Amid the coronavirus chaos, two companies at the forefront of augmented reality technology took starkly different approaches to their upcoming developers conferences, as Facebook has canceled its annual F8 conference and Magic Leap plans to invite a limited number of attendees ...more
Google just released the first version of the next major Android update. Early Android 11 builds will only available as developer previews, so you can't just sign up for the beta program and install the update as an OTA for the first couple months. That said, it's still pretty ...more
While the big names in augmented reality demonstrated the breadth of opportunities in the industry's landscape this week, one new startup showed off what is possible further in the future. On the AR wearables front, Magic Leap and Nreal, two of the current front-runners for A ...more
The year 2019 was filled with all the normal peaks and valleys of the tech business cycle, but this year was particularly important in a space as relatively young as the augmented reality industry. What once seemed like a vast fertile bed of mobile AR apps, powered by Apple's ...more
You may have noticed your Note 10 came with quite a bit of bloatware. Even the unlocked version of the phone comes with Facebook preinstalled, and if you bought it from a carrier, it's much worse. Luckily, there's a way to remove any apps you don't want, and you don't need roo ...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
Another year, another battle between Samsung and Apple. We recently saw what Samsung is bringing to the table this year with the release of the Galaxy Note 10+, and now it's Apple's turn. For those who want a truly large device, Apple is offering the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Let's s ...more
Move over, Star Wars. You're not the only Disney property that can play in the Lenovo Mirage AR headset anymore. On Thursday, superhero powerhouse Marvel unveiled Dimension of Heroes, a new mobile app for iOS and Android that, when holstered in a Lenovo Mirage AR headset and ...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
Before smartglasses makers can dream of taking smartglasses to mainstream consumers, they must first determine the right mix of form, function, and price that will drive customers to buy into what they're hoping to sell. Google's AI research team may have part of the solution ...more
For years, Samsung has been behind the curve when it comes to fast charging. Up to the Galaxy S10, most of their phones used the very slow Adaptive Fast Charging system. Whether it was the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco or some other reason, Samsung has been reluctant to push the chargi ...more
Smartphone hardware surpassed the most popular portable game devices long ago in all but one category — control. Your iPhone is more than capable of running impressive, fully-realized games, but touch controls only go so far. That's why it's so exciting that Apple has added su ...more
Since the Razer Phone's announcement in 2017, we've seen a new subgroup of phones emerge. Gaming phones are now a thing, leading to companies like ASUS creating phones that are thoroughly optimized for the mobile gaming experience. And with their second iteration, they perfect ...more
A universal dark theme has long been one of the most sought-after features we've been urging Apple to introduce for iOS. While this wish went unfulfilled with iOS 12, there's renewed hope that it'll finally touch down with iOS 13's arrival. The jailbreak community, however, ha ...more
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 qui ...more
Newer businesses, or older businesses looking for more traffic and sales, often offer enticing deals to attract customers. On Yelp, any business has the option to provide a deal to users, which is essentially a Groupon-like coupon. But how do you find these deals in the Yelp a ...more
If you want to get started sniffing Wi-Fi networks, you usually need to start with a wireless network adapter. But thanks to a Wi-Fi sniffing library written in Arduino and the ultra-cheap ESP8266 chip, you might not need one. For less than $10 in electronics, you can build a ...more
As I've mentioned in recent days, it was refreshing to discover that Microsoft's HoloLens 2 stage production was every bit as accurate as presented (check out my hands-on test of the device for more on that). But beyond watching Microsoft's deft HoloLens 2 stagecraft, and try ...more
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that augmented reality (or, AR for short) will "change everything." But what, exactly, is augmented reality? Generally, augmented reality refers to the process of presenting virtual objects and imagery — usually through a wearable lens or external ...more
In a way, Twitter is the town square of our era, where people can share and discuss ideas on a wide variety of topics. While the tech giant has its own app for Android, it's pretty bare-bones when it comes to features. This has paved the way for third-party clients that are ri ...more
Augmented reality and computer vision company Blippar has a new lease on life, as previous investor Candy Ventures has completed a successful bid to acquire the assets of the beleaguered company. Blippar entered administration (the UK's version of bankruptcy) last month after ...more
The gym can be pretty distracting. With the slamming of weights and pieces of equipment, loud music blasting through the speakers, and plain old grunting, it can be challenging to focus on your workout. However, with your just your phone, you can not only eliminate these distr ...more
On April 26, 2019, Sinemia posted a note on its website stating it has ceased all operations in the United States. It's not known if it continues to work in other countries or if US users will be getting any refunds, particularly, for annual subscribers. Over the previous mon ...more
There has never been a better time to be a movie enthusiast, with more options now than ever to buy high-quality digital titles to watch on almost any device you own. That said, all those choices can lead to your movie collection scattered across different apps and services. W ...more
You can mod every aspect of your phone's software with root, but if you want to make changes at the hardware level, you'll need a custom kernel. If you've looked into custom kernels before, one name undoubtedly kept coming up: ElementalX. It's easily the best custom kernel out ...more
Give an 18-month-old a shoe, check back 10 minutes later, and it's a very big maybe he will have it on his foot. But give him your smartphone, and in a mere five minutes, he can take 100 pictures of the carpet, send weird messages, and delete essential apps. Imagine what your ...more
As a longtime Android user, one of the changes I was most excited about with Android Pie was the fact that the volume rocker finally controls media volume by default. However, the new way isn't ideal for everyone, but thankfully, there's an app that can change it back. With t ...more
The gig economy is thriving, and if you aren't already making money with your phone, you could be missing out on easy residual income. Some people just want extra cash, and some even manage to completely ditch the 9–5, enabling them to work at their own pace and set their own ...more
The rumors are still hot that Apple might include an 18-watt USB Type-C power adapter with the upcoming iPhone lineup so that there's fast-charging capability right out of the box. Leaked photos have surfaced that substantiate this rumor, though, they could also be fake. But h ...more
Apple's next big developer event happened on June 4, and it was the first glimpse of iOS 12 that anyone's seen. While there were lots of rumored features to be unveiled at WWDC 2018, Apple concentrated mostly on squashing bugs and making iOS work as seamless as it did years ag ...more
Google Lens is a fantastic addition to Google Photos for Android and iOS that allows your smartphone to identify a number of things in your pictures, like landmarks and contact info. Using this power, you can even find out how to buy almost any product you've taken a photo of ...more
Google has started blocking certain devices from accessing the Google Play Store and other Google services. This is part of an effort to clamp down on OEMs that skirt its certification requirements, but now millions of phones have been uncertified to download or update Google ...more
Update: Google's new Pixel models have been released! Check out our full guides on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL to see all the details, but we'll leave the rumor roundup intact below for posterity. Although marked by initial scandals, many regard the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL as s ...more
Last year, OnePlus released not one but two excellent flagship devices with the OnePlus 5 and 5T. While the 5T released sooner than expected, it brought some worthwhile upgrades, such as a near bezel-less display and a much-needed camera enhancement. Now, that the OnePlus 6 ha ...more
As cryptocurrencies gain mainstream acceptance, it's not far-fetched to think that we'll one day be able to buy alt coins like Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) using debit cards and bank accounts. Until then, we'll have to rely on using bitcoins and ethereum to buy digital coins ...more
Around this time in 2016, the predictions for the next year had reached something of a consensus: 2017 would be the year of augmented reality. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future — nothing much, really. At least not for the first half of the year. It seemed cl ...more
While there aren't as many ways to customize your iPhone like there is on Android, there are still a lot of apps out there that can help streamline and enhance your experience beyond Apple's own default options — and we've hand-picked over 100 essentials. No matter if you've ...more
Coinbase has become the most popular mobile wallet app due in large part to its user-friendliness. The app takes the hassle out of buying and selling Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC), letting Android and iPhone users alike trade their favor ...more
Huawei's sub-brand, Honor, just announced a pair of new smartphones to help close out the year. We knew the midrange Honor 7X was on its way, but what came as a surprise was the announcement of the Honor View 10 and its impending release in the US. Thanks to Honor, US customer ...more
Word games can expand your vocabulary skills in all sorts of exciting and creative ways. Because of this, both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store are awash with word games, making it hard to differentiate between good and bad titles. This is especially troublesome if ...more
So, your grandmother finally wants to ditch her flip phone for a shiny new smartphone? Congratulations. But helping her get used to her new device, even when it's an iPhone, is no small task. Grandma mastered checking her email in late-2012 and just recently learned there's a ...more
HTC is heading in a strange direction lately. Instead of releasing just one flagship in the spring season, they released two top-tier phones, with one having last year's specs and both having last year's design. They were also supposed to manufacture both the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, ...more
Since its debut, retro thriller Stranger Things and its characters have become ingrained in our popular culture — especially the telekinetic Eleven. For cosplayers, it didn't take long before they grabbed their boxes of frozen Eggo waffles, blonde wigs (or bald caps), and pink ...more
When it comes to technology, there are no bigger names than Google and Apple. They're the two most valuable companies in the world, and they've swapped places a few times over the last year, so they're truly neck-and-neck. But let's put business aside for a moment — which of t ...more
While ARKit and ARCore are poised to bring AR experiences to millions of mobile devices, one company is poised to anchor those experiences anywhere in the world with just a set of geographic coordinates. The geospatial augmented reality platform Aireal enables developers to p ...more
Aircraft equipped with ADS-B are constantly shouting their location into the radio void, along with other useful unauthenticated and unencrypted data. In this guide, we will make an ADS-B receiver using a Raspberry Pi with a software-defined radio (SDR) dongle, which we can us ...more
One of the most popular usages of modern-day smartphones is listening to music. It doesn't matter if you download or stream your tunes, you are part of a massive group of users who do exactly the same. While statistics are a bit foggy on how many smartphones users download mus ...more
Over the past week, companies took a variety of approaches to investing in augmented reality. Lampix is backing its own effort to build an ecosystem for augmented reality platforms. Nokia and Xiaomi are teaming up on numerous fronts, potentially including augmented reality. ...more
When the time comes to replace your car, you most likely have a checklist of criteria that you would like on the new one. Your car is possibly the most expensive possession you have—or the second-most expensive, after your home—so you want to make sure that you are not only ge ...more
To some people, Thanksgiving is merely quality time with family and friends that they can't get throughout the rest of the year. To others, it's that one time when it's okay to be a greedy hog and get hammered all weekend long. In that spirit of eat-and-drink-until-you-drop, ...more
What happens when a entrepeneur/theme park creator and special effects artist/magician team up? You get a team crazy enough to create the first true virtual reality theme park (sorry, Six Flags). They only have a single experience so far, but it's already taken a giant leap be ...more
Fondant looks pretty, but man, it sure does taste weird. Don't Miss: How to Frost Your Cake Like a Pro If you've ever slaved over decorating a cake with fondant, you know how disappointing it is to watch people peel it off and only eat the cake. You can avoid this by skippi ...more
We love shredded chicken in our tacos, casseroles, quesadillas, salads, sandwiches... okay, we just love shredded chicken. What we don't love is the actual process of shredding it. Don't Miss: Save Money by Breaking Down Your Own Chicken Often, we use the ol' forks method o ...more
You never know when the mood for a party will hit, and lazy summer days are perfect for hosting impromptu gatherings in the backyard. That's why it's always important to be prepared with plenty of drinks, cool snacks, and ingredients for crowd-pleasing appetizers. Keep puff p ...more
From vodka to beer, booze is great for drinking, great for mixing, and, yes, great for cooking with. But there's really no alcohol better for bringing into the kitchen than wine. From savory dishes to sweet ones, wine is so versatile that it can make almost any meal better. An ...more
The decadent, chewy, fresh-from-the-oven brownie is a classic American dessert. US History Scene states that the first brownies ever made were a result of socialite Bertha Potter Palmer's request of her chef at Chicago's Palmer House Hotel in 1893 "to create a dessert that cou ...more
Pie crusts are pretty intimidating if you're an at-home baker with little experience, since there's a lot of science behind making them. A perfectly flaky crust that's golden brown—not charred and black along the edges—requires careful attention, a foolproof recipe, and some d ...more
Amazon is running a pre-sale deal on a few unlocked smartphones by BLU and Motorola, which will be released on July 12, 2016. The 8 GB BLU R1 HD is on sale for just $49.99, and the 16 GB version is available for $59.99, for a savings of $50 off either phone. You can also grab ...more
When shopping for a new smartphone, you'll encounter comparisons and spec sheets that are filled to the brim with values like mAh, GB, and GHz. To the average consumer, however, these values are meaningless, so we end up looking at which device has the specs with the highest a ...more
For those of you that prefer a soft-baked cookie that is fluffy in the middle, using cake flour instead of regular all-purpose (AP) flour is your secret baking weapon. "But I don't have cake flour," you protest. Fear not: if your kitchen is sans cake flour, you can easily whip ...more