When Apple released its Downtime feature in iOS 12, it gave us an easy way to control how much time we spend on our iPhones — but it wasn't perfect. When setting Downtime, you' were forced to use the same time schedule for every day of the week, so your weekdays and weekends had the same restrictions. Apple fixed that issue in iOS 12.2 and later, so lockout periods can be more customized.
We are in the midst of a mini-boom for communications tools designed for augmented reality headsets, with the introduction of Avatar Chat and Mimesys for Magic Leap One and Spatial for the HoloLens within the last few months.
Last year at CES, RealMax blew away the AR headset competition with a prototype AR headset surpassing 100 degrees field of view.
Returning to the spotlight after its debut at last year's CES, augmented reality smartglasses maker Rokid is back with a new update.
First, there was SnapCat. Now, we have DogChat! Or SnapBark? In October, Snapchat took social media by storm with its Lenses for cats. But the latest addition to the camera app has given dog lovers an augmented reality Christmas gift they won't want to return.
The city of London is getting a holiday gift this season, but it's not the kind you unwrap, since it's completely delivered in augmented reality.
Boomerangs are a staple camera feature for Instagram and its users. The idea is to take up to 20 frames of video, which Instagram then processes into a looping movie that plays forward and backward. Since Facebook owns Instagram, it was only a matter of time before the feature hit its namesake apps, so it's not surprising that Messenger now supports the popular camera technique.
Expressing yourself during chats is much easier these days thanks to the steady rise of emoji. Now, products like emoji Minis for Gboard are taking the craft to an interesting yet familiar new level. With emoji Minis, you can automatically create stickers based off your own face. From there, you can further customize the stickers by adding key features such as glasses, earrings, and facial hair.
In a world where augmented reality is becoming the hero of the movie marketing, Universal Studios has decided to use the technology to reinvent the traditional movie trailer, a time-tested tactic of film promotion, in support of the forthcoming Robert Zemeckis film, Welcome to Marwen.
Later this week, Black Friday will mark the start to the holiday shopping season, but if you're buying for a Magic Leap One owner, you can buy their ideal gift now.
The landscape for mobile augmented reality apps is still mostly filled with utility and gaming apps, but a new entrant into the space is looking to pull children into the mix.
With Android Pie beta now available for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung is well on its way to catching up to major competitors like the Google Pixel 3 in terms of giving its users the latest and greatest software Android has to offer. Of course, Samsung has added its own touches to the software to make Android Pie its own and set it apart from the rest of the crowd.
In the battle for best stock Android flagships, there are really only two choices: Google Pixel phones and OnePlus phones. Although the latter isn't true stock Android, it is impressively close and usually paired with more impressive hardware than the Pixel lineup. The latest is the OnePlus 6T, which will be a bit controversial for fans this year.
On Tuesday, Blue Vision Labs, one of three Google-backed companies working on AR Cloud platforms, announced its acquisition by ride-sharing company Lyft.
A sizzle reel just released by augmented reality cloud company 6D.ai shows off what kind of hyper-realistic AR experiences developers can build with its SDK.
On Thursday, yet another piece of the Magic Leap puzzle fell into place at Twilio's Signal developer and customer conference in San Francisco.
On Thursday, Snap released three new templates for its Lens Studio that will give creators access to augmented reality capabilities previously only available to Snap's own design team.
Despite the relatively small size of Magic Leap's first annual L.E.A.P. conference, there was a lot to see and experience. Apparently missed by many was one of the best experiences I had at the event: Wingnut AR's unreleased Pest Control game.
In this jam-packed October, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has flown under the radar in the US. Due to Huawei's lack of presence in the States, many are unfamiliar with the second largest OEM in the world. Huawei has continuously put out amazing mobile devices, and this year they released a phone that's nearly perfect on paper.
The thrill and excitement of great tourism generally requires visitors to take part in the country's local fare in person. But Air New Zealand's new augmented reality experience for the Magic Leap One gives visitors an immersive taste of what the country has to offer without ever setting foot in the country.
Augmented reality productivity software maker Upskill has expanded the reach of its Skylight platform with support for Microsoft HoloLens.
In an ongoing effort to improve its services and become more accessible to users from all regions, Facebook has released a streamlined version of its social media app. Though the leaner Facebook Lite is only officially available in Turkey for now, there's a simple workaround you can use to get the app in any country.
Smartglasses maker ThirdEye has announced that its X1 model wearable will be updated by the slimmer, as yet unreleased X2 model. Both devices will be promoted and sold through its partner, brick and mortar technology retailer b8ta.
The first mobile augmented reality app out of the gate with support for Magic Leap One Creator Edition is Thyng, who is planning to release the headset version of the app later this year.
Apple's latest mobile operating system for iPhones, iOS 12, was released to everyone Monday, Sept. 17, and it's the same exact build that developers and public beta testers received as the "golden master" on Sept. 12, the day of Apple's 2018 special event. Install it to start taking advantage of the 100+ features iOS 12 has to offer right now.
In the latest update to its augmented reality platform, Wikitude has introduced new plane detection capabilities that can anchor virtual content to surfaces at any orientation.
After a $20 million funding round fell through, augmented reality headset maker Meta Company has been forced to furlough (or place on temporary leave of absence) approximately 65% of its workforce for 30 days.
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.
The critics of Magic Leap have been circling for a couple of weeks now, but that isn't stopping the company from pushing forward with major new partnerships. The latest Magic Leap tie-up is with none other than motion capture actor Andy Serkis and his UK-based The Imaginarium Studios.
Following the launch of the Magic Leap One earlier this month, the device and the company took a few hits from early reviewers. But it turns out those were just love taps compared to the absolute scorched earth acidic screed penned this weekend by someone well credentialed to dissect Magic Leap One: Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey.
After a series of hints revealed by CEO Rony Abovitz via Twitter, Magic Leap looks like it is ready to launch Magic Leap One on Thursday at 8:08 a.m. ET.
The HoloLens team is finally beginning to realize that to truly engage the mainstream, augmented reality needs to make its way out of the lab or factory floor and onto the streets.
In the tech world, upgrades are normally a good thing. On iOS, it means bug fixes and security patches that protect your iPhone and keep it up with the times. In the jailbreak world, however, upgrades can mean certain death, as we are reminded today when Apple stopped signing iOS 11.4. That means if you upgrade to 11.4.1, you will no longer be able to jailbreak your iPhone.
The rite of passage for every tech product, formally known as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification, has come for the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition.
After weeks of teasing what many hoped might be a live, on-device demo of Magic Leap software to go along with the hardware glimpse we got last month, it turns out that all we got was a bit of new demonstration video footage.
Mozilla has created yet another browser for Android. Similar to Firefox Focus, Firefox Rocket was designed to address specific problems: limited internal storage and low data caps. However, in the process of solving these problems, they created one of the fastest browsers on the market.
Another entrant into the do-it-yourself AR content creation market has emerged, as Zappar has updated its ZapWorks Studio software to include features for development newbies.
The addition of a new research mode for Microsoft HoloLens will enable researchers and developers to tap into a wider range of data collected by the device's sensors.
Developers can now publish augmented reality experiences that are viewable through the experimental version of Chrome and ARCore.
Less than two months since unveiling Project North Star, Leap Motion has released the reference design that will allow developers, makers, and even manufacturers to build their own augmented reality headsets based on Leap Motion's work.