With the holidays over, a lot of people with shiny new Google Homes are getting their first chance to explore the new Google Assistant. Before the Google Home's release, the Assistant was only available for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, or in a text-based form with Google All ...more
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. During the keyno ...more
Virtual reality is all the rage these days, especially with devices like the Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and HTC Vive hitting shelves lately. But before any of those fancy, expensive headsets ever made it to the market, Google came up with a thrifty and inventive substitute in the f ...more
The Animal Crossing series has been a big hit for Nintendo, so in a bid to enhance the experience even more for users, the game is getting the augmented reality treatment. The latest update for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp adds two new features for iOS and Android smartphone ...more
Nintendo changed Mario Kart Tour for the better with an option to play the game in landscape mode. That said, the game will rotate automatically, which can mess you up in the middle of a heated race. But you don't need to lock your iPhone or Android phone's orientation setting ...more
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to try to survive The Purge as depicted in the popular movie series? Well, thanks to augmented reality, now you can. After four films, the dystopian horror The Purge is jumping to the small screen on USA Networks as a television se ...more
If you need to know whether you are really a Hufflepuff or a Gryffindor, then it's time to get yourself an augmented reality sorting hat. The sorting hat game went live for Harry Potter fans this week within Wizarding World, a new mobile app and website launched by Harry Pott ...more
At long last, the magical world of Harry Potter has received a mobile game worthy of its name. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is the game in question, and is set to touch down worldwide on June 21, 2019. For the longest time, however, the game has been available as a soft launche ...more
We live in a computer world full of file formats. Whether we are talking about images, videos, or text documents, there are dozens of file types for each, and there are new ones added every year to applications. Keeping in mind that many of these formats were created before th ...more
To play in the World Cup, soccer's ultimate tournament, you have to be among the best players on the planet. For the rest of us, Google has a hidden game to simulate the thrill of scoring goals for your favorite team. The game is available on mobile devices, so you can play i ...more
Considering that nearly half a million brand new apps were published to the Google Play Store in 2015, you can definitely call it a banner year for Android development. In fact, it's getting to the point where we're a bit spoiled as end users, since we've grown to expect somet ...more
A blue hedgehog runs at high-speed through fantasy environments collecting rings. Sounds a bit loony, but I’m of course taking about the Sonic adventure series that was made popular on the Sega Genesis. The days of cartridge 16-bit gaming has long been eclipsed, but nostalgia ...more
UPDATE: The ported APK covered below is now obsolete because Fortnite beta is officially available for all Android devices! Alongside its Galaxy Note 9 announcement at Unpacked this year, Samsung confirmed that Fortnite would initially launch on Android as a Galaxy-exclusive. ...more
With hordes of games populating the Google Play Store, it's grown increasingly difficult to find trending, non-gaming apps that you might find useful on your Android device. There are a few in the Top Charts pages, peppered in among the various games you'll never play, but oth ...more
OnePlus, whose phones always challenge for the title of best spec-to-price ratio, releases two main devices every year. There's the primary flagship in late spring, then an iterative update with the "T" suffix in fall. Typically, there's not much difference between the two, bu ...more
Now that it's been officially released for Android, Monument Valley 2 shot to the top of our best paid puzzle games list, and rightly so. This was no easy feat, as the games we covered ran the gamut of puzzles and all had stellar reviews. But there's just something about Monum ...more
Kings Dominion, an amusement park located in Doswell, Virginia, just announced a mobile augmented reality game for park visitors. Gameplay in The Battle for Kings Dominion — available on May 19 for iOS and Android devices — follows the playbook designed by Niantic through Ingr ...more
These days, location-based augmented reality gaming pioneer Niantic is best known as the developer behind Pokémon Go, but the uber-popular mobile game was not its first foray into the AR gaming genre. That distinction goes to Ingress, which was released in 2012 for Android (a ...more
No matter how much of a gamer you are, typing with your PS4 controller is a bitch. Let's just be real. Having to move left, then right, then down, for every single letter can make writing a message very time consuming; so much so that I usually avoid messaging altogether. How ...more
Who would have thought back in 1991 that you'd eventually be able to play Sonic the Hedgehog whenever and wherever you wanted? Not a crappy Game Gear version, either. I'm talking the full Sega Genesis version of Sonic, available to you on a bus, a plane, or in a rest-stop bath ...more
Over the years, mobile gaming has become a phenomenon, rivaling in magnitude with its console and PC-based counterparts. We even have mobile versions of Fortnite and PUBG now, games that require lots of processing power to run. But when you just want a quick game to play in th ...more
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). To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game ...more
Whether it's heated competition during trivia night at the bar, board game night with the family, or just another weekday in front of the TV watching Jeopardy, it seems like a natural human condition to want to test our intelligence. Measures of intelligence are a constant pa ...more
Now that the Surface Pro is out, you can game your heart out and get down with some serious Minecrafting. You're not just limited to downloading apps in the Windows Store anymore, like with the Surface RT. You can install a lot of Windows-compatible programs on the Surface Pro ...more
Pokémon, Google, and augmented reality go together like wasabi, soy, and ginger, and the trio has come together again for the release of the latest game from the Pokémon universe. As Nintendo released the eagerly-anticipated games Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield for the Swit ...more
Even if your default mobile browser is Google Chrome, you may not want Google to also be your search engine. Maybe you're not impressed with Google's search results all the time, maybe you want a more private search experience, or maybe you just don't want Google's hands over ...more
When Disney teased an augmented reality game called Star Wars: Jedi Challenges running on a headset from Lenovo, fans had more questions than Disney had answers. When? How much? Can I be a real Jedi? With official word today from Lenovo and Disney by way of IFA 2017 in Berlin ...more
Verizon Wireless executives recently cooked up a plan so devious that it could have only come from one of the four major US carriers. Apparently, they aren't satisfied with simply loading every Android device they sell with their own bloatware, so now they're reaching out to b ...more
With many office workers in the US being asked to work from home if their job allows, Magic Leap's customary updates for the Lumin OS and Lumin SDK brings some help to keep distributed workforces connected. Chief among the new features arriving with Lumin OS version 0.98.10 a ...more
Samsung has legions of loyal fans, and for good reason — their Galaxy S lineup ticks so many boxes that it would be a downgrade to switch to any other phone. Though if you're still rocking an older model like the Galaxy S7 Edge, the all-new Galaxy S9 can tick all the same boxe ...more
I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow has charm. The original writers are attached to this project, and that shows in the humorous dialogue between characters. Yet, so much of the game feels like every other freemium title clamorin ...more
Google's got a hit on its hands with this one. Android 5.0—AKA "Lollipop"—will be making its official debut next month, but a new preview build has given us a glimpse into the future, which looks brighter than ever. New accents, beautiful animations, and a lighter overall col ...more
HBO GO is quickly gaining ground on Netflix as a must streaming service for our wireless devices. Especially since it's the only way you can watch TV shows like Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, and Veep, since Netflix and Google Play do not offer them, and there is no Androi ...more
With so much Flash content still available on the web, it's unfortunate that Google no longer supports mobile Flash Player on Android. Loading a webpage only to be met with a "Plug-in Error" is never fun, and it can inhibit your mobile browsing experience as you attempt to wat ...more
Chromecast comes to mind when "casting" video from a smartphone to a big screen television, but it's not the only way to "cast" streaming content. This is especially true for Netflix, where you can cast movies and TV shows to not only a Chromecast-enabled TV, but to smart TVs, ...more
After two dramatic Conference Finals, the dust has settled to reveal ... the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Well, at least the Irving-less Celtics and Rockets (short of Chris Paul for Games 6 and 7) gave it their all. With these teams battling for the fourt ...more
If I could win a trophy for waking up to go to work or for eating a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats without any of the biscuits getting soggy, I think my life would be so much more awesome. The gaming industry has cornered the market when it comes to achievement-based rewards, bec ...more
After the first image leaked of the upcoming successor to the Razer Phone, many were taken aback by its design, specifically how familiar it was. Last year's Razer already stood out with its boxy design and large bezels, and many thought the successor would change this. It did ...more
The hottest word game right now is Wordle, a simple game that gives you six chances to guess the five-letter word of the day. I've already shown how you can add the real Wordle app — not a fake clone — to your iPhone or Android phone's home screen. But there's also a way to sa ...more
Having already solved for functionality and form factor, Nreal appears poised to pull ahead of its consumer smartglasses competition as the third piece of the puzzle now falls into place. On Thursday, at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2019, the smartglasses maker revealed tha ...more
The mother of all games is almost here. Super Bowl XLVIII pits the Seattle Seahawks (or Seachickens, if you're from the Bay Area) against the Denver Broncos and regent exemplar of neck surgeries, Peyton Manning. Over the years, the Super Bowl has become one of the world's mos ...more
Just in time for the holiday season, Lenovo has released its Mirage AR head-mounted display with the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game and accessories. Unfortunately, while its price point is a fraction of most other AR headsets, at the moment, it does have a few issues with the ...more
There are two types of people in this world: those who recognize Wordle grids of yellow, green, and gray/black blocks and those who do not. No matter which category you fall in, there's a Wordle-inspired game that's perfect for you. The viral success of Wordle, the daily five ...more
After delaying its launch by four months, LG revealed its 2018 entry to the flagship market on Wednesday, May 2. After years of an underperforming mobile division, the LG G7 ThinQ is the first product since a shakeup within the division to get things back on track, and it brin ...more
For a friendly mobile game, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has an overwhelming number of items and collectibles — from fruit to fish to friends. Even though it can be difficult to keep up, this guide will be a great stepping stone to creating the campsite of your dreams without ...more
The iPhone vs. Android debate is almost as old as smartphones themselves. While there are a number of reasons to skew towards one operating system or the other, the Samsung Galaxy S9 models have a ton of great features that help set them apart from Apple's iPhones. The coolest ...more
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. Degeneres and her partner, actor Portia de Rossi, recently teamed ...more
After a relatively short beta-testing period, Pokémon Go is now rolling out to Android and iOS devices right now. If you want to catch 'em all in the real world, your wait is over. Video: . By now most of us know the details of the highly-anticipated, real-world Pokémon advent ...more
Since Stadia is an early access game streaming platform, Google is still working on bringing big things to the table. You can expect wireless Stadia controller support for many more devices, high-quality 4K gaming on all Chrome web browsers, and more Google Assistant features. ...more
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 touche ...more
Fans attending the US Open Tennis Championships in Queens, New York, which kicks off on Monday, will have the opportunity to meet tennis star Venus Williams in an augmented reality game sponsored by American Express. Fittingly, Williams' younger sister Serena was recently fea ...more
Nintendo rolls out its first smartphone-specific game in the U.S. on March 21st, and the main protagonist is... you. Well, your Mii, and it's not a game, but a social app. What?! Coming to both Android (you can sideload the app already via APK Mirror) and iOS, the app is cal ...more
Third-party keyboards have become a game changer for iPhone owners since their integration in iOS 8. And while the major players from the Android realm—Fleksy, SwiftKey, Swype—already have their keyboards on the iOS App Store, their products are relatively standard fare. And ...more
What's the meaning of life? That's the age-old question; but can it ever really be answered? I mean, isn't life just a big game anyway? Perhaps, a game of inches? Video: . Was that question just an excuse for me to embed the greatest movie speech of all time in this posting? A ...more
Android device manufacturers may see the new Pixel "Phone By Google" devices as just another competitor, one that likely won't upset their entry-level margins. But that would be a mistake. Pixel is Google's call to action. With Google now offering as near to perfect an Android ...more
While the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4 are enjoying their official KitKat updates, those of us with Note 2s are left to play the waiting game. While we know our devices will eventually see an update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat, it's unclear when an official update for our devices w ...more
Update (Fall 2020): Samsung's version of Android 11 is already in its testing phases! One UI 3.0 is expected to hit recent flagship Galaxy devices towards the end of this year, so check out the new list of features: New Version: All the New Features & Changes in Samsung's One ...more
Niantic's most successful app, Pokémon GO, has become the first app to integrate the company's Real World Platform, the developer's AR cloud technology that enables multiplayer AR, persistent content, and occlusion with physical objects. "RAD!" you say to yourself. "Now Pikac ...more
Smartphones have been around for nearly a decade now, so we've had plenty of time to develop preconceptions and bias. People that have never owned an iPhone will tell you that Apple devices are restrictive and bland, while others might say that stock Android is boring compared ...more
What is old is new again. In this case, a classic arcade game gets the augmented reality treatment. In a new promotion playing off its ad campaign featuring actor Craig Robinson (The Office, Hot Tub Time Machine), Pizza Hut has turned its pizza boxes into a virtual Pac-Man ga ...more