Early this morning, Unity held their keynote at GDC 2017 in the InterContinental San Francisco hotel. During the event, they talked about their upcoming roadmap and many changes that are coming down the pipe. This list included the lighting explorer, progressive lightmapper, the new 4K video player, native support for Vulkan graphics, TextMesh Pro integration, and the one that really excites me as a HoloLens developer—dynamically/runtime created navigation meshes.
Lenovo, the company that now owns Motorola, just announced two new entries in their wildly successful midrange Moto G series. The Moto G5, and its bigger brother, the Moto G5 Plus, were both shown off in detail at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, Spain.
The HoloLens is a natural medium for 3D data visualization, which offers a far more ideal approach over 2D screens to managing multiple resources simultaneously and grasping the bigger picture. We've already seen how management is using holograms to oversee cities, firefighters, and the military, and now training for sports teams is being addressed with VAR Football.
Students from Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center have been working on an augmented reality system to help teach music in a project called Music Everywhere.
3D modeling is usually a very long and complicated process. Manipulating the thousands to millions of vertices, faces, and triangles to the correct shape you want is just the first part of the process, and can take a good while depending on the level of detail needed. From there, you need to texture the model by applying the UV coordinates and placing the textures in the correct places. And all of this isn't even including the process of creating normal maps.
I am often asked about getting started with HoloLens development and most of the time my answer, in short, is: Install Unity, install Visual Studio, install the HoloLens emulator, and make something.
In this episode of Have You Seen This?, we will look at Oriental Museum by 247 Technology Limited, a free application in the Windows Store for HoloLens. Museum exhibits seem to be a popular theme amongst the demonstrations going up, so let's see how this one looks.
Designing for mixed reality, especially for the HoloLens, can present unique challenges. Dong Yoon Park, a Principal UX Designer at Microsoft with a passion for typography, recently gave a talk to the Windows Holographic Users Group Redmond (WinHUGR) about the pitfalls he ran into trying to convert what started out as a 2D iOS app 5 years ago to the newer 3D Holographic frontier with Unity.
Before the iPhone 7 models were released, there were many rumors pointing to the inclusion of wireless charging, which obviously didn't happen. Now the rumor mill is back at it again for Apple's next smartphone, most likely being called the iPhone 8, and the possibility of wireless charging is more certain this time.
What does our future hold when augmented and mixed reality finally enter the mainstream? As developers, we are always looking for the ultimate solutions to the problems our users see. Welcome the innovative minds of DataMesh Consulting and their impressive HoloLens interior design solution called HoloDesign (previously "Decoration").
Apple released 10.2 to developers yesterday, which contained some new features that you'll probably want right now on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Lucky for you, the Public Beta is pushing this same update out today.
Fish are delicate, flaky, and can be damn tricky to cook; more often than not, you end up with a hard, dry block of flesh that makes your taste buds sad. And the best ways to cook fish that you know of—c'mon, who doesn't love a fried fish—take way too much effort for you to bother with on a weeknight. Or maybe you're looking for a healthier way to enjoy fish that doesn't require batter or frying at all.
Uh oh. With millions of devices already sold, Apple's latest blunder is bound to upset the owners of some of their brand new iPhone 7 Plus phones.
In the world of analog synthesizers, hitting a key, twisting a knob, or sliding a fader makes a beautiful musical (or not so musical) sound and can be an amazing and downright satisfying experience. Now it's about to get even more satisfying, if you add Microsoft's HoloLens into the mix as a means to twist those knobs virtually instead.
If you've seen, heard, or even tried the latest virtual reality headsets, you've probably heard about something called "room scale." It's why the HTC Vive suddenly usurped the reign of the Oculus Rift while no one was looking, and it's exactly where Oculus hopes to catch up. Here's what it is and why it matters.
When Apple announced its new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models in San Francisco, one of the biggest new features was an "IP67" water-resistance rating. Couple that with a few official renderings that show the new iPhone covered in water, and you'd probably arrive at one logical conclusion: The iPhone 7 is waterproof.
You can easily take audio for granted in virtual reality, but realistic sound in VR isn't an afterthought. It not only involves creating surround sound within a pair of headphones, but figuring out where the sound ought to exist based on your position and line of sight.
From fungi to foie gras, the weird ingredient cocktail game across the nation is growing by leaps and bounds. We had our hesitations about trying some of them out, and especially about attempting to make any ourselves, so we did a bit more research and realized the flavor profiles aren't as unfathomable as one may think.
We've seen these bean-filled blondies trending on social media for a while and, with some inspiration from The Kitchn, we finally decided to grab some chickpeas and give them a go.
Things are definitely starting to shape up with iOS 10. After three developer betas of the upcoming operating system, Apple has begun rolling out the developer beta 4 release for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, which focuses mostly on refining some of the cool new features.
New Android versions have always been released on a fairly regular schedule—in late Fall, Google debuts a new Nexus device, while simultaneously publishing the next iteration of the world's leading mobile operating system. But things are different this year, as we now have numerous indications that Android Nougat could be released as early as August or September.
It's hard to argue with the notion that wine and pasta are a winning combination. I mean, millions of Italians can't be wrong.
Pokémon GO, the biggest augmented reality sensation ever, broke app store records this opening weekend. But it also did something even more important: it gamified physical activity.
Augmented and mixed reality experiences attempt to break us out of windowed computing experiences and allow us to place software anywhere in the room. But that software doesn't have to take a rectangular form—theoretically, the web doesn't have to restrict itself to a page in a browser any longer. Does this mark the end of the web browser entirely? Probably not. A lot of information works well on the page, and the Microsoft HoloLens still uses a pretty standard version of their own Edge brows...
When you wear a holographic computer on your face, you gain some things and lose others. That's certainly the case when using Skype in Microsoft's HoloLens. Some video chats will work better because your caller can see what you see, rather than your face—but others just feel weird.
The cool tang and citrusy taste of a margarita in the summer is refreshing, to say the least. But when making margaritas at home, many of us opt for the ease of store-bought mix when it's actually really simple to make it instead.
Google has an intriguing feature called Nearby that lets users share content without being on the same Wi-Fi network, or without even exchanging contact info first. Instead, the function uses an array of standard smartphone features, as well as subsonic sound, to identify other devices that are in the room, then makes a secure connection to transfer any data.
We're maniacs for mustard: we put it on our sausages, our salmon, our turkey club sandwiches... you name the dish, we find an excuse to spread mustard on it. So it's not surprising that it's a common item on our grocery list.
When a craving for crunchy tacos hits, it's undeniable. Don't Miss:
Apple has stepped up its emoji game lately, and as a result, there are several iPhone emojis that don't show up on Android devices running older firmware. However, Google responded by adding a next-gen set of Unicode 9.0 emojis to its Android Nougat preview build, meaning that soon, Android will have more emojis than iOS.
Amazon just unveiled the Kindle Oasis, the latest model in its popular line of e-readers. There are a couple of nice new features, but it's pretty hard to see how any of them justify the whopping $290 price tag (or $310 if you don't want ads littering your screen).
It seems like Microsoft has finally come to the realization that their Windows Phone mobile operating system is probably never going to compete in today's smartphone market. Why do I say that, you ask? Because they've recently started to embrace the more popular platforms by releasing some quality iOS and Android apps.
Being able to customize the look and feel of your device is the main reason a lot of folks choose Android over iOS. And perhaps the single biggest way to visually overhaul your phone or tablet's UI is to apply an icon pack, which can liven up your home screen with bright colors or make things look a bit more classy with a sleek, minimalist style, for instance.
Whenever I go to Jamba Juice, I usually gravitate towards either the Matcha Green Tea or Caribbean Passion smoothies. But when I learned about their secret menu a few years ago, I felt like a little kid all over again—especially with flavors like Pink Gummy Bear and Orange Dream Machine.
A little-known company in India is making waves after announcing that it will sell an Android 5.1 Lollipop smartphone for less than $4 (or, more precisely, 251 rupees). The Freedom 251, from Ringing Bells, sounds almost too good to be true. Is that because it is?
SentrySafe puts all sorts of measures in place to protect your valuables and important documents. This particular SentrySafe has an electronic lock, four 1-inch bolts to keep the door firmly in place, pry-resistant hinges, and it's able to withstand drops of up to 15 feet. That all sounds great, until you find out that you can open this safe—and pretty much every safe like it—in a matter of seconds using only a magnet. A rare earth magnet, to be precise.
Spaghetti squash is a versatile vegetable, but it has a reputation for being intimidating to prepare... not to mention time-consuming. Heating it up in the oven can take at least 30-40 minutes, which is a definite time-suck for those who want to get dinner on the table, stat.
Samsung trademarked the name Gear 360 a few weeks ago, and today it has been confirmed that the Gear 360 is a spherical virtual reality camera that will accompany the much-anticipated Galaxy S7.
Stock is a crucial ingredient for so many recipes: soups, gravies, and risottos depend on stock; quinoa and rice are both more flavorful when cooked with it, too. So, chances are that broth is a staple on your weekly shopping list.
When roast chicken is concerned, perfection is hard to attain. The reason for this is surprisingly simple: the light meat and the dark meat should be cooked to different temperatures. Ideally, chicken legs should be cooked to at least 170°F, while breasts should be cooked to 150°F. Naturally, this poses a conundrum: how can you cook two parts of the chicken to two different temperatures, without taking the bird apart?
