Gadget Hacks News
News: L'Oreal Acquires Leading Augmented Reality Makeup Provider ModiFace
The cosmetics industry faced a rude awakening on Friday as beauty behemoth L'Oréal gobbled up ModiFace, one of the leading providers of augmented reality technology to the cosmetics industry (price details for the acquisition were not disclosed).
News: Ex-Magic Leap Employee Files Lawsuit Alleging Shady Hiring Practices
The legal travails of Magic Leap appear to have no end in sight, as a lawsuit filed by an ex-employee further threatens to dampen the startup's 2018 launch.
News: Magic Leap Patent Details Spatial Audio That Changes Based on Users' Head Movements
Just days after Bose did its best to frame a pair of glasses frames with spatial audio as "augmented reality," a patent application from Magic Leap, surfaced on Thursday, March 15, offers a similar idea, but with real AR included.
News: Galaxy S8 Oreo Update Rolling Out in the US
In a huge surprise, Verizon is the first US carrier to push out the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ Android Oreo update. The update has been available in international markets for some time now, but this is the first report of a rollout in the United States. We've already ran down all the new features available in Android Oreo, so check out our full coverage if you're interested in those.
News: 5 Relatively Hidden Galaxy S9 Features You Should Know About
If you recently received your new Galaxy S9 or S9+, you're probably excited to try out all of the features the flagship offers. While many of the features are self-explanatory and easy to access, there are a handful of very useful items that Samsung has buried in the settings menu. Enabling these hidden features will help you unlock the true power of your new device.
News: Magic Leap Patent Reveals Plans for Sign Language & Text Translation App
Another piece of Magic Leap's mysterious story has been uncovered thanks to a new patent application revealed on Thursday, March 15.
News: Here's What an iPhone X-Inspired SE 2 Could Look Like
When first released, the iPhone SE was nearly identical to its iPhone 6S counterparts in all but form factor. While the rumored SE 2 (if it even happens) is expected to follow suit with the iPhone 8 models, that hasn't stopped people from wondering what it would look like with an iPhone X-like bezel-less display.
News: Google Leads $14.5 Million Funding Round for AR Cloud Startup Blue Vision
The augmented reality cloud and multi-user experiences are shaping up to be one of the hotter areas of augmented reality, and now Google is the latest entity to back these emerging branches of AR.
News: Developer Brings Street Fighter into Real World as Multiplayer Augmented Reality Mobile Game
The guy who recreated Super Mario Bros. as a first-person obstacle course is back with an augmented reality take on another classic game.
News: Firefox Mobile Just Got Faster — New Browser Engine Brings Quantum's Speed to Android
At the end of 2017, Mozilla introduced the world to Quantum. While desktop Firefox received all the improvements, Android users were stuck waiting for one of the biggest components to hit, which brought speed that surpassed Google Chrome. Well the wait is over, the new and improved Firefox Mobile is finally here.
News: Magic Leap's Neal Stephenson Reveals What It's Like to Create Content for the Secretive Startup
Getting an insider view of the goings-on at Magic Leap is hard to come by, but occasionally, the company lets one of its leaders offer a peek at what's happening at the famously secretive augmented reality startup. One of those opportunities came up a few days ago when Magic Leap's chief futurist and science fiction novelist, Neal Stephenson, sat for an extended interview at the MIT Media Lab.
News: 'Walking Dead' AR Game Powered by Google Maps Coming This Summer, Gameplay Footage Released
Ever since the announcement of The Walking Dead: Our World game last fall, publisher AMC and developer Next Games have been quiet about the title. Almost too quiet.
News: Google Charts Course for Location-Based AR Apps via Maps API
Franchises left and right are releasing Pokémon Go-style augmented reality games, and Google is making it even easier to churn out the apps.
News: Apple's WWDC Invite Tells Us That 2018 Edition Will Be All About Augmented Reality
Historically, Apple loves to drop hints about its major upcoming events through clues included on its invitations. Those invites usually require a good bit of deciphering to connect the dots, but in the case of Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2018 invite, the topic is immediately obvious: it's augmented reality.
News: Finally, You Can Unlock Your S9 Automatically Using a PIN
It's often the smallest details that determine your overall experience with a smartphone. Unlocking your device with a PIN is an example — and iPhones have had a leg up over Android thanks to their automatic unlocking. Thankfully, this era has finally come to an end with the arrival of the Galaxy S9.
News: 5 Android P Features the Galaxy S9 Already Has
Over the past week, we've had a number of important launches take place in the Android community. Samsung is in the middle of their rollout of the Galaxy S9, with preorders in the US shipping this week. Google also rolled out the first Android P developer preview last week. While these may seem unrelated, there are actually a number of Android P features inspired by Samsung software.
News: Capital One Introduces AR Features to Ease the Car-Buying Experience
If you're playing word association with the terms "augmented reality" and "automobiles," your first thoughts probably center on navigation displays in cars or virtual models of exotic vehicles.
News: 10 Cool New Features in Android 8.1 for the OnePlus 5 & 5T
OnePlus has now officially upgraded both the 5 and 5T to Android 8.1 Oreo. As implied by the version number, this isn't a huge update from Android 8.0 Oreo. However, OnePlus has included a few of their own features as well.
News: Galaxy S9 Preorders Begin Shipping in the US
Two weeks ago, Samsung took the wraps off their much-anticipated Galaxy S9 flagship. Preorders opened on March 2 with official retail availability scheduled for March 16. As usual, several of the US carriers have begun shipping the devices ahead of schedule. Last week, Sprint began shipping out devices to a few lucky customers. Today, T-Mobile appears to be joining the party.
News: iOS 11.3 Beta 5 Released with Mostly Under-the-Hood Improvements
Apple released the fifth build of the iOS 11.3 developer and public beta on Monday, March 12. The update comes exactly one week after the March 5 release of beta 4, which mostly introduced bug and stability patches. At this time, this new beta appears to do much of the same.
News: Facebook Debuts Image Recognition in Camera AR with 'Ready Player One' & 'A Wrinkle in Time' Poster Promos
Despite the wide availability of markerless augmented reality experiences for mobile devices, there is still a market for scanned triggers for content, as evidenced by the new image recognition capabilities on Facebook's Camera AR platform.
Apple AR: PGA Tour AR App Lets You Follow Golfers Live on Your Coffee Table
If you're a golf fan who can't attend the Arnold Palmer Invitational in person, you can still follow the next stop on the apparent Tiger Woods comeback tour in augmented reality with an iPhone or iPad.
News: Magic Leap Producer Interview Gives Rare Insight into Company's Culture Before Disappearing from the Web
In what's becoming something of a regular occurrence, Magic Leap has yet another internal, unforced error on its hands. Thankfully, this time it's not about legal skirmishes or theft, but a rather unusual break from company protocol that has been quickly swept under the rug.
News: Meet the Huawei Mate SE — the 'Plus' Version of the Honor 7X
Huawei's push into the US market has by no means stopped, even despite the recent US government pushback. Huawei has already released their top-notch flagship device from 2017, the Mate 10 Pro, and a couple great budget and midrange devices. Their latest release offers an upgrade to a past release.
Market Reality: Upskill Fields Funding, Leap Motion Faces Lawsuit & Intel Confronts Challenges of AR Adoption
Augmented reality business followers, we've got good news and bad news. First, the good news: Upskill closed another round of funding, this time led by strategic investors Cisco and Accenture. (Well, this is probably bad news if you're competing with them on the enterprise AR front.)
News: College Basketball Fans Can Now Celebrate Their School's March Madness Berth in AR via Thyng's App
The NCAA College Basketball Tournament, colloquially known as March Madness, is arguably the most exciting postseason format in US sports, and the team behind Thyng want to take advantage of the annual event with AR content.
News: No, Bose, Those Aren't AR Glasses You're Hyping, but Nice Try
On Friday, audio giant Bose emerged as the latest, and perhaps the most surprising company to announce that it's planning to release augmented reality smartglasses.
News: BlackBerry Introduces the KEY2 — a Worthy Successor to the Iconic KEYone
BlackBerry has formally unveiled its latest flagship, the KEY2, during an exclusive event in New York. The Android-powered KEY2 retains its distinctive BlackBerry aesthetics with a physical QWERTY keyboard. Here's all the juicy details regarding Blackberry's followup to the venerable KEYone.
News: Google Is Testing a Redesign for Play Store App Listings
Google updates the Play Store periodically, but the changes are usually subtle. A recent server-side update, however, is shaking things up quite a bit.
News: Here's What We Know About the Mysterious Triple Camera in Huawei's Upcoming Flagship
It seems like each day new rumors and leaks come out for Huawei's upcoming P series devices. Everything from its name change to its specs has been leaked, sometimes with contradicting rumors. One of the biggest leaks is the inclusion of triple rear cameras, a first for smartphones.
News: Red Cross AR App Takes You Deep into the Life of a Child Plagued by International Warfare
Next to things like natural disasters and disease, the specter of war is one of the only things that threatens to derail the 21st century's long stretch of technological innovation. Now a new app is using augmented reality to remind us of that by focusing on those most impacted by war — children.
News: Leap Motion Hit with Patent Infringement Lawsuit from Same Company Suing Meta
Patent holder Genedics, LLC has filed a legal complaint alleging that hand-tracking startup Leap Motion is infringing on its intellectual property.
News: Intel Labs Chief Reveals the Secrets to Taking Augmented Reality Mainstream
Because augmented reality is still so new to so many people, there are a number of would-be experts opining online, often repeating basic facts anyone with a spare 15 minutes can find on their own. That's why it's important to point out when someone delivers what could be considered the ultimate cheat sheet for ramping up your AR IQ if you're unfamiliar with the finer points of the space.
News: Google Added an iPhone-Style Text Magnifier to Android 9.0 Pie
Regardless of the operating system, selecting a piece of text on a touchscreen device is never fun. Thankfully, Google has finally added a new feature to Android 9.0 Pie that will make it at least a little less annoying.
News: Cisco & Accenture Lead $17.2 Million Investment Round in Upskill's Enterprise AR Suite
Enterprise augmented reality software provider Upskill has raised $17.2 million in its latest round of funding, led by new investors Cisco and Accenture.
News: AR Cloud Company 6D.Ai Seeks Developers for Closed Beta of SDK
Augmented reality startup 6D.ai is now accepting applicants for the closed beta of its 6D SDK. While operating in the background on a smartphone, the computer vision platform captures a dense 3D mesh in real time using just the device's camera (such a feat typically requires a depth sensor).
News: Volume Buttons in Android 9.0 Pie Actually Control Media by Default Now
In stock Android Oreo and below, the volume rockers change ringer volume by default unless audio is currently playing. In order to adjust media volume when media isn't playing, you have to tap the down arrow next to the ringer volume slider that appears at the top of the screen to see the option. Now, Android 9.0 Pie has flipped things around, giving media volume the limelight.
News: Check Out the Slick New Transition Animations in Android Pie
Google just dropped the new Android 9.0 Pie update for Pixel devices, and it's packed with cool new features. There's notch support, a new screenshot button, and even a way to edit screenshots after you've taken them, just to name a few. But one feature that's easy to overlook is the new transition animations, which have been completely revamped.
News: DAQRI Expands to the Software Side of Enterprise AR with Worksense App Suite
Not content to just be a provider of rugged smartglasses for enterprise users, DAQRI has made the jump into the AR software side of the industry with its new Worksense productivity suite.
News: Magic Leap Teams with Royal Shakespeare Company to Reinvent Modern Theater Productions
All the cash Magic Leap is amassing is probably going a long way toward hardware development and manufacturing, but it's also becoming increasingly clear that a large portion of that cash will be devoted to content. The latest proof is a new partnership between Magic Leap and the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).