Pokémon GO has been making the news since it was released last summer. But throughout the past year, the core gameplay has remained mostly the same. We're learning today that is about to change, as Niantic is gearing up to release a major update for the popular AR game. In a ...more
With the hype surrounding the iPhone 8, Apple's announcement that it's developing driverless software, and the new iOS 11 beta out, it seems like the tech giant is constantly in the news. Today, Apple's continuing this streak with updates for its iWork app suite on iOS and mac ...more
This week, augmented reality spawns in the world of online role-playing games with a soft launch down under from an indie game developer. Meanwhile, in Asia, another startup wins a coveted award for its AR headset. Finally, an established player in the mobile AR touches up its ...more
It looks like all the unregulated fun and games we were having promoting products on Instagram is about to get, well ... regulated. According to a new report by Mediakix, 93% of celebrities on Instagram are not in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission when it comes to p ...more
Anticipation is building for the release of the Essential Phone. Andy Rubin's newest creation is expected to be loaded with features like a rear fingerprint reader, attachable 360-degree camera, and an edge-to-edge display. However, a news release from Sprint has just revealed ...more
Multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infection in humans have led the Centers for Disease Control to advise caution when interacting with poultry. A press release on June 1st mentioned eight multistate outbreaks connected to backyard flocks. As of May 25, 372 people in 47 states ...more
Waymo's transfer of its driverless car know-how to commercial trucks will likely pose few challenges for the self-driving unit of Alphabet, which owns Google. That's because the sensor, deep machine learning, mapping, and other technologies underpinning its driverless cars ar ...more
Meta CEO and founder — and Next Reality 50 member —Meron Gribetz unveiled a new operating environment for augmented reality called Meta Workspace for the audience at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara, California, today. Gribetz demonstrated several features of the ...more
At the 2017 Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara today, smartglasses maker Epson introduced two new augmented reality headsets from its Moverio line of products. The Epson Moverio BT-350 augmented reality smartglasses are aimed to be shared among multiple users. It can p ...more
Google Assistant will be getting an AI makeover with the addition of Google Lens. This new feature is basically a set of vision-based computing capabilities within the Assistant. "With Google Lens, your smartphone camera won't just see what you see," Google's Twitter explanat ...more
Mobile augmented reality developer Blippar has escalated the augmented reality advertising arms race, introducing a new rich media ad format that enables augmented reality experiences without a dedicated app. Augmented Reality Digital Placement (ARDP) delivers content to smar ...more
Computer vision technology maker uSens, Inc. has unveiled uSens Fingo, a camera module that enables tracking of hand and head movements for PC-based, mobile augmented, and virtual reality platforms. With an embedded dual-lens camera, uSens Fingo attains accurate inside-out 6D ...more
If you find this update from Pinterest more than a little creepy, I agree. If you don't, then keep reading about how Pinterest's updated "Lens" feature is your next must-have tool! The worldwide catalog of ideas — shared by over 175 million users every month — just updated it ...more
If you shatter your new Samsung Galaxy S8 display, then be prepared to pay a hefty repair fee for that bezel-less baby. Yeah, you already purchased Samsung's latest flagship for approximately $700. The world's first Infinity Screen stares at you like it would never be anythin ...more
In a series of news about the OnePlus 5, the company posted its first teaser of the upcoming device on its Weibo account. According to GSM Arena, the teaser doesn't show us any sneak peaks of what the phone might look like — co-founder Carl Pei took care of that — though, we a ...more
You know, I was actually starting to get comfortable with the idea of the iPhone 8 not showing up until next year. As an Apple fan, I made my peace with it. "There's a lot coming in this model," I told myself. "It does make sense that this many features could cause delays." I ...more
The May 2017 security update has begun rolling out to Nexus and Pixel devices, which is usually great news. It means that your device is now being updated to protect you from the latest exploits and vulnerabilities found in Android. At other times, though, security updates pat ...more
Prison Architect, the BAFTA winner for the Best Persistent Game in 2016, has finally soft launched on iOS. Originally a PC game, Prison Architect lets you build and maintain a maximum security prison. Comparable to running a small city, the game has you manage an ever-expandin ...more
Tardigrades are some of the toughest but least well-known creatures on our planet. These tiny animals, also called moss piglets or water bears, are definitely of this earth, but some can boast that they've also traveled to space. They have been found in the fossil record as l ...more
Stratford may soon become Canada's answer to Silicon Valley as the driverless car industry arrives. Potentially changing the character of the Ontario town known for hosting the Stratford Festival, a celebration of all things Shakespearean and stage-related. Last Thursday, the ...more
Sad news for fans of Google's fantastic Pixel line. Google confirmed today that the Pixel and Pixel XL won't be getting any software or security updates past October 2019. What does that mean for you? Well, your Pixel might start acting a little ... weird soon. Should we run t ...more
Bugs are usually bad news for phone owners, ranging from mild annoyances to downright dangerous. Sometimes, the patch released to fix the problem messes things up even more. An iOS bug discovered Monday might not fit into any of these categories, as it is difficult to activate ...more
One thing you don't see often in the driverless industry are partnerships. When automakers are in the news together, it usually means drama. However, an important partnership between Nissan and Mobileye was announced today. One that has the potential to make driverless cars on ...more
Anyone who needs to use their iPhone hands-free knows how useful Siri can be. If you can't look at your iPhone, but still need to read and reply to messages, Siri has your back. Third-party applications have traditionally been unable to utilize this feature, but now that luck ...more
Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This weekly Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. This week's column starts with a stock price ...more
Bose Corp is the latest company trying to make another dollar off of you without your permission. Bose Connect, the companion app to the swag $350 Bose headphones, is not the Jane to your Jack that maybe we all hoped it to be. Yesterday, Kyle Zak filed a lawsuit against Bose ...more
It be would the ideal morning commute—sit back, drink some coffee, and read the news as your car drives you to your destination. That reality isn't quite here yet, but Cadillac is offering something close with "Super Cruise" on the CT6. Cadillac's 2018 CT6 will release in the ...more
Texas has become only the latest state to face an unfortunate outbreak of mumps, but so far seems to be the hardest hit. On April 12, two days before the CDC's report was released, the Texas Department of State Health Services released a health advisory indicating this is the ...more
Mercedes-Benz's parent company, Daimler, announced their intention today to put self-driving taxis on the road in three years or less in a partnership with Bosch. The program will reportedly be an Uber-like experience, from hailing a cab from your smartphone, to having a huma ...more
Every time Donald Trump tweets about a stock you own, Trigger Finance, or just Trigger—the app founded on the "if this, then that" rule to track and invest in the stock market—alerts you with a notification for real-time analysis of financial data. Rachel Mayer, the CEO and c ...more
HTC is working on another flagship device that's expected to be released in mid-April. After the disastrous reception of the recently released HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play, this new model could be the true HTC 10 successor we've all been waiting for. VentureBeat reports that, a ...more
Amazon has been toying with the idea of opening physical retail stores for some time now, even opening old-fashioned bookstores in select locations and teasing cashier-less convenience stores. But the online retailer has some new ideas in the works, including implementing virt ...more
T-Mobile just unveiled two new services—Scam ID and Scam Block—which specifically target those pestering robo-calls that reach out to 2.4 million Americans every month. The FCC, the country's telecom regulator, proposed new rules on Thursday that would allow phone companies t ...more
Sony offers a set of free games to its PlayStation Plus subscribers every month, but it's easy to miss out if you're not constantly around your console. Perhaps you're traveling, or maybe you've stayed up one too many nights playing Uncharted, leading to a period of PlayStatio ...more
Overweight kids often become overweight adults. New research suggests a couple reasons why and suggested that there may be ways to intercept that fate. The research was published online in the journal Microbiome by a team from the University of Helsinki, Helsinki University C ...more
Rabbits have been a persistent problem in Australia for over 150 years. Now the Peel Harvey Catchment Council (PHCC) and Peel-Harvey Biosecurity Group have released a strain of the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), called RHDV1 K5, to reduce the number of pests in the ...more
Future mothers hoping to use donated semen might want to think twice before using any samples from the Miami-Dade Country area of Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that sperm from as far back as June 2016 may be infected with the Zika vir ...more
In an early morning blog post, Microsoft announced the expansion of the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Program. This announcement comes on the tail of an expanded HoloLens release over the last few months to many countries outside the initial US and Canada. Micro ...more
Antibiotic use in infants has been associated with a host of childhood conditions later in life. Yet when an infection is suspected in a newborn, usually a sample of their blood is drawn to check for the presence of bacteria and 5 to 8 percent of them receive antibiotics while ...more
We live in a marvelous age, a time where technology is driving us forward as a species at a rapid pace, and tech-driven miracles are becoming more and more commonplace. While the human race may not be focused on building the largest wonders of the world, as it once was in hist ...more
With the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Fransisco just a few weeks away, Microsoft Senior Program Manager Vlad Kolesnikov has announced via Channel9 (Microsoft's developer news outlet) that not only will new low-cost virtual reality headsets be coming in March to deve ...more
Earlier this week, a mysterious tweet appeared on the HTC Twitter account of a picture containing the letter "U" topped with a tiny "for" and the date "01.12.2017" at the bottom. It is a pretty solid teaser, but for a company that has had a solid year with their Vive virtual r ...more
Thanks to live-streaming video and social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, we're all on camera nowadays. Unfortunately, though, we don't have a script to work with when we're shooting selfie videos, so it's hard to come off as perfectly eloquent when you're j ...more
This week, Dr. Sung-Hoon Hong, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, announced at the Virtual Reality Summit in San Diego that not only does Samsung have a new virtual reality headset coming, but that Samsung intends to enter the field of augmented reality, too. In fact, Hong ...more
When you're sitting at your desk trying to get some work done, your Android device can be a big distraction. If a text comes in, you have to pick up your phone, unlock it, then respond with the clumsy touch screen keyboard—and by then, you've probably forgotten what you were d ...more
The Note7 fireworks bonanza was unprecedented in scope. A recent report suggests that Samsung could lose upwards of $20 billion in lost profit due to this fiasco. Update: See the end of this article for Samsung's findings on what happened. Speculation abounds as we wait for ...more
If you've ever wondered why the pictures and videos you share with Snapchat on your Android device seem to look grainy with low resolution, you're not alone. We all know it, and we've come to accept it as a plain fact: Snapchat image quality sucks on Android. The reason behin ...more
It seems that fans of the Android open-source operating system are a bit peeved by some of the choices Google has made regarding the new #MadeByGoogle Pixel phones. And with good reason. The new phones are expensive, the Nexus line is dead, and some Redditors are speculating o ...more
The one big question remaining about Google's upcoming Pixel phones has finally been answered: Yes, the Pixel and Pixel XL have unlockable bootloaders—at least, if you buy directly from Google. We reached out to Google looking for a firm answer on the topic, and Google Spokes ...more
If you've ever built a piece of IKEA furniture, you're familiar with the confusion that some 2D instruction booklets can create. But neuroscience suggests that they're cognitively overloading, as our brains have to translate their basic flatness into physical reality and that' ...more
A company known as Cyanogen, Inc. has been in the news numerous times over the past year, and almost every time their name is brought up, it's amid reports of an impending doom. The writing is on the wall for the makers of Cyanogen OS, as it appears that there is little that c ...more
If you just can't wait to see the Pixel and Pixel XL, the new Google-branded smartphones expected to be announced tomorrow, you're in luck. After weeks of rumors and blurry images, a smartphone sales company called Carphone Warehouse just accidentally dropped the entire ball. ...more
While iOS 11 is ready to take over your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, let's take a step back and check out all of the new features that iOS 10 brought to the public when it was released to everyone in Sept. 2016. Some of the updates from iOS 9 to iOS 10 were huge, as you'll s ...more
Android clearly wasn't made with bilingual users in mind. When you set a default system locale, every app on your phone uses that region's language—and there's no granular control here. This really becomes an issue if you use social media or news apps that are primarily in a d ...more
Many midrange phones are being manufactured without a gyroscope sensor—the Moto X Play, third-generation Moto G, and several of Samsung's Galaxy Grand models, among others. It's not exactly an essential smartphone sensor, and leaving this out keeps the phone's price point down ...more
Like previous installments in the Pokémon series, as you progress through Pokémon GO you'll be able to evolve your Pokémon into more-powerful monsters with new and more-damaging attacks. However, unlike older entries in the series, your Pokémon won't simply evolve when they re ...more
Pitting cherries is really annoying. There's no neat way to do it with a knife and, though they make a tool that does it, not everyone has space in their kitchen for a gadget that does so little. But fresh cherries are so delicious when they're in season... it's almost worth t ...more
The widget selection on Android is one of the main things that set it apart from other mobile operating systems. You can get quick, at-a-glance information for topics like weather, news, music, and much more, all without ever leaving your home screen. Don't Miss: 12 of the B ...more
If you spend weekend mornings sadly turning your omelet attempts into scrambled eggs rather than enjoying a perfectly flipped omelet, reach for a resealable plastic bag. Using a ziplock bag to make an omelet is not only foolproof, it's the perfect solution to cooking for a cro ...more
This week has been quite a successful one for Google, thanks to non-stop news coverage of their developer-focused I/O conference. Now, there's even more reason for the buzz as they've just announced that Project Ara, their modular smartphone that could revolutionize the indus ...more