Although The New York Times may have won the race in terms of presenting coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics through augmented reality first, The Washington Post is nevertheless working to compete in AR in a different way—via gaming. This week, the newspaper published an AR ...more
Those looking for a creative way to loose a metaphorical Cupid's arrow at the figurative heart of the object of their affection can now add augmented reality greeting cards to their quiver. Just in time for the first Hallmark holiday of the year, Happy Giant, developer of the ...more
Amazingly, SpaceX founder Elon Musk just launched a Tesla into space, bound for Mars. But just because you're not a billionaire with drone rockets at your disposal, that doesn't mean you can't participate in the automobile-infused future of space here on Earth. Audi has just ...more
Soon, Pokémon GO allies attacking a raid boss at a gym will be able to do so together in augmented reality. The game's developer, Niantic Labs, announced on Thursday via a blog post that it has acqui-hired Escher Reality, an augmented reality and computer vision developer tha ...more
With the release of the iOS 11.3, iPhone users have new features to both sift through and look forward to, such as increased battery health information and control, new Animoji on iPhone X, and Health Records in the Health app. A smaller change with the update, however, is als ...more
When Apple unboxes the next major update to its mobile operating system this spring, iPhones and iPads will gain some significant new features for augmented reality experiences: verticality. In a preview of iOS 11.3 released on Wednesday, Apple unveiled details for iterative ...more
Fans of The Walking Dead can now kill time until the series returns from its winter hiatus by raising walkers from the labels on bottles of wine influenced by the show. With the Living Wine Labels app for iOS or Android, fans can unlock augmented reality content embedded in l ...more
If you love to hear yourself talk, you can now enjoy seeing your words materialize in augmented reality with an ARKit-compatible iPhone or iPad. A new app called Word Vomit 3D uses the speech recognition API of iOS to take in what the user says and regurgitate it into the rea ...more
Following up on a preview of the deal we reported during last week's CES, Dell has officially announced the details around its role as the first company to resell the Meta 2 augmented reality headset. The partnership gives Dell an AR offering, alongside its bread and butter P ...more
With today's augmented reality experiences, we can see and hear virtual content, but Ultrahaptics wants you to be able to feel those experiences, too. The company has partnered with Meta Company to pair its ultrasound-based haptic feedback system with the Meta 2 augmented rea ...more
In the midst of outlining plans to release Pokémon Go in China and debut its new Harry Potter game during the back half of 2018, Niantic CEO John Hanke turned to the dark arts by taking a swipe at the company's AR gaming competition. During an interview with The Financial Tim ...more
Around this time in 2016, the predictions for the next year had reached something of a consensus: 2017 would be the year of augmented reality. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future — nothing much, really. At least not for the first half of the year. It seemed cl ...more
On Friday, game developer PreviewLabs released the first online multiplayer game for the Microsoft HoloLens. Available for free on the Microsoft Store, Buggy Blasters is a real-time strategy game in which players place and navigate armies of virtual remote control cars. Using ...more
Just a day after the release of the iPhone X, the music-meets-comedy pastime known as Animoji Karaoke quickly emerged as one of the popular (albeit frivolous) features used to justify spending $1,000 for Apple's newest smartphone. Now, that brilliant idea has been taken to th ...more
To promote Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Disney and Lucasfilm released virtual porgs into the wilds of Snapchat via a Sponsored Lens on Sunday. The Lens placed a porg in your personal space via the rear-facing camera. Using the front-facing camera, the Lens also equipped users wi ...more
Rabbit ears and dog noses are fun and all, but Kay Jewelers is here to class up Snapchat. Claiming a first among the jewelry market, Kay Jewelers has launched a Sponsored Lens that lets Snapchatters virtually try-on three necklaces. A pucker of the lips triggers a virtually-b ...more
While AR apps by Modiface and Perfect Corp. have made it easier for people to shop for makeup without setting foot in a store, MAC Cosmetics wants to give its brick-and-mortar customers the same experience. The makeup giant just made its virtual try-on mirror, featuring 29 cu ...more
Ever since the planet went crazy trying to find augmented reality creatures in Pokémon GO, we've been waiting for the next virtual object game capable of delivering a similar hit. And now, we might finally have one coming, direct from the magical world of Harry Potter. The ne ...more
If DroneBase's new AR platform inspires even half the creativity among its users as Minecraft did with its community, then drone pilots are about to enjoy acres of blocky worlds to explore among the clouds. That new platform is called AirCraft, and it's available as a beta fe ...more
The bandwagon for NFL teams using augmented reality to engage fans isn't exactly full, but it is starting to get a bit crowded. The Philadelphia Eagles (iPhone | Android), the Houston Texans (iPhone | Android), and the Denver Broncos (iPhone | Android) are the latest teams to ...more
The Pixel 2 has a number of new unique features. One of the most interesting is the Now Playing option to identify songs you hear on a daily basis. Now Playing displays the artist and title of songs playing in the background of your day and shows this information on the lock s ...more
With a pair of new APIs and low-latency media servers, Twilio's Programmable Video platform could soon help ARKit and ARCore app developers build shared AR experiences between multiple users. By synchronizing AR content with audio and video communications in real time, Twilio ...more
Leaks are seemingly inevitable for smartphone makers these days. The OnePlus 5T, the successor to the OnePlus 5, is no exception to this rule. Last week, we witnessed leaked photos showing off the 5T's rumored "edge-to-edge" display. Today, leaks on OppoMart's 5T preorder page ...more
Immersive advertising company Vertebrae has extended its native ad platform to augmented reality via mobile Chrome browsers for Android and Safari for iPhone. Originally built for virtual reality, the platform provides advertisers with six templates. For the front-facing came ...more
Last week, I tried out StackAR, a puzzle app updated to support ARKit where the AR features felt mostly unnecessary. On the other hand, PuzzlAR: World Tour, available on the App Store for $2.99, demonstrates how a puzzle game should be played in AR. The objective of the game ...more
When explaining augmented reality to the uninitiated, Pokémon Go is often cited as an example. For all its popularity, though, many players would recommend disabling the AR capabilities in catching Pokémon. In the end, for that part of the game, AR wasn't really necessary for ...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
The promise of augmented reality when it comes to gaming is the conversion of the player's real-world environment into a virtual playground. Army of Robots, available for $1.99 in the App Store for ARKit-compatible devices, gives us a tangible example on how the promise could ...more
IKEA won't be alone among ARKit apps for visualizing home décor and improvements when iOS 11 arrives next week. Unlike IKEA or Lowe's Home Improvement, Cambria and Markilux are hardly household names (no pun intended). Yet, with tools like ARKit and Google's ARCore, AR apps a ...more
When Apple introduced ARKit earlier this year, they trotted out IKEA as one of the companies it was working with to build an augmented reality app that lets customers see furniture as it would appear in their home. While the Swedish furniture monger did not make an appearance ...more
One of the byproducts of the success of Pokémon Go was the viral images that made the rounds on social media of people putting Pikachus, Charmanders, and their brethren in compromising positions. Snapchat has a similar claim to fame, most recently with the inexplicable popular ...more
A Jedi does not seek adventure or excitement, but Star Wars fans can seek Jedi with the Find the Force augmented reality scavenger hunt promoting the launch of merchandise for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Between Sept. 1 and 3, participants are tasked with finding Find the Force ...more
One of the more meme-able characters from the animated series Rick & Morty will be able to beckon iPhone owners to "show them me what you got" thanks to ARKit. A demo from Immersion VR simulates an invasion of the Cromulons (from episode five of the second season), or, to som ...more
Another day brings another Apple ARKit demo, this time for a first-person role playing game that inserts villagers, vendors, and villains into real world locations. Finnish developer Lauri Rustanius shared a series of videos via Twitter for a game called Genereal World that i ...more
Augmented reality developer Blippar has created a new visual positioning service based on computer vision that is two times more accurate than GPS in urban locales. Positional accuracy has significant implications for location-based augmented reality experiences. With less ma ...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
As promised earlier this year, Neurable has introduced limited beta of a Unity-compatible software developer's kit (SDK) for its brain control interface (BCI) for augmented and virtual reality. The startup, birthed at the University of Michigan, takes a machine learning platf ...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
One of the best features in Super Mario Run is the ability to unlock other notable characters from the classic series on iPhone or Android. Each playable character in Super Mario Run has a slightly different skill set — be it speed or jumping — which can come in handy in certa ...more
As a side scrolling game, performing various jumps in Super Mario Run on your iPhone or Android is as vital as eggs in a breakfast buffet. Tapping away on your phone's screen like a madman won't accomplish much in this game, so it's imperative that you familiarize yourself wi ...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
As we all know, and certainly have marked on our calendars, it's World Emoji Day! Considering that over five billion emojis are sent daily on Facebook Messenger alone, emojis deserve to be celebrated, and Apple's doing just that. On this monumentous day, the tech giant is gift ...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
Wise Snacks wants baseball fans to reach for potato chips instead of peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and it's calling augmented reality out of the bullpen to close the deal. The snack maker has partnered with two Major League Baseball teams, the Atlanta Braves and the New York Met ...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
How can something get more free than free? Well, in the case of Twitter, Virgin Mobile found a way with its newest promotion. If you have a 4G plan with Virgin Mobile, you can now access Twitter from your smartphone without it counting towards your monthly data allowance. Don ...more
Wargaming's World of Tanks — the popular multiplayer online war game — teamed up with The Tank Museum to create an augmented reality experience like no other. Alongside several German tanks that are part of the exhibit, visitors can use Microsoft HoloLens and Google Tango tech ...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
Dogmented reality might be coming to Apple's ARKit, so get ready to play with your new (AR) pups! Don't Miss: A Breakdown of the What Apple's New ARKit Can Do for iPhones & iPads As reported by UploadVR, a tweet from the Good Dogs Twitter account stated that a dog app will b ...more
I can't stand trying to use my phone in direct sunlight. It drives me crazy — I just want to get through a game of Sonic, but I can't see where I'm going. No one has it harder than I do. But my troubles might soon be over, as researchers are developing anti-glare films for sma ...more
There's a general belief that augmented and mixed reality is going tied to enterprise solutions for the foreseeable future, and most developers in the field are focused on business use-cases. Without a dramatic breakthrough in the next couple of years that will likely be the c ...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
While two augmented reality companies were recently recognized for their innovative technologies, other companies have turned to augmented reality to innovate in their respective fields. Over the past week, use cases have ranged from selling snacks and video games to raising a ...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 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
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