The Microsoft HoloLens mixes the digital world with the physical one, allowing you to coexist with holograms of your choosing. But those worlds won't fully blend until we can experience it all together and create for each other. Vuforia could make that possible in the near fut ...more
Whiteblock : A Whitestar skyblock survival map Video: . Intro : This map isn't about punishing the player with a cobblestone generator that malfunctions in the first day (there's one provided). Instead, it's about being able to make and find resources to create builds to popu ...more
Sometimes I forget that I'm also a fiction writer, so I thought it might be a nice change of pace to share one of my stories with you. I wrote this piece awhile ago for an anthology that never came together and I'm tired of just sitting on it. It's one of the more odd stories ...more
Dogs make great best friends, but anyone who's had one knows they can be the most high-maintenance friend you've ever had. Bathroom breaks, feeding schedules and walks are only the beginning. Even if you make your dog organic treats and teach it neat tricks, it still needs to ...more
Everybody wants to build an app, but no one wants to start it from scratch. Building a full-blown application — or any other digital product for that matter — from the ground up entails some tedious work, which is why frameworks exist. Django, a Python-based framework, happens ...more
It's a common and unfortunate myth that you need to work in web or app development if you have a knack for coding and design. In fact, more and more development pros are entering the exciting and increasingly lucrative world of game design, thanks to a growing demand for strat ...more
If you've ever tried to update your Android phone manually, you know the process can be unnecessarily hard. There are so many steps and parts, that if one thing goes wrong, the whole process doesn't work. Recognizing this, the Android team came up with an even easier way. Wit ...more
If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?" Many of the top names in the industry from the 2018 edition remain the same, but their positions have shuffled. The p ...more
The Guardians of the Galaxy have to be the most fun superhero team to have at a Halloween party. They dance, they break the rules, and they definitely have the grooviest music. So the Guardians are a great bunch to pick from for your Halloween costume — or even for a themed gr ...more
We Nexus users are fairly spoiled. There's a ton of third-party development for our phones, which translates to a virtually endless stream of custom ROMs being made available to us. When HTC updated its flagship phone earlier this year to the HTC One M8, they also improved th ...more
Notes: My guides are setup like old Lego instruction booklets; picture intense/text lacking. Just remember you're building from the ground up, each step is a layer to go onto the previous layer. Any stone block can be replaced with blocks of your choice. Mycelium is used in ...more
We've already highlighted the importance of learning Microsoft Excel from a hacker's standpoint, but it's also just a good skill to have as you'll likely come across the number-crunching powerhouse at school and work, as well as in other areas of your life, such as budgeting. ...more
Over half of all Americans have listened to at least one podcast, and that number is growing every year. With over one million podcasts and 30 million episodes in existence, there's no end to discovering new voices expounding on a range of topics. If you're thinking of starti ...more
It feels strange to be walking through an open field in a small village in the English countryside. There's no one else around — just the four of us: me, my husband, my 12-year-old son, and my adult niece. The day is spectacular, particularly for England. The sun is shining, a ...more
With the Google Maps API giving entertainment brands the means to build their own location-based AR games, Niantic is raising the bar for the genre with new updates to Pokémon GO. In a blog post published on Monday, Pokémon GO announced the addition of research tasks to the a ...more
Ever since the announcement of The Walking Dead: Our World game last fall, publisher AMC and developer Next Games have been quiet about the title. Almost too quiet. That silence has now been shattered with the release of a gameplay trailer (see bottom of this page) for the ga ...more
Medical training technology company CAE Healthcare has given birth to the latest example of how augmented reality can help to build practical operating room skills for doctors and nurses. The company's newest product is called LucinaAR, which harnesses the power of the Microso ...more
When Google announced its ARCore augmented reality toolkit for Android as its answer to Apple's ARKit for iPhones and iPads, the question from many observers was, "What about Tango?" For at least one app Tango app developer, ScapeHop, the answer is to move to ARCore, and don' ...more
It's fitting that students at the University of Washington can catch a glimpse of the new, 135,000 square-foot computer science building in augmented reality before construction is completed. The university's contractor for the project, Mortenson Construction, has built a mob ...more
Whatever you think of Google's new Pixel phones, the one thing we know for sure is that these are the most polarizing devices in recent memory. On the one hand, we've seen reviews in which longtime Android users say they'll be walking away from the OS all together thanks to Pi ...more
Frequent readers of Null Byte are no strangers to the basic elements of app and web development. Whether you're a seasoned programmer who works extensively on front-end designs or an aspiring app-builder who's working on expanding your portfolio, you're likely familiar with at ...more
Regardless of whether you're an aspiring or established coding pro, knowing just one or two programming languages and platforms is no longer sufficient if you want to be truly competitive in an increasingly popular and lucrative field. But before you spend an excessive amount ...more
Apple officially unveiled iOS 14 on June 22 at its first all-virtual WWDC. After months of beta testing, iOS 14 hit iPhones on Sept. 16, but that doesn't mean that Apple is done beta testing iOS 14. There will be new features to try out right up until iOS 15 comes out next yea ...more
While Microsoft dominated the augmented reality news at this year's Mobile World Congress, a small AR startup we've covered in the past arrived in Barcelona, Spain, to unveil the next phase of its mission. This week, China-based Nreal made the potential mass adoption of its N ...more
Considering Rovio Entertainment quite literally owes its existence to Apple and the App Store, it may ruffle a few feathers that the company has opted to aim the augmented reality debut of its blockbuster Angry Birds franchise at Magic Leap instead. Developed in partnership w ...more
At Build 2017, the annual developer's conference, Microsoft featured a Windows Mixed Reality Academy. This class was designed to get a developer started creating Mixed Reality experiences quickly. For those of us already developing for the Microsoft HoloLens, while the class — ...more
One thing that I got more and more excited about as we got closer and closer to the Microsoft Build 2017 developers conference was finally learning about the new Acer Windows Mixed Reality head-mounted displays (HMD). Brandon Bray, Principal Group Program Manager at Microsoft, ...more
In the first part of my containers series, we learned how to install Docker on our local machine, pull down "hello-world" and Ubuntu containers, SSH into containers, and install software when in a container. Now, we're going to work on building, customizing, and storing our re ...more
Thanks to Project-Infrared, there's now a pretty straightforward way to add motion tracking to the HoloLens: Connect it to a Kinect. Wavelength LLC's created a way to get the Microsoft Kinect working as a motion-tracking input device for HoloLens, which my colleague Adam Dach ...more
In Minecraft, many people enjoy "Faction" aka "Raiding" multiplayer servers for their unique gameplay and survival aspect. Plus, it's always fun when you find a chest full of somebody else's free stuff. In this guide, written from years of experience with PVP and base creatio ...more
TouchDevelop is a browser-based programming tool that allows anyone to build your own Windows 8 apps directly from any touchscreen device, including iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone, Android, PC and Macs. Once the script is created and the app proves to work, it can be placed in th ...more
It's September 1st, 1859, and the Earth looks more or less like something out of an apocalyptic movie or Sci-Fi novel. All communications have failed, it's so bright outside at midnight that people are getting up and making breakfast, and people all over the world are seeing a ...more
Your iPhone is full of features, many of which you might not even know about yet. Still, Apple keeps adding feature after feature with each new iOS update, and iOS 14.5 is no exception. The latest iOS version adds at least 69 features for your iPhone that you should be happy a ...more
No website, service, or platform is immune to being abused or exploited by hackers, and Google Analytics is no exception. To better understand how Google Analytics can help deliver payloads and bypass security protocols, one might want to learn how to use Google Analytics from ...more
In a world full of augmented reality camera effects apps, one app is going in a more social direction. On Tuesday, a rebooted version of Octi (which first debuted in 2018) dropped on the Apple App Store. Now, instead of merely adding AR effects to photos and videos, the app u ...more
We all want to be healthy, but in practice, it can be tricky, especially from the fitness angle. Our lives seem busier and busier, which makes hitting the gym quite the challenge. What if we told you there was a real way to work on your fitness in the comfort of your own home ...more
The USB Rubber Ducky is a famous attack tool that looks like a USB flash drive but acts like a keyboard when plugged into any unlocked device. The Ducky Script language used to control it is simple and powerful, and it works with Arduino and can run on boards like the ultra-ch ...more
While Google isn't ready to commit to a wide release of the AR walking navigation mode for Google Maps, the company has begun testing the feature with members of its Local Guides crowdsourcing community. As a result, I've had the opportunity to test an alpha build of the feat ...more
Augmented reality gaming company Niantic Labs is now instigating conflicts between Pokémon GO players, but it's not as bad as it sounds. On Wednesday, Niantic began rolling out the new Trainer Battles player versus player fight mode, starting first with players level 40 and a ...more
Following the launch of the Magic Leap One earlier this month, the device and the company took a few hits from early reviewers. But it turns out those were just love taps compared to the absolute scorched earth acidic screed penned this weekend by someone well credentialed to ...more
Electronic warfare tactics work by jamming, disrupting, or disabling the technology a target uses to perform a critical function, and IoT devices are especially vulnerable to attacks. Wireless security cameras like the Nest Cam are frequently used to secure critical locations, ...more
The premise of Jurassic World revolves around splicing genes to create new dinosaurs, so it is fitting that the location-based AR game is a clone of Pokémon GO merged with the DNA of the Jurassic Park franchise. Hatching now in the App Store and Google Play, Jurassic World Al ...more
All those early prototype images Magic Leap is so fond of showing off are great, but they rank a far second when compared to a new set of images just revealed by Microsoft in relation to the HoloLens. In a blog post on Tuesday, Microsoft's Bay Area Team posted images of the e ...more
Before The New York Times brought augmented reality to its iPhone app, the only way Winter Olympics fans could get this close a view to the world's best athletes would be to acquire a press pass. Just days after previewing its augmented reality content strategy, the Times has ...more
The augmented reality industry made great strides in 2017, but its apex is not even in sight. In terms of software, augmented reality is approaching meaningful mainstream awareness, thanks mostly to Apple and ARKit. Meanwhile, on the hardware side, AR is very much in its infa ...more
Tossing an old Android smartphone with a decent battery into your hacking kit can let you quickly map hundreds of vulnerable networks in your area just by walking or driving by them. The practice of wardriving uses a Wi-Fi network card and GPS receiver to stealthily discover a ...more
Verto Studio 3D is a 3D modeling package that has been in the works for a while now by Michael Farrell, the owner of Verto Studio LLC. Farrell has been working toward bridging the gap between XR 3D modeling and what we have become accustomed to with desktop 3D modeling package ...more
One of the truly beautiful things about the HoloLens is its completely untethered, the-world-is-your-oyster freedom. This, paired with the ability to view your real surroundings while wearing the device, allows for some incredibly interesting uses. One particular use is trigge ...more
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 th ...more
Don't let the lack of owning a HoloLens stop you from joining in on the fun of creating software in this exciting new space. The HoloLens Emulator offers a solution for everyone that wants to explore Windows Holographic development. At $3,000, the HoloLens can be cost-prohibi ...more
Downgrading your iPhone from iOS 8 beta back to iOS 7.1.1 is a really simple process, and a very necessary one if you're experiencing frozen screens and apps that either unexpectedly quit or don't even work at all. In my experience, any app that uses Safari to bring up pages, ...more
Getting two sticky-pistons to pull eachother, a piston-train, isn't anything new but the pistons and their timing in 1.3 are and there has been alot of QQ-ing on the Minecraft-forums about how bad they are and that Jeb should bring back the old pistons we all know. I, for one, ...more
Brushing your teeth is a necessity. You don't want to walk around with yellow teeth and stinky breath, and it's common courtesy to those around you to care about your personal hygiene at least that much. One unfortunate part about brushing your teeth is the toothbrush holder. ...more
If it's always been your dream to work for a large company as an app developer, there's never been a better time to consider the field than right now — especially with companies like Apple staffing up in this department. It feels like everywhere you turn, companies are startin ...more
It's no secret that more and more talented computer science gurus and programmers are turning toward high-paying careers in engineering. Today's engineers stand at the forefront of some of the world's most important and exciting technological innovations — ranging from self-dr ...more
We're living in the age of Big Data. As the primary force behind everything from targeted marketing campaigns and online search algorithms to self-driving cars and even space exploration, massive sets of complex data stand at the heart of today's most exciting and important in ...more
If you're an avid programmer or developer, your time is likely spent creating apps and perhaps the occasional website. And while these go-to coding endeavors are exciting and occasionally lucrative, more and more coding pros are turning to careers in cybersecurity and ethical ...more
If you want to be truly competitive and successful in the world of web and app development, it's not enough to simply know a handful of programming languages and coding platforms. Today's best sites and apps require pro-level graphics and user interfaces, and knowing how to wo ...more
It can seem as though there's a virtually endless number of essential programming languages to choose from these days. And complicating matters even further for aspiring or even established programmers, developers, and hackers is the fact that most languages are a bit esoteric ...more
It's no secret that learning how to code is one of the best things you can do if you want to land a high-paying career in a world that's heavily reliant on web and app development. But if you're new to the field, deciding which programming languages to learn and where to lear ...more