Microsoft Surface

I think most people can agree that advertisements are just annoying. There is only one day out of the entire year when commercials and advertisements are actually welcomed, and that's the Super Bowl. But, since it can't be the Super Bowl every day (if only), those ads that flo ...more

If you had the original Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 and a Type or Touch cover, you know how big a pain in the ass it was to change the scrolling direction of the trackpad. For some reason, there was no built-in setting to reverse the scrolling direction from natural to n ...more

Remote Desktop gives you access to your Windows 8 PC or device from wherever you are to run your applications and access your files remotely. Left an important document on your work computer? Want to run a legacy x86 desktop app from your Surface? You can use Remote Desktop ...more

Microsoft's first venture into the tablet market, the Surface RT, combines many of the capabilities of a normal Windows 8 laptop into a super compact tablet, whose super-thin touch cover and kickstand can transform it into a functional mini-laptop, small and light enough to go ...more

If you're one of the many professionals transitioning to working from home amidst the current pandemic, there's a good chance you're now realizing how far behind your at-home setup is compared to what you had at the office. If you're due for an upgrade but want to stick to a ...more

Images captured by Microsoft's next generation Kinect depth-sensing camera that will facilitate augmented reality experiences in the next version of the HoloLens and give computer vision to untold multitudes of connected devices in enterprise facilities, have made their way in ...more

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are becoming almost synonymous these days, but there are still plenty of awesome deals that you can only get starting on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Amazon, for instance, will be hosting a week-long Cyber Monday sale, and of course, most big-bo ...more

This year, like every year before it, Black Friday sales are starting earlier than ever. A lot of stores will be opening their doors as early as 5pm on Thanksgiving to get a head start on the madness (and it really is madness). As we've discussed in the past, one of the keys t ...more

An interesting new use-case for the Microsoft HoloLens appeared in a YouTube video from Washington-based DataMesh last month. In it, you can see the HoloLens working in conjunction with the Microsoft Surface Studio, Surface Dial, and Surface Pen for 3D model detailing and visu ...more

If I could think of one thing the world was missing, it would surely be more tablets. While people struggle between shelling out 200 to 500 dollars for a new iPad, Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Microsoft Surface, or one of the hundred other tablets on the market, the folks over at Dre ...more

Beijing- and Seattle-based DataMesh have announced the release of a new enterprise geared mixed reality middleware — MeshExpert. This solution for collaborative interaction with dynamic data is made up of two primary components: MeshExpert Live!, a 4K mixed reality capture sys ...more

All across the country, retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart are gearing up for their Black Friday sales. Brick and mortar stores are already packed to the brim with inventory in anticipation of the craziness that will strike as soon as the doors open the day after Tha ...more

Some of the products I have been looking forward to seeing the most during CES 2017 has been the upcoming Windows Holographic virtual reality headsets. These are VR headset that will run a version of the Windows Holographic platform, which will allow users to have a similar ex ...more

With the big reveal of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition in December 2017, and now the update on Feb. 13, 2018, we no longer have to speculate as to what the augmented reality headset will look like or when (in general) it will be available. However, because Magic Leap left ...more

There are tons of good reasons that you might want to use Android on your desktop. Perhaps your favorite game is only available on Android, or maybe you use a messaging service that doesn't have a Windows companion app. Whatever the reason, if you've ever found yourself wishi ...more

Windows 8's interface was met with criticism when it was released, mainly directed at the tiled Start screen, a departure from Windows versions of old. Many felt that this new home screen style was better suited for mobile devices like Microsoft's Surface tablets and Windows P ...more

If you ever imagined turning the surface of your desk into one large augmented computer, well the future might not be far off, my friends. Lampix, the company that transforms any surface into a smart surface, is currently working on a portable and quite fashionable lamp to pro ...more

If browsing speed is important to you—and it should be—you'll probably be interested to know that there are ten simple flag modifications you can make in Google Chrome in order to achieve the fastest browsing speed possible. A few months ago, Dallas covered six ways to speed ...more

The Microsoft Surface has been the go-to device for many professional artists since its initial release back in 2012. Since then, the Surface line has continued to offer customers a portable, high-powered machine that's a near perfect value for both casual and professional art ...more

One of the primary marketing tactics used by Magic Leap in promoting the Magic Leap One was selling early adopters on the "magic" contained within the device. On Thursday, some of that magic was uncovered as the Magic Leap One was completely disassembled by repair engineers, r ...more

If you've been following NextReality, you've surely seen me around, or at least have seen my articles. My name is Jason Odom, aka Subere23, and it's about time for a formal introduction. My background primarily falls in the computer game industry, and I have co-owned a small ...more

Google is working on something so big they had to name it after an entire galaxy: A new operating system that merges Android and Chrome OS into one unified front. Android and Chrome meet to form "Andromeda," which, coincidentally, is a nearby galaxy that is currently on a col ...more

In the past, to see a pre-constructed state of the house that you would one day live in, you had to be able to read blueprints or hire an artist to sketch it out. Later came the ability to have a 3D rendering of that house on a screen, but you'd still have to work hard to envi ...more

Ah, subscriptions. Whether you love or hate them, they are now a fundamental part of our increasingly digital lives. If you have some essential subs on your iPad, iPhone, or Mac, like Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple News+, Bumble, Pandora, Tinder, or YouTube Premium, there ar ...more

It's currently 2011, but when you fire up your game console, put your hands on the controller and play the new Dead Space 2 video game, you're warped into the future— into the year 2511— just 3 years after the events that took place in the first Dead Space. And it's sure to be ...more

Nobody could predict the success of Microsoft's Kinect, not even Microsoft themselves. So, it was quite a surprise when it ended up earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics device, and an even bigger surprise to see people buying one that didn't ...more

Since the early genesis of the brilliant Microsoft Kinect hack, inventive applications have been popping up nonstop. One of the most fascinating projects to surface recently falls within the realm of 3D printing. "Fabricate Yourself"—a hack presented at the Tangible, Embedded ...more

Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up to to create an armband that projects a touchscreen interface directly on to your skin. The best part? Skinput knows which part of the body you've tapped, based on the sound that's matched against skin, muscle or ...more

Nintendo's Wii Remote came close, but never has a video game peripheral garnered such adoration from the hacker community than the Kinect. Since the release of Microsoft's controller-free gaming device last November, there has literally been thousands of fun and useful projec ...more

How to use trendlines in Excell 2007 In this tutorial I will show you how to use trendlines in microsoft excell 2007. Trendlines can only be used for certain types of charts. Charts that cannot be used for a trendline: Stacked-chart, 3D, Radar, Pie-chart, surface-chart, don ...more

Food is the meeting place of left and right brainers: Culinary arts call for creativity, but is also deeply rooted in the What, Why and How of basic science—baking powder vs. baking soda, the rising of dough, the falling of a cake, etc. Below, two plays on left brain principle ...more

Far away in Finland, where the ice is plentiful and the temperature is bitter cold, the Finnish Nokia team have created the world's first touchscreen display made entirely of ice. Constructed with massive slabs of river ice, the display was first shaped into neat square slabs ...more

In the world of developers, a "sandbox game" is video game where players are free to "roam a virtual world and change any factor at will"; these types of games demand creativity on the player's part, with no linear/"correct" way to play. Players are typically given infinite l ...more

Video game controllers are our windows into the soul of the machine, our sole means of interacting with them. More often than not, consumers seem displeased by their controllers; it's comforting to blame sticky, poorly laid out buttons for messing up your game than your own la ...more

Like a great acting performance, making a really good game is all about choices. While creating or playing a game, those involved have to constantly make small choices that will affect the outcome, either positively or negatively. And the only thing worse than choosing wrongly ...more

NASA is going going to Saturn's moon Titan, and the space organization is using augmented reality help them do it. The team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has been working for years to get its robotic probe mission to Titan approved, and just ...more

The digital pen on the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book is an indispensable tool for serious note-takers and artists alike. Out of the box, the Surface Pen is pre-programmed to do some pretty wonderful things. For example, the eraser can be single-clicked to open Microsoft's On ...more

Augmented reality headsets with depth sensors, like the HoloLens, offer a much more immersive experience than the average smartphone at present, and one app demonstrates that in a uniquely entertaining fashion. ZOOO, currently available on the Microsoft Store for $4.99, uses ...more

It sounded great on the surface when Microsoft announced that existing Windows 7 or 8 users would be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, but the execution so far has left a lot to be desired. Upgrading from an existing installation is relatively easy, but when you start wi ...more

Xbox gaming has come a long way since its inception over a decade ago. What was once simply a bulky gaming console has transformed into legitimate entertainment hub for the home, thanks to the latest Metro-friendly update to the Xbox 360. Now there's newly-designed Music and V ...more

In recent years, medical professionals have demonstrated how the HoloLens can assist in surgeries, ranging from collarbone repairs to spinal surgeries to cosmetic procedures. Now, the largest children's hospital in the United Kingdom is also ready to deploy the technology. Al ...more

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that augmented reality (or, AR for short) will "change everything." But what, exactly, is augmented reality? Generally, augmented reality refers to the process of presenting virtual objects and imagery — usually through a wearable lens or external ...more

The app SketchAR is an easy, innovative way to trace what you want to draw onto the canvas of your choice. It was first released on iOS and Android Tango phones, but now, finally, it has been released on Microsoft's HoloLens. SketchAR uses computer vision to scan the environm ...more

At the end of June, Unity 2017.1, the newest version of the popular 3D development engine, went live. And with that release, it brought out some very cool new features like Timeline and Cinemachine, to name a few. Now, for those of us that develop with Unity and follow the bet ...more

Sony has upped the ante for the promotion of Smurfs: The Lost Village, which was released on April 7 in the US, with a mixed reality experience via Microsoft's HoloLens. The experience in question is actually a children's game, and was created by media agency OMD and AOL's Pa ...more

If you're part of the Windows 10 Insider Program, build 15048 launched this morning, and included a nice big unannounced surprise. You can now launch the Mixed Reality Portal and enable the simulation to try out mixed reality right from your PC, even if you don't have one of t ...more

Obviously this is just a teaser, and who knows how soon we'll see something like this in real life, but just go ahead and watch the video first before you continue reading. Video: . I'm already at at least half-Keanu after watching this video that Microsoft dropped at a Super ...more

In a LinkedIn post published on Tuesday, Microsoft's leading advocate for the HoloLens made a prediction that the mixing of immersive technologies will define augmented reality in 2018. Alex Kipman, the Technical Fellow for new device categories for Microsoft's Windows and De ...more

The Microsoft HoloLens has a fairly passionate, yet relatively small group of users pushing the developer-centric device forward, mostly spreading the word about the device through word of mouth and meetups. But this weekend, during the annual NBA All-Star festivities, we got ...more

I know what you're thinking—taking a screenshot is super simple. While that is partly true, taking of a screenshot of the Start Screen in Windows 8 is little bit tricky, unless you're on your Surface. The new Windows 8 works in two different realms; the normal desktop mode th ...more

Unless you've been hiding under a (moon) rock for the past month, you already know that Saturday, July 20 is the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 lunar landing. And while it has been 50 years since man first visited the moon, no human has set foot on its surface since 197 ...more

At a closed-door presentation on September 30th, 2014, Microsoft unveiled the latest iteration of its industry-leading operating system. Dubbed Windows 10 (seems as if Redmond isn't too fond of the "9" moniker), this new version brings along with it many UI optimizations and u ...more

Windows 8 has been reimagined to take full advantage of touchscreen devices as the "future" of computing. A few years ago, touchscreen devices were super buggy and only played well with smartphones, but with the advent of the iPad and a ton of other tablets, touchscreen capabi ...more

Video may have killed the radio star, but will volumetric capture and augmented reality kill the video star? London-based rapper Tino Kamal recently released a music video for his single "V.I.P." that features volumetric video filmed with Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture techn ...more

We know that Microsoft's HoloLens 2 is due to start shipping later this year, but despite the trickle of news about the device, we still don't know when. Now, a new set of documents on the Federal Communications Commission website confirms we probably won't have TOO much long ...more

While the next-generation HoloLens does not have a launch date yet, we now have a better idea of how big a leap the device will take in terms of depth sensor performance. At the recent Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, held in Salt Lake City, Utah in June ...more

While augmented reality headset makers are faced with tackling numerous challenges before the category is truly ready for prime time, a start-up comprised of former Microsoft engineers may have nailed fast and precise tracking of hand gestures and full-body locomotion. Operat ...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