News: Facebook Cancels Annual F8 Developer Conference Due to Coronavirus Concerns
Facebook has announced the cancelation of its annual F8 developer conference, citing concerns around the developing coronavirus health crisis.
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Market Reality: HTC Vive Concept Smartglasses, Coronavirus Hits Apple, Holographic Celebs, & Snapchat Ground Effects
The coronavirus continues to disrupt the tech industry, including the augmented reality segment, with Apple and the iPhone the latest to feel the impact.
News: Hulu Follows Instagram's Viral Sensation with Branded 'What Should I Watch' Lens on Snapchat
The "what (blank) are you" augmented reality filters on Instagram have become so popular that more and more Hollywood giants are following the augmented reality-powered social media meme train, with the latest example coming via Snapchat.
News: Pinterest Adds AR Makeup Try-On Feature to Its Mobile Lens Tool
It's time to make some more room at the augmented reality cosmetics counter. This week, social media giant Pinterest unveiled "Try On," a virtual make-up visualization tool running on its Lens visual search tool.
News: Startup Ubiquity6 Expands 3D Object Social Network into AR Cloud Creation with Display.land Studio
After dipping its toes into the AR cloud arena last year, Ubiquity6 is now jumping in with both feet this year.
How To: Play Stadia Games on Any Android Phone
Stadia is a lot like an Xbox or PS4, except there's no console — the games just stream from Google's servers to your phone, computer, or TV. But Stadia is limited to Pixel phones for right now, and when Google does expand support, it will still only be for select phones. Thankfully, there's a workaround for that if you're rooted.
News: Augmented Reality Apps Account for Over Half of the Top 10 Most Downloaded Apps of 2019, Report Says
If there's any lingering uncertainty as to the mainstream viability of augmented reality, a list of the top mobile apps and games of 2019 serves to dispell those doubts.
News: Magic Leap Repackages Developer Tools as The Lab, Publishes Updates to Lumin SDK & Lumin OS, & Previews Magicverse SDK
Along with rebranding Magic Leap 1 for enterprise customers, Magic Leap has gifted its developer community with some new toys with a tease of more to come in 2020.
Market Reality: HoloLens 2 Hits Primetime TV, Qualcomm Unveils XR2 Chip, & Magic Leap Tops 2019's Biggest AR Investments
Investment in augmented reality remained robust in 2019. For the third consecutive year, we looked back on the biggest funding deals in the AR industry this week, and a familiar name came out on top.
News: The 25 Biggest AR Investments in 2019
It's safe to say that we can call the annual ranking of AR investments a holiday tradition at Next Reality.
News: Facebook Adds Image Tracking Effects & Slider Controls to Spark AR for Instagram
After opening up its Spark AR platform on Instagram for all creators, Facebook is already expanding the platform's capabilities on its Snapchat killer.
News: User-Created Facebook & Instagram Face Filters Lead to Ban on 'Plastic Surgery' Effects
Facebook recently hit a snag in its quest to take augmented reality face effects to its millions of users.
Market Reality: Apple Prepares AR Hardware for 2020, Sony Delivers AR Ghosts, & 8th Wall Expands Web Capabilities
Smartglasses from Apple have become the holy grail of augmented reality, and 2020 has been the rumored time horizon for the product's arrival for the past two years. The latest analyst report sheds more light on its potential debut next year.
News: Unity Previews Project MARS Mobile App, Extends AR Foundation to HoloLens & Magic Leap, Intros XR Interaction Toolkit
With its 3D engine being responsible for approximately 60% of augmented and virtual reality experiences, Unity is continuing to place a premium on tools that not only keep developers working in its development environment but also make their workflows easier.
Market Reality: Snap CEO Tops NR30, Apple Sneaks Spatial Awareness into New iPhone, Daqri Runs Out of Runway
This time last year, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and his company were faced with an erosion of its user base that cratered its stock price. This year, on the strength of Snapchat's AR camera effects, the company has reversed course. And that's why Spiegel tops the NR30, our annual list of the leaders in the AR industry.
News: Google Brings Persistent Content Support to Cloud Anchors, Expands Augmented Faces to iOS
With Android 10 hitting the streets (at least for those mobile devices that get quick updates) and the public release of iOS 13 dropping on Sept. 19, Google is releasing an update on Thursday to ARCore that adds some fantastic new benefits to its cross-platform capabilities.
News: Startup Light Field Lab Lands $28 Million in Funding from Samsung, Verizon, & Comcast for Holographic Displays
The venture arms of Samsung and Verizon Ventures, along with Comcast, are among the strategic investors backing startup Light Field Lab and its glasses-free holographic displays in a $28 million Series A funding round
How To: Hide the Home Bar on Android 10 — No Root Needed
With the new navigation gestures in Android 10, you reclaim a lot of screen real estate that used to be occupied by the back, home, and recent apps buttons. But there's still a small bar on the bottom edge of the screen, and in most apps, it still sits atop a black background. Thankfully, an easy hack will give you true full-screen without breaking the new gestures.
News: 15 Remote Assistance Apps Driving the Enterprise Sector of Augmented Reality, from HoloLens to iPhone
Comparing the present-day states of the consumer and enterprise sectors of augmented reality is like evaluating the merits of sports car versus work trucks. Like consumer AR, sports cars are sexy and exciting, but perhaps a bit impractical at times. On the other hand, enterprise AR is utilitarian, but it gets the job done and, in the long run, pays for itself.
How To: Unlock the Bootloader on Your Pixel 3a
The first thing you'll always have to do before getting your customization game on with most phones is to unlock the bootloader. Doing so opens the true potential of the device, allowing you to root, install TWRP, Magisk, custom ROMs, and other mods. No matter your wants or needs, there's no way around it — the bootloader must be unlocked to modify the system.
Market Reality: Meta Company & Leap Motion Find New Owners as AWE 2019 Wraps Up
The annual Augmented World Expo (AWE) typically packs the front page of Next Reality with new products and services from companies in the augmented reality industry.
News: Google's ARCore Updates Bring Scene Viewer for AR on Web & Search, Improvements to Image Recognition & Ambient Lighting
After announcing at Google I/O 2019 that augmented reality content would come to Search, Google revealed how it would make that happen with the latest round of updates to ARCore.
How To: Auto-Hide the Navigation Bar on Your Galaxy S10 — No Root Needed
Because of the way Android is laid out, you automatically lose a portion of the top and bottom of your screen thanks to the status and navigation bars. The thing is, you don't always need the navigation buttons. By hiding them, you can enjoy more of your Galaxy S10's big, beautiful display.
News: Niantic Offering In-Game Rewards to Pokémon GO & Ingress Players Who Pitch in on Earth Day Cleanup Events
Location-based gaming company Niantic knows its business model is inextricably tied to the outdoors, so it is in its best interest to help preserve that environment to give players a place to play.
News: Google Backs Mojo Vision's 'Invisible Computing' Augmented Reality Platform in $58 Million Funding Round
Four months have passed since Mojo Vision emerged from stealth, and we are no closer to seeing exactly what its "invisible computing" technology looks like.
News: Angry Birds Returns to Its Mobile Roots with 'Isle of Pigs' Augmented Reality Game
After launching its first augmented reality title for Angry Birds on the Magic Leap One, Rovio has doubled back to the platform that made its franchise famous.
News: Vuzix Reveals First Smartglasses Running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR1 with the M400
Smartglasses maker Vuzix has emerged with the first hardware powered by the Snapdragon XR1 chip, roughly nine months after Qualcomm introduced the chipset designed to drive augmented reality wearables at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara.
News: Microsoft Unveils the HoloLens 2
After years of waiting, Microsoft has finally updated its industry-leading augmented reality device, the HoloLens.
Market Reality: Meta Comes Clean on Crash, Microsoft Prepares HoloLens 2, & Niantic Captures Another Funding Round
Despite its status as a hot commodity amongst emerging technologies, the augmented reality industry is not immune to the ebbs and flows that occur in every industry.
News: Nreal Banks $15 Million in Funding to Produce Fashionable Smartglasses with Plane Detection & Object Recognition
The emerging narrative as CES begins is that consumer-grade smartglasses require a heavy compromise in functionality in order to arrive at a form factor and price point that appeal to mainstream customers.
News: Niantic Picks an AR Fight with Pokémon GO Players via Trainer Battles Rollout
Augmented reality gaming company Niantic Labs is now instigating conflicts between Pokémon GO players, but it's not as bad as it sounds.
Market Reality: North Opens Smartglasses Retail Stores, Magic Leap & Microsoft Court Devs, & Another Exec Exits Snap
The North remembers...that smartglasses are the future! Game of Thrones jokes aside, the smartglasses startup opened its doors, and we visited its Brooklyn store to get our hands the consumer-focused Focals smartglasses.
News: Snap's Vice President of Content Is Ghost, as App Continues to Shed Users
In a move sure to stir up even more speculation about the future of Snap Inc., the company's vice president of content, Nick Bell, is leaving the company after five years.
Market Reality: Lyft Acquires Blue Vision, Google & Samsung Invest in AR, & Epic Games Scores Massive Funding Round
With would-be unicorns Magic Leap and Niantic among its investments, Google is an active investor in augmented reality technology. This week, the search giant experienced both ends of the investment cycle, with an exit via Lyft's acquisition of Blue Vision Labs, and a funding round for Resolution Games.
News: Visualix AR Cloud Platform Looks to Give Enterprises the Ability to Virtually Map Their Facilities
A new augmented reality cloud platform from German startup Visualix is working to give enterprises the capability to scan their own warehouses, factories, and stores and create maps for augmented reality navigation.
NR30: The AR Software Development Leaders of 2018
One could argue that, at least for the moment, software development is more important to the augmented reality experience than hardware. Since a viable augmented reality headset has yet to emerge for the broader, mainstream consumer market, currently, the same devices that make texting and selfies possible are leading the charge to enable easy-to-use AR experiences.
News: First Truly Mainstream, Hit Augmented Reality App May Arrive Through Advertising, Says Unity CEO
Despite the launch of ARKit a year ago, and ARCore this year, a true killer app has not arrived for either platform, that's according to the head honcho for one of the leading development environments for 3D applications.
News: Turn the Sky into a Shared Canvas with This Fun Augmented Reality App
While we've seen Snapchat apply sky segmentation to AR content, the makers of the Blue Sky Paint app have applied similar capabilities to create and share airborne art.
Market Reality: Magic Leap One Availability Expands via Third-Party Service, Snapchat Sings Shoppable AR Tune
If you subscribe to notifications for Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz's Twitter feed, you'd think everyone in the world already has a Magic Leap One. Alas, that is not the case, but those not within the geographic areas of Magic Leap's LiftOff service now have a loophole through which they, too, can join the "Magicverse."
Market Reality: Magic Leap Launches, L'Oréal Friends Facebook, & Nickelodeon Takes TV to AR
The long, long, loooong wait finally ended this week for the augmented reality community as the Magic Leap One was finally released. The Florida-based company has loomed over the industry for years promising something big, and now the AR cat is finally out of the bag. Now we get to see if it will live up to expectations, but early reviews are a bit skeptical.