Gadget Hacks News
News: Sephora's ModiFace-Powered AR App Gives Users Even More Makeup Combinations & Hands-on Tutorials
Listen up ladies, there's no need to go to Sephora and model a hundred different shades of lipstick anymore. Now with Virtual Artist, Sephora's award-winning app, for iOS and Android, you can virtually test thousands of shades of single and palette eyeshadows, lip colors, and even false eyelash styles from their new augmented reality-based feature.
News: Apple VR Platform for iPhones May Actually Be in the Works
Google and Samsung have been leaving Apple in the dust when it comes to virtual reality gear. However, as the market grows and becomes more impossible to ignore within the tech world, Apple may be forced to play catch up. This could account for the new Apple patent that was granted today.
News: 5-Year-Old Injured as Another Samsung Explodes
A 5-year-old girl was injured after the battery in another Samsung phone exploded in China. The Samsung Note 4 was reportedly charging next to the sleeping girl when it blew up in her Guizhou-based home.
News: Oppo F3 Plus Will Come with a Dual Camera Selfie Shooter
Selfies' reign on social media and pop culture has not really lost any steam since it was declared the word of the year back in 2013. We've had the much-mocked selfie stick, and even an ill-fated TV show named after the term. So what's next? Well, if you're phone maker Oppo, you're banking on the next big selfie-thing being the dual selfie camera.
News: Samsung May Finally Stop Teasing & Show Us Its Foldable Smartphone
According to new rumors, Samsung, still stinging after the Note7 recall debacle, is determined to be the first to release a foldable smartphone. According to ET News, the company is going to begin prototype production of their always-rumored but never-seen folding smartphone in the third quarter of this year.
News: Waze & Spotify Team Up for Easy Access to Music While You Drive
Good news for those of us who are both directionally impaired and like to hold our own concerts while driving: Waze and Spotify are teaming up to make your drive easy to navigate with a sweet soundtrack.
News: Google's Allo Seems to Leak Search & Location History in Chats
Google's personal messaging service Allo could reveal your search history and other private information to friends if the Google Assistant bot is called upon in chats, according to a story from Re/code.
News: Interactive Surface Developer Lampix AR/VR Winner of SXSW Accelerator Event
Judges at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Accelerator Pitch Event named Lampix the winner in the Augmented and Virtual Reality category, conference organizers announced today. The ninth annual competition, which took place over the weekend in Austin, Texas, pitted 50 startup finalists against each other in 10 technology categories.
Video: Cortana Can Help in Windows Insider Preview Build 15055's Mixed Reality Portal
A new Windows Insider Preview, version 15055, was released on Friday, March 10. Along with the normal collection of bug fixes and new features came a secret addition to the Mixed Reality Portal in the update. Windows Mixed Reality, along with Cortana, can now teach you how to use the platform, and, hopefully, usher in with it some understanding of what mixed reality is.
News: Microsoft's HoloLens Partnership Program Grows Internationally
In an early morning blog post, Microsoft announced the expansion of the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Program. This announcement comes on the tail of an expanded HoloLens release over the last few months to many countries outside the initial US and Canada.
News: New Case Puts iPhone & Android Back to Back
It's the bane of many a tech geek's existence that the customizability of Android software cannot be combined with the sleek design of the iPhone. A new Kickstarter project titled Eye, however, is looking to change that with a new iPhone case that allows you to combine the two.
News: Easily Make Your Own Pokémon GO with Motive.io
Throughout the summer and fall of 2016, in the sudden whirlwind that was Pokémon GO, it was hard to go anywhere in public without seeing someone attempting to catch Pokémon. Now, thanks to an upcoming platform called Motive.io, from the Vancouver company of the same name, location-driven application development will soon be accessible to everyone.
News: Augmented Reality Empowers Indonesian Women to Operate Online Stores
While its direct-selling model echoes brands like Avon and Tupperware, Indonesia's MindStores gives the approach a modern twist—with augmented reality.
News: Bosch Wants to Speed Up AR Adoption in the Auto Industry
While there are many uses for augmented reality in the automotive industry, adoption has been slow. With the plethora of makes and models on the road today and rolling off assembly lines tomorrow, developing and deploying knowledge bases that utilize augmented reality to dealerships and garages can be costly and difficult to scale.
News: Everything You Need to Know About the Google Pixel 2 — Specs, Features & More
After months of leaks and rumors, Google has finally unveiled the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. If there were such a thing, the Pixel would be the one "true" Android flagship — so even if you don't plan on buying a Pixel 2, you'll want you learn more about this milestone device.
News: Chairish App Now Lets You Try Before You Buy (With Augmented Reality)
Chairish, Inc. is the latest furniture retailer to bring augmented reality into its mobile stores, adding features for users to visualize products in their homes.
News: All the Cool New Features in iOS 10.3 for iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch
Apple just pushed out the iOS 10.3 update to everyone on March 27, so if you haven't installed it yet, make sure to do so by going to Settings -> General -> Software Update. Trust us, you'll want to.
News: Google's March Security Update Breaks Android Pay on Some Pixel & Nexus Devices
Google's monthly Android security updates are generally welcome—at the very least, they provide a feeling of security that our device is now somewhat safer than it was 30 days ago. Vulnerability patches, slight enhancements to performance, and overall bug fixes are generally included in the monthly OTAs, but as it turns out, they're not always for the better.
News: Trimble Brings Mixed Reality to the Construction Site with DAQRI Smart Helmet
Trimble is integrating its mixed reality applications into the DAQRI Smart Helmet to enable outdoor and on-site support for design, construction, and heavy industry as part of a collaboration the companies announced today.
News: Scope AR Brings Live, Interactive AR Video Support to Caterpillar Customers
Customer service just got a lot more interesting. Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar just announced official availability of what they're calling the CAT LIVESHARE solution to customer support, which builds augmented reality capabilities into the platform.
News: Unity Labs to Bring Tools to Simplify Mixed Reality Development
In a press event this past week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, Unity Labs, the experimental and forward thinking arm of Unity, announced an upcoming toolset for developers in the augmented, mixed, and virtual reality space called the XR Foundation Toolkit (XRFT).
News: LG V30 Revealed — Dedicated DAC, Dual Back Cameras, Snapdragon 835 Processor & More
The LG V30 has finally been announced and was rumored to be released sometime in September, but September has come and is almost gone, while LG fans have been waiting anxiously. The V series offers a more robust media experience when compared to LG's other flagship, the LG G6. Since the phone has been announced, we do have all of the details for the third flagship in LG's V series, and believe me, it's sounds like it'll be worth the wait.
News: Savannah College of Art & Design Publishes First College Catalog with AR Capabilities
When it published its 2016-2017 catalog last year, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) became the first college to leverage augmented reality technology for a college catalog.
News: Try Windows 10's Mixed Reality Portal on Your PC with Insider Build 15048 — No Headset Required
If you're part of the Windows 10 Insider Program, build 15048 launched this morning, and included a nice big unannounced surprise. You can now launch the Mixed Reality Portal and enable the simulation to try out mixed reality right from your PC, even if you don't have one of the new Acer dev kits.
News: Microsoft Introduced Acer's New Windows Mixed Reality Development Edition Headset
This morning, in an early morning session at GDC 2017, Brandon Bray, a senior program manager lead at Microsoft, revealed a mixed reality headset made in collaboration with Acer—a different headset than the one we saw from Acer at CES 2017 earlier this year. Also at the event, the name for Microsoft's holographic system seems to have changed from Windows Holographic to Windows Mixed Reality.
News: PlayFusion Secures Funding to Develop Interactive AR Gaming Platform
Independent game developer PlayFusion announced today a partnership with NEXON Korea Corporation, resulting in a Series A preferred share round to fund development of their entertainment platform. PlayFusion's platform applies augmented reality, Internet of Things (IoT), and audio recognition to Lightseekers, an original property that combines mobile gaming with smart action figures, trading card games, and other media.
News: Crayola Color Blaster Brings New AR Adventures to Tango-Powered Android Devices
Legacy Games, developer of mobile games for children, has just updated Crayola Color Blaster, an augmented reality Android adventure for Google Tango devices, with new content.
News: Image Recognition Expected to Generate $40 Billion by 2021
A market research report, posted on February 27, 2017, forecasts that the image recognition market will grow to nearly $40 billion worldwide by 2021. The market, which includes augmented reality applications, hardware, and technology, generated an estimated $15.95 billion in 2016. The report estimates the market to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 19.5% over the next five years.
News: Say Hello to Unity 2017's New Time-Saving Features for Mixed Reality Development
Early this morning, Unity held their keynote at GDC 2017 in the InterContinental San Francisco hotel. During the event, they talked about their upcoming roadmap and many changes that are coming down the pipe. This list included the lighting explorer, progressive lightmapper, the new 4K video player, native support for Vulkan graphics, TextMesh Pro integration, and the one that really excites me as a HoloLens developer—dynamically/runtime created navigation meshes.
News: Punch-AR Takes a Jab at Quality Control on Construction Sites
A virtual design and construction services firm has built an augmented reality application that uses the Microsoft HoloLens to improve the efficiency of quality control on construction sites.
News: The Virtual Reality Developers Conference at GDC 2017 Is Underway
This year's Game Developers Conference, better known as the GDC, is underway at the Moscone Center in San Fransisco, California, and lasts until March 3, 2017. More importantly for us here at NextReality, the Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC)—a new GDC sub-conference geared toward augmented, mixed, and virtual reality—has begun.
News: Sony Unveils the Xperia XZ Premium with 4K HDR Display, 19 MP Camera & Snapdragon 835
Sony hit MWC 2017 in full gallop, announcing four different additions to its Xperia lineup on Monday, February 27, 2017: the XZ Premium, XZs, XA1, and XA1 Ultra.
News: LineageOS Adding New Advanced Battery Saver Menu with Performance Profiles
LineageOS, the successor to the wildly popular CyanogenMod custom ROM, is adding an interesting new feature that could potentially save lots of juice when your battery is running low. When enabling "Extreme power saver" mode, which can be set to kick in automatically at 15%, you'll soon have the option of changing your kernel's performance profile as well.
News: Google Assistant Coming to Many More Android Devices
Google just announced that it will be bringing the Google Assistant—previously an exclusive feature on Pixel phones—to many more devices in the coming days. The only requirement they're giving is that the phone must be running either Android Marshmallow or Android Nougat, so according to the most recent Android distribution numbers, that's roughly 32% of all existing phones and tablets.
News: Better Spatial Maps Will Make Mixed Reality Great
A group of researchers from Stanford University and Princeton University has put together the largest RGB-D video dataset to date with over 1,500 scans of over 700 different locations across the world, for a total of 2.5 million views.
News: Future Homeowners Can Walk Through House Before It's Built with VeriCon's HoloLens App
In the past, to see a pre-constructed state of the house that you would one day live in, you had to be able to read blueprints or hire an artist to sketch it out. Later came the ability to have a 3D rendering of that house on a screen, but you'd still have to work hard to envision it in real life.
News: Zappar Goes from $84,000 Kickstarter to $3.75 Million Series A Funding for Mobile AR
In December of last year, UK-based Zappar successfully raise $84,356 for their ZapBox mixed reality headset—over $50,000 more than their goal. Well, they just blew that sum out of the water when they announced this morning that they've closed a Series A round of funding with $3.75 million.
Developer Spotlight: AfterNow's Creative Approach to UX Design & IoT in Mixed Reality
If you have a HoloLens, you can now control the lighting throughout your home or office via holographic controls using the free Hue Lights app in the Windows Store. The app, made by California-based AfterNow, works with the Philips Hue colored lighting system and is much more polished than the prototype we saw in January.
News: Free & Open-Source JavaScript Solution for Augmented Reality Comes to Life on Mobile
AR.js is a new JavaScript solution that offers highly efficient augmented reality features to mobile developers. With HoloJS released back in December, there is a potential that the free AR.js, developed by Jerome Etienne, one of Next Reality's 50 people to watch in augmented and mixed reality, could work with the Microsoft HoloLens as well.
Opinion: Why Microsoft Not Releasing a New HoloLens Until 2019 Should Not Be a Surprise
If the rumors are right, Microsoft has decided to cancel the second version of the HoloLens, and they will instead move onto version three of their mixed reality headset. In the latest report, Thurrott's Brad Sams states that the expected release date of this new Windows Holographic device wouldn't be until 2019, a long two years away for those of us putting full effort into HoloLens app development.