help customers visualize how products will look before they buy them.
For those times when we need music grouped together for a specific task, we have playlists. Playlists are the next natural step after mastering your library and radio stations. While you've probably been an All-Star of curating playlists since your mid-90s mixtapes, Google Play Music has some pretty neat features that are going to really Smash your Mouth.
It's long past time to face the facts: farts are funny. The first fart joke dates back nearly 4,000 years to the ancient Sumerian people. References to flatulence were also found in ancient Greece within the works of Aristophanes. (More like Aristo-fannies, am I right?) A standard in practical jokes, the whoopie cushion debuted way back during the time of the Roman Empire.
With Google's release of Poly API on Thursday, the search giant has found a way to simplify the workflow for AR creators by enabling the ability to integrate its 3D object search engine Poly directly into an application.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) opened its re:INVENT developers expo with a bang by launching Amazon Sumerian, a new tool that could become the dominant platform for building cross-platform augmented and virtual reality applications.
Crafting is an important aspect of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, as it helps you get animals to come to your campsite. However, it's also one of the best ways to get ahead in the game, and there are a number of reasons for this.
Considered by many (perhaps unfairly) to be a very public failure, Google Glass can add another plot point to its comeback story, this time as a tool to teach social skills to children and adults with autism.
