Hot Gadget Hacks Posts
How To: Use Firefox's Secure 'Notes' App to Sync Lists & Other Notes to Your Desktop Browser
Note-taking apps are a dime a dozen on the Play Store. However, due to their inability to sync across devices, many can't compete with Google Keep. Mozilla decided to throw their hat in the ring with Notes by Firefox, and unlike others, their notes app syncs easily with one of the most popular browsers, plus it's encrypted.
How To: Use Instagram's Q&A Sticker in Stories to Get Viewer Responses on Any Question You Have
Your Instagram followers deserve to be heard. Whether through polls or DMs, Instagram offers your followers a unique way to share their thoughts and opinions with you on any subject you can think of. Now, the social media giant is expanding these options with the introduction of a new "Questions" sticker for your stories.
News: Unity 2018.2 Release Continues Optimization of 3D Content Performance for Mobile Devices & Desktops
On Tuesday, Unity released the latest version of its 3D engine, which brings improvements to the Scriptable Render Pipeline that the company introduced earlier this year.
News: Facebook Brings Augmented Reality Ads to Its News Feed
Facebook is preparing to make augmented reality experiences for brands more visible in its mobile app with Tuesday's introduction of augmented reality ads in its News Feed.
News: Snapchat's Lens Explorer Guides You Through a Land of Augmented Reality Creations
Augmented reality experiences created in Lens Studio now have a permanent home in the Snapchat app. On Tuesday, Lens Explorer will begin giving users access to a scrollable screen full of a variety of new Lens Studio creations.
Apple AR: Room Racer Revs Its Augmented Reality Engines on iPhones
The old school staple of many US homes with children, the remote control race track, has been given new life in augmented reality thanks to the Room Racer app for iPhones and iPads.
News: Snapchat Preparing to Upgrade Camera with Visual Search for Amazon, Report Says
A peek inside the code of the Snapchat app has revealed that the company is expanding the search capabilities of its augmented reality camera to include visual search that may link to items within Amazon's massive online store.
Just Released: iOS 11.4.1 for iPhones Includes More Secure USB Restricted Mode, Bug Fixes & Improvements
After about 40 days of beta testing, Apple pushed out iOS 11.4.1 to everyone as a stable build on Monday, July 9, exactly one week after the final beta appeared.
How To: Play Marvel Battle Lines to Unleash Spider Man & Other Heroes on Your iPhone Right Now
Marvel has solidified itself as the dominant superhero franchise with the release of Avengers: Infinity War, and it's now dipping its toes into the world of mobile card-based strategy games with the soft launch of Marvel Battle Lines in select countries ahead of a worldwide release. If you'd like to install this game right now and get a head start on your fellow gamers stateside, there's a workaround.
News: Stop Buying Used iPhones — Budget Android One Phones Are So Much Better (& Cheaper)
Every once in a while, we find ourselves in a predicament where we need an inexpensive smartphone. Whether we're finally upgrading from that feature phone we held onto too long or we dropped our current smartphone, sometimes we need a quick replacement to get back on track. That's where Android One comes in.
How To: Use BlackBerry's DTEK Security Suite to Protect Your Device
When BlackBerry made the move to Android OS, they were aware of the limitations it presented. Unlike with BB10, they didn't create the operating system and would have to deal with the vulnerabilities already included. As a result, they added numerous security enhancements, and at the heart of this is DTEK.
Market Reality: Snapchat Gets Recreational & the Tech Industry Reveals How It Plans to Mainstream AR
Last month was a whirlwind for the augmented reality industry, with the Augmented World Expo, Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, and an exciting Magic Leap Twitch livestream all wrapping up before the ides of June. Now that we've had a chance to fully digest it all, we have a real sense of where the augmented reality industry is heading.
News: Reality Trending — Peering into the Present & Future of Augmented Reality in 2018
While many of you were off surfing and lounging on some sandy beach or trying to figure out how to balance work with sky-high summer temperatures, I've been talking to all the companies that make augmented reality what it is today.
News: Rémy Martin Distills Art Through Augmented Reality App to Promote Its Cognac
Another branding team has stepped up to the bar to order a tall glass of augmented reality for its marketing campaign, this time through a mobile app for Rémy Martin VSOP Limited Edition cognac.
How To: Remove the On-Screen Keyboard on Your BlackBerry KEYone or KEY2
One of the best parts of the BlackBerry KEYone and KEY2 is the iconic physical keyboard. There is one major downside, though: By default, the virtual keyboard appears on these devices even when typing on the physical keyboard. Luckily, there's a way to change that.
Hands-on: Meta's New Meta Viewer App Is the AR Collaboration Tool All Those Sci-Fi Films Imagined
When you drive along the deceptively sedate streets of Silicon Valley, there are few hints that all those nondescript office parks and low-rise buildings contain the very future of the planet, but they really do. On a recent trip to tech's epicenter, I found that out firsthand when I got to visit the offices of Meta, the startup that produced the Meta 2 augmented reality headset.
How To: You've Probably Let Several Apps Read Your Gmail — Here's How to See & Delete Them
Thanks to recent reports, we now know third-party apps have a lot more access to our Gmail than we may have initially thought. In fact, these third-party apps have the ability to read our emails, not because these companies are necessarily shady, but because we agreed to it. Luckily, there's a way to view which apps have this access, as well as a way to boot those apps from your Gmail entirely.
News: Snapchat Takes a Trip to the Amusement Park with AR for Disney, Universal, & Six Flags
As if riding roller coasters and meeting your favorite childhood cartoon characters weren't amusing enough, Snapchat is amping up the fun with augmented reality at the world's leading amusements parks in the this summer.
Released: iOS 12 Dev Beta 3 (Public Beta 2), Includes Improved Maps, Bug Fixes & Security Patches
Apple released the third beta of iOS 12 for developers on Tuesday, July 3. The update comes exactly two weeks after the release of the second developer beta, which introduced a variety of fixes as well as new issues, and just one week after the release of the public beta. Public beta testers received this iOS 12 update on Thursday, July 5, labeled as public beta 2.
News: Niantic Partners with City Governments to Turn Pokémon GO into a Tool for Community Engagement
A new study published by American University demonstrates how Pokémon GO and other augmented reality games can help city governments bring communities closer together.
News: Apple's Rumored Switch to USB Type-C Chargers for iPhones Will Screw Over Some Users
The rumors are still hot that Apple might include an 18-watt USB Type-C power adapter with the upcoming iPhone lineup so that there's fast-charging capability right out of the box. Leaked photos have surfaced that substantiate this rumor, though, they could also be fake. But how would ditching the old-style 5-watt USB Type-A power cube affect you if it's true?
News: Challenge Serena Williams in Augmented Reality Tennis via Snapchat's Interactive 3D Bitmoji
With the opening round of Wimbledon, one of professional tennis's four major tournaments, beginning on Monday, Snapchat is serving up an augmented reality tennis mini-game.
News: This App Lets You Control Your Smarthome Lights via Augmented Reality
Voice-activated digital assistants from Amazon, Apple, and Google currently have the upper hand for home automation integrations, but a new augmented reality mobile app promises to give homeowners and renters visual control over their connected appliances.
News: iOS 11.4.1 Beta 5 Released for iPhones, Still Only Has 'Bug Fixes' & Unknown Improvements
Apple has been testing iOS 11.4.1 for just over a month now, and so far, there's nothing to show for it except unknown "bug fixes" and under-the-hood "improvements." And that still rings true with the release of iOS 11.4.1 beta 5 on Monday, July 2, which comes exactly one week after beta 4. Now the question is, when will the stable update be pushed out to everyone?
How To: Take Better Fireworks Photos with Your iPhone
The default Camera app on your iPhone can take some pretty incredible photos during the day. Newer iPhone models can even make nighttime shots look good. But you can't just point and shoot if you want to capture some pretty spectacular fireworks photos on July 4th, New Year's Eve, or another pyrotechnic celebration.
Market Reality: Google Pushes ARCore, Niantic Previews Its New AR Platform, & 'Walking Dead' AR Game Nears Release
Apparently, it's Google Week for the augmented reality business. Now that ARCore has a firm foothold in the app ecosystem, Google is making a case with educators and marketers that the apps should have a place in schools and campaigns, and the company is also encouraging developers to learn how to build apps using ARCore.
News: Sony's Xperia XZ2 Premium Is Coming to the US with a 4K HDR Display & Dual Cameras
While Sony as a company is well-known in the United States, it smartphones are not. For years, Sony has stuck with a boxy design with sharp edges and large bezels — however, they're finally getting with the trends. As a result, the Xperia XZ2 Premium offers a rare combo: A super powerful phone which is also pretty sexy.
News: Drake Drops Shoppable AR Lens on Snapchat to Push Fans to New Album on Apple Music
Hip-hop artist Drake once rapped that "goin' online...ain't part of (his) day," but that's not stopping him from promoting his new double album, Scorpion, via augmented reality on Snapchat.
News: Lionsgate & Pepsi Launch Snapchat Augmented Reality Experiences to Promote NBA Star-Packed 'Uncle Drew'
Snapchat is enjoying a high field goal percentage when it comes to securing movie studio business with its sponsored augmented reality experiences, the latest coming through the basketball movie Uncle Drew.
News: Google Expands ARCore to More Android Devices, Adds iOS Support
The roster of handsets supporting Google's augmented reality toolkit now includes 46 Android models as well as support for ARKit-compatible iPhones and iPads.
How To: Turn Your iPhone's Keyboard into a Trackpad for Easier Cursor Placement
Ever since 3D Touch's introduction in iOS 9 for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, a little-known trick for moving the cursor around and selecting text was built into Apple's stock keyboard. On iOS 12 or later, it works for all iPhone models with or without 3D Touch or Haptic Touch baked in.
How To: New RAMpage Vulnerability Affects Every Android Device Since 2012, but There's Not Much You Can Do
A team of academics from three different universities and two private companies have just discovered a new vulnerability that affects almost every Android device since 2012. The vulnerability is known as RAMpage, and it could be used to gain complete control over the device.
News: Every Picture-in-Picture Compatible Android App
For those of us who love to multitask, picture-in-picture mode is a godsend. The feature, introduced in Android 8.0 Oreo, lets you enjoy videos in a floating window overlaid on top of another app. However, while the OS does have native support, only a select number of apps support the feature.
News: China's Vivo Unveils Time-of-Flight 3D Sensor That Rivals iPhone X's TrueDepth Camera
The spirit of Google's Tango augmented reality platform lives on at Vivo, a China-based company that has developed its own 3D sensor for mobile devices.
News: Tale of the Tape — How Does Apple's Measure App Measure Up Against Google's Version?
Earlier this month, when Apple announced at WWDC that iOS 12 would include an augmented reality tape measure called Measure, iPhone watchers seemed impressed by the new addition to the company's AR arsenal. Well, just a couple of weeks later, on June 19, it appears that Google remembered it had its own Measure app as well.
News: 'The Walking Dead' Pokémon GO Knockoff Gets a Launch Date, More Details Revealed
While it has been slower to arrive than a walker limping through thick Georgia mud, location-based augmented reality game Walking Dead: Our World finally has a confirmed launch date: July 12.
News: Google Makes Case for ARCore Apps to Educators & Marketers
When it comes to mass adoption, augmented reality is still primarily a mobile world, so Google is pitching its own ARCore flavor of mobile AR to the education and marketing segments.
News: Google Takes Developers Back to School with ARCore Classes on Coursera
With a new version of its ARCore in the wild and more than 30 devices now supporting it, Google is helping beginners get up to speed with augmented reality.
News: Microsoft Applies for Another Patent to Enlarge Field of View in AR Displays
Based on its continued research, it appears Microsoft recognizes that the next HoloLens needs a wider field of view (FoV). Based on a recently-revealed documentation, the company's research team has found another way to accomplish that objective.
News: iOS 12 Is Now Open for Public Beta Testers, Here's How to Install It on Your iPhone Right Now
Hours after iOS 11.4.1 beta 4 was released on Monday, June 25, Apple's webpage for its public beta software programs was unavailable because of an "update." Sure enough, that meant the public beta for iOS 12 was being prepped to drop shortly thereafter, which is exactly what happened. In other words, you can now install iOS 12 on your iPhone without a developer account!