Gadget Hacks News
News: Mixed Reality Tears Complex Data Off the Page & into 3D
If you've ever made graphs and charts, you know it can be a struggle to represent a large amount of data. It's something that just doesn't work very well on a flat surface. In virtual and mixed reality, however, the data can exist all around you.
News: EtherWars Brings Real-Time Strategic Space Battles into the Living Room
If you want to quickly understand EtherWars, imagine a game like StarCraft where you build out your base on your living room floor instead of on a computer screen. Before we had computer games to help us imagine what space wars might feel like, we played with toy ships and used our imaginations. EtherWars combines those two elements by replacing toys with holograms that actually react to your choices.
News: Pros & Cons of BlackBerry's New 'Most Secure' Phone Ever
Starting with the Priv, BlackBerry's become an Android manufacturer. This move gives BlackBerry's phones access to Google's sizable app store, but it also presents several hurdles to keeping the security brand they've built intact.
News: The HoloLens & a Simple Gesture Can Stop a Complex Cyber-Attack
What happens if you unknowingly connect a malicious USB drive and it starts infecting your entire office network? Instead of having a panic attack and working all night to find a fix, you can just put on a mixed reality headset like Microsoft's HoloLens and point.
News: Life-Sized Mannequin Holograms Make Clothing Design Easy
Creating a dress, or any other clothes for that matter, takes quite a bit of design, planning, and manufacturing to get it just right. Fashion designer Jim Reichert put on a HoloLens and saved himself a bunch of time designing a dress through the use of a life-sized holographic woman.
News: BitCraze Makes Drone Flying Feel Like Telekinesis on the HoloLens
Drones are popular little toys, but they're not the easiest things to control. While hand gestures may not change that too much, donning a HoloLens and flying a physical object with a wave of your hand at least makes the process feel a lot more like a telekinesis.
News: Google Chrome Is Nearly Ready to Become Your Virtual Reality Browser
Mozilla helped get the ball rolling with WebVR, but support for the technology has been notably absent in Google Chrome until recently. Now, the latest Chromium developer build offers limited support.
News: Preview a 3D House in Mixed Reality Before It Gets Built
Would you like to know what your next house is going to look like? With the HoloLens, you can just plop a hologram down in an open outdoor area and find out.
News: Javier Davalos Used the Microsoft HoloLens to Turn a Bush into a Perfect Sphere
You've likely seen some impressive art carved out of a bush or tree before that looked like it required a lot of work and skill to create. While that may have been the case in the past, software engineer Javier Davalos used the Microsoft HoloLens to turn a bush into a perfect topiarian sphere with no training whatsoever.
News: This Fun HoloLens App Transforms Any Room into the Matrix
If you've ever wanted to live in the Matrix—or at least the iconic digital rain data visualization that Neo saw when realizing he was, indeed, the "one"—you can now do that with the Microsoft HoloLens. Just download The Red Pill.
News: Boring (Yet Mesmerizing) VR Experiences Could Calm Anxiety & Reduce Pain
Opioids, or narcotic painkillers, serve as our primary method for alleviating physical distress. They also happen to be a leading cause of death due to their addictive nature. AppliedVR hopes to introduce a safer alternative: virtual reality gaming. They utilize the existing Samsung Gear VR for the hardware, but provides specialized software that offers up a distracting experience that fosters greater pain ignorance.
News: PSA—iOS 10 Beta Might Eat Up All Your Data
I was one of the first to install the iOS 10 developer beta, and I remember thinking that everything was working insanely well compared to the first iOS 9 developer beta—but then I got a warning that I used 90% of my data 11 days into my following cycle—one day before I updated to beta 2.
News: 5 Great Lock Screens That Put Your Android's Default to Shame
When it comes to customization, you just can't beat Android. Not only can you replace your home screen, switch your default apps, and apply icon packs, but you can even replace your entire lock screen by installing a simple app. Considering that the lock screen is the first interface you encounter when you pick up your phone, that last one might even be the biggest change you can make without root access.
News: See What's New in iOS 10 Beta 3 for iPhone
With the next iPhone release around the corner, Apple is hard at work getting iOS 10 squared away. On Monday, July 18, they issued the third beta of iOS 10 to developers, which should be released within a few days to those using the iOS 10 public beta.
News: Can You Play Pokémon GO While Driving?
Do I really need to tell you that it's a bad idea to play Pokémon GO while you're driving? I really hope it's not necessary, but just in case it is, here you go: It's a bad idea to play Pokémon GO while you're driving.
News: Pokémon GO's Nearby Menu Is Lying to You—Here's Why All the Pokémon Have 3 Footprints
The easiest way to see which Pokémon are close to your current location in Pokémon GO is by checking the Nearby tracker in the bottom-right of your screen. At least this was the easiest way up until a few days ago. Initially, the Pokémon in the Nearby screen would be marked with between zero and three footprint icons—the more footprints, the further away a Pokémon is from your location. Pokémon with zero footprints should be visible to you.
News: Gym? WTF Is a Pokémon GO Gym?
Collecting Pokémon in Pokémon GO is only half the fun. Once you've reached Level 5, it's time to get your Pokémon ready to do battle with other Pokémon. This is where Gyms come in.
News: HoloLens Will Be Your AR Piano Teacher in the Future
You've likely seen light-up musical keyboards that teach you how to play a song with visual cues, but few of those devices exist and have a limited number of songs you can actually learn. But Karl Baumann and his HoloLens Hackathon team figured out that in mixed reality, you can learn music with visual cues with any piano.
News: This Guy Hacked Together DIY Haptic Gloves to 'Feel' VR—Here's How
Virtual and mixed reality experiences feel immersive because they take over your senses in various ways, but they still lack tactile feedback. Haptic gloves can change that, and you can make a pair yourself.
News: The Perceptoscope Brings Mixed Reality to Any Location
With most augmented and mixed reality devices, you wear a purchased headset and use it alone, in a place of your choice—but not this one. Ben Sax decided to reinvent the binoculars to create a mixed reality experience that anyone can walk up to and try for free. He calls it the Perceptoscope.
News: Volvo Takes Showrooming to the Next Level with a HoloLens
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 past general information and advertising to make a truly helpful tool for prospective car buyers.
News: Everything We Know About the Samsung Galaxy Note7 Right Now
Samsung will be launching the next edition of its Galaxy Note series in less than a month, and we're starting to get some solid information about the upcoming phablet. As previously rumored, Samsung is skipping a number on this year's model, so the new model will be called the Galaxy Note7.
News: Pokémon GO Will Be So Much Better with a Mixed Reality Headset
Pokémon GO has had an incredible impact on gamers in a way we've never seen before, but you can only do so much in augmented reality on a smartphone. It's clear we're headed for more immersive experiences, but the Amsterdam-based development studio Capitola VR already created a proof-of-concept version of the game that works on the Microsoft HoloLens.
News: Mixed Reality Is the Future of VR Gaming
Don't Miss: The Difference Between Virtual, Augmented, & Mixed Reality
News: Pokémon GO Unveils the Good, Bad & Weird Sides of Gaming in Augmented Reality
Pokémon GO made waves as the first augmented reality game to gain popular adoption. In fact, it was so popular that it only took a few days to uncover some the benefits and serious issues with combining physical and digital worlds.
News: If You're Curious About Creating Software for Augmented & Mixed Reality, Start Here
If not the future of computing in general, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality certainly will change the world of gaming. If you want to try your hand at shaping this evolved medium, the Unite Europe conference posted a talk that explains the first things you need to learn to develop holographic games.
News: Today Only—Huge Deals on the Nexus 6P, Honor 5X, & Moto X Pure from Amazon
Last year's inaugural Amazon Prime Day may have been a bit of a bust, but the online retail giant seems to be making up for it this year with some killer deals.
News: Pokémon GO Just Gamified the Non-Sedentary Lifestyle
Pokémon GO, the biggest augmented reality sensation ever, broke app store records this opening weekend. But it also did something even more important: it gamified physical activity.
News: The Manus VR Gloves Bring Full Hand Tracking into the Virtual World
Most virtual and mixed reality headsets offer unnatural controls, making you use awkward movements or physical devices to control the holographic elements in your direct view. This doesn't make a lot of sense because using your hands is more natural, so Manus developed a set of gloves that solves that problem entirely.
News: Here's How the Weather Channel Is Using Augmented Reality to Make Us All Safer
The Weather Channel, by virtue of its name, has always been tasked with the difficult problem of making the weather interesting. As Mashable notes, they've turned to augmented reality for a solution and can now render a 3D storm in their studio, as well as help us understand how bad a storm might be with 3D forecasts.
News: Would You Buy This $89 Mannequin Head to Store a VR or AR Headset On?
How do you safely store your augmented, virtual, or mixed reality headset when you're not using it? Cybust hopes you're willing to shell out $89 to display it like a sculpture around your house.
News: This Hackathon Project Turns Any Room into an Art Gallery
One of the first things you'll do with the HoloLens is place little holograms around your room, and it'll look like you have a large figurine collection. Ralph Barbagallo, Edward Dawson-Taylor, and their HoloHacks team decided to take that a bit further and created an app that allows the user to produce and tour virtual art exhibits.
News: Habit.at Mixes Holographic Fun with Food to Help Kids Eat Healthier
You might not think a mixed reality headset could help kids eat their vegetables, but that's the exact premise behind Habit.at—the app that won the "Social Good" category at the 2016 HoloHacks competition in Los Angeles.
News: VLC Lands on the Microsoft HoloLens with Special New Features
The latest beta of the popular open-source media player VLC just hit the Windows Store, which means it not only runs on Windows 10 and Xbox One, but the HoloLens as well.
News: CyberPong Updates the Classic Game for VR on the Vive
Pong, one of the simplest video games ever created, has managed to evolve in some crazy ways over time, from the original basic 2D version and colorful Breakout sequel, to the PlayStation game with power-ups and 3D graphics, and now Cyberpong VR—a virtual reality game on the HTC Vive—where you act as the paddle instead of just moving it into place with a controller.
News: Pokémon GO, the Augmented Reality Smartphone Game, Is Now Available
After a relatively short beta-testing period, Pokémon Go is now rolling out to Android and iOS devices right now. If you want to catch 'em all in the real world, your wait is over.
News: Apple May Finally Be Making an AR Headset, According to Their New Patent
Microsoft has the HoloLens and Google has their money on Magic Leap (as well as their own Tango and Cardboard, among others), but we've heard next to nothing about how Apple plans to enter the virtual/augmented/mixed reality space. A new patent offers some clues.
News: Here's How Helicopter Pilots Can Use Augmented Reality to Fly Safer
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. But, once again, augmented reality can save the day.
News: Here's Your First Look at This Year's New Nexus Phones
A "reliable source" divulged specs of Google's new Nexus phones made by HTC, the Sailfish and Marlin, to Android Police, who used the information to create what they believe is an accurate render of the new phones.
News: When the Web Exists in 3D Space, What Happens to the Browser?
Augmented and mixed reality experiences attempt to break us out of windowed computing experiences and allow us to place software anywhere in the room. But that software doesn't have to take a rectangular form—theoretically, the web doesn't have to restrict itself to a page in a browser any longer. Does this mark the end of the web browser entirely? Probably not. A lot of information works well on the page, and the Microsoft HoloLens still uses a pretty standard version of their own Edge brows...