Google Voice

AT&T Code Scanner, DriveMode, and Samsung Hub make up just a sliver of the sea of apps on my Galaxy Note 3 that I'll probably never use in my lifetime. Additionally, there aren't any built-in methods for uninstalling these pre-loaded Android apps (aka bloatware) from carriers ...more

While the legality of recording phone conversations varies from state to state, it's still a sought-after feature for most people. How else are we going to shame all of those bad Comcast customer service reps? Since it's a legal gray area, HTC and other smartphone manufacturer ...more

HTC introduced their version of gesture controls to the masses when they launched the HTC One M8, and while the feature includes gestures to open the camera, start voice dialing, and unlock the device, it does not include one to lock it. Sure, you can "knock" your screen off, ...more

There's a 2800mAh battery powering the Samsung Galaxy S5, but even it's no match for the constant day-to-day torture you put it through. Taking photos, watching videos, and playing games can make your fully charged S5 powerless in no time. While there are some features built- ...more

Your new HTC One M8 has a ton of really cool features, some of which relate to waking the device up. A swipe up to unlock to your last active screen, a swipe down to access the voice dialer, and a double-tap (or knock) to wake the device and bypass the lock screen. But the on ...more

The Google Now Launcher that was introduced with the Nexus 5 seems to have a lot of folks torn. On the one hand, having a home screen page dedicated to Google Now, as well as the always-listening voice search, are killer features. On the other hand, its lack of customization o ...more

I can't begin to tell you of the many times my friends and I get into arguments that eventually lose any semblance of structure, becoming shouting matches where we just lob the stupidest, meanest insults we can fathom. You could call it a unique art form, but honestly, being ...more

If you've never played with a Nexus 10 tablet, then you probably have no idea that your Nexus 7 actually has a different user interface. For some reason, Google decided it was better for the Nexus 7 to use a phone UI instead of a tablet one, but luckily for us, we don't have t ...more

Having to read a bunch of articles and tweets everyday can be tiresome, but if you can have a sweet-ass personal assistant read them for you, you're pretty golden. While Siri gets a lot of love for her virtual assistance, she doesn't have the power to read social feeds or art ...more

Facebook has been revamping its Messenger apps these past few months, trying to lure in more users. Competing in an already crowded market of third-party messaging applications, Facebook Messenger just upped the ante, by introducing voice messaging. Similar to Voxer, the new ...more

Apple's Siri is well-versed in the spells of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it's not like Android users are Muggles. Google Assistant, Android's virtual concierge, can cast a few spells out of the box, and it can learn the spells it doesn't know quicker than a year o ...more

|Choose Your View: Quick Bullet Points | Detailed Descriptions Android's newest major update is a special one — it's the tenth full version of the world's most commonly used operating system. The latest release, dubbed simply Android 10 (codename Android Q), was first showcas ...more

When driving, you can get directions hands-free by asking Siri. You can also make general map searches, show a location's details, call a query's phone number, and view traffic details. However, Siri defaults to Apple Maps for all those. If you prefer Google Maps, Waze, or ano ...more

After six betas, iOS 11.4 was officially released to everyone with a compatible iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Some features are ones that Apple promised over eight months ago when iOS 11 was first pushed out. This update makes sense since iOS 12 will be announced at WWDC on Ju ...more

In this series, we are going to get you to the edge of building your own cloud-based, cross-platform augmented reality app for iPhone, Android, HoloLens, and Meta 2, among other devices. Once we get the necessary software installed, we will walk through the process of setting ...more

Shortly after we detailed several indicators that the Galaxy S8 Oreo Beta Program would begin rolling out in the month of November, we now have a full changelog for the update. Many users on Reddit already found references to the beta in the Samsung+ and Samsung Members app. ...more

A tethered version of the Vuzix M300 smart glasses, developed to pair with wearable computers from Toshiba Corporation, is expected to be available by the first quarter 2018, if not sooner. Vuzix CEO Paul Travers, a member of the NR50, told Next Reality that they recently del ...more

Every year, football fans get excited about the next crop of blue chip prospects joining their teams, from five-star high school recruits graduating to college to first-round rookies drafted into the NFL. Those who follow the game more closely realize that, despite their prom ...more

One of the least important but most noticeable changes in any iOS update is the look of home screen icons. In the new iOS 11, there aren't any drastic icon differences compared to iOS 10, but there's definitely a few design modifications for some of the main stock apps, such a ...more

If you've received a spam message in Signal Private Messenger, you know that anyone can contact you as long as they have your linked phone number. But when it comes to the people you're actually trying to have a private conversation with, how do you know it's really them? Whe ...more

A new dating app has arrived, and it'll finally land you a date with your celebrity crush ... kind of. The app — Dating AI — uses face search technology to help you search for potential love interests that resemble a celebrity you're attracted to. That's right folks, Dating A ...more

On April 7, 2017, residents in Dallas, Texas, woke to the sound of emergency sirens blaring all over the city. No one could shut them off, and after repeated efforts to contain the situation, the city had to shut down the entire system. While the media reported a sophisticated ...more

Microsoft is working hard to make Bing a good alternative to Google for more than just looking up images of the "human anatomy" that Google and a lot of other search engines filter out of their results. The Bing App home screen has five buttons that let you start searching qui ...more

There are plenty of legitimate reasons that you might want to record a phone conversation. Let's say you operate a business and take orders over the phone, and you don't want to miss an item. Or perhaps you need to jot down some notes from a recent conference call, and things ...more

When it comes to smartphones, the biggest complaint voiced by most users is battery life. Sure, it's unrealistic to expect your Android device to run for weeks without a recharge, but many folks struggle to even make it through the day without having to top off their battery. ...more

Most mobile games have moved to an online-only format, meaning you need to be connected to the Internet in order to get any kind of multiplayer action going. This is great when you're at home on Wi-Fi, but when you're out and about, slow and inconsistent data speeds can cause ...more

The newest Android operating system, Android 4.4 KitKat, has been unleashed with the arrival of the Nexus 5, and soon to be rolled out to other Nexus devices and Google Play Edition smartphones any day now. Only problem is, the Samsung Galaxy S3 isn't getting 4.4 for a very lo ...more

Google Reader is soon to be no more. Yesterday, the company announced that the service will be shutting down as of July 1, 2013, as part of Google's second "Spring Cleaning." Predictably, users are freaking out—the process of backing up and exporting all your feeds can take a ...more

Apple released the latest version of its iPhone OS, iOS 14.6, today, Monday, May 24. This latest update (build number 18F72) introduces new features like unlocking your iPhone with Voice Control after a restart, Apple Card Family support for up to five people, and subscription ...more

Perhaps it's a coincidence that the Vuzix Blade smartglasses look like the sunglasses that a police officer would wear, but a new partnership with an AI software company makes the wearable a perfect fit for law enforcement. The iFalcon Face Control Mobile system pairs facial ...more

Spring is here across the US, but, through the lens of Snapchat and augmented reality, winter is coming to New York. After debuting a Game of Thrones AR experience at SXSW, HBO has now taken advantage of Snapchat's new Landmarker technology to promote the forthcoming final se ...more

With Android Pie beta now available for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung is well on its way to catching up to major competitors like the Google Pixel 3 in terms of giving its users the latest and greatest software Android has to offer. Of course, Samsung has added its own touche ...more

Augmented reality headset maker Meta Company unveiled Meta Viewer, its first software application, during its keynote at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on Wednesday. Meta Viewer enables Meta 2 users to view 3D CAD models in augmented reality while maintaining the int ...more

If you've ever wanted to hang out with a flying unicorn that sounds like actor/comedian Patton Oswalt, get ready to get Happy! NBC Universal Media's new augmented reality mobile app promotes the new series "Happy!" on the SYFY channel. The app brings to life the title charact ...more

When playing word association with Star Trek, the first thing to come to mind with regards to augmented reality is likely Holodeck, not The Game, an obscure episode from season five of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In this episode (spoiler alert), an addictive augmented rea ...more

With a pair of new APIs and low-latency media servers, Twilio's Programmable Video platform could soon help ARKit and ARCore app developers build shared AR experiences between multiple users. By synchronizing AR content with audio and video communications in real time, Twilio ...more

As augmented reality gains popularity, the demand for delivering related services and generating content increases. This is demonstrated by a pair of investments from the past week, one in the expansion of a technology lab and another in the form of seed funding for a content ...more

Zenko Games makes no apologies for its influences. In fact, they cite them explicitly in their own promotional materials for Diamonst AR. The forthcoming mobile game is reminiscent of turn-based role playing games like Magic, Hearthstone, and Yu-Gi-Oh, with missions and quest ...more

You know the drill. It's time to d-d-d-duel! This time you're a part of the Shadow Games in a way you've never been before, thanks to Micorsoft's HoloLens. YouTube user MicrowaveSam posted a taste of what fans will one day be getting in terms of an augmented reality Yu-Gi-Oh ...more

Today at Microsoft Build 2017 in Seattle, Washington, ScopeAR announced that their mixed reality smart instruction development platform, Worklink, will now work with the Microsoft HoloLens in addition to the mobile devices that are currently supported. The heart of this platf ...more

Snapchat is attempting to take over the world via augmented reality technology. Well, it's more of a virtual makeover than a takeover, but still ... The patent application, which was filed by the company in 2015 and published on May 4, 2017, indicates that Snap, Inc. plans to ...more

Crayon, a free 3D drawing application by the mysteriously named arkalian, showed up in the Windows Store recently, so I gave it a try like I do all new apps for Windows Holographic. Truthfully, I loaded it up not expecting much, but wow, was I wrong. It's a simple idea, but it ...more

Sky Zhou, also know as Matrix Inception on YouTube, is no stranger here on NextReality. We loved his Pokémon concept game for HoloLens, as well as his D3D Keyboard that lets HoloLens users leave notes around the house. He just can't seem to stop creating cool mixed reality app ...more

While all of my previous Have You Seen This? posts have all focused on individual HoloLens apps in the Windows Store, this time I'll be sharing a couple at once. These holographic applications are really simple in scope, so there is not a lot to say about them, yet they are in ...more

Leave it to some lazy college kids to attempt to figure out a way to brew a pot of coffee without leaving the couch. Actually, this project wasn't lazy at all—quite the opposite, in fact. Created by Ohio State University students Carter Hurd and David Frank during HackOHI/O 2 ...more

Every day the young world of mixed reality is creating new ways for people to work with with computers. We are looking for, and finding, new ways for these head-worn computers to understand what we tell them. Sometimes it is with our hands, sometimes it is where we turn our he ...more

A few days ago, I pulled up the Windows Store on my HoloLens and saw a few new applications. One that caught my attention was Oriental Museum, which lets you explore China's Forbidden City, and the other one is very similar free demo app called Secrets of Ancient Egypt by Link ...more

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the smartest of them all? Since Max Braun's Medium post went viral back in January of 2016, smart mirrors have been appearing on tech blogs in all shapes and sizes. Some are technically sound, some incredibly easy, but all are visually compel ...more

The HoloLens opens up new, digital locales within our physical world, so it was only natural for the HoloLens Challenge to ask developers to create a portal into one. One developer rose to the task and gave life to wall art, turning it into an interactive game called Future Bo ...more

If you have personal information stored on a Kindle Fire tablet, be warned that Amazon has removed encryption support for Fire OS 5. So if you have stuff on these devices...maybe a risque book, or private notes, or pictures you'd rather not let out to the world, now would be t ...more

A little less than a year after announcing "Project Astoria," Microsoft announced Thursday, February 25th, that it will end the "Bridge," which would have brought Android apps to the Windows Store. Microsoft's Android Bridge (aka Project Astoria) is no more.. Microsoft also an ...more

Nearly nine months after the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, we finally have some solid information on the "S" model of Apple's flagship device, slated for release this fall. Coming straight from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities (via AppleInsider), quite a few ...more

Thanks to a couple of photoshopped images that made rounds across Twitter last year, iPhone users were duped into thinking that iOS 8 included a security feature that would lock individual apps. Of course, none of it ended up being true, but we covered other features and apps ...more

Televisions used to be great for just one thing—watching TV. But a more connected world brought with it Smart TVs, devices that can access the web, stream Netflix, and even mirror your smartphone's display. And with this level of connectivity, OEMs like Samsung saw it fit to p ...more

Maps is great for making sure you always get to your destination, until you miss that critical turn because you couldn't hear the turn-by-turn directions. If your iPhone is connected to your vehicle's Bluetooth system and you're using it to listen to your favorite music or Sp ...more

Since the release of the Galaxy S5 back in April, the process of converting older models, like the Galaxy S4, to replicate the look and feel of the newest S-family member was inevitable. Galaxy users didn't want to be left out, and for good reason. The revamped interface of th ...more

While the legality of secretly recording phone calls varies in each country, sometimes it's useful to have audio documentation of conversations you have on your Samsung Galaxy Note 2. There are plenty of reasons you'd want to be able to record phone calls, from important conv ...more

Amazon really wants to make itself at home in your home. Like, everywhere in your home, from your doorstep to your kitchen, your kids' rooms, and everywhere in between. During a virtual press event on Tuesday, the company unveiled a veritable cornucopia of new smart home devi ...more

There have been third-party iOS apps for live conversation translations, and Google Assistant pushed out its own feature for iPhone last year. Still, iOS 14 now has a default translator for real-time multi-language talks in person. So you can finally chat with people who use a ...more

Congratulations, you've made it deep into the middle of flu season! If you're reading this, you're either a very smart preemptive sick day prepper, or already in the throes of fighting off a cold or flu situation. Either way, welcome, keep sipping on that hot toddy, we've got ...more