While they don't do augmented reality just yet, the latest styles of Snapchat's Spectacles 2 camera glasses serve as a peek into the future of how mainstream AR wearables may look.
These days, it seems new phones get announced every other week. We've grown accustomed to glossing over the specs, looking at some press renders, then moving on to check out the next phone. If you had done this in September 2008, you might have overlooked what would become one of the most important phones of all time.
One of the primary marketing tactics used by Magic Leap in promoting the Magic Leap One was selling early adopters on the "magic" contained within the device. On Thursday, some of that magic was uncovered as the Magic Leap One was completely disassembled by repair engineers, revealing the delicate innards of the device and detailing how it delivers its augmented reality experiences.
Think back to when you last wanted to transfer some music or videos to your friend's smartphone and how difficult and slow it was. As powerful as our phones are, the default file sharing options are limited. There are, fortunately, some better options which make moving files easy, secure, and painless.
Look, we all like getting things for free. That's why we can stomach things like advertisements and optional purchases in freemium apps and games — we're willing to pay for our mobile experiences in every way but currency. Although freemium seems to be the model for the future of iPhone entertainment, it looks like a different scheme might win out in the end.
| Updated Aug. 22, 2019 with new phones. When will my phone get Android Pie? For the first time since Android's inception, this question shouldn't have an answer that lets you down. That's because Android Oreo introduced Project Treble, a new low-level arrangement that makes updating a lot easier. So with Pie, it's not if your phone will get it, but when.
With the release of Android 9.0 Pie, Google's focusing on digital health. Digital Wellbeing is a new set of features designed to help you curb your own smartphone addiction. Starting now, the beta version is available, and Google's looking for testers.
OnePlus pulled out almost all the stops with their latest flagship, but there are a few areas where the phone falls just short of perfect. The single bottom-firing speaker leaves a lot to be desired, for instance, but thanks to the awesome development community for the OnePlus 6, you can already give your phone true stereo speakers with a software mod.
Location-based gaming pioneer Niantic has offered a preview of its augmented reality cloud platform that could change the immersive content game yet again.
Whether you like to go swimming or jump in a hot shower with your Apple Watch on, the chance is pretty high that you'll get water inside its speaker. If you're a big runner, even sweat can get inside there. While there is no way to prevent water from getting inside your Apple Watch's speaker, there is an easy way to get it out so that your muffled speaker sounds brand new again.
Less than two months after launching its augmented reality platform for casual gaming and shared experiences, Snapchat is ready to make Snappables available to advertisers.
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.
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.
Electronics maker Epson is courting developers to its Moverio smartglasses with an updated software development kit (SDK) and integration with a web-based tool for publishing augmented reality experiences.
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.
On May 17 2018, Valve released the Android beta version of their Steam Link app, which allows you to stream Steam games from your computer directly to your phone. You'll probably also want to connect your favorite controller to your phone, but you may run into some issues if you prefer Valve's own Steam Controller.
Last month, we told you about U2's new augmented reality-powered music tour. But if you don't have the means to travel to the show, the group recently revealed an inside look at what it will be like and what inspired the band to dive into immersive technology.
Apple released the iOS 11.3.1 update for iPhones on Tuesday, April 24, 26 days after the official release of iOS 11.3 and eight days after the iOS 11.4 beta 2 update. It is the first minor update to iOS 11.3, and the biggest thing in it is a fix that lets displays fixed by third parties work again.
Google's been using their "Material Design" look in Android for years now, but a change is coming up with "Material Design 2," their updated version focusing on new colors, icons, and spacing. Whether it'll be called "Material Design 2" or not remains to be seen, but you can try it out right now in Google Chrome on your Android device right now.
Snapchat is making it easier for developers and creators to build augmented reality effects in Lens Studio with a slew of new features, including seven face templates.
One of the most popular mobile games out there for kids has added an augmented reality mode that brings the titular character into the real world.
Instagram is no stranger to stealing features from Snapchat. Stories, originally a Snapchat invention, feels more at home with Instagram today. Now, Instagram is attempting to repeat this feat with nametags, a way to quickly add new friends akin to Snapchat's Snapcodes.
If it had come out just a week earlier, around April 1, no one would have believed it. But it's true, Leap Motion has developed its own prototype augmented reality headset, and it looks pretty wild.
The augmented reality business was all about audiences this week. Vuzix looked for an audience with the Supreme Court of New York regarding a defamation lawsuit against an investor. Magic Leap held an audience with royalty, showing off the Magic Leap One in a rare public appearance. And Snapchat wanted to remind its consumer audience of all the things its camera can do.
With the recent launch of the developer preview for Android 9.0 Pie, many are clamoring to get their hands on some of the new features. Unfortunately for most Android users, Android Pie will not arrive on their device until 2019. The good news is you can add one of Android Pie's biggest UI changes to your phone today with a simple app.
Sketchfab, one of the leading 3D model aggregators, continues to defend its turf from encroachment by Google. This time, the company has deployed a new API that gives developers even easier access to Sketchfab's extensive library.
Huawei's push into the US market has by no means stopped, even despite the recent US government pushback. Huawei has already released their top-notch flagship device from 2017, the Mate 10 Pro, and a couple great budget and midrange devices. Their latest release offers an upgrade to a past release.
Augmented reality business followers, we've got good news and bad news. First, the good news: Upskill closed another round of funding, this time led by strategic investors Cisco and Accenture. (Well, this is probably bad news if you're competing with them on the enterprise AR front.)
Whenever Japan does something new in tech, the cute factor is almost always taken into account. The same holds true for augmented reality, as Yahoo! Japan has just revealed its take on AR map navigation with a new AR Mode.
It is finally happening. After not having a major update since August of 2016, HoloLens owners everywhere will soon get a number of new features added to their devices. At least if they are members of the Windows Insider program.
Eventually, even the most private company has to file its patents and unveil its tightly-held secrets, and Magic Leap is no exception.
If you're not looking closely, it's easy to mistake last year's Galaxy S8 for the brand new Galaxy S9. Design, build materials, screen size, software — it's all virtually identical, save for a few exceptions. But those minor differences can add up.
We already know that the connection between virtual and augmented reality is pretty tight, with tools like Unity making porting some apps between the two platforms fairly frictionless. But there are some things currently going in VR that just don't need to come to the world of AR.
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.
In January, ZTE announced they would be conducting an Oreo beta program for Axon 7 users to test Android 8.0 before the masses. Since then, no additional information was released — until today, when ZTE finally opened up the Oreo beta to US customers.
Prior to Apple's earnings report on Thursday, the storm clouds were gathering as Wall Street prepared for bad news in the wake of reports of slower iPhone sales. But it turns out that those fears were mostly unwarranted. Apple managed to increase iPhone revenue during the December quarter, despite selling slightly fewer phones.
Despite their sometimes fluffy reputations and occasionally ethically compromised viewpoints, tech evangelists are important, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The right passionate voice behind the right technology platform or piece of hardware can sometimes spell the difference between fostering a community of potential users and watching a product die on the vine.
Over the past few days, we've learned a lot about Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones. In addition to a full list of hardware specs, we have complete renders direct from renowned leaker Evan Blass. Of course, Samsung always has a few surprises up their sleeve, and today, we have some new information about the facial unlock method arriving on the S8.
It's tough to keep pace with Apple lately. As expected, only one day after the public release of iOS 11.2.5, the company released iOS 11.3 to developers. A day after that, Apple pushed it out to public beta testers, too. With new Animoji, more transparent battery information, Apple Music receiving music videos, and more, this update is the one to watch out for.
It would be difficult to discuss the business of augmented reality without acknowledging the annual tech meat market of CES.
