On May 25th, 1977 a small movie with a $13,000,000 budget came out. At the time, the executives involved had no faith that this film would make any money. To the surprise of many in the industry, not only did that film set records, it led to a number of other movies, video gam ...more
Drones are a fairly new craze to hit the nation. While they are accessible to the general population, good drones still typically cost a ton of money and despite all the fun they are, it's sometimes not worth it to actually buy one. If you're one of those people who would love ...more
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Niantic must be blushing constantly, as numerous copies of Pokémon GO have spawned over the past year or so, seeking to capture the same success, often adding the lure of tangible prizes from brand partnerships. Freeze Tag, ...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
Niantic has gotten themselves into a bit of a mess regarding their hit game Pokémon GO recently. The company hosted a fan fest in Chicago earlier this month that ended up being a complete disaster. It was Niantic's first live event which likely had the company shaken after al ...more
While many have their own strong opinions on Apple and their products, few have complaints about the way they embrace accessibility. Apple typically finds ways to make products functional to all customers, regardless of their situation. This philosophy can be seen in Apple's p ...more
Disasters can happen at any moment, and when they do, it's often hard to find the right information to help you get to safety as quickly as possible. The internet is helpful for finding out safety information, but with so many people posting about it at the same time, it can ...more
The fourth and final beta version of Android O just made its debut, and the biggest change is what appears to be a new code name. When you access Android 8.0's version number Easter egg, you'll be greeted by ... a cartoon octopus. Octopus starts with the letter "O," and Googl ...more
There's good news for iOS 11 beta testers — Apple just dropped the fourth version of the iOS 11 developer beta today. That means the newest iOS 11 public beta 3 will be released in a day or two. Betas can be a fun way for users to test out the newest versions of their favorit ...more
Germany-based Pupil Labs has jumped into the UX and control deep-end with a range of products that allow the user to add eye tracking to not only their existing augmented and virtual reality head-mounted displays but computers as well. This type of technology can add a new dep ...more
Though the Golden State Warriors won the crown as the NBA's best team again this season, the Sacramento Kings continue their rule as the sport's technology leader, debuting their new uniforms from Nike through augmented reality today. With an assist from Zappar's augmented re ...more
Is there anything Amazon doesn't do? Whether it's video streaming, creating a brick-and-mortar bookstore, or even purchasing Whole Foods, you name it, and Amazon's probably doing it — well. Keeping this in mind, rumors alleging that Amazon is working on a messaging app — call ...more
For those of us on the fast ring of the Windows Insider Program — Microsoft's continual beta program for the Windows operating system — the constant updates can be a bit of a pain. But there is a trade-off. We get to try the new features long before they come out to the public ...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 you are a frequent poster on Facebook, then uploading your photos and videos in HD is essential for your viewers. There's nothing worse than realizing that the Boomerang you just uploaded is grainy and probably won't get any views. So that's why, when I found out that you ...more
Cyclists of the world, new AR glasses are here to improve your rides. Possessing 2 GB RAM, a quad-core CPU, GPS, 16 to 32 GB of storage, an accelerometer, camera, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, Bluetooth, speaker, WiFi, and a mic, these aren't your regular UV-blocking sun ...more
If you don't know Clay, you're probably going to want to. According to their website, Clay VR's goal was to not only expose users to the world of AR/VR, but fully immerse them in it. Clay does this by allowing users to feel like they were touching the objects in virtual world ...more
Cycling accidents are more common than you think. In the past month, two men have been hit and killed while cycling in New York City. I even saw a cycling accident occur yesterday morning here in NYC. It's dangerous enough to be cycling in populated areas, it's made worse by p ...more
Free beer and AR? What could be better? Amstel, a Dutch beer brand, has launched an innovative sampling campaign using an AR app called "Snatch." Snatch is a treasure hunt gaming app, and if you win the game, your prize is 10,000 free pints of Amstel beer, redeemable at Mitch ...more
The BBC's Taster VR app released July 5 is providing new experiences visible on both iOS and Android, and one of the releases is a VR version of Planet Earth II. It is viewable on YouTube and works properly when viewed with a mobile VR headset. (FYI though, the BBC site recom ...more
The race is on to break Samsung's near-OLED Monopoly. Google joined the race back in April, reducing their reliance on Samsung's OLED's by supposedly investing about $880 million into using LG's OLED's for their Pixel phone screens. Now, Apple's stepping up with a rumored $2.5 ...more
Winter is here, which means we have a lot of questions about the coming season of Game of Thrones. It's hard finding someone who cares enough to listen to you rant about why Jon Snow is the rightful ruler of Westeros. It's also hard to figure out who exactly everyone is and is ...more
Though the Microsoft HoloLens' release to the consumer market is still a distant thought at the moment, Ubisoft is preparing for the future with the unveiling of AR video game prototypes. The French video game publisher revealed the AR prototypes at a talk called 'AR Prototyp ...more
About a year ago, a certain watershed mobile augmented reality game based on a familiar video game franchise was released into the wild. Today, a number of imitators and emulators have introduced their own location-based games with hopes of similar success. The process of rep ...more
In the first part of this series, we looked at the surface detection that is provided by the ARKit. We looked at how it worked and covered some of the tools that could help us determine what is not working; when it doesn't. Now let's take this to the next step. Before we can ...more
Parents rejoice, Apple Pay is making it much simpler for your kid to use Greenlight, the MasterCard for kids app. The goal of Greenlight is to prepare kids for the world of financial independence while making it as safe as possible for them. Parents are able to monitor and co ...more
The latest video game developer to hit the scene is a hotel chain, and they're offering big prizes for high-scorers. That's right, the W Hotels released a free game that can be played on your desktop, tablet, or smartphone called Belle the Bear. A Frogger-style game, Belle th ...more
If you've ever seen me glued to my iPhone, huddled on the corner of the 23rd St subway station fidgeting with my stupid hot pink nails trying to Instagram Story, then now you are about to find out exactly what I've been doing. I've been hiding those tags, stickers, and locati ...more
Admit it — many of us have not gotten in the Uber's we've requested. Sometimes, you just need to get someone else a cab that you're not going to be going with. No biggie ... but your friend doesn't have any connection to Uber or the driver, which can be a little awkward. Uber ...more
Say goodbye to boring video chats over Messenger. Now the app is rolling out new features that can make any chat interesting and fun. There are a ton of them too, ranging from filters, to AR masks, to reactions. Reactions can be found by clicking on the 'thumbs up' icon at t ...more
Driverless transportation is definitely coming closer to the mainstream, but most companies developing the technology have said it will be another couple of years before we see autonomous vehicles being used as an alternative for typical transportation. According to Global Li ...more
Researchers have created a possible replacement for traditional camera lenses, using an "optical phased array" to function as both a lens and sensor of a camera. The project from researchers at the California Institute of Technology is the first ever camera that works without ...more
Finding the perfect lip color can be a difficult task, to say the least. Thankfully, we're living in a world with augmented reality, where it's possible to try on lipstick from different brands at home. How? It's possible now thanks to Meitu, a company that originally launche ...more
Attention iOS 11 Developer Beta users — Dev Beta 2 is now ready for a software update. If you're running the beta already, you're going to want to download this one because it combines two excellent features: much, much needed bug fixes, as well as Do Not Disturb While Driving ...more
Virgin Wireless, perhaps best known for Sir Richard Branson and all of his antics, is an affordable cellular option here in the US. Virgin customers can enjoy — if that's the right word for it — Sprint's cellular service, at a discounted rate, however, there are usually some c ...more
Volunteer project Standard Ebooks strives to enhance some of the work available from Project Gutenberg and other public domain text sources, making them easier on the eyes. Standard Ebooks so far gave 100 titles a makeover, adding covers, "lightly modernizing" them, and desig ...more
Apple Music offers a cheaper subscription option to those of you who look for it — only $99 for a year. If you are already an Apple Music user, you can access the option right now. Otherwise, you have to sign up for a normal monthly plan first, then switch to this plan to get ...more
Thanks to a $100 million deal, you could be seeing more original shows on your Snapchat soon. Already, Snap has been producing super short shows in order to compete with social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook who have also been attempting to create their own content. ...more
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
The company that brought us a BB-8 droid controlled with the Force — okay, just a high-tech wristband — is releasing its take on Spider-Man. Toymaker Sphero collaborated with Marvel to release an app-enabled Spider-Man toy equipped with numerous features, as well as games for ...more
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ have enough screen real estate to accommodate almost all use cases, whether that's watching movies, playing games, or browsing through photos. That said, the massive navigation bar is nothing short of ugly and a screen hog — but there is a way to fix that ...more
For months, consumers have been itching to know whether it will be Samsung or Apple that has the first in-screen fingerprint scanner in their next smartphone. Now, reputable researcher Jiutang Pan has taken to Weibo to report that the answer is neither. According to Pan, Chin ...more
Google might be taking the lead on artificial intelligence in smartphones with their latest announcement, MobileNets. MobileNets is a series of TensorFlow vision models built for mobile devices, described by Google as "mobile-first." The company hopes that MobileNets will max ...more
The Asphalt series has been a staple in the racing genre since its first incarnation all the way back in 2004 — I still remember buying it for my newly-obtained Nintendo DS. It warms my heart to see that, after all this time, Gameloft continues to produce mobile Asphalt games, ...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
Savor this moment: we've got a confirmed number of sales for the Google smartphone. We say this because unlike most hardware manufacturers, Google refuses to share official sales numbers for their phone. Instead, during earning reports they simply bundle the product under Alp ...more
A fairly hidden feature in iOS 10 let you turn websites and documents into PDFs, but thanks to the new Markup function in iOS 11, this process has become a lot more streamlined. Not only can you save webpages, notes, and other files as PDFs for easy sharing, but iOS 11 even l ...more
Update: Twitter user Benjamin Geskin (@VenyaGeskin1), known for his iPhone renders, tweeted on Monday alleging that the leaks are fake: This is glass made by Shenzhen manufacturers of protective glass. Fake. Not real iPhone parts. (But look is close to reality) — @VenyaGesk ...more
Though its necessity is less frequent compared to Android devices, iPhones still need to be shut down from time to time. Whether it's to help correct a buggy app, prevent overheating on a hot day, or conserve battery life in a pinch, the power button on any device is an indisp ...more
From Instagram bot farms in China all the way to vending machines in Moscow that promise to sell you fake followers — the Facebook-owned empire is attracting the attention of the world around. When it comes to Russia especially, the country seems to be developing a little crus ...more
You were the chosen one, Snapchat! The new download numbers for the social media app show just how hard it will be to bring them back to the light after the rise of the Instagram empire. Last month we reported that Snapchat's Download numbers had fallen 16%, bringing the num ...more
Niantic announced today that all gyms in Pokémon GO will be closed while the company prepares to celebrate two major anniversaries for the game. There will be updates, in-game celebration, and the first ever real-world Pokémon Go event. Updates will arrive shortly after the a ...more
If you've ever tried to make massive changes to your home screen, you know how tedious it can be. Dragging apps one-by-one, in-and-out of folders, all over your iPhone can drive anyone up the wall. It doesn't have to be like this anymore — iOS has a simple way to move as many ...more
Apple's iOS might be user-friendly, but it's a bit restrictive when it comes to personalization, so you can really only change the look of the home screen by either jailbreaking or exploiting glitches. While there isn't a jailbreak for the current version of iOS, there is a gl ...more
The iPhone has a feature that lets you see how much juice is left in your Bluetooth headphones, but most Android phones are lacking this ability. Thankfully, there's a simple app that'll close this gap in functionality. To be clear, some custom ROMs and manufacturer-skinned v ...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
Tim Cook claimed 85% of new iPhone buyers are switchers from Android back in 2015. Now, after financial analysts noted a drop in the company's stock prices, Apple has unleashed a series of ad campaigns directly targeting the users it needs to win over. That's you, Android love ...more
Facebook is hiring video game teams and other eSports organizations to create live and on-demand videos for its newsfeed. The company aims to take on others such as Twitch and YouTube, where most of the eSports' content is typically housed. Facebook signed contracts with five ...more
Nobody likes ads, especially when they're tailored to your browsing history like the promoted content posts on Twitter. These deceptive advertisements are injected into your feed, trying to hijack your attention with clickbaity headlines and distracting images. You most certai ...more
As we've said before, Siri has some major competition moving into its own playground, and Google just announced at its I/O event that Google Assistant is available on the iPhone, starting today. It will be fascinating to see how Google Assistant's iOS variant fares on a syste ...more