You get a snap from a friend, per usual, but what's this? The lens they're using is actually really cool. Of course, you want to try it out for yourself, but don't bother searching Snapchat's enormous library of lenses to find the AR effect. Instead, there's a simple way to instantly test it out, right from the original snap itself.
Some of the leading big tech companies are still working in the lab on actual products, but at least some of their leadership did have some thoughts to share on the future direction of the technology this week.
After dipping its toes into the AR cloud arena last year, Ubiquity6 is now jumping in with both feet this year.
The cosmetics brands are among the earliest adopters of augmented reality, using virtual try-on tools to preview shades of makeup before buying.
Apple seeded the official version of iOS 13 to compatible iPhones on Sept. 19. Since then, we've seen two major updates — iOS 13.1, which, by our count, introduced 22 new features, and iOS 13.2, which also added 22 new features. Today, Dec. 10, Apple introduced the third major update: iOS 13.3.
Christmas is just one week before Jan. 1. That means a lot of New Year's resolutions filled with promises to better ourselves with increased productivity, focus, and work ethics — but getting started can be challenging. Give the people in your life a leg up this holiday season with these smartphone gifts to keep them on-task in 2020.
Phones are getting bigger and taller, so it's increasingly harder to reach the notification tray. But Samsung is here to the rescue, as they've introduced into One UI for Galaxy devices a gesture that makes it easy to access the notification drawer on your home screen.
After leaning on augmented reality for its outdoor advertising, HBO has called on augmented reality again via Snapchat to promote its Watchmen series.
Picture it: you wake up in the middle of the night and check your phone. Maybe you want to check the time (your phone is your alarm clock, after all) or see if that person ever replied to your message. You double-tap or lift to wake it, and the screen lights up. You flinch at the bright light, squeezing your eyes shut. It takes a few moments to adjust, even if your screen's brightness is as low as possible.
The Halloween season is the perfect time for telling scary stories, but augmented reality is here to bring the tradition of frightening children to the modern age.
QR codes are supposed to make life easier, but having to install potentially shady third-party apps just to scan one is more trouble than it's worth. Thankfully, there's a QR code reader built into all Google Pixels, but you wouldn't know it unless you stumbled across the feature.
Your phone is loaded with contacts you've collected over the years. They're an asset, and you should use your library of connections outside the confines of your mobile device. Luckily, your Pixel uses a standardized medium to store contacts that can be used by the likes of LinkedIn, Outlook, Hubspot, iCloud, and more.
Apple has seemingly always made it a priority to show how much it cares about user security and privacy — enough that it has a page dedicated to it, proclaiming that "privacy is a fundamental human right." It's true that there are few issues more important than user privacy when it comes to technology, and Apple only makes things better in iOS 13.
Last year, Readdle released a major update to their popular intelligent email client Spark, which brought a number of new features and improvements, including the ability for team members to collaborate on emails. You can draft new emails and privately discuss existing ones with your team, invite team members into email threads, and create and share links to specific emails.
While Magic Leap World gets its share of fun apps for playing with Porgs, watching TV, and exploring the ocean's depths, developers are making a strong business case for the Magic Leap One as well.
Facebook and its Oculus subsidiary have been open about their intentions to bring AR wearables into the mainstream for some time now.
Former soccer star and current celebrity David Beckham has the augmented reality abilities of Facebook and Instagram as allies in the effort to eradicate malaria from the world.
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.
Apple's iOS 13 for iPhone includes new features in Safari that make browsing the web a little bit better when compared to iOS 12. Some changes are small while others add functionality that just wasn't there before. Plus, there are more security enhancements.
After adding dual cameras to its camera glasses, Snap is finally taking full advantage of the depth-sensing abilities of newer iPhones as well, extending the use of its new 3D Camera Mode.
When Apple takes the stage next week, we have no idea what version of iOS it will release. For months it seemed like a given that we would, of course, see iOS 13 seeded to our iPhones. Now, we aren't sure if Apple will tout iOS 13 or iOS 13.1, since the latter is now the focus of its beta testing. In fact, 13.1's second developer beta is now available to download and install.
If the name Leroy Jenkins elicits a reaction from you, then you are old enough to remember the iconic title World of Warcraft from its heydey (whether or not you actually played the massively multiplayer online role-playing game).
Does your Activity page on Instagram feel cluttered? You're not alone. Instagram lumps all alerts into one long, chaotic timeline, so if you want to see comments or likes, you have to weed through everything else including shares from other users, memories, recommendations, and new follows. Instagram knows its a mess, and the company plans to add notification filters to sort things out.
The wait wasn't so long this time. Apple released public beta 3 for iOS 13 on Thursday, July 18, just one day after the release of developer beta 4. For context, Apple took five days to seed public beta 2 after releasing dev beta 3, so it's a pleasant surprise that the latest public beta dropped so soon.
We're pumped for iOS 13 and all of the fresh features and changes that come with it. Developer beta 3 came with new features in the double digits, including AR eye contact in FaceTime and mouse cursor size customization. Developer beta 4, released today, has a few more additions and changes as well.
Ratings and reviews apply everywhere, from a restaurant you want to try to a new camera you're thinking of buying and games you might want to play. Podcasts are no different. Reading reviews of shows can help determine which are worth listening to, and your opinion is valuable to other people too. In Apple Podcasts, there are a few different ways to read, rate, and review shows.
In general, the internet can be a cruel place, and Instagram is no exception. Most of the time, the platform is a fantastic way to share and view unique and creative content, to reach an audience of both fans and friends. People can step out of line and harass or bully others on posts to the detriment of the entire community. However, this type of commenting won't be sustainable for much longer.
Sports technology company Form is testing the waters for augmented reality wearables with a product aimed at a very specific user group.
The third developer beta for iOS 13 has been out since July 3, and while devs have had fun exploring all the new features, those of us on the public beta have sat on the sidelines running the public version of dev beta 2. But we don't need to wait any longer, as Apple just released iOS 13 public beta 2 and all the goodies that come with it.
On July 3, Apple pushed out iOS 13 developer beta 3 for iPhone, and there's a lot found hidden within. A new FaceTime setting, more Arcade details, full-page scrolling screenshots everywhere, a noise cancellation option in the Control Center, and a new markup tool — and that's just a few of the new features.
Forwarding messages is a helpful Telegram feature that makes it easy to share funny and entertaining content with other contacts. However, for the privacy-centric, forwarding poses an issue, as messages of yours that are delivered elsewhere carry a tag back to your account. Luckily, you can make your messages anonymous, so anyone receiving messages of yours that are forwarded won't be able to see you originally sent the message.
After more than a year of teasing and testing, Niantic and Warner Bros. are finally ready to release Harry Potter: Wizards Unite to muggles of the world.
Augmented reality is often likened to granting superpowers to mere mortals, but what about mutant powers?
Many tech insiders are waiting for augmented reality to go mainstream, but if you look around hard enough, you'll find that it's already gone as mainstream as possible, thanks to talk show host Ellen Degeneres.
Like clockwork, Apple has unveiled the latest additions to its ARKit tookit at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where ARKit first said hello to the world in 2017, as well as some new tools that take a direct shot at Unity, Unreal Engine, and others.
If you're an iOS developer, welcome back to beta testing. Apple just released the first iOS 12.4 developer beta today, Wednesday, May 15, just two days after the public release of iOS 12.3. While Apple has not shared any release notes, we know this latest version of iOS will support Apple Card, Apple's upcoming credit card.
If you need some help expressing how you feel to your mom for Mother's Day, Snapchat and Facebook are here with some augmented reality help.
Apps that can display virtual furniture in the home are one of the most popular applications of mobile AR today, but Houzz has decided to raise the stakes with its latest update.
You don't have to be a frequent flyer to know how indispensable navigation apps have become. Many of us rely on these apps for traveling from state to state and getting around in foreign cities, but even more of us count on these apps to beat rush hour traffic and find the quickest routes to school or work. So naturally, we all have our favorite mapping apps, but which one is truly the best?
If you updated your iPhone to iOS 12.2, you'll notice in the Apple News app that there are no longer "Love" and "Dislike" buttons inside stories. Why did Apple remove them? And will they make a comeback?