New Years Tradition

The past year brought about a number of trends in the smartphone space. More immersive displays, better processors, and portrait mode for cameras come to mind as big steps forward. One of the most polarizing trends that continued in 2017 is the removal of the 3.5 mm headphone ...more

Samsung just announced that the Galaxy S8 is getting a fresh coat of paint, launching a burgundy red color of the flagship in their home market of Korea. There is currently little information about whether this color will come to the US for the S8, but this could be a preview ...more

If you own a Porsche, there's a good chance you're interested in two things: speed and quality. Porsche Cars North America wants to extend that experience from the driver's seat to the service center. Next year, the sports car importer will deploy Atheer AiR Enterprise AR sof ...more

Trivia games are among the most entertaining ways to learn factoids and interesting info you may have never known about before. They're also the perfect genre to enjoy with friends and family, as they're particularly great at breaking the ice to make for a more memorable time ...more

As it turns out, Apple did get AR hardware into its retail stores for the 2017 holiday shopping season, but it's not the headset we've been hearing rumors about for years; it's the MekaMon battle-bot. Apple will be the exclusive retailer for the AR robot, which can be purchas ...more

Because of the way Google Play works, Android has a "bad app" problem. Google allows any developer to upload an app to the Play Store, regardless of if it works, how it looks, or whether or not it can harm users. Malware scanning happens primarily after apps are uploaded, and ...more

While Snap's third quarter financial reports disappointed Wall Street, China's Tencent took the opportunity to expand its investment in the social media company. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Snap disclosed that it was notified this month by Te ...more

Tech companies are embroiled in controversy this week. No, not the hearings on Russian interference in last year's election; in this case, it's all about the burger emoji. Now, Snapchat has joined the fray and further muddied the waters regarding proper burger construction wi ...more

In our previous article, we learned how to take advantage of a feature, Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), to run malicious code when an MS Word document is opened. Because Microsoft built DDE into all of its Office products as a way to transfer data one time or continuously between ...more

Google just released the second developer preview of the Android 8.1 update for Nexus and Pixel devices, and even though it's just a point-one release, there are lots of cool changes. Before you run off to join the Android beta program and try the new version, it's worth readi ...more

With the release of the Pixel 2 XL and the iPhone X, smartphones have hit a new high not just in price, but also raw processing power. These new flagships not only cost more than twice as much as an Xbox One or PlayStation 4, they have also become almost as powerful as far as ...more

In this chapter, we want to start seeing some real progress in our dynamic user interface. To do that, we will have our newly crafted toolset from the previous chapter appear where we are looking when we are looking at an object. To accomplish this we will be using a very usef ...more

With the official release of iOS 11, the availability of an app that uses the much-hyped ARKit platform to place virtual furniture in one's home was expected. The fact that the app comes from Houzz, and not IKEA, may come as a surprise, considering that the latter was feature ...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

We started with our system manager in the previous lesson in our series on building dynamic user interfaces, but to get there, aside from the actual transform, rotation, and scaling objects, we need to make objects out of code in multiple ways, establish delegates and events, ...more

Flight disruptions can cost billions of dollars, but most modern commercial flights rely on air traffic control systems that harbor serious vulnerabilities. The Federal Aviation Administration uses an infrastructure called NextGen, which relies on Automatic Dependent Surveilla ...more

A patent application for waveguide-based smart glasses submitted by way of their subsidiary Oculus sheds light on Facebook's plans to escalate their augmented reality efforts. According to the filing submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office in Feb. 2016, the near-eye d ...more

Imagine for a moment that a VPN is like putting on a disguise for your computer. This disguise works to change your IP address, secure your traffic with encryption, and mask your location to bypass regional restrictions. This makes it a helpful tool for both whistleblowers and ...more

The more impressive demonstrations of the capabilities of augmented reality add another dimension to what we see in the real world. One company, Greta & Starks, is on the verge of launching an augmented reality headset called Starts AR that displays film subtitles for the dea ...more

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of hearing some of the same old jargon from people online who claim that all you need to make it on Instagram is to take good pictures and post consistently. Yes, for sure, but do you really think it's that easy? Instagram, if you're seri ...more

Sending fleets of ships into battle as an ancient Nordic god? Sign me up. Mixed reality development company Immersion VR announced in May of this year that they would be developing a game called "The Ancients" in both AR and VR with artist Jakub Rozalski. Since then, they hav ...more

The OnePlus 5 may have received a lot of flak for its design mirroring the iPhone 7 Plus' very closely, but that doesn't change the fact that dual cameras have become increasingly more common over the last couple years. Samsung's next smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8, is rumored ...more

What began as a highly successful Kickstarter campaign has all but ended, according to an updated report by Polygon. CastAR, comprised of a few people from Valve's former research and hacking arm, has released a large portion of their team. Only a small core of the group remai ...more

Walsh, a new community under construction on 7,200 acres of former ranch land near Fort Worth, Texas, will one day contain 15,000 homes. To sell prospective home buyers on the development before it is fully built, Republic Property Group is leaning on technology. A high-spee ...more

Researchers are putting driverless shuttles on campus next year at the University of Michigan and the rides are free for students and teachers. The project was created by Mcity, an autonomous and connected vehicle research center. It includes two shuttles running about every ...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

We've been following the rumors surrounding the OnePlus 5 for a while, and we are more than excited to get our hands on it. That excitement has only increased today, as we learn OnePlus has included a feature in its newest device that resembles the iPhone 7 Plus — real dual ca ...more

The world is full of vulnerable computers. As you learn how to interact with them, it will be both tempting and necessary to test out these newfound skills on a real target. To help you get to that goal, we have a deliberately vulnerable Raspberry Pi image designed for practic ...more

New updates to the journaling app Day One include more security for journal writers' data. For example, users can now enable end-to-end encryption. The encryption does not happen automatically; however, users must go to Settings — within Journals — then select each journal the ...more

In the changes to the App Store Review Guidelines for iOS 11, Apple has announced that developers must use the App Store rating API. The API was introduced in the iOS 10.3 beta period as something that would eventually become mandatory. Now, Apple has followed through on that ...more

Here it is folks, after weeks of constant leaks and speculation surrounding the highly anticipated OnePlus 5, the company has decided to release a high-res image of the new phone on the official OnePlus Google+ page. The picture appears two days after the company officially a ...more

Apple's iOS is a great operating system, but it's not without its faults. Minor quirks have plagued the Apple community for years, such as a general lack of customization, a poor notification system, and some interesting UI choices like the intrusive volume popup. With iOS 11 ...more

It's that time of year again — Apple will be hitting the stage in California to talk about new features coming to iOS and macOS devices in the near future. Of course, you're going to want to tune in and be up to date on all the changes coming to your Apple products. The offic ...more

The Augmented World Expo or AWE — if you are a big fan of AR/MR technology, that is a very fitting acronym — is the world's largest conferences dedicated to all things augmented, mixed and virtual reality. AWE is in its 8th year, and with the massive growth we have seen in the ...more

Kings Dominion, an amusement park located in Doswell, Virginia, just announced a mobile augmented reality game for park visitors. Gameplay in The Battle for Kings Dominion — available on May 19 for iOS and Android devices — follows the playbook designed by Niantic through Ingr ...more

In a video released Tuesday, Microsoft arguably began to position the HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality as the future of education. A smart tactic meant to coincide with their other education-related announcements made on the same day. In an effort to take back the classroom ...more

Being part of the wild frontier is amazing. It doesn't take much to blow minds of first time mixed reality users — merely placing a canned hologram in the room is enough. However, once that childlike wonder fades, we need to add more substance to create lasting impressions. O ...more

Huawei is the third biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world and continues to increase its market presence with each new device. The Mate 9, the company's latest high-end phablet, has been available for four months now and has sold five million units so far. This is 36% mo ...more

With the British exit from the European Union looming, the UK is looking to the auto industry to help boost their economy and secure jobs through the upcoming years. Today, Business Secretary Greg Clark and Transport Minister John Hayes announced the government investment of $ ...more

The Easter Bunny is about to get his first experience with mixed reality. Virtual Reality Los Angeles (VRLA) will host its third annual expo in April, and this year's attendees will get to experience a fun Easter egg hunt sponsored by AfterNow and VRLA, in partnership with mix ...more

Headphone drama has been all the rage in the past year, with Apple killing off the headphone jack and trying to force AirPods upon its users (Apple, stop trying to make tiny, expensive, easy-to-lose earbuds happen. It's not going to work). The news for the Galaxy S8 has been ...more

All the news and rumors regarding the Galaxy S8 have finally coalesced and brought us to this moment, and it couldn't come soon enough. Samsung's flagships are making their official debut live on Wednesday, March 29. The stakes are especially high for the South Korean tech gia ...more

ASUS is gearing up to move its augmented and virtual reality departments into an independent startup named Glamorfy, according to a recent report from tech news site Fudzilla. Glamorfy has existed since 2015 as an arm of ASUS, and before now, the separate AR and VR department ...more

Princess Cruises' Coral Princess voyage disembarked in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, March 18, after a 10-day cruise in which 182 people were sickened with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. According to federal health officials, a norovirus is suspected for the outbreak. Twen ...more

Any stoked Coachella-goers out there? Well, get even more excited, because the celebrated music festival has partnered with virtual reality company vantage.tv and software platform Camera IQ this year to take the Coachella VR/AR app to augmented reality paradise. If you were ...more

2017 has been a good year for Apple thus far. The new Kantar data is out, showing that from November 2016 to January 2017, the iPhone 7 has held steady as the top-selling phone in all the largest markets. The data also shows that during this part-quarter, the iPhone market sh ...more

According to new rumors, Samsung, still stinging after the Note7 recall debacle, is determined to be the first to release a foldable smartphone. According to ET News, the company is going to begin prototype production of their always-rumored but never-seen folding smartphone i ...more

Independent game developer PlayFusion announced today a partnership with NEXON Korea Corporation, resulting in a Series A preferred share round to fund development of their entertainment platform. PlayFusion's platform applies augmented reality, Internet of Things (IoT), and a ...more

A market research report, posted on February 27, 2017, forecasts that the image recognition market will grow to nearly $40 billion worldwide by 2021. The market, which includes augmented reality applications, hardware, and technology, generated an estimated $15.95 billion in 2 ...more

At a global security conference in Munich, philanthropist and businessman Bill Gates spoke about the next pandemic and a dire lack of global readiness. Here's how his statement could come true—and how to be ready when it does. On Saturday, Bill Gates joined hundreds of heads- ...more

It looks like Chris Urmson has spent the six months since he left Google's Self Driving Car Project trying to build a get-rich-quick self-driving unicorn, along with Sterling Anderson, formerly with Tesla Motors. At least that is one of several scandalous accusations in a Tesl ...more

There are all kinds of theories—many supported by science—about what causes Alzheimer's disease. Tangles of protein called ß-amyloid (pronounced beta amyloid) plaques are prominently on the list of possible causes or, at least, contributors. An emerging theory of the disease s ...more

In response to the flurry of doubtful headlines about Magic Leap today, set off by an unflattering article from The Information, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz released a short blog post quickly detailing what to expect from the company over the next year. The gist comes down to ...more

In mid-November, Vuforia officially released Vuforia 6.1, which has full support for the Microsoft HoloLens. They also released their AR Starter Kit to the Unity Asset Store, which contains scenes that show you how to use Vuforia features. While I have yet to find any confirma ...more

I don't know about you, but I was obsessed with handheld gaming devices when I was younger. Between my Game Boy and multiple Tamagotchis, I was guaranteed hours of entertainment that could fit comfortably in the palm of my hand. Jeroen Domburg, aka Sprite_TM, created the worl ...more

China's e-commerce site Alibaba has been making heavy investments in augmented and mixed reality startups. In February of this year, they led a $793 million round of Series C financing of Magic Leap. And now they've just invested in Israeli-based InfinityAR, which acquired $18 ...more

If we learned anything from Mulan, it's that "the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of them all." Well, these have been a trying couple of weeks in the US, hence the need for a blooming marshmallow flower. Dominique Ansel, the man responsible for ...more

For years, smartphone makers have been caught up in a megapixel spec race to prove that their camera is better than the next guy's. But we've finally come to a point where even the lower-end camera phones are packing more megapixels than they need, so it's getting harder to di ...more

While flying isn't easy, once an airplane gets into the clouds there isn't a whole lot to worry about—most of the work happens during takeoff and landing. Helicopter pilots, on the other hand, have a lot of dangerous obstacles (like power lines and buildings) to contend with. ...more

Gmail has been the email standard for quite some time now, and for good reason: it's a free service provided by one of the largest tech companies in the world that offers users an amazing feature set to manage, send, and keep track of all their important emails. However, all ...more