Google Voice

Google Images, TinEye, and other reverse image search engines can help you find where images appear on the internet. You can discover what TV show or movie an image comes from, who took a photo, and if the profile picture of someone you're talking to online is really them, amo ...more

Using Siri to perform tasks on your Google Home device was never possible until Apple released Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12. Actually, it wasn't possible until Google added support for Siri Shortcuts for Google Assistant in Nov. 2018. No matter the timing, the important thing here ...more

Last year's augmented reality investments roundup was impressive. And in 2018, the dollars flowing toward AR haven't decreased, as venture capitalists and strategic investors continue to aggressively fund AR startups at a rapid pace. And while the technology still has yet to ...more

These days, it seems new phones get announced every other week. We've grown accustomed to glossing over the specs, looking at some press renders, then moving on to check out the next phone. If you had done this in September 2008, you might have overlooked what would become one ...more

When it works, Android's Smart Lock feature is incredible. There's no need to enter your PIN when your phone "knows" it's in your hands — just unlock and go. But Smart Lock, particularly its Trusted Places feature, can be finicky sometimes. Most of Smart Lock's features are r ...more

At this point, we've seen Samsung's vision for Android Oreo on both the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8. Just last month, Samsung opened its Oreo Beta Program for the S8 to the public. A few days ago, we obtained and detailed a leaked beta build of Oreo for the Note 8. While both ...more

If you're a regular reader of Next Reality, you're more likely to spread the joy of augmented reality than most others. But it can be difficult to introduce newbies into the AR fold if you don't give them exactly the right starting point in terms ease-of-use and affordability. ...more

Running diagnostics on your Android phone can be a very tedious process. More often than not, you need to key in dialer codes to see if your device's hardware is functioning properly, though you can also download apps — but these are often hard to understand for a layperson. W ...more

In the tech world, when you're a small startup going up against the Goliaths and their massive marketing budgets, you're forced to find and produce something almost magical to help your product stand apart from the rest. And that's exactly what Occipital Inc. has done with the ...more

The new Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ phones were announced on March 29 at the Samsung UNPACKED 2017 event. Preorders start on March 30 for the Korean tech giant's latest flagships, and sales officially begin in the US on April 21. Samsung will need a smooth release to win ...more

Google is on a mission to bring a better messaging experience to Android users. We've seen them try and fail over the years with various messenger apps, but this time, they're taking a different approach by working with industry leaders to create a new messaging standard. The ...more

The latest update to iOS 10 brought with it a number of great new features. Of these, the one that will likely have the most impact on people's iOS experience in the long term are the new apps and stickers for iMessage. Stickers make up the vast majority of what you'll find i ...more

The world of augmented reality has seen a myriad of different products, from sensor-laden smartphones to robust holographic headsets, but Google Glass's failures nearly killed the middle ground. Based on our hands-on time with a prototype, LAFORGE Optical did what Google coul ...more

Our future technology has a lot of amazing possibilities, and few have more promise than augmented and mixed reality headsets. But these advancements come with several concerns over privacy, and if we don't understand them, we may lose control of our own data without even know ...more

Is your Mac starting to feel messy and sluggish after using iOS 8 on your iPhone every day? Even with all of the iOS-friendly features built in to Mac OS X Yosemite, your Mac can still feel kind of "old" in comparison to an iOS device—but it doesn't have to. Using the tips and ...more

The Nexus 5 is the current Google flagship packed with the latest and greatest of all things Android, but what if you never made the leap from your Nexus 4 smartphone? Though the N4 is a year old, it's no slouch, and it's still a Nexus. It was among one of the first devices t ...more

Your Nexus 7 may be a tablet, but it can also be used as a phone, thanks to the continued upswing of VoIP applications, which send voice and media messages over the Internet—not over a cellular network. There are many VoIP apps on Google Play that let you make free phone call ...more

The most recent premium flagship smartphones from Google — the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro — are equipped with displays cable of 1440 QHD+ resolution. But they also come with a tool to downgrade to 1080p FHD+, which you may want to do in certain situations. QHD+, a higher res ...more

If you can't find the remote for your Android TV or Google TV, don't like using its voice control feature, are sick of using the directional pad to type, or can't get it to work at all, use your smartphone instead. Using your iPhone or Android phone as a virtual remote control ...more

Everyone has that one app they use more than any other. What if I told you there was a way to open these apps on newer Google Pixel devices with one quick gesture? I imagine you'd want to know how to do it. Similar to Back Tap for iOS, Quick Tap for Android 12 and newer trigg ...more

Being seen clearly is an essential part of any video call you're on, but being heard is equally important. Lousy audio from your side can ruin the experience for others on the call if they can't understand you or hear the sounds they need or want to hear. To improve your audio ...more

Once the laughing-stock of the navigation app market, Apple Maps is now a powerful, reliable travel companion. Apple rebuilt the platform from the ground up, placing the app in league with Google Maps. That said, there's always room for improvement, as demonstrated by its impr ...more

You watched the live stream, pored over the specs, and are now super excited for the Google Pixel 4. But specs don't tell you everything. After using the Pixel 4 XL for over a week now, we've found several things you wouldn't know without getting your hands on the phone. Most ...more

Closed captions are great for watching YouTube videos on mute, or simply following along with a video that's hard to understand. It's easy to turn on captions on YouTube's desktop site, but in the YouTube Android app, the closed captions settings are tucked away. About 20% of ...more

It is a great time to be a mobile gamer. Not only are there millions of mobile games on the Play Store and App Store, but thanks to some recent developments, we can also even play PC games. AMD recently released an app, which, among other things, lets you play your favorite PC ...more

You would think that recovering your smartphone or another important item that you leave behind in an Uber ride would be a simple process, but it can actually be a pain in the ass. You have to find out how to report it to the driver, hope the driver is honest, pay a fee, and c ...more

Smartglasses maker Vuzix has emerged with the first hardware powered by the Snapdragon XR1 chip, roughly nine months after Qualcomm introduced the chipset designed to drive augmented reality wearables at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara. On Monday, at the Mobile World ...more

Despite its fifth-place finish in our ranking of the best transcriber apps on iOS, Voicera is still worth highlighting due to numerous factors that set it apart from the crowd. Besides being completely free to use on both iPhone and Android, the app's AI-based transcription se ...more

Confirming a previous report from last week, Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon X1 platform designed for augmented and virtual reality devices during an event at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on Tuesday, with Meta and Vuzix among the first manufacturers to adopt it. ...more

There's a feature in the Gboard keyboard that enables people who cannot talk, type, or swipe normally to still have a way to communicate in the digital age on their smartphones. While it's mainly an accessibility feature for those who actually need it, it's a good way for anyo ...more

Augmented reality is expected to eventually change everything, and the prevailing view is that those changes will be for the better. The converse view, however, is that the technology will further erode privacy. A new Netflix film called Anon, starring Clive Owen and Amanda S ...more

Augmented reality hardware maker Vuzix came to the rescue of a vision-impaired student in Pennsylvania today by delivering a pair of Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses to enhance her eyesight. Alyssa Baxter, a student at Portage Area Junior-Senior High School in Pennsylvania, was born ...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

If preorder delays are any indication, the iPhone X certainly has some buzz. But does the X have the quality to support that buzz in the long run? After all, a $1,000 (or more) iPhone feels more like an investment than a smartphone purchase. The question on any prospective buy ...more

CEO (and NR50 member) Tim Cook and Apple unveiled the long-awaited lineup of next-generation iPhones today on stage of the Steve Jobs Theater, packed with hardware improvements to facilitate AR experiences from ARKit, which will arrive with the iOS 11 on Sept. 19. The new iPh ...more

Microsoft recently released "Seeing AI," an app aimed to help the blind understand their surroundings. As Microsoft puts it, "the app narrates the world around you by turning the visual world into an audible experience." We asked Matthew Chao, the brother of one of our founde ...more

The new battlefield AR game announced by Skyrocket Toys today is similar to the childhood game "Tag", except the stakes are much, much higher. Skyrocket Toys are known for selling drones and other gadgets that have previously utilized AR/VR. This includes products such as Meb ...more

Tony Parisi, the global head of VR/AR at Unity Technologies, has been passionately working with virtual and immersive spaces for a long time. And while the internet world we live in now is very different than when Parisi was co-authoring VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language ...more

Ben & Jerry's addicts rejoice: Microsoft just won a patent for AR glasses that could help to combat overeating. Physical restraint is still needed to keep me away from that ice-creamy goodness, but a little virtual voice saying 'DON'T DO IT' could definitely help when the crav ...more

We know your time is valuable to you, so starting this week — and continuing every Wednesday — we are going to release weekly Dev Reports that quickly highlight important news and updates that augmented and mixed reality developers should know about. The goal here is to creat ...more

In this episode of Have You Seen This?, we will look at Oriental Museum by 247 Technology Limited, a free application in the Windows Store for HoloLens. Museum exhibits seem to be a popular theme amongst the demonstrations going up, so let's see how this one looks. Oriental M ...more

You may remember my post from a couple weeks ago here on NextReality about the magical scaling ratios for typography from Dong Yoon Park, a Principal UX Designer at Microsoft, as well as developer of the Typography Insight app for Hololens. Well, his ideas have been incorporat ...more

Well, we have some potentially good news for those wanting to experience Magic Leap. The ultra-secretive company seems to be planning a big year in 2017. Magic Leap's new CMO Brenda Freeman said in an interview with Recode that not only is Magic Leap on time, it is "racing to ...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

I often read ebooks on my iPhone while I walk, but being glued to my screen is a good way to get run over or cursed at. To save my physical and social hide, I use this trick to get my iPhone to read ebooks and articles out loud, turning my whole text library into de facto audi ...more

Google Now, Siri, and Cortana aside, the main way you interact with your smartphone is through the keyboard. Every app you use, every search you perform, every message you send—the most fundamental interface between you and your device is that handful of characters and those 2 ...more

There are over 1.6 million apps on the Google Play Store, which makes it the largest collection of mobile apps on the planet. However, a large portion of this total is occupied by apps with overlapping functions—think social media, news, weather, music players, and various oth ...more

There are many apps and features on your iPhone that you may never use, and therefore don't need. A great illustration of this is the Apple Watch app. You might have no interest in ever getting an expensive smartwatch, yet you're stuck with the Apple Watch app on your home scr ...more

Apple has once again improved functionality of Siri, their personal voice assistant for iPad and iPhone, in iOS 9—and this update is a big one. You can now use Siri to find photos based on location and date, set up contextual reminders, find your friends and family, and more. ...more

Starting with the original HTC One and now present on the new Nexus 6, dual speakers allow for smartphones to pump out true stereo sound. OnePlus, however, kept their speakers on the bottom of the device and use different sound drivers for each to produce great sound quality, ...more

In today's world of ordering food from your PC or hailing a cab with an app, it almost seems archaic when we have to actually use our vocal cords to contact a local business. It sure would be nice if we didn't have to use our smartphones as, well, you know...phones. All rheto ...more

Apple has Siri, Google has its Now service, and Microsoft has Cortana. All of these voice-activated services can bring you information quickly and easily without having to type anything into your smartphone. Speak and within seconds you're provided with either an answer or som ...more

After lots of waiting and anticipation, the OnePlus One Android smartphone has been unveiled, and it's ready to take down the Nexus. Video: . This CyanogenMod based device comes in with high-end features and a killer price point, and is set to go on sale in May. The OnePlus O ...more

We've all been there. Our phone rings, but we're at a concert or dinner and don't want to spend time sending a text explaining our whereabouts. While ignoring a call is easy, it isn't always the most polite thing to do. What if you could immediately respond with a picture of ...more

My friends were extremely excited when BlackBerry made their Messenger available to iOS and Android users. "Neil, get BBM. It's back!" I didn't understand why when there are so many alternatives out there, like Kik and WhatsApp. What BlackBerry Messenger offers is instead of ...more

The sound I get when receiving a new text message is the camel from that Geico commercial yelling "Hump Day!" Sure, I could find a less obnoxious notification sound, but it makes me laugh every time, and that's important. However, it may not make my friends or coworkers laugh ...more

As mentioned before, the Home button is one of the most important keys on your Samsung Galaxy S3, and pretty much all Android devices for that matter. However, when it comes to customization, it's rather tame. If you've ever used Activator on a jailbroken iPhone, you know the ...more

You may prefer reading news stories, web articles, and books on your iPhone over listening to them in spoken form. Still, sometimes it's necessary when driving, walking, cycling, cleaning, working, or performing other activities requiring a little multitasking. To help you out ...more

You may use Safari on your iPhone or iPad to open links and browse the web, but there's so much more it can do for you. On updated software, you can implement third-party Safari extensions in your browser that go above and beyond content blocking, sharing, and performing basic ...more

Yo dawg, Snap heard you using Snapchat augmented reality Lenses in your messages, so it's putting its AR Lenses in other messaging apps. On Wednesday, Rakuten Viber flipped the switch on an update that brings Snapchat's popular AR Lenses to many users of its Viber messaging a ...more