With the global COVID-19 pandemic preventing Pokémon GO players from venturing into the real world, developer Niantic has adapted the game for trainers to play in a socially-distanced manner. Likewise, with the annual Pokémon GO Fest, typically an exclusive gathering of playe ...more
Apple added a Bedtime Mode to its Screen Time tool for curbing smartphone distractions. Google's version of Screen Time, called Digital Wellbeing, actually predates Apple's, but a recent update is finally bringing in Bedtime Mode. The new Bedtime Mode is mostly a rebranding o ...more
The worldwide health crisis around the coronavirus has gripped the live events industry, particularly in the tech sector, with the cancellations of Mobile World Congress, the Game Developers Conference, Facebook's F8, Google I/O and now South by Southwest. But one conference, ...more
March is looking to be an eventful month for Apple. Even with coronavirus throwing the tech industry into uncertainty, we still expect Apple to release the iPhone SE 2, the long-awaited follow up to the iPhone SE. Is it possible we'll also see iOS 13.4 fully released this mont ...more
As a native of Alabama, Apple CEO Tim Cook has a special place in his heart for the state. He also empathizes with the struggles that African-Americans have historically faced in the state, particularly during the 1950s and '60s civil rights era. Now, Cook and his company are ...more
Facebook has announced the cancelation of its annual F8 developer conference, citing concerns around the developing coronavirus health crisis. Next to Facebook's annual Oculus Connect event, the F8 developer conference is the biggest and best event to find out about augmented ...more
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has gained quite the fan base since its launch, but not without a few bumps along the way. Niantic, the game's developer, has a long-running history with trying to block all root users on Android. The methods will vary for each game, but this time a ...more
Your iPhone tracks how many steps you take, how far you walk, and how many stairs you climb each day. That may seem a bit frightening, but it's all for a good reason: the Health app stores this data so you can view your progress in one place. But interestingly, opening the Hea ...more
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. In the present day, though, Sony ...more
With the imminent arrival of the HoloLens 2 expected any day now, Microsoft is preparing new users to take advantage of its software from day one. This week, Microsoft uploaded a series of tutorial videos to its YouTube channel for Dynamics 365 Guides, an enterprise AR app th ...more
Facebook had a pretty big week in terms of augmented reality, with much of its news coming from the Oculus 6 keynote presentation. But Mark Zuckerberg's social media company found other areas of impact outside of Oculus 6 as well. Meanwhile, Unity also had its own keynote pre ...more
Group chats are fun, effective ways of staying in touch with the many people in our lives. Whether it's the local friend chat or the group from work, we rely on these groups to keep connected. Running one of these group chats, however, can be a monster task. If you're feeling ...more
So you've been using iOS 13 for a little while and noticed your iPhone is pretty slow to charge. Using the 5-watt power adapter out of the box, in the time it used to take your iPhone to charge its battery to 100 percent, your iPhone is stuck at 80% or below instead. That's be ...more
As promised with its teaser from Build 2019, Microsoft has unveiled the details for its augmented reality version of Minecraft for smartphones. The company published a new trailer for the game, which has a rather similar feel to the trailer Niantic originally produced for Pok ...more
Compared to the original AirPods, Apple's second-generation AirPods have better battery life, Hey Siri support, a more stable connection, faster switching between devices and call connections, less latency for gaming, and an optional Wireless Charging Case. If you plan on preo ...more
While the long awaited HoloLens sequel is scheduled to arrive later this year, Apple may force Microsoft to share the AR wearables spotlight, if reports of the company's first entry into smartglasses territory end up coming to fruition. In the meantime, Microsoft's HoloLens 2 ...more
On Sunday, Microsoft did what everyone expected the company to do by unveiling the long awaited HoloLens 2. Its main competitor in the AR headset space, Magic Leap, responded with a flurry of announcements, including a new partnership with South Korea's SK Telecom and a new a ...more
Sileo is an ideal marketplace for developers to showcase apps, tweaks, and themes that Apple would never allow in the App Store. While a majority of these packages are free to try out, there are jailbreak apps that cost money for your iPhone. But actually paying for mods can b ...more
Gboard has come a long way from its roots as the "Google Keyboard" in the earlier days of Android. It's now the most popular, feature-rich, and useful keyboard app on the market. Google even includes quite a few themes right out of the box for Gboard — but what if you could ha ...more
I was today years old when I first heard of Bhad Bhabie, but I'm told she is apparently a rapper with a rags-to-riches story. So, of course, she should get her own reality show. And Snap is pulling out the big guns to promote her Snap Original show, Bringing up Bhabie, with a ...more
Occasionally, a not-so-great movie also does something so right that you have to forgive some of its sins and give it a little love. Such is the case with the latest film from Keanu Reeves, Replicas, which takes a HoloLens-style device and gives us a look at how future researc ...more
The iPhone X introduced the world to Face ID in 2017, and now, every new iPhone uses Apple's biometric security system instead of the old Touch ID. It's more secure than fingerprint scanners and it's even more user-friendly. True, it's not without its faults, but at least one ...more
Apple released the first major iOS 12 update Tuesday, Oct. 30, just hours after the company's iPad and Mac presentation. While iOS 12.1 is the first official update to hit iPhones since iOS 12.0.1, beta testers had enjoyed an exclusive first-hand look at all the new features t ...more
After announcing the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max, one thing was noticeably absent from Apple's Sept. 12 event — the iPhone SE 2, the long-awaited upgrade to 2016's niche yet popular 4-inch model. Not only does Apple have no apparent plans for an update, it has also officially dr ...more
Apple revealed three new iPhone models on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at its "Gather Round" event in Cupertino, as well as announced the official release date of iOS 12, its newest mobile operating system. If you missed it and want to watch the full event, here's how to do it on your ...more
Massive multiplayer shooters like Fortnite have become all the rage, as mobile gamers duke it out in long, protracted battles that can often be as excruciating as they are thrilling. If you're yearning for a more fast-paced shooter on iOS, Nitro Games has you covered, and has ...more
Any little bit of new light shed on Apple's rumored augmented reality plans is irresistible, and the latest comes from a fairly powerful source — a former Apple engineer who worked on the iPhone. Working as a human interface designer, Ken Kocienda joined Apple way back in 200 ...more
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 g ...more
The long and slow road toward the actual release of the Magic Leap One appears to be accelerating, with a couple of new demonstrations of how the system works revealed in this week's creator's portal updates along with the company's developer documentation. Following the much ...more
Sometimes we need to share screenshots, but don't want to reveal the entire screen. This usually requires some editing that isn't typically easy to do on a smartphone. BlackBerry recognized this issue and created a tool called Redactor that makes it easy to hide your data befo ...more
Thanks to cloud storage's increasing accessibility, permanently losing photos is becoming less and less common. Still, if you accidentally delete a picture from your smartphone without first making a backup of some sort, that data is pretty much toast — unless we're talking ab ...more
One word to sum up this batch of Snapchat lenses: complex. Lens creators like ApocTheLegend and Jinnie the Wew have been at it long enough to start making some really cool stuff, stretching the limit of what's possible using Lens Studio. I'm really looking forward to what they ...more
Predictive text is a common feature in most mobile keyboards these days. However, many times, its guesses are way off, sometimes hilariously so. As absurd as it can be, predictive text can also continuously suggest the same wrong word over and over. Thankfully, Gboard offers u ...more
The OnePlus 6 is finally in customers' hands along with its top-of-the-line specs — and yes, a notch. But you can start getting some of their stock apps as early as today, thanks to XDA user erayrafet, who ported this Weather app directly from the source. The stock OnePlus We ...more
In the new Android P, the multitasking view is reminiscent of webOS days. As a result, enabling split screen mode no longer works as it once did. However, it's still easy to use, whether or not you're using the new "Swipe up on Home button" gesture or have stuck with the old-s ...more
In the arms race between ARKit and ARCore, Google scored a big win with the announcement of its Cloud Anchors shared AR experiences platform at Google I/O on Tuesday. A developer session held on Wednesday offered more detail on how multi-user experiences built via Cloud Ancho ...more
Apple released the iOS 11.3.1 update for iPhones on Tuesday, April 24, 26 days after the official release of iOS 11.3 and eight days after the iOS 11.4 beta 2 update. It is the first minor update to iOS 11.3, and the biggest thing in it is a fix that lets displays fixed by thi ...more
Privacy is a hot topic. In the wake of Facebook's data scandal, many want to safeguard their personal info. On the other hand, we all gain a certain amount of convenience by using services administered by huge companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Google Assistant coll ...more
While TouchWiz as an Android skin isn't a favorite among many, Samsung Internet is a fantastic web browser that S9 owners should be happy to have preinstalled out of the box. But you don't need to buy Samsung's latest flagship to try their browser — Samsung Internet is availab ...more
Not all microwaves are created equal, so when you use the recommended cooking time on any microwaveable meal, chances are you're actually cooking the food too much or not enough. And unless you're really good at mental math or have a virtual assistant that's smarter than Siri ...more
Snapchat is a wonderful app that allows users to "talk with pictures." You can send other users pictures of what you have going on in your day-to-day life, and they can respond with what's happening in their own. It's a seamless way to have a conversation with someone using vi ...more
Everything that has a beginning has an end. This week marked the end of the long wait for the reveal of Magic Leap's first product and the beginning of the wait for more substantive details. Likewise, Google Tango will meet its end in March 2018, when ARCore will officially b ...more
It's long past time to face the facts: farts are funny. The first fart joke dates back nearly 4,000 years to the ancient Sumerian people. References to flatulence were also found in ancient Greece within the works of Aristophanes. (More like Aristo-fannies, am I right?) A sta ...more
Whether inappropriate or unimportant, some emails don't need to be viewed at a certain times of the day. For example, you might not want to see any personal emails during work hours. By default, Gmail will notify you of all emails that hit your inbox, but fortunately, there's ...more
We may have to wait a few years before they arrive, but reports of Apple's headset taking shape in Cupertino gives the tech world hope that its white knight for consumer AR is on its way. Snap's disappointing third quarter financial results, however, give us some pause on the ...more
Any sufficiently cool new technology will be immediately repurposed to do something even cooler. Such is the case with Apple's iPhone X and its Animoji feature, which has led to something completely unanticipated: Animoji karaoke. The best example of this new pastime being en ...more
With technology giants like Apple and Google finally entering the fray, the move toward mass adoption of augmented reality is ramping up. Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore will allow entirely new categories of apps to be made. Unfortunately, in a world of heavy competition, ge ...more
Pentagram has to be one of the most nightmarish creations on American Horror Story (even though she has some pretty tough competition to fend off). Can you think of anything much worse than a pair of hands wriggling their way out of your temples? Well, a pair of hands wriggli ...more
You can bet Thor costumes will be prominent among the superheroes seen this Oct. 31. Since the summer, there has been no shortage of coverage for Thor: Ragnarok, and the timing of its November release couldn't be better as a tie-in with the cosplaying holiday known as Hallowee ...more
The Free App of the Week is as cool as it sounds. Apple features one app every week on the front page of its App Store that comes completely free. Once you download it, you have access to all future updates, just like you would if you purchased the app in full. Sounds great ri ...more
Regardless of what you're trying to accomplish with Tasker, there's a good chance that someone else has already walked through the same steps. If you're unfamiliar with creating tasks and working with profiles, simply importing someone else's work would be a great shortcut. Af ...more
The staff at Next Reality News is legitimately excited about the prospects that Google's ARCore could bring not only to smartphones and tablets running Android, but also to Android-based hardware such as smartglasses. We can't help but imagine how Epson's award-winning, Andro ...more
Developers in the augmented reality space are sitting on the bleeding edge of a hot technology. With the intense interest, especially in the tech circles, there are a large number of people working on potential solutions and uses for the technology. There is also a lot of time ...more
The number of households in the US that go hungry because they lack money for food hit a high of almost 15% in 2011. While that number continues to decline, nearly 13% of American households still go hungry. Malnutrition — either from not eating enough or not getting enough n ...more
If you are an NYC commuter like me, then I'm sure you know how bad the city's transportation has gotten. Subways are getting derailed or delayed, the traffic is crazy, and don't even get me started about the trains. Even with so many modes of transportation, we still seem to ...more
In the race to outsmart "untreatable" antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, one of the three new treatments on the track is about to enter Phase 3 clinical trials. Hopefully, it'll be widely accessible sooner rather than later, for the 78 million people who are diagnosed with gonorr ...more
I wanted to post a Live Photo to Instagram of me in front of that donut that got eaten next to the CVS on Houston St. in New York, between Mott and Mulberry. The only problem is that Live Photos aren't supported on Instagram, so I couldn't just tap and post it to my feed witho ...more
Reigns recently went on sale on the Google Play Store (sorry, iPhone users), and that inspired me to give it a go. I've wanted to try this one out for a while now, but the steep price tag kept me away. ($2.99 is a lot for me, okay?) Now that I've had some time with Reigns, I ...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
One of the biggest features of Android Oreo is a picture-in-picture mode that lets you watch videos in a floating window while you're using other apps. Honestly, it's fantastic and intuitive, but there are a few ground rules you'll need to learn to master the new feature. Cur ...more