The displays on all of our devices are getting better and better. TVs, smartphones (Infinity Display, anyone?) — any modern device you use, the screen looks great. So we should expect our content to live up to these fantastic displays. Netflix is attempting to do that, by implementing HDR video for LG G6 users.
Now, you can prevent Donald Trump from building that idiotic wall from the comfort of your smartphone. Well, in theory, you can, thanks to a hilarious new gaming app called — wait for it — Trump's Great Wall.
It was nice while it lasted. Samsung users who managed to get their hands on the Galaxy S8 or S8+ early enjoyed the ability to launch any app through the dedicated Bixby button. Unfortunately, Samsung wasn't all that down with us using the Bixby button for purposes other than its intended use — to provide quick access to Samsung's new virtual assistant.
The Google Play Store is known for some pretty random promotions and offers, most of the time it's a free book or a discounted movie. But this time, an entire season for Game of Thrones is up for grabs. Yes, that's right, all of Season 5 of Game of Thrones is free to download, watch, or just stash in your library for later.
Google Home now helps users to discover new music with an added "Listen" tab in the app. The feature offers suggestions based on the Cast-enabled apps on a phone, while offering other apps to download if you'd like to broaden your musical horizons. The playlists are curated to your individual taste and will adjust for different artists and activities, which is a pretty nifty feature. This means that Google Home can cater to your momentary mood change with music, which is a welcome addition to...
Google and Samsung have been leaving Apple in the dust when it comes to virtual reality gear. However, as the market grows and becomes more impossible to ignore within the tech world, Apple may be forced to play catch up. This could account for the new Apple patent that was granted today.
While its direct-selling model echoes brands like Avon and Tupperware, Indonesia's MindStores gives the approach a modern twist—with augmented reality.
Apple lets you save webpages as PDF files in iOS 10, but the only obvious way to do this is by using iBooks. The thing is, most people would probably rather save their PDFs to a service like Google Drive or Dropbox to make sharing a bit easier. Plus, iBooks isn't officially available for Windows or Android, so there are some cross-platform problems there, too.
Long before Apple and Android became household names, Nokia dominated the mobile industry. The Finnish company was one of the first to develop smartphones, and their classic N95 with 2G "high-speed" internet connectivity was declared the "best smartphone ever" by some in 2007. Outside of the US, before the iPhone became all the rage, owning a Nokia phone was a status symbol akin to wearing a Rolex or Omega watch.
Chrome's text selection interface is pretty nice, but it could definitely use some improvements. For instance, when you're in Incognito Mode, you can't perform a web search for words you've highlighted. And when you're typing out a forum post or using any text input field, for that matter, there's no option to search or share any of the text you've written.
Just over a month ago, the Rubik's Cube world record was smashed by Mats Valk, a Dutch speedcuber, during the Jawa Timur Open 2016. Valk was able to shave 0.16 seconds off the previous record of 4.90 seconds, which was a pretty impressive feat.
Regular HoloLens developer and YouTuber Sky Zhou, a founding member of mixed reality studio Matrix Inception, has done it again. With an Xbox One controller in hand, watch as he makes these Pokémon battle it out Super Smash Brothers-style in his HoloLens app.
If we learned anything from Mulan, it's that "the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of them all." Well, these have been a trying couple of weeks in the US, hence the need for a blooming marshmallow flower.
HoloMaps, an application by Seattle-based Taqtile, is available for free on the Windows Store. Taqtile, whose Vice President of Product Management was Microsoft's former Director of Business Development, is one of the few partners currently in the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Program. This interactive 3D map they have created, powered by Bing, offers more than just a top-down view of the world on the HoloLens.
Everyone's been raving about the Pixel's top-notch camera, and the acclaim is well-deserved. The main difference between Google's new camera software on their Pixel phones and the older software on their Nexus devices is that the Pixel has almost no perceptible lag between tapping the shutter button and the image being captured—even with HDR+ mode enabled.
Facebook released a new app in November 2016 that aimed to compete directly with Snapchat, but it was only officially available in Brazil—and still is. The app, called "Flash," is so much like Snapchat that it's not even the slightest bit of a stretch to call it a clone.
Today, Microsoft announced its Windows 10 Creators Update, adding the ability to scan objects in your world and bring them into the computer. With newly-announced inexpensive VR headsets and the HoloLens, you can enjoy those transplanted 3D objects in mixed and virtual reality.
Snapchat accidentally—and then intentionally—announced their digital eyeglasses, known as Spectacles, over the weekend. While we'd hoped their augmented reality-heavy platform would result in related hardware, Spectacles unfortunately seek to "reinvent" little more than a video camera.
Jurassic Park makes a great (and sometimes mediocre) action movie, but hopefully isn't the sort of thing we're dumb enough to actually make. Fortunately, on the HoloLens, you can now walk with the dinosaurs with no risk to your life and limbs.
After updating your iPhone to iOS 10, you may have noticed that your screen will wake up whenever you pick up the device to look at it, or even when it's just in your pocket or dangling in your hand.
There are two types of bad USBs out there. One lets you trick the computer into thinking it's a keyboard or other USB device, and the other goes straight over malicious into computer killing territory.
People fear virtual reality will isolate us, but the right experience can prove it does the opposite.
Want proof that user experiences matter? Look no further than the HTC Vive and Omnipudding's particle generator, GPU Cubes VR, which lets you interact with thousands of colorful, cubic particles in a black void. If this was a simulator for your computer only, controlled with a mouse or keyboard, you'd be bored in seconds—but it's just simple, instant fun on the Vive.
When figuring out how to arrange your furniture in a new room, you traditionally have to measure everything and use your imagination. HoloPlanner has a better idea: just place holographic furniture in the room so the Microsoft HoloLens can imagine it for you.
You've likely seen some impressive art carved out of a bush or tree before that looked like it required a lot of work and skill to create. While that may have been the case in the past, software engineer Javier Davalos used the Microsoft HoloLens to turn a bush into a perfect topiarian sphere with no training whatsoever.
Opioids, or narcotic painkillers, serve as our primary method for alleviating physical distress. They also happen to be a leading cause of death due to their addictive nature. AppliedVR hopes to introduce a safer alternative: virtual reality gaming. They utilize the existing Samsung Gear VR for the hardware, but provides specialized software that offers up a distracting experience that fosters greater pain ignorance.
The iPhone 6s models introduced Live Photos in iOS 9, a cool new camera feature that takes a GIF-esque moving image every time you snap a pic, but the cool factor pretty much stopped right there. You couldn't take them on older iOS devices, share them with non-iOS users, or even edit them.
Most virtual and mixed reality headsets offer unnatural controls, making you use awkward movements or physical devices to control the holographic elements in your direct view. This doesn't make a lot of sense because using your hands is more natural, so Manus developed a set of gloves that solves that problem entirely.
The mysterious Magic Leap just partnered up with Lucasfilm's ILM xLAB to bring Star Wars to their mixed reality headsets. Based on the video demo making its way around the internet, it looks pretty impressive.
Complex games in mixed reality require a pretty detailed scan of the room, and getting this process right can be both time-consuming and annoying. Computer science students at the University of Washington decided to fix that by turning it into a game.
Facebook Messenger has another secret game for you to play in both the Android and iOS versions of its app. This time it's a soccer-themed game to tie in with the Copa America and Euro 2016 tournaments currently underway.
The HoloLens can do some pretty crazy things such as create a robot invasion in your walls, but it can also help you do simple stuff, like hanging frames, paintings, or anything else on those walls—after you repair them from the robot attack, of course.
The Oculus Rift's virtual experiences become a little less immersive when you're barely moving in a chair with a headset on, playing on a gamepad—but you don't have to accept that reality anymore.
More proof is emerging that the iPhone 7 won't include a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and damn—it is not pretty. These third-party Lightning-to-3.5 mm dongles were spotted on Chinese site Tama, and they give us a glimpse into a horrifying future in which we have to attach one of these clunky monstrosities to an iPhone just to connect a set of standard headphones.
Google kicked off I/O 2016 by debuting Assistant, a next-level version of Google Now. While you could search the web by voice before, now you'll be able to have a conversational interaction with Google. In short, it's a smart chat bot.
A motion-based lock screen app called GestureLock was among the winner's at 2106's Android Experiments I/O Challenge, and it lets you set a specific motion (gesture) that you use to gain access to your locked phone.
Sony just announced a new phone in its Xperia line that is equipped with what is quite possibly the finest front-facing smartphone camera ever. Dubbed the Xperia XA Ultra, the handset features a 16 megapixel "selfie" shooter with optical image stabilization to give you crisp, blur-free selfies even in low light. The front camera is also gesture-activated, starting a timer when you raise your hand; This should help keep your hand a bit steadier as the phone won't wobble as you tap the shutter....
Google is launching a new app called Spaces that lets you share things from the web with small groups of people. The aim of Spaces appears to be granting you a forum with like-minded people to help cut down on off-topic comments that can steer a conversation off the rails. Spaces comes with Google Search, Chrome, and YouTube built in, so you won't need to switch apps to go hunting for interesting content to share. You can invite people to your groups—or "spaces" as they're called in the app—b...
Google just made searching the web on your iPhone a whole lot easier with its new GBoard keyboard for iOS. It has a built-in Google icon so that you can search directly from whatever app you're in, making it a cinch to add images, GIFs, directions, videos, and more.
A visit to Disneyland is not complete without a trip to the Tiki Juice Bar where the famous Dole Whip soft serve dessert resides. These golden swirls of frozen pineapple-y goodness are an essential part of any magical visit.
