Working Models of Science

People fundamentally distrust magicians. And they should. The illusions they proffer are just that, illusions meant to astound rather than tangible interactions and results that have weight and meaning in our real world. Our lizard brains know this, and, no matter what the out ...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

Decades ago, Japan rocked the automobile industry with its revolutionary manufacturing and car quality, but today that title seems to be moving over to Elon Musk's electric car company Tesla. Nevertheless, Japan isn't done innovating mass-produced hardware. The latest magical ...more

The year 2019 was filled with all the normal peaks and valleys of the tech business cycle, but this year was particularly important in a space as relatively young as the augmented reality industry. What once seemed like a vast fertile bed of mobile AR apps, powered by Apple's ...more

After stealing the show at the HoloLens 2 launch and starring in Qualcomm's unveiling the Snapdragon XR2, holographic video conferencing app Spatial has landed a leading role in Magic Leap's second act with the enterprise segment. This week, Spatial announced that its 3D remo ...more

It looks like Jaunt's pivot from VR to volumetric captures services for augmented reality experiences has paid off. That's because Verizon has now acquired the company for an undisclosed amount, per a brief announcement issued by Jaunt on Monday. Don't Miss: The Future of Au ...more

Why do you need augmented reality? Because enterprise, they say. And while that's certainly true for several disciplines, there's still that mainstream use case hanging out there waiting for users to discover beyond the realm of enterprise and gaming. After much thought — and ...more

While Gucci is among the most recognizable brands in fashion, you would be excused for not realizing that the company makes sneakers as well. Yet, here we are, with Gucci adding an augmented reality try-on camera tool to its iOS mobile app, available now via the App Store, fo ...more

One of the masters of science fiction, Neal Stephenson, may be on staff at Magic Leap, but that doesn't mean he can't take a moment to visit the halls of competitor Microsoft, the maker of the HoloLens. The author is currently promoting his new book Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, a ...more

The idea of remote assistant apps in augmented reality has been taking off in the last couple of years, but Epson is introducing a differing kind of solution for companies that may benefit from a more straightforward dynamic before going full-on immersive with higher-end AR re ...more

If you've been putting off upgrading your iPhone or iPad, you might want to start shopping for a current-generation device to take advantage of the latest capabilities in ARKit 3. After relegating the reveal of ARKit 3 to the back half of the WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple lef ...more

Many of us know that you can make a few bucks from Amazon by helping the company sell its wide array of products, but now there's a very different way to make a buck with the company, and it involves 3D technology. The "Amazon Real World Image Study" is a new, limited time pr ...more

With the upcoming Memorial Day weekend serving as the unofficial start of summer, Pepsi is turning to Instagram to help sell its soft drinks to quench the thirst of beachgoers and BBQers. This week, Pepsi kicked off its #Summergram (yes, with the hashtag symbol) campaign with ...more

Months ago, we showed you some of the powers of Spatial, the HoloLens app that allows groups of workers to collaborate in augmented reality using 3D avatars. On Monday, the company boosted its profile by taking the stage at Microsoft Build to show off its new integration into ...more

Open-source intelligence researchers and hackers alike love social media for reconnaissance. Websites like Twitter offer vast, searchable databases updated in real time by millions of users, but it can be incredibly time-consuming to sift through manually. Thankfully, tools li ...more

Nowadays, our phones are capable of just more than 30 fps video. Phones like the Galaxy S10 can shoot 4K at 60 fps, even on the front camera. Slow motion functionality has recently started to appear on more and more devices — but as you may have noticed, the quality of the fea ...more

The last few months have delivered some great new Magic Leap releases, but that doesn't mean the development team is resting on its laurels when it comes to the platform itself. On Thursday, Magic Leap began inviting users to join its Lumin OS Beta Program, which includes a r ...more

Returning to the spotlight after its debut at last year's CES, augmented reality smartglasses maker Rokid is back with a new update. On Monday, the China-based startup announced Project Aurora at CES in Las Vegas. Rokid describes the new prototype hardware device as functioni ...more

Apple released the iOS 12.1.3 developer beta on Monday, Jan. 7, and the iOS 12.1.3 public beta followed shortly behind. Apple has been pretty on point with its public beta releases for iPhone, always releasing the same day as the dev version unless it's the very start of a bet ...more

Last year's augmented reality investments roundup was impressive. And in 2018, the dollars flowing toward AR haven't decreased, as venture capitalists and strategic investors continue to aggressively fund AR startups at a rapid pace. And while the technology still has yet to ...more

While keeping your iPhone out of the bedroom might help to avoid unnecessary distractions before bedtime, it could be better served right by your side to help diagnose sleeping issues you may be experiencing each night. With the Apple Health app, and all of the apps and devic ...more

Apple Watch owners know the struggle — it's the end of the day, and those rings aren't met. Whether you forgot your watch before hitting the gym, let the battery run out, or just didn't move enough, you could feel the sting of fitness failure. But it doesn't have to be this wa ...more

Mystery is a tricky thing. Used correctly, it can give onlookers the impression that wondrous and perhaps valuable things are afoot. However, once the veil of suspension of disbelief is removed in any significant way, that same mystery can quickly turn into not just skepticism ...more

Election Day is like the Super Bowl for network and cable TV news, so ABC News is breaking out the big guns with a new augmented reality experience to win over eyeballs of viewers. With all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the Senate, and 36 governor off ...more

While these days it is better known for the cross-platform gaming sensation Fortnite, Epic Games also makes Unreal Engine, one of the top development environments for 3D content and, in turn, augmented reality and virtual reality experiences. As a result, the company has mana ...more

One developer has taken the formal name of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition quite literally with an app that enables users to create a custom universe in their own living room. The app, called Universe Creator, by developer Les Bird, allows users to select from a library o ...more

When I review apps, I'll oftentimes end up downloading at least one or two "bad" apps that either lied about their functionality or were riddled with ads. These apps, while not as harmful as malware, can still be a major headache. This got me thinking about the other bad apps ...more

Following closely behind the developer beta, Apple released the first public beta for iOS 12.1 to testers Thursday, Sept. 20. The update comes only two days after developers received their first look at 12.1. Both the developer and public betas surprisingly mark the return of ...more

Apple's latest mobile operating system for iPhones, iOS 12, was released to everyone Monday, Sept. 17, and it's the same exact build that developers and public beta testers received as the "golden master" on Sept. 12, the day of Apple's 2018 special event. Install it to start ...more

The fortunes of ARKit and ARCore are still in the hands of developers, who have been increasing the number of mobile augmented reality apps on the market, but perhaps not as fast as companies like Apple might have expected. But one new product is looking to literally kickstart ...more

Online shopping giant Shopify literally cannot wait for ARKit 2.0 to arrive via iOS 12 this fall to implement its latest augmented reality feature. This week, the company began giving users the opportunity to test out Apple's AR Quick Look tool, which displays 3D content in a ...more

In our last ARKit tutorial, we learned how to measure the sizes of horizontal planes. It was a helpful entryway into the arena of determining spatial relationships with real world spaces versus virtual objects and experiences. This time around, we'll dive into a slightly diff ...more

FaceTime has been around since iOS 4, and year after year, things stayed pretty much the same aside from a few small changes. In iOS 6, calls over cellular networks were finally possible, and audio-only calls were officially supported starting in iOS 7. But the one feature mos ...more

Google's MVNO carrier, Project Fi, can save you a ton of money in the right circumstances, but it's always had a limited selection of supported phones. Because the service uses Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular towers as its backbone, you could only use Project Fi with a Pixel ...more

There's always been a clear divide between flagship and midrange phones. Flagships will run you at least $700, while midrange typically falls between $250 and $550. The main difference is the processor, with midrange phones sporting a 600-series Snapdragon and flagships rockin ...more

Department store chain Target is the latest retailer to offer an augmented reality cosmetics app for customers to virtually try on lipstick. For its Beauty Studio web app, Target uses the YouCam platform offered by Perfect Corp. Available through Target.com via any desktop we ...more

The easiest way around a security policy is to find users who don't follow it. The Have I Been Pwned database identifies accounts with information breached by major third parties like Yahoo and LinkedIn. With Maltego, hackers can locate breached accounts created using company ...more

Another AR cloud savior has emerged this week in Fantasmo, a startup that wants to turn anyone with a smartphone into a cartographer for spatial maps. The company's camera positioning standard (CPS) captures spatial data through your device's camera. With this data stored in ...more

| Update: ZTE's issues with the US government have finally been resolved. Check out the details below. ZTE has a history of bumping heads with the US government. Multiple agencies have expressed distrust with the Chinese company and even discouraged Americans from using their ...more

Netmarble has released a new MMORTS game called Firstborn: Kingdom Come to go up against competing games like Lords Mobile. Unfortunately, the game seems to be stuck in development as a soft launch in select countries, limiting its exposure to gamers worldwide. But don't let t ...more

In the latest example of life imitating art, IBM has applied for a patent for a video censoring system that looks a lot like the "Arkangel" child monitoring system from the latest collection of modern sci-fi fables from Black Mirror on Netflix. For those who haven't seen the ...more

At Apple's education event in Chicago on Tuesday, augmented reality stood at the head of the class among the tech giant's new offerings for the classroom. The company showcased a number of ARKit-enabled apps that promise to make learning more immersive. For example, the AR mo ...more

Identifying vulnerable devices and services on a target router can be difficult without leaving logs and other traces of an active attacker on the network. However, there is a way to covertly decrypt and view Wi-Fi activity without ever connecting to the wireless network. Whe ...more

While the consensus among some in the augmented reality community is that the Microsoft HoloLens is the best device available at present, it also remains the most cost-prohibitive option, with the development edition costing $3,000. To give customers another option to work wi ...more

Master director Steven Spielberg's virtual reality epic Ready Player One is coming to theaters in just a few weeks, but you can get an early look at some of the best parts the latest trailer, "Come With Me," which was revealed on Thursday. But while the film is supposed to be ...more

Old school media stalwart Sports Illustrated is billing this year's Swimsuit Issue as the "Most Immersive Experience Ever," and it certainly lives up to that statement, as the magazine has added augmented reality and virtual reality experiences to this year's version via Snapc ...more

It's easy to have your password stolen. Important people like executives, government workers, journalists, and activists face sophisticated phishing attacks to compromise their online accounts, often targeting Google account credentials. To reduce this risk, Google created the ...more

After devoting a number of resources toward developing VR content to modernize the delivery of its news content in recent years, The New York Times is expanding its capabilities to include augmented reality as well, a mission outlined in a manifesto published on Thursday. Thr ...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

Over the years, the internet has become a dangerous place. As its popularity has increased, it has attracted more hackers looking to make a quick buck. However, as our dependency on the web grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to sever all ties. This means we have to prote ...more

Medical training technology company CAE Healthcare has given birth to the latest example of how augmented reality can help to build practical operating room skills for doctors and nurses. The company's newest product is called LucinaAR, which harnesses the power of the Microso ...more

The mysterious technology product teased via an eccentric TED Talk nearly five years ago has finally been revealed, and it's called the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition. After all of the non-disclosure agreements, furtive comments from CEOs and insiders given early access to th ...more

Google just unveiled it's biggest search product in recent memory, except this time the search giant is looking to take over the world of virtual objects. On Wednesday, Nov. 1, Google launched Poly (as in polygon, get it?), a massive database of searchable 3D objects that aug ...more

The Watch Dogs video game series came out in 2014, enamoring audiences with the idea of a seemingly magical smartphone that could change traffic signals, hack web cameras, and even remotely control forklifts. This may sound like science fiction, but The Sonic uses a customized ...more

The advent of ARKit and ARCore has strengthened the demand for development tools to build augmented reality experiences for compatible iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. We have seen Unity step up with support for both platforms, with ARCore support arriving in their next r ...more

Did you want an iPhone X, but opted for the iPhone 8 instead? Or, maybe you aren't ready to upgrade from your 7, 6S, 5S, or what-have-you. Did you know iOS 11.1 lets you experience what it would be like if you had upgraded to the iPhone X? Well, in a way. iOS 11.1 beta users ...more

The new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models come with a gorgeous Retina HD display with Apple's True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts the white balance on the screen to match the ambient light around you. The iPhone X also has True Tone built into its Super Retina HD displa ...more

In its never-ending quest to innovate its flagships, Apple's newer iPhone models with Face ID do away with the iconic Home button present since the first iPhone back in 2007. That means screenshots, force-restarting, switching apps, Apple Pay, and the home screen all work diff ...more

Gestures are a big deal on an iPhone X, XS, XS Max, XR, 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max. Without a Home button on Apple's super-premium smartphones, several actions had to be mapped to gestures instead, which impacts other areas of the system such as the Control Center. One exampl ...more

Apple has something big in store for consumers in 2017 to mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. One major surprise is that Apple has decided to forgo on releasing a 7S in favor of a redesigned iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. To further commemorate its 10-year milestone, the Cupertino- ...more