In the case of Apple Watch v. Fitbit, the winner comes down to the judge at hand. Apple currently offers two smartwatches — the Series 5 and the Series 3 — while Fitbit offers three models — the Fitbit Versa 2, Fitbit Ionic, and Fitbit Versa Lite. Whatever your assumptions abo ...more
So is it possible to live with only 100 things or less? Blogger David Bruno has created sort of an online meme dare called "100 thing challenge" for people to live on 100 things or less. If you Google "100 thing challenge," you can see how other people who have taken on the ch ...more
There have been concerns with how much personal information Google tracks and all the things they know about us. Of course, that's what makes Google services so useful, they can use that information to cater to each of us individually. So yes, it serves a purpose, but it's not ...more
We live in world where it is hard to stay positive all of the time. I know at times it gets hard to see the bright side of things and sometimes you just want to give up and let life pass you by. This kind of thinking is usually indicative of a deeper psychological problem whic ...more
As with most social media platforms, Instagram can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's a great way to share and express yourself — but on the other, it can be just as effective at compromising your privacy. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to protect yourse ...more
Doxing is the act of finding one's personal information through research and discovery, with little to no information to start with. You may have seen doxing in the news, for instance when not so long ago, hacker team Anonymous doxed and reported thousands of twitter accounts ...more
In the last decade, the number of people working remotely in the US has increased dramatically, and so has their need for technology and software to supplement that remote work. Whether you work from home or a coworking office space, the requirement for highly compatible and h ...more
Would you exercise more if you were constantly running from zombies in a post-apocalyptic world where hundreds of people are depending on you to not get eaten? If your answer is yes, then you really need to snap out of your sedentary lifestyle ASAP and install the Zombies, Run ...more
If you're in a social situation where you're meeting a lot of new people and you want to make the other person feel at ease, subtly mirror the other person's body language and make a point to say the other person's name. Studies have shown that these subtle tricks can help th ...more
Many popular apps automatically share your personal data. While I have accepted a certain amount of data collection from Google, to know companies such as Facebook perform this without my consent bothers me. After some researching, I've found a great solution, and it doesn't r ...more
You can learn countless skills from the world's leading experts — without the need to watch a screen — by using the incredible audio learning platform Knowable. Not only will this platform revolutionize your downtime, but right now, a lifetime subscription to Knowable Audio Le ...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
While the automotive industry is moving towards adopting AR displays in future models, BMW is already shifting into the next gear with its vision of the technology. During the climax of its presentation at this week's CES 2020 in Las Vegas, the automaker unveiled its BMW i In ...more
Low Power Mode (LPM) decreases the amount of battery your iPhone uses by disabling background app refreshing and automatic downloads, locking your screen after 30 seconds, and more. While it's only meant to be used temporarily, if you're struggling with battery life, you may w ...more
While the early stages of any new technology always seems amazing because of the utilitarian, almost altruistic software concepts it inspires, mixed and augmented reality will still see its fair share of corporate apps. That might be a good thing, however, as Volvo's plan goes ...more
Just because a problem is small or superficial doesn't mean it can't annoy the living crap out of you. Others may think you're overreacting, or even have the audacity to roll their eyes, but you're in your own personal hell. First-world problems, white whines—call it whatever ...more
If you want to keep your inner snack monster under control, sniff an apple. Studies have shown that sniffing an apple or a banana helps curve your appetite. Craving something deliciously sweet? Take a whiff of something vanilla-scented, like a vanilla-scented candle. Eating h ...more
There's no better time to reset, improve yourself, and develop new skills than at the start of a brand new year, where you're stuck at home with nothing better to do. Thankfully, this amazing deal on The 2021 Career & Self Development Master Class has come at a perfect time. R ...more
If you made a resolution for 2020 to get healthier, it's essential to concentrate on your mental health just as much as you do on physical fitness. Running and exercising is great, but a sound mind is integral to a healthy and balanced life, and you can improve your emotional ...more
Sticky notes and the refrigerator go perfectly together, like chocolate and peanut butter. They're particularly popular among families with young kids, so they've been a key part of our personal lives for many years now. But what if you could turn those sticky notes into a dig ...more
Unless you're one of the world's top golfers, there's a good chance you are not stepping onto the fairways of Pebble Beach Golf Links this weekend. Nevertheless, the PGA is making it possible for golf fans to get closer to the action at the famous Florida course than those wh ...more
In a way, Twitter is the town square of our era, where people can share and discuss ideas on a wide variety of topics. While the tech giant has its own app for Android, it's pretty bare-bones when it comes to features. This has paved the way for third-party clients that are ri ...more
As the level of data being generated grows exponentially, past the Information Age and into the coming Hyper-Information Age of immersive computing — as resistant as many of us are to the idea — personal data security is becoming a necessary consideration in our everyday lives ...more
Apple took a giant step forward in terms of user customization with the new Control Center in iOS 11. With an improved design, buttons you can pick and choose from, and even a new default Cellular Data toggle, it's definitely a better iPhone experience. However, Apple also too ...more
Casey Hudson, the one-time project director for games like Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic and the original Mass Effect trilogy, has announced his return to his former home, Bioware as the General Manager. Of course, that also means he is leaving his role at Microso ...more
Whether scheduling meetings, events, tasks, or even keeping tabs on the weather, a good digital calendar can help you stay on top of your game in ways that a normal calendar could never do. Indeed, there are many calendars to choose from, but Google Calendar is one of the best ...more
The origins of vodka are shrouded in mystery, with both Russia and Poland laying claim to its invention. Some say Genovese merchants brought vodka (then known as aqua vitae, or the water of life) in the late fourteenth century to Russia. For many years, vodka wasn't just an al ...more
The battery on your iPhone can go from 10% to completely dead in a matter of minutes, or at least it can feel that way. Apple does prepare you with an alert when you hit the 20% and 10% mark, but it's easy to forget to charge your iPhone before it dies even with those notifica ...more
When you think about it, isn't life just one big open-world RPG just begging to be conquered? We all have a set number of specific tasks or chores we must complete every single day like clockwork. Sometimes, these items on our to-do list can become tedious and cause us to lose ...more
Your phone's keyboard is one of the most commonly used apps. Whether you're typing out status updates, sending private messages, or just bombarding everyone in sight with as many emoji as you possibly can, you probably couldn't get by without a good keyboard app. Since Androi ...more
Performance and stability improvements, as well as new features, are just some reasons to install iOS 12, but new changes mean new battery health challenges. It can be difficult to boost battery life while taking advantage of everything this update has to offer. Luckily, there ...more
From Farmville to selling a company to Google, Amitt Mahajan has been through the startup ringer. Now, as managing partner with Presence Capital, he's funding the future of augmented and mixed reality. With interest in 3D graphics, Mahajan started his career working on game e ...more
The Note 7 debacle taught Samsung an important lesson on cramming oversized batteries into their handsets, and they've applied it diligently to their Galaxy S8 and S8+. You might even say the company has gone a little too far in trying to achieve a balance between battery size ...more
Logan's Run is one of my favorite movies of all time. The dialog is cheesy, the set design and special effects are wonky, and the main villain looks like he was conceived and built by an eighth grader in shop class—oh, and his name is Box. But there are plenty of things to li ...more
Being healthy and active will help you live longer, but finding the strength to work out? That's hard. What does it do for me right now? I mean, here I sit, writing this article, thinking about going for a run, and I feel good just for thinking about running. But will I do it? ...more
With Google Maps, we can fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Paris and New York—all in a matter of seconds. We can zoom in with relative ease and flock around the city of our choice, checking out restaurants, historical landmarks, traffic and scuba divers. Easily the most recogni ...more
Part of the process to answer the topic question is to discover the answer to three other questions, which are: (1) Who am I? (2) Who do I want to help? (3) How do I want to help? Step 1: Who Am I? Discovering who you are is not necessarily an easy task, but it is often an i ...more
Despite their sometimes fluffy reputations and occasionally ethically compromised viewpoints, tech evangelists are important, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The right passionate voice behind the right technology platform or piece of hardware can sometimes spell the diffe ...more
Those of us who are actively developing for the HoloLens, and for the other augmented and mixed reality devices and platforms that currently exist, are constantly looking for the next bit of news or press conference about the space. Our one hope is to find any information abou ...more
Pokémon GO, the global augmented reality game that's brought fans out of their homes to catch Pokémon across the planet, has brought about plenty of real-world positives. Unfortunately, when players get power hungry and start taking game hacks too far, we all get a little scre ...more
Whenever the name Magic Leap comes up, the talk inevitably seems to turn to the company's big-name backers and "unicorn-level" amounts of cash poured into the venture. And if it's not that, observers tend to focus on the company's market strategy and overall prospects. These ...more
Smartphones are now indispensable when traveling. Domestic and overseas travel alike require food, navigation, translation, and so much more to make work or vacation successful. Gone are the days of lugging multiple tourist books around with you everywhere you go — you need to ...more
Google, Amazon, and Facebook are always listening. But what's worse? Hackers are listening, too. Windows PCs are particularly vulnerable, but with a few simple commands, a remote attacker can even take over the microphone on someone's Mac computer, streaming audio and listenin ...more
Just in time for the release of Pixar's highly anticipated sequel, AR Emoji based on characters from The Incredibles 2 have arrived for Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+. Originally announced at the launch of Samsung's latest flagship devices, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Violet, Dash ...more
Space might be the final frontier, but NASA is making a detour into augmented reality first. The Spacecraft AR app, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with Google, debuted exclusively for Android this week (an iOS version is also in the works ...more
If you're a regular reader of this site, there's a good chance friends and family turn to you as their volunteer technical support staff. In these instances, it can be difficult to troubleshoot purely through just verbal descriptions over the phone. While there are a plethora ...more
Waymo's hardware development team for self-driving vehicles will now be led by Satish Jeyachandran, previously director of hardware engineering at Tesla. Jeyachandran made the announcement yesterday on LinkedIn. He left Tesla a few months prior to the move to Waymo. Jeyachadr ...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
The limitless applications of 3D data visualization will enable a more efficient approach to many of life's problems. Each day, developers exploring this technology are finding new ways to solve these problems in mixed reality; 3D modeling, easier house management, spinal surg ...more
If you took your favorite search engine, gave it a witty personality, and bundled it together with a messenger-style interface, you'd have the new Google Assistant. It's great for getting fast answers—even on your follow-up questions—but its flair for fun might just be the sta ...more
When it comes to note-taking, Google Keep is one of the most diverse and functional applications on the Android platform. Sure, there are a plethora of other note-taking apps to choose from, such as ever popular OneNote and Evernote, but Google Keep differentiates itself from ...more
So, how does someone keep their hacking life completely secret? What This Is: I'd like to know how hackers keep their hacking life secret. So with a bit of experience and knowledge obtained from elsewhere I want to share what I know, and also ask a few questions to become ev ...more
The prevalence of smartphones has had profound effects on how we communicate, view media, and preserve memories, among other things. But all of these new forms of doing things are snatched away from us as soon as our phones lose power. While work is constantly being done to st ...more
Personally, I know life would be a lot easier if the people in it could just read my mind. Since that technology is currently unavailable, it's comforting to know that your air conditioner can be your personal telepathist with Sensibo. Sensibo works with any A/C unit that has ...more
When it comes to squeezing as much battery life as possible out of our smartphones, most people aim for software solutions, or ones that can otherwise be easily managed right from the touchscreen. Managing Wi-Fi and data connections, fine-tuning screen brightness, and install ...more
If you want to succeed at your New Year's resolution, stop thinking of it as a resolution. Instead, frame your resolution as a daily, manageable habit you want to develop into you day-to-day life. Don't think in vague terms like "I want to lose weight" or "I want to become fl ...more
Having to read a bunch of articles and tweets everyday can be tiresome, but if you can have a sweet-ass personal assistant read them for you, you're pretty golden. While Siri gets a lot of love for her virtual assistance, she doesn't have the power to read social feeds or art ...more
Election day is less than two weeks away and the political rhetoric is at an all time high. From the constant political commercials to the endless cable news coverage, it's hard to escape the noise. And nothing is worse than your social media sanctuaries being invaded by some ...more
You're alone in the wilderness. Stranded. Hungry. Cold. What do you do? Naivety could be your downfall, but you don't need to be an Army Ranger to survive. The five most basic survival skills are fire, shelter, signaling, first aid, and food and water. Learn them. Know them. ...more
I have never before showcased a tutorial from television. Until now. This one has a personal resonance for me. It is Sunday. So, sit back and learn a little something today. The life long and methodical debunking tutorials from the Amazing Randi have earned him a reputation ...more