Whether it's an ex you can't stand, that annoyingly political friend of a friend, or good old fashioned trolls, the block feature on Facebook can be a great way to de-stress your feed. It will keep people from contacting you, and it will also prevent them from viewing your profile altogether. It's not just a tool for the full desktop website — in fact, the blocked list is easy to manage right from your phone.
Returning to the spotlight after its debut at last year's CES, augmented reality smartglasses maker Rokid is back with a new update.
In 2017, Google introduced a new feature called Fast Pair. This made discovering and pairing Bluetooth devices completely stress-free, as it eliminated the need to fumble through settings. Google has now made it even easier, so Fast Pair is a must-have feature for your next headphones.
Unlike the realm of virtual reality, augmented reality is less about losing yourself in some fantasy environment, and more about getting things done in the real world. So while we've seen some great games that capture the imagination on devices like the Magic Leap One and the HoloLens, when it comes to real-world usage, the biggest developments coming for AR apps that are the more practical ones.
With HoloLens and its enterprise-focused software offerings, Microsoft continues to make an impression on companies looking to adopt augmented reality, with Toyota Motor Corporation among the latest.
While many retailers have introduced try-before-you-buy features in their apps, Walmart has gone in another direction by bringing shoppers an augmented reality tool to help them compare products they want to buy.
While these days it is better known for the cross-platform gaming sensation Fortnite, Epic Games also makes Unreal Engine, one of the top development environments for 3D content and, in turn, augmented reality and virtual reality experiences.
Smartphones and other Wi-Fi enabled devices send radio signals called probe frames to locate nearby wireless networks, which makes them easy to track by listening for their unique MAC address. To show how this kind of tracking works, we can program a NodeMCU in Arduino to sniff the air for packets from any device we want to track, turning on an LED when it's detected nearby.
Electronic Arts is inviting players of The Sims Freeplay and their friends to visit the homes of their Sims in augmented reality with a new AR mode that supports multiplayer and persistent content using ARKit 2.0.
As promised last week, Magic Leap has finally released the long-awaited augmented reality game Dr. Grordbort's Invaders.
Augmented reality productivity software maker Upskill has expanded the reach of its Skylight platform with support for Microsoft HoloLens.
The latest business move by Magic Leap could result in a significant boost to its spatial computing platform's performance and headset design.
It is almost indisputable that smartglasses and head-worn displays are the future of augmented reality. However, at this precise moment, they are still a very niche market.
Now that the iPhone XS is officially available for pre-order, Verizon and Apple are giving Snapchat users the opportunity to win the device through an augmented reality scavenger hunt rather than forking over $1,000 for one.
Earlier this year, Samsung released the Galaxy J3 and J7 to select markets. These two devices are the latest in the J series, Samsung's super-budget series that tries to rewrite what it means to be a budget phone. Now, starting September 14th, you will be able to get them GSM unlocked.
Space Ape has soft-launched Go Race: Super Karts, giving you a fresh take on mobile racing games by blending in elements found within the classic Mario Kart series and RPGs for some seriously addicting gameplay. And while it's only available in Australia, Netherlands, and Philippines, there's a workaround to get this game on your iPhone right now, no matter where you are.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but augmented reality is giving the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum the ability to add a few more poignant real words to its exhibits.
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.
Another massive piece of the mysterious augmented reality puzzle known as Magic Leap fell into place on Wednesday as AT&T announced that it will be the exclusive launch carrier for the device.
Developers can now publish augmented reality experiences that are viewable through the experimental version of Chrome and ARCore.
I've called 911 accidentally more than a few times on my iPhone using the Emergency SOS triggers, but it's also just as easy to trigger an unintentional call to emergency services using an Apple Watch. These accidental 911 calls can put a strain on local public-safety answering points, or call centers, as well as local authorities and emergency medical technicians.
Escape rooms, those real world puzzle games that challenge teams to solve a mystery and gain their freedom from a locked room, are all the rage right now. But augmented reality games such as The Lockdown could make them obsolete.
Let's say you wake up in the middle of the night and check your phone to see the time. As soon as you do, you're greeted by a wall of notifications on your lock screen. You just wanted to know how much longer you could sleep, but now your mind's racing after seeing all of the messages you need to deal with. Thankfully, iOS 12's new Bedtime Mode has a solution for this problem.
If two hands are better than one, then two hand-tracking SDKs must be better than one as well. After uSens announced its Hand Tracking SDK at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on Thursday, ManoMotion unveiled the latest version of its own SDK. Both technologies give apps the ability to track hand gestures with just a smartphone camera.
Apple released iOS 11.4.1 beta 1 to developers on Wednesday, May 30, just one day after the official release of iOS 11.4, which brought Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2 to the public for the first time. There does not appear to be any new features in this first iOS 11.4.1 beta, instead focusing on "bug fixes and improvements" only.
Ever notice how some augmented reality apps can pin specific 3D objects on the ground? Many AR games and apps can accurately plant various 3D characters and objects on the ground in such a way that, when we look down upon them, the objects appear to be entirely pinned to the ground in the real world. If we move our smartphone around and come back to those spots, they're still there.
It appears we're in the midst of an augmented reality art boom, because in the same month that the famed Christie's auction house launched its mobile AR app, leading art gallery and art seller Saatchi Art has also announced its entry into the AR space.
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.
Part of the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges experience that was once exclusive to users of Lenovo's Mirage AR headset is now available to anyone with an ARKit-compatible iOS device.
Another AR cloud candidate has emerged in YOUAR, a startup that has developed a new system that enables persistent augmented reality experiences on iPhones and Android devices.
If bezel-less was the goal of OEMs in 2017, 2018 seems to be the year of the notch. Thanks in no small part to Apple's iPhone X, more and more smartphone manufacturers are designing their displays with this polarizing cutout. While many are frustrated with the trend, it's worth taking the time to consider what each phone gains with the unique design.
Update: Google's new Pixel models have been released! Check out our full guides on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL to see all the details, but we'll leave the rumor roundup intact below for posterity.
It looks like Google's feud with Amazon won't end anytime soon. A war has been brewing ever since Amazon pulled Chromecast, Apple TV, and other competing devices from their store in 2015, but the latest exchange is a huge blow to people using Amazon Fire tablets and streaming TV sticks.
Putting your Galaxy S9 in Immersive Mode lets you truly enjoy the gorgeous display that Samsung is so famous for. You can't have it set on at all times, however, so you'll still have to deal with the status and navigation bars that cut the phone's aspect ratio down to that of a standard phone. But if you're willing to dig a little deeper, there are ways to go full Immersive Mode on your S9 for good.
If you're a golf fan who can't attend the Arnold Palmer Invitational in person, you can still follow the next stop on the apparent Tiger Woods comeback tour in augmented reality with an iPhone or iPad.
Next to things like natural disasters and disease, the specter of war is one of the only things that threatens to derail the 21st century's long stretch of technological innovation. Now a new app is using augmented reality to remind us of that by focusing on those most impacted by war — children.
Enterprise augmented reality software provider Upskill has raised $17.2 million in its latest round of funding, led by new investors Cisco and Accenture.
In many ways, the Galaxy S9 is a holdout from the golden days of Android. It's one of the last major flagships to sport a headphone jack, it has an impressive array of internal sensors, and perhaps more importantly, it's got a micro SD card slot.
In hopes of strengthening its growing augmented reality team, Apple has reportedly hired Michael Abbott, an engineering and investment veteran with past ties to Twitter, Microsoft, Palm, and others.
