Don't look now, but stock photo mega-site Shutterstock may have the most extensive library of augmented reality content available. The company recently added the "View in Room" augmented reality tool to its iOS app, enabling users to preview approximately 250 million images o ...more
Apple seems to want the public to perceive it as an environmentally-conscious entity, as evidenced by the company's recently published Environmental Responsibility Report. But as it turns out, they may be hindering recyclers from salvaging old iPhones and Macs by ordering the ...more
People fear virtual reality will isolate us, but the right experience can prove it does the opposite. AltspaceVR is a virtual world you can utilize to chat with others around the world, but that's not all. You can also play card and board games, a game of laser tag, or a song ...more
As expected, Magic Leap closed a Series D round of equity funding, raising $502 million from new and existing investors. Less expected, however, were a fresh set of rumors that the company's first devices could ship within six months. The round was led by Temasek, EDBI, a Sin ...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
Who knew the HomePod would stir up so much excitement? Apple's soon-to-be home speaker is an intriguing product, if not a "must-have." I know I'm excited to compare it to the other big-name Bluetooth speakers out there to see if Apple is putting their money where their mouth ...more
Snapchat accidentally—and then intentionally—announced their digital eyeglasses, known as Spectacles, over the weekend. While we'd hoped their augmented reality-heavy platform would result in related hardware, Spectacles unfortunately seek to "reinvent" little more than a vide ...more
Sometimes it's impossible to concentrate — let alone direct your personal assistant Siri — when someone is blasting music on their phone or talking to thin air. I mean I'm loud, but not that loud. So, it's a relief to hear that this could be changing for the better. According ...more
Most popular virtual reality headsets, like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, require a tethered connection to the computer and that imposes some obvious restrictions on how much we can move in our space. We'd all prefer a simpler, untethered option, and Intel wants to provide jus ...more
Technology and nature, typically thought of as opposites, are coming together in a new London exhibit. The exhibition is aptly named "WILD LIFE." It's located in London's Broadgate and was created by animal conservationists, the Aspinall Foundation, who partnered with a desig ...more
Wish your dull room was a little more refreshing? Through the power of mixed reality and the Microsoft HoloLens, one app can transform your space into a relaxing tropical island. Video: . We generally look at virtual reality as the escapist technology and mixed/augmented reali ...more
While it remains unknown how exactly augmented reality will make its way into the mainstream (the Microsoft HoloLens sitting at $3,000 isn't exactly accessible), many brands have been trying to integrate the tech into their mobile apps, mimicking the success of Snapchat and it ...more
The augmented reality smartglasses future that Snap founder Evan Spiegel has teased for so long may be closer than many realize. On Tuesday, just days after the departure of Snap's vice president of content, a source claims that the company will release a new, AR-powered vers ...more
Do you know when you're going to die? Your iPhone or iPad does. That's the premise behind Death Mask, an experimental app developed by Or Fleisher and Anastasis Germanidis. The experiment is influenced by death masks, sculptures cast from people's faces that, in some culture ...more
There are only three more episodes of Game of Thrones left before the saga is over, but Magic Leap is capitalizing on the series' popularity while it still can. As we've reported in recent weeks, Magic Leap is giving demos of its augmented reality headset at select AT&T store ...more
If you ever thought the Snorlax in Pokémon Go should be taller, and you have an iPhone compatible with ARKit, get ready to look up. Niantic has updated location-based AR game to support Apple's ARKit, making good on its promise over the summer to refresh the game. The company ...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
In case we haven't beaten the '90s revival to death enough, now Nokia is coming back to the US market. The three Android midrange devices that made their debut at Mobile World Congress last month are set for a global release, meaning they will also make their way stateside. T ...more
The Sharknado franchise is, somehow, releasing a fifth movie "Sharknado 5: Global Swarming" (groan) next month. In anticipation of the film's release, the company has decided to create an augmented reality mobile game called, prepare yourself, "Sharknado: ShARkmented Reality". ...more
If there's one augmented reality app idea that should have gone up in smoke, it's probably Tokédex, an app that brings cannabis to the world of AR. As you might guess, the app for iPhones and iPads utilizes ARKit to visualize vape and edible products right in front of you. (F ...more
Apple has billed ARKit as a means to turn millions of iPhones and iPads into augmented reality devices. The refrain is similar for Kaon Interactive, a developer of product catalog apps for businesses. Kaon's High Velocity Marketing Platform powers product catalog apps for com ...more
This man's effect using Apple ARKit is both really cool and really freaky. In his tweet, John van der Zwaag said that this "alters reality" rather than just adding to it. The effect allows the user, on their iPhone, to tap or drag along the surface that it's projected onto. W ...more
Augmented reality headset maker DAQRI today named chief product officer Roy Ashok as the company's new chief executive officer to accelerate the company's growth. Stepping aside as CEO, company founder Brian Mullins will continue to serve in an advisory capacity and as a memb ...more
Leap Motion, an augmented and virtual reality control system, has proven to be a force of nature when it comes to pushing hand-tracking tech forward. Now they've released a video showcasing their "Blocks" demo, which is already integrated into the reference headset kit designe ...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
If you thought the selfie would only ever be used to bombard your feed on Instagram, you were wrong. Dead wrong. JetBlue is looking to take those selfies and use them to check you in for your next flight. In an announcement on Wednesday, the airline said it was partnering wit ...more
Ride-hailing services are everywhere nowadays and with new companies developing all the time, it is one of the most convenient ways for people to get around. Companies like Uber make it easy for passengers to call a car to pick them up and drive them to their desired location. ...more
With most augmented and mixed reality devices, you wear a purchased headset and use it alone, in a place of your choice—but not this one. Ben Sax decided to reinvent the binoculars to create a mixed reality experience that anyone can walk up to and try for free. He calls it th ...more
It isn't too hard to see John Hanke's bias towards augmented reality. His company, Niantic, created the astronomically profitable game Pokémon GO, which revolves around AR technology. However, Hanke has a case against virtual reality—he believes it just won't be healthy, in mo ...more
Apple CEO Tim Cook told us that augmented reality would change everything, and now we have a better idea of exactly what he meant. A new report reveals that Apple is already hard at work on a rear-facing 3D sensor for the iPhone that would vastly expand the iPhone's AR capabi ...more
This week, the recurring theme in augmented reality can be summed up fairly succinctly: content is king. For Magic Leap, content comes in the form of the delivery of the Madefire immersive comics app. In the case of Apple, content arrives via a virtual try-on tool from Warby ...more
Augmented reality (AR) holds much promise for how we'll interact with technology in the future, but we still have many hurdles to clear before that dream fully comes to fruition. Right now we're stuck with low-resolution headsets that cover only a small portion of our field o ...more
News junkies who own the Magic Leap One received some good news on Thursday, as CNN has published an app for the headset to display the network's news coverage in augmented reality. Available immediately, the CNN app carries live news, on-demand programming, and digital exclu ...more
Those of us that work with or around augmented and mixed reality have seen a powerful shift in the last year as the popularity and interest have grown in the field. With Microsoft's HoloLens release, the popularity of Pokémon GO, and the constant rumor mill known as Magic Leap ...more
In the wake of Google Glass' failure, we can expect other companies to fill the void in due time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Snapchat may be one of the first. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel wearing his company's supposed AR eyewear prototype.. Business Insider recently caught Snapchat ...more
Recently released accident reports by the state of California's Department of Motor Vehicles show humans did a lot of dumb things to cause accidents with General Motors' (GM) Cruise Automation driverless vehicles in San Francisco this year. As a counter example to human folly ...more
In a highly exciting but ultimately disappointing turn of events, Google released the ARCore Preview 2 today. While the new preview does bring with it new versions of the application programming interface (API) for the C language, pause and resume functionality, as well as inc ...more
Before Google Chrome entered the scene and subsequently dominated the market, Firefox trailed only Internet Explorer as the most popular web browser. Now, Mozilla has its sights set on a new opportunity to revive its browser for immersive experiences. In a blog post on Tuesda ...more
With numerous insider reports, patent awards, acquisitions, and hires over the past few years, augmented reality smartglasses from Apple appear to be an inevitability. The latest report, from Taiwan-based Digitimes Research analyst Luke Lin, reveals that Apple has tapped Taiw ...more
Longtime Next Reality readers may remember my Wish List for Microsoft early last year. It was a post in which I put my head together with a number of other community developers to create a list of features that would make Windows Mixed Reality and HoloLens better for developer ...more
The rumor mill surrounding the iPhone 8 is churning this week, and not necessarily in a good way. Yesterday, we learned Apple may be leaving the 3D camera out of the next big iPhone to keep the phone on schedule. Today, rumors allege the 10th-anniversary edition of Apple's sma ...more
The long and somewhat tumultuous journey of Leap Motion has come to an end, thanks to another startup. While most of the augmented reality industry was knee-deep in technical discussions about the future AR and new product reveals, Ultrahaptics quietly acquired Leap Motion on ...more
If you are an active player of Pokémon GO, you may soon be capturing more than just virtual pocket monsters. When it comes to mapping the world, Niantic does not have the fleet of mapping cars that its former parent company, Google, has at its disposal. But it does have a com ...more
Are you looking for a get-rich-quick scheme? Need a way to buy that Tesla you lied about having? Well, I don't know how to get you that. But what I can tell you is there is an emerging market that pays pretty darn well, for work that's more than interesting. I'm talking, of co ...more
Augmented reality headset and software maker Meta Company announced today board member Joe Mikhail will serve as the company's chief revenue officer. A member of the company's board of directors since 2015, Mikhail joins Meta from Lenovo, where he was director of worldwide op ...more
In just a few days, all the Galaxy S9 and S9+ leaks will come to an end, as Samsung will officially unveil its latest top-tier smartphone. But before that happens, we're all getting another leaked image of the handset thanks to a bit of snooping and the magic of augmented real ...more
When Gboard was released on iOS in May of 2016, it gave iPhone users more control over their mobile keyboard experience. Unlike the stock Apple keyboard, Gboard lets you customize the look of your keyboard and search Google directly from the keyboard itself. Now, Google has ad ...more
Opera's web browser for Android, Opera Mini, now comes with integrated ad-blocking technology for a less cluttered browsing experience. More importantly, it decreases the amount of data being loaded, which Opera claims increases webpage loading times by 40 percent. This is in ...more
Just like a rapper engaged in tweet feud, Elon Musk was working overtime on Twitter this morning, dropping information about the upcoming Tesla Model 3. He even gave a sneak peek of the "release candidate" version of the car, sharing a brief clip of the car driving, which, let ...more
If you've ever organized an event, you know how chaotic it can be. Event planners are essential, but even so, taking the time to make sure it's organized and everyone is getting what they want can be stressful. Especially when you have to account for what every person is eatin ...more
It seems nowadays there's no limit to what type of companies are looking to invest in augmented reality. Given both the positive outlook on the future of AR, and its reported benefits for efficiency in employees, this makes sense. Safran, an international corporation with thre ...more
Nauto, which develops driver-monitor cameras and algorithms for autonomous vehicles, is among a growing list of driverless startups able to attract tens of millions of dollars in funding after raising $159 million in its latest round of financing. Led by a subsidiary of SoftB ...more
With plans to compete with Niantic and other augmented reality game developers, game developer WarDucks has closed a $3.8 million funding round. According to Venture Beat, EQT Ventures led the round, with Suir Valley Ventures and other investors also participating. The fundi ...more
This is incredible... part Call of Duty, part oil on canvas... sovietmontage.com UPDATE: Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/?sovietmontage And here's our Facebook Page facebook.com/?sovietmontage UPDATE: The response has been amazing. Please LIKE the video to bookmark it--an ...more
With the iOS 13 beta right around the corner, Apple is churning out the betas for iOS 12.4 with developer beta 3 out today, May 28. It's the third beta in just 14 days and just eight days after developer beta 2 and public beta 2. The third beta may only house improvements over ...more
In this clip, learn how to paint your nails in a patriotic style for this Fourth of July. Celebrate your country with these cute American flag fingers. This video will break the process down for you and you just repeat it on each little piggy you feel like decorating. Have fun ...more
Edit images directly from Google Chrome and see how they look directly on the page itself. GooEdit, a plugin for the Google Chrome browser, lets you rotate, flip, tweak the brightness, sepia, and more. You can then save the modified image to your local harddrive or upload to T ...more
While North has yet to add third-party app support to its Focals smartglasses, the company has been diligent as of late in its efforts to add more functionality to the bare-bones AR device. This week, North released the latest set of new functions designed to keep users enter ...more
As Magic Leap continues to spread its influence in the US with the help of wireless carrier AT&T, the augmented reality startup is also working its way into East Asia. This week, Magic Leap announced a partnership with SK Telecom that will make the South Korean telecom giant ...more
While it might be a little past its prime now, the running gag about Nokia phones never breaking was one of the internet's favorite jokes. "If you buy one," they would say, "you'll never need another phone again." I think if those users could see into the future, they'd change ...more