Mobile gaming has exploded in recent years, with experts predicting 2.4 billion global mobile players by the end of 2019. It already accounts for 47% of the worldwide gaming market, besting console and PC. No wonder we've seen the rise of gaming smartphones, a class of phones ...more
After building a tech empire on revenues from search advertising, Google is not about to sit back and let Snapchat, Facebook, 8th Wall, and others draw all the AR marketing attention to their platforms. This week, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (basi ...more
2017 was a down year for HTC. First, the U11 and U Ultra were widely criticized. Later, Google purchased a large chunk of HTC's manufacturing division, leaving the Taiwanese company running with a skeleton crew after losing 2,000 key employees. But that's not stopping HTC — th ...more
When making a convincing mixed reality experience, audio consideration is a must. Great audio can transport the HoloLens wearer to another place or time, help navigate 3D interfaces, or blur the lines of what is real and what is a hologram. Using a location-based trigger (hots ...more
Now that we've got all of our software installed, we're going to proceed with the next step in our HoloLens Dev 101 series—starting a fresh project and building it into a Holographic application. Then we will output the application to the HoloLens Emulator so we can see it in ...more
The 15-year-old star of the 1980s-inspired hit series Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown, may have (spoiler alert) lost all her powers as the character "Eleven," but in the real world, she still has augmented reality in her arsenal. The young science fiction icon has release ...more
For enterprise augmented reality platform makers, remote assistance apps represent one of the greatest opportunities to show off the power of immersive computing. These apps enable experts to guide front-line workers or customers with AR prompts and other content in the field ...more
Surprising? No. Exciting? Absolutely. After a grand introduction by at the Apple event on September 10, 2019, the iPhone 11 is finally here. We may have known nearly everything about this new iOS device ahead of time, thanks to the usual surge of reliable leaks and rumors. Th ...more
The software released in the 2015 iterations of the Samsung Galaxy line of devices—the S6, S6 Active, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and Note 5—have some pretty neat camera features that give these devices arguably the best smartphone camera on the market today. Out of the box, Samsung's ...more
Apple's iOS 15 update has some great camera features that can benefit professional photographers and casual users alike. And while many are exclusive to newer iPhone models, there are still some Camera app upgrades and additions that apply to all iPhones running iOS 15. 1. Im ...more
Old school media stalwart Sports Illustrated is billing this year's Swimsuit Issue as the "Most Immersive Experience Ever," and it certainly lives up to that statement, as the magazine has added augmented reality and virtual reality experiences to this year's version via Snapc ...more
The iPhone X was released in November 2017, and the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus dropped right before it, but the hottest news right now revolves around the 2018 iPhone releases. The rumor mill regarding the iPhone X's successor started churning out speculations on names, cameras, disp ...more
There's a new trend on Instagram Stories: People are making viral AR filters where images of popular characters from TV shows, movies, and other mediums shuffle above your head until one sticks. The filters range from Disney and Pokémon characters to Harry Potter and Friends, ...more
If tradition holds, we're roughly one month away from Apple's big iPhone announcement. While we're excited to see what will mainly be a significant camera upgrade, it's not all about the hardware. Apple will also release the official version of iOS 13 to coincide with the iPho ...more
Every industry has its own jargon, acronyms, initializations, and terminology that serve as shorthand to make communication more efficient among veteran members of that particular space. But while handy for insiders, those same terms can often create a learning curve for novic ...more
The big day has finally come—the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have been officially unveiled. Apple debuted their new flagship devices at a keynote event in San Francisco on September 7, and as we've grown to expect, there are tons of changes in store for the world's top-sell ...more
Taste is certainly relative. When you look at Central American architecture and notice all of the bright pastel colors, then move just a thousand or so miles to the north and see that buildings in the United States are mostly painted in earth tones, this becomes abundantly cle ...more
Alongside Sesame Street, the Dr. Seuss universe has been a constant presence in the formative years of several generations of children in the US. Now, Dr. Seuss's creations are continuing to maintain relevance with today's youth via augmented reality, just as the Sesame Stree ...more
Because of its ability to place digital content into the real world, augmented reality lends itself well to artists and creatives. Two new mobile apps, one from Google and another from an indie developer with ties to Magic Leap, invert the creative conceit by taking the real ...more
Rooting. As an Android user, I'm sure you've heard the word once or twice. According to Kaspersky, 7.6% of all Android users root — but for the 92.4% who don't, we wanted to talk to you. Rooting allows you to remove barriers and open Android to a level of unprecedented contro ...more
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. With the new Segmentation template, Lens Studio users can design Lenses that change the use ...more
The calendar app is one of the unsung heroes found within your iPhone. It's the ultimate personal assistant that you've come to rely on to keep track of your schedule and ensure you never miss a class or meeting, all while reminding you of upcoming birthdays and deadlines to h ...more
Thanks to Metaverse, it has never been this easy to create your own AR game. The platform gives users a web-based tool for building interactive AR experiences, with no coding knowledge necessary. Via a link or QR code, users can then share their project with others, who can v ...more
As if Amazon didn't already make it easier to buy things from home than in a store, the company has now given shoppers yet another reason to avoid the holiday rush with an ARKit update to its iPhone app. While Amazon may have lagged behind IKEA in arriving to the ARKit party, ...more
Apple gave us the ability to invert colors on the screen a very long time ago. Then they gave us grayscale mode in iOS 8, Night Shift in iOS 9, and the red screen filter in iOS 10. While the long-awaited "Dark Mode" finally appeared in iOS 13, iOS 11 and iOS 12 both have a dec ...more
Listen up ladies, there's no need to go to Sephora and model a hundred different shades of lipstick anymore. Now with Virtual Artist, Sephora's award-winning app, for iOS and Android, you can virtually test thousands of shades of single and palette eyeshadows, lip colors, and ...more
Any developer working with the HoloLens knows that the fight for polygons is a very real conflict. For all of the magic it creates, the HoloLens is a high-powered mobile device that has all the typical processing limitations of a mobile device. For a computer or a gaming cons ...more
Using your iPhone camera's panorama feature is great way to capture wide-angle views of scenery, such as sweeping cityscapes, broad landscapes, and seemingly never-ending skies, as well as that awesome party or get-together you just threw. While panoramic photographs do a gre ...more
When it comes to making pancakes in the morning, most of us probably follow the instructions on the box. Mix all the ingredients together, pour onto a hot greased pan, and form perfect circular flapjacks one by one. But pancakes are so much more than that. You can turn them i ...more
2011's The Artist was the first silent film to win an Academy Award since 1927. It was old school versus new school, and it won in unprecedented fashion. You don't have to be a hipster to appreciate silent films, and when it comes to Halloween, being a silent film actor makes ...more
If you're a PC gamer, you know the value of performance metrics. These graphs and charts overlaid on top of a game give you real-time information about how well your system performs. And for the first time, Galaxy users running One UI 3.0 will get access to similar information ...more
Apple's ARKit has built a considerable lead in terms of features over Google's ARCore, but Google's latest update to ARCore adds a capability that makes the platform a bit more competitive with ARKit. On Monday, Google unveiled its new Depth API for ARCore, an algorithm that ...more
Here at Next Reality, our typical approach to all things augmented reality involves vision combined with remote control, either via a handheld device, gaze control, or hand/finger tracking. But a new dynamic takes the notion of interaction with virtual content into a new real ...more
There's no doubt iOS 13 has dominated the talk around the Apple community this month. Since the announcement and release of the first developer beta, we iPhone users have had a treasure trove of new features and changes to explore and discuss. Now the fun continues with iOS 13 ...more
Current-generation mobile augmented reality apps offer users numerous opportunities to punch up photos and videos with 3D content, but there's surprisingly few options for users to express themselves using virtual characters. A new app called Puppetoon from indie developer Cu ...more
We're still weeks away from a probably HoloLens 2 release, but Microsoft's immersive computing team is still hard at work on other aspects of its "mixed reality" ecosystem. Earlier this week, Microsoft published a new extension for Unity and the Mixed Reality Tookit that enab ...more
Developers looking to create shared experiences that support both HoloLens as well as ARKit may be able to get it working in Unity since that the engine supports both platforms — though, the amount of effort it might take to get that working could be a bit much. Up to this poi ...more
Lenovo is teaming up with Google to debut the first Project Tango smartphone, which uses 3D sensors to map the world around it. The Tango phone will be able to give directions without the need for GPS, and it can augment reality to bring things like dinosaurs and cars into you ...more
3D printers have been surging in popularity for both professional and personal applications, and now OLO is on the verge of making 3D printing practical wherever you go. Their eponymous 3D printer is battery-powered and uses the light from your smartphone's screen to create 3D ...more
Ever wonder what your brain looks like while you're singing? No? Neither had I, but as this music video for the song "Better Man Than He" by SiVU (aka James Page) will show you, the answer is "pretty cool." Video: . Directed by Adam Powell, the entire video was shot inside an ...more
Apple's next big iOS update is ready for your iPhone, and it's out just a little bit more than a month after the iOS 15.0 update was released — and 14 days after iOS 15.0.2. The hottest feature you'll find in iOS 15.1 is definitely SharePlay, but what else is hiding within Oct ...more
As protests surge in the wake of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer, powerful photographs and videos from the demonstrations have gripped the world, putting our nation's very real and very justifiable widespread civil unrest out into the digital world. Unfor ...more
After opening up its Spark AR platform on Instagram for all creators, Facebook is already expanding the platform's capabilities on its Snapchat killer. On Monday, the company released version 76 of Spark AR Studio, which brings support for two new AR effect options for develo ...more
Halloween may be finished, but the augmented reality chills are not over yet for some people. Arachnophobes are bravely facing their fears by cozying up to augmented reality spiders for a university study. Wayne State University's Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic ( ...more
You're a busy, on-the-go professional, so you deserve an email client that keeps up with you. "Mail" on iPhone wasn't always the best option, but thanks to iOS 13, it feels like a completely different app. That said, there are plenty of alternatives that offer a different expe ...more
Norway-based production tools company Vizrt is putting the real into augmented reality with its broadcast AR solution that's designed to keep sports fans (and other audiences) watching. A couple of weeks ago, Chris Black, the head of content and communications at Vizrt, demoe ...more
Apple released iOS 13.0 on Sept. 19 and announced on the same day the release of iOS 13.1 on Sept. 30. But that deadline was pushed up to Sept. 24, and that's why we have 13.1 just five days after 13.0. But that's good news since we don't have to wait any longer for some of th ...more
So the new iPhones have arrived. Like last year, Apple released three iPhones in three different sizes that vary in price and specs. There's the base model iPhone 11, and then there are the real deal, premium models, the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro ...more
The Pixel 3 runs stock Android, so you might think that since you've used an Android device before, you should know your way around the new phone by default. But Google has actually added several great Pixel-exclusive software features to its flagships, and not all of them are ...more
As we enter the second half of 2018, rumors for the second season of flagships have started to emerge. On the Android side, this means the latest iterations of the Google Pixel, Galaxy Note, LG V series, and Huawei Mate. Thanks to FunkyHuawei and XDA, we now have some solid ru ...more
Its official: On May 8, T-Mobile finally released the Android Oreo update for the LG V30 and V30+. Now, every major US wireless carrier has pushed the update. For me, this update is a big deal. Not only does Android Oreo bring some new tools and features, but LG has also inclu ...more
Pottery Barn has teamed up with Google to create 3D Room View, a new mobile app to allow all wannabe interior designers (like me) to pick out the perfect couch, table, or whatever, and then overlay it onto a spot in his or her house. I used to obsess over the Pottery Barn Tee ...more
Android comprises an entire ecosystem of apps, games, functions, and features, so it would only make sense that it has its own lexicon. Words, phrases, and acronyms that didn't exist ten years ago are now used in an off-the-cuff style by developers and support technicians acro ...more
Of the sixty or so "must-have" apps that are installed on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3, there's only one that I need to use and hate with a passion. Skype. Whenever using it, I'm consumed by dropped calls, mic issues, poor quality, and random crashes, among other things—and I'm no ...more
Although lacking in megapixels, the HTC One M8's camera can be considered a top-tier, flagship-level shooter. With the Duo Camera and UltraPixel technology behind it, it can make even the most inexperienced photographer snap pictures like a pro. There seems to be little missin ...more
Samsung's lineup of Galaxy Note devices for 2020 include the specs-behemoth Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the slightly more cost-effective Galaxy Note 20. Excuse the pun, but there's a lot to unpack here in terms of unique features and hardware. These are the first smartphones wit ...more
Most augmented reality experiences are purely visual, with spatial audio gaining in popularity to make visual experiences more realistic. However, leveraging the sense of touch may be the next frontier for AR experiences. This week, researchers at the School of Engineering an ...more
Big-box retailer Target has been on a bit of an augmented reality advertising shopping spree via Snapchat lately. The latest example, revealed on Tuesday, comes via a pair of Halloween-themed experiences, available in the camera carousel in Snapchat. Don't Miss: Snapchat Is ...more
In recent weeks we've talked about the growing trend of smartglasses makers moving the brains of their devices to smartphones, and now a veteran of the space has joined that movement. On Wednesday, Epson revealed the Moverio BT-30C, the company's first truly affordable smartg ...more
A few months ago, iOS 12.1 came out with a handful of useful new features, and iOS 12.2 goes even further. While some of iOS 12.2's new features for iPhone are much welcomed, there are some that we'd be better without. Apple's iOS 12.2 started beta testing on Jan. 4, 2019, an ...more