Walsh, a new community under construction on 7,200 acres of former ranch land near Fort Worth, Texas, will one day contain 15,000 homes. To sell prospective home buyers on the development before it is fully built, Republic Property Group is leaning on technology. A high-spee ...more
With chips in four out every five PCs made since 2010, few companies are as pervasive in modern computing as Intel. That's why an advisory released Monday, May 1, confirming a remotely exploitable vulnerability in all non-server business hardware made in the last seven years h ...more
While the world is only recently becoming aware of its existence, augmented reality has been around in some form or another since the '90s. In the last decade, with the advancement and miniaturization of computer technology — specifically smartphones and tablets — AR has becom ...more
Architects are natural candidates to be early adopters of mixed reality. Their trade consists of not only designing buildings and spaces, but also presenting those designs to clients, who then decide that their vision is worth spending thousands (if not millions or billions) ...more
If you live with pets, you know where their tongue has been, yet you let them kiss and lick you all they want without even thinking twice about it. I've heard people say that a dog's mouth is very clean, and that their saliva, delivered by licking, can help heal wounds, but is ...more
Video chatting has become an important factor in the overall smartphone experience. Even just a few years ago, 37% of teens were making video calls on a regular basis, and that number has surely grown. 85% of households with infants have used video chat apps to call relatives ...more
New releases of iOS are always pretty exciting. I remember the anticipation buildup of iOS 7 before it was announced at WWDC 2013, as it was expected to be a complete game changer compared to previous versions—and it was. Now, with WWDC 2016 right around the corner—starting o ...more
You can now access Google's slick Weather app without having to first open the Google or News & Weather apps. However, you will have to use Google to access the weather the old-fashioned way one more time, but you'll have the option to place a shortcut on your home screen to a ...more
Over the course of the past century or so, media consumption has gone from a few readers enjoying their local print publication to billions of users viewing countless hours of video across the globe each day. This was a gradual evolution at first, but recent advancements in mo ...more
For a lot of would-be cord cutters, the lack of streaming local sports is the only hurdle that needs to be cleared before they can sever all ties with big cable. This is why it was a huge victory for us anti-cable folks when Yahoo announced that they would be hosting the first ...more
So you finally decided to make the switch from iOS to Android, huh? Well first off: welcome to the world of tomorrow. And secondly: good call, mate. In all seriousness, switching between mobile ecosystems can be quite the hassle. Even after you've grown accustomed to the new ...more
Update (February 2019): The methods below will help on older Android versions, but we've recently revisited this topic. So if you have a newer Android phone and you want to get rid of Google, head here. It seems like every week there is a new exposé revealing all of the backr ...more
Location Services, a native feature on iPhones since iOS 6, is used to pinpoint your approximate location using a combination of GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cell tower information. Apple uses this on their smartphones for many useful reasons: so that you can tag locations in In ...more
If you're the de facto tech support person in your family or circle of friends, you know how frustrating it can be to have to hold someone's hand and walk them through every troubleshooting step. Luckily, several options now exist for you to remotely access a Mac or Windows PC ...more
AllCast, from renowned developer Koushik Dutta (better known as Koush), allows users to stream personal media, such as movies, photos, and music from mobile devices to Chromecast and other streaming devices. We've covered the application in the past, but it had only been avai ...more
When you buy a Mac, you accept that you're giving up the customization found on Windows or Linux systems for a more fluid and secure machine. This is great for most consumers, but for those of us who'd rather opt for a tailor-made experience, there are always developers that c ...more
Getting on the phone for customer service can be extremely frustrating. First you've got to find the correct phone number for your region (good luck trying to get customer service from a sales department), then you have to listen to the annoying automated system to navigate yo ...more
If you've ever attempted to report a bug to a developer, no doubt you've heard the response, "Get a logcat." This is infinitely important to a developer because of the fact that a logcat captures a full report of every command that was recently executed on your Android device, ...more
If you've ever taken apart an electronic device that uses physical buttons, you already know why these types of input methods are destined to fail. The rubberized contacts used in physical press-and-release buttons like those of a gamepad or keyboard are incredibly frail and c ...more
Located at the bottom of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 lies the speaker from which music, notifications, and most other audio comes from, which provides warm and clear sound when needed. When you need the audio to be louder, that's where third-party speakers come in handy, which ...more
Keeping your OnePlus One running smoothly can be taxing, especially if you spend most of your day looking for ways to tweak performance settings like me. Sometimes I get lucky and end up with a faster phone, but because I experiment so much, I often end up restoring it back to ...more
There's a common bug that affects many Samsung Galaxy S5 users, myself included. The software that drives the fingerprint sensor can randomly fail to load, leaving you without one of the most unique features of your beloved smartphone. When this happens, any attempts to use o ...more
The Nexus 6 uses an Ambient Display notification system that was heavily inspired by the Active Display feature on the Moto X. Essentially, the device shows a black-and-white version of the lock screen whenever you receive a new notification or pick the phone up. This is all m ...more
One of the few areas where Android lags behind iOS is a comprehensive backup solution for apps. Root tools, such as the popular Titanium Backup, are capable of backing up all of your apps and their data, but not everyone wants to root their device and potentially run into issu ...more
Stock Android is a great experience, and it's probably one of the biggest reasons that people purchase a Nexus device over other Android phones. Without carrier or manufacturer modifications to the core software, the entire user interface feels a lot more clean and snappy, and ...more
Google's latest Nexus device is big, bold, and beautiful—and now it's got root. Thanks to some quick work by legendary Android developer Chainfire, the Nexus 6 already had a clear-cut root method before most stores even had it in stock. CF Auto Root is a wonderful tool that h ...more
Whenever a new Android device is realized, the first thing I figure out how to do is to get it root access. Generally speaking, rooting has never been easier, with many one-touch methods like Stump and Towelroot available. But as manufacturers and carriers increase security wi ...more
On mobile devices, the Notification Center received a huge facelift when iOS 8 was released, but it wasn't until Yosemite that its Mac OS X counterpart received the same amount of love—especially the much needed ability to add custom widgets, like a FaceTime dialer. Now, than ...more
The future of game night is digital. Your Chromecast is great for watching Netflix or YouTube, but get more use out of it by making it the centerpiece for your next fun get-together. The beauty of using a Chromecast to cast games on a TV is that there's no need to write down ...more
Investing is like exercise—we all know we should be doing more of it, but we often just can't find the time. I mean, really, who's got the hours, inclination, and skill to pour through volumes of data and put together a balanced yet sophisticated portfolio of investment vehicl ...more
Increased battery life is easily one of the most sought after improvements to a device and often drives intrepid users to root their phones, flash new ROMs, and try out experimental kernels. Of these modifications, a new kernel is most likely to yield noticeable battery benef ...more
Alas, I have never tasted an authentic cronut (croissant-doughnut hybrid) from Dominique Ansel's NYC bakery, only its Los Angeles knock-offs. Ansel is also the guy who created a chocolate chip cookie shot glass and the flambéed ice cream s'more, so clearly he has some sort of ...more
Tired of playing old-school Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Nintendo, and Nintendo DS games on your iPhone? We've got another retro video game system for you to add to your arsenal of emulators—Super Nintendo. Yep, that's right. Thanks to Lucas Menge, you can now play Super ...more
When Google announced that it would begin supporting Android apps on its own Chrome OS, it was great news for all the folks with Chromebooks. But, as that operating system only makes up about 0.2% of the PC and laptop market share, most of us were out of luck. But that exclus ...more
Apple just announced the iPhone 6, and no matter whether you've been with Android for a few months or few years, there's a good chance you're enticed by the idea of switching over to the other side. As a diehard Android user, I can't blame you. A bigger screen, better camera, ...more
Released last year for iOS devices, Frontback is a simple photo-taking and sharing app that not only snaps a picture of what's directly in front of the camera, but also behind it, which is to say, a selfie. This offers a unique composite perspective of the moment, and works w ...more
April Fool's Day, aka National Screw with Your Friends Day, is finally here. You can always pull a conventional prank, like strategically placing a whoopee cushion on your mom's chair, but that joke has been exhausted generations before smartphones were around. We live in a d ...more
A few weeks ago, Facebook published a blog post called "Proposed Updates to our Governing Documents," which outlines a few changes in their policies and user voting system. These changes would essentially take away users' right to vote on future changes to Facebook's data use ...more
As we move toward the end of the year, the wheels of the augmented reality space continue to shift in major ways. Facebook is currently facing yet another round of public and governmental scrutiny over its smartglasses product, but we propose a different scenario that might h ...more
This was a busy week in the tech space. After everyone got over the major announcements of Apple's latest, we examined the metaverse through the lens of Hollywood, and then took a closer look at Facebook's first smartglasses. We also took a trip back through history using Sna ...more
Amid a troubling resurgence in coronavirus cases, led by the new Delta variant, augmented reality is once again moving back into the spotlight as a solution, especially now that the move to return to offices has been stalled. This week, a few developments in the AR space offe ...more
This week, Google showed off some wild new and innovative AR experiences that showcase the WebXR protocol for browser-based AR content, while 8th Wall applied its own web-based AR platform in service of Captain Morgan. Meanwhile, other brands, including Hulu, Coinbase, and Ra ...more
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has practically guaranteed that the virus, along with the phrases "social distancing" and "flattening the curve," will rank among the top search terms of 2020. USA Today combined the phrases in its latest augm ...more
You're reading this so you're probably already safely huddled up in your house or apartment, watching as the entire planet grapples with the unfolding coronavirus health crisis. But unlike some others, you're lucky enough to already have a couple of weeks of supplies and now i ...more
It's pretty much a given at this point that Facebook has a lot of data on us. While you might be conscious of the data you share with Facebook when you post, upload photos, or chat with friends on Messenger, you might not be thinking about all the data it receives from website ...more
The top five apps of the 2010s were all social media apps of some kind, and the fact that's not surprising to you says a lot. We may use them for other reasons here and there, but our phones are social media machines at their cores. The thing is, some make better machines than ...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
Is the augmented reality magic fading down in Plantation, Florida? That's the first question some may be asking following a casual revelation over the weekend that Magic Leap, the maker of the Magic Leap One, has assigned much of its patent portfolio over to JP Morgan Chase a ...more
Magic Leap's legal battle against Nreal has taken an intriguing turn this week, as Magic Leap set a date to discuss the matter with Nreal. But a new partnership struck by Nreal adds another wrinkle to the duel between the two AR wearable makers. Meanwhile, Magic Leap, YouTube ...more
Apple might not be ready to unveil its rumored-yet-unconfirmed smartglasses. But the iPhone's current depth-sensing hardware is proving to be useful for both smartglasses makers and mobile AR apps. This week, North launched a new app that leverages the TrueDepth camera on the ...more
This time last year, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and his company were faced with an erosion of its user base that cratered its stock price. This year, on the strength of Snapchat's AR camera effects, the company has reversed course. And that's why Spiegel tops the NR30, our annual l ...more
On Instagram, it's all about the sharing, but not all sharing is equal. Take stories, for example. Up until recently, stories couldn't be easily shared outside the Instagram bubble. Now, Instagram lets you share a convenient link to a part of your story or your entire story on ...more
Imagine an Instagram feed filled with a wild array of vivid color. Beautiful right? But when you look at the photos in your iPhone or Android phone's albums, they're all just too dull to pull off that dynamic look. There's no doubt that colorful images are more eye-catching th ...more
Filmic Pro harnesses the full native power of your iPhone or Android phone — and then some. If your smartphone shoots in 4K resolution, Filmic Pro will let you choose that resolution. However, it's not all about the pixels — bit rate is an essential factor in determining the o ...more
Making a purchase through PayPal is great because you have the option to pay using your account balance, a bank account, debit card, credit card, rewards balance, or even PayPal's own credit product. You need to pick one to be your preferred payment method for each in-stores a ...more
Right after Apple released iOS 12.2 dev beta 6 on Monday, March 18, it seeded the public beta version. So far, from what we can tell, the sixth beta includes a patch for an Apple Pay issue and yet another update to the "About" page in Settings, this time with a new section for ...more
Public beta testers are in for a treat today. While Apple is extremely inconsistent with the release schedules for the developer and public betas, the company has once again released both versions of iOS 12.2 beta 5 today, March 11. If you're a public tester, you now get to ex ...more
If you're an iOS app developer, your Monday just got better; Apple just released iOS 12.2 developer beta 5 to your Software Updates today, March 11. This fifth beta includes a number of small UI changes and tweaks, and likely some degree of under-the-hood improvements and bug ...more
While the notch on Apple's newer iPhones started a wave of notches across the smartphone market, there are still plenty of users who don't like screen-obstructing zone up top, and you may be one of them. While it may soon disappear in future iPhone models, or at least get smal ...more
NetBIOS is a service that allows for communication over a network and is often used to join a domain and legacy applications. It is an older technology but still used in some environments today. Since it is an unsecured protocol, it can often be a good starting point when atta ...more