Hot Gadget Hacks News Stories

Is It Worth It?: Should You Pay to Browse Reddit on Your iPhone?

If you're looking for a new Reddit client on your iPhone, look no further than Apollo. Launched with iOS in mind, Apollo is a free app that offers an exceptional Reddit experience, but some of its excellent features — as well as some necessary ones — are hidden behind its "Pro" paywall. Are these extras worth your money?

News: Marvel's 'Avengers — Infinity War' Gets a Full Range of New AR Treats on Facebook

Like Marvel's Avengers, Facebook's Camera AR platform now has a number of new AR superpowers at its disposal, so it is fitting that Earth's Mightiest Heroes have the distinction of displaying them.

News: Facebook's F8 Badge Shows Developers It's Serious About Augmented Reality

Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges! That is, unless they have augmented reality content embedded in them and give us full access to Facebook's annual F8 developers conference — in that case, yes, we'll take all the badges.

News: Magic Leap's First Twitch Video Show Had Toys, Philosophy, but No New Peeks at the Headset

We watched the first piece of public-facing content Magic Leap has released so you don't have to, and, well, you didn't miss much.

News: LG G7 ThinQ Comes Packed with Notch, Super Bright Display, Impressive Sound & More

After delaying its launch by four months, LG revealed its 2018 entry to the flagship market on Wednesday, May 2. After years of an underperforming mobile division, the LG G7 ThinQ is the first product since a shakeup within the division to get things back on track, and it brings a number of upgrades over its G6 predecessor.

News: HBO's 'Westworld' Snapchat Filter Lets You Take Part in the Robot Revolution

HBO is only a couple of episodes into the second season of Westworld, the television version of the classic science fiction movie about a robot resort gone awry, and the fan theories about the show are already reaching Season 1 levels of weirdness.

News: Facebook Adds Sketchfab, Body & Hand Tracking, Background Segmentation, & More to AR Studio

At its F8 developers conference on Tuesday, Facebook announced new tools and features coming in a new version of AR Studio, including the integration of 3D content aggregator Sketchfab's Download API.

News: Snapchat Rides AR Ads to Boost in Revenue Despite Redesign Hiccups

During Snap Inc.'s quarterly earnings report, released on Tuesday, the company disclosed that it snagged a revenue total of $230.8 million for the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 54% compared to last year, largely fueled by its augmented reality offerings and other advertising products.

News: New York Times Hitchhikes on NASA's Mission to Mars via Augmented Reality

In the latest installment in its burgeoning augmented reality journalism practice, The New York Times is bringing its readers closer to Mars and NASA's latest spacecraft set to travel to the red planet.

News: Facebook Brings Its AR Camera Effects to Instagram & Messenger Apps

On Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of the announcement of its AR Camera platform, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg revealed at the company's F8 developers conference that the platform will be extended to the company's Instagram and Messenger apps.

News: PayPal Patents Point to Big Plans for Augmented Reality E-Commerce on Smartphones & Smartglasses

With all the recent activity around augmented reality, the possibilities involving immersive computing and commerce are quickly becoming obvious, and digital payments giant PayPal has no plans to sit on the sidelines

News: iOS 11.4 Beta 3 Released for iPhone, Fixes 3D Touch Issues & Other Bugs

Apple released the third beta for iOS 11.4 on Tuesday, May 1. This update comes exactly two weeks after the release of the second beta, which, in addition to adding a new wallpaper, fixed issues with AirPlay, Music, and Keychain. The only noticeable change in beta 3 is a fix for unresponsive 3D Touch.

News: We May Finally Know How Many HoloLens Devices Microsoft Sold, & It's a Revealing Peek at the Future of AR

Last week, we told you about Microsoft's Alex Kipman and his nomination for the annual European Inventor Award, presented by the European Patent Office (EPO). And while that's big news in and of itself, it turns out we overlooked a very important detail buried in the EPO's video presentation. What was it? Only one of the most sought-after data points related to the HoloLens since its launch: how many have been sold.

News: 14 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Try Out iOS 11.4 Beta on Your iPhone Just Yet

While there are at least five cool things coming in iOS 11.4, they may not be enough to get you to install the iOS 11.4 beta on your iPhone. Since its initial beta release at the start of April, there have been plenty of known issues and user-reported bugs to deal with. While bugs are to be expected with a beta, you may want to read these before installing this one on your iPhone.

News: Marvel's 'Avengers — Infinity War' Leads Debut Issue of Moviebill's AR Magazine at Regal Movie Theaters

Riding the coattails of one of the biggest movies this year, the first edition of the new Moviebill augmented reality magazine will be available at Regal Cinema theaters nationwide this weekend alongside the release Avengers: Infinity War.

News: Apple's Rumored Augmented Reality Smartglasses May Include VR Capabilities, Report Says

While Apple has generally been more bullish on augmented reality as opposed to virtual reality, the latest whispers about its purported AR headset suggests that it may be giving VR another look.

Market Reality: Microsoft & Lenovo See Differing Results from AR Headsets, WaveOptics Preps Next-Gen Smartglasses

The price tag for the Microsoft HoloLens might be out of range for the average consumer's budget, but for enterprises, like BAE Systems, adopting the AR headset is yielding a return on the investment. And for those with even slimmer wallets, Best Buy just made the Lenovo Mirage, part of the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges package, more affordable.

News: Try These 5 Hot New Snapchat Lenses — Fortnite Victory, Apyr & More

With April coming to a close, there's a fresh group of augmented reality Snapchat lenses you should try out while they're still hot. We've got a prank lens, gamer-oriented ones for Fortnite and Fallout, and ones for the memesters out there.

Dev Report: Occipital Brings Apple Metal Support to Bridge Engine as It Leaves Beta

Following San Francisco-based Occipital's successful Structure Sensor Kickstarter campaign, the release of its Bridge AR/VR headset, as well as a string of technology and company acquisitions, the company has built a rather strong name for itself in the AR community. And now, with the first public release of its Bridge Engine on Thursday, the company continues to expand the features its platform has to offer, with hopes of bringing in more developers to utilize it.

News: 8 Apps You Should Install on Your iPhone That You Can't Get in the iOS App Store

The iOS App Store is a big place, offering over two million applications in total. However, there are actually some apps you can and should install on your iPhone that the iOS App Store doesn't include. And no, these apps do not require any difficult jailbreaking or complicated sideloading techniques — they are really simple to install.

News: WaveOptics Enlists Waveguide Manufacturing Partner to Help Produce Lower-Cost, Mainstream AR Smartglasses

On Thursday, waveguide maker WaveOptics announced that semiconductor and microelectromechanical systems supplier EV Group (EVG) will provide the manufacturing infrastructure for the production of its waveguide displays designed to support lower-cost, third-party augmented reality wearables.

News: Saatchi Art Adds the Power of AR to Its Mobile App, Letting You See High-Priced Art in Your Home Before You Buy It

It appears we're in the midst of an augmented reality art boom, because in the same month that the famed Christie's auction house launched its mobile AR app, leading art gallery and art seller Saatchi Art has also announced its entry into the AR space.

News: You Don't Need a Gaming Phone to Game Like a Pro on Android

As manufacturers try to differentiate their smartphones from the sea of Android devices, a new genre of smartphone has emerged: gaming phones. Razer Phone was the first to gain traction, but the likes of Xiaomi, Asus, and ZTE have all announced gaming-first phones coming soon. Still, you don't really need to buy a "gaming phone" to play games like a pro on your smartphone.

News: Snapchat Unveils Updated Spectacles with Improved Audio, New Colors & Faster Data Transfer

Despite the fact that Snap Inc.'s Spectacles weren't the hit some were expecting, the company is nevertheless taking another swing at it by releasing an updated version.

News: Sherwin-Williams Uses Augmented Reality to Take the Guesswork Out of Paint Color Selection

Do you see a red door and wonder if it might be a good idea to paint it black? You could "ask Ask Sherwin-Williams," or, better yet, you could just ask the new augmented reality features in the retailer's mobile app.

News: Coty's Magic Mirror Detects Makeup Products & Then Applies Them to Your Face in Augmented Reality

Cosmetics maker Coty is hanging an augmented reality Magic Mirror on the wall of its Bourjois boutique in Paris that will tell customers which shade of makeup will make them the fairest of them all.

News: TNT's 'Inside the NBA' Takes Viewers for a Dip into Broadcast AR for the NBA Playoffs

One of the most popular sports shows on television, Inside the NBA on TNT, gave viewers a tech-powered treat on Tuesday night by dropping them into a broadcast version of augmented reality.

News: Snapchat Tilts Its AR Lenses Toward Casual Gaming with Snappables

As if its users weren't already having enough fun with dancing hot dogs and face effects, Snapchat is upping the ante with a new kind of shared augmented reality content.

News: Magic Leap to Launch Twitch Channel Featuring Developer Tutorials, Updates & Interviews

Although Magic Leap's founder Rony Abovitz has a lot to say about his product, what people really want are visuals, and it looks like we're about to get a lot more of those in the coming weeks. In a post on Magic Leap's official announcements forum page, the company revealed that it plans to begin a monthly livestream series on Twitch.

News: European Inventor Award Profiles Microsoft's Alex Kipman as Finalist for HoloLens

Usually, when the public gets to see and hear Microsoft's Alex Kipman expound on the future of immersive computing, it's because the company has a new product to show off. But on Tuesday, April 24, Kipman was in the spotlight for an entirely different reason: an award nomination.

News: FPP Mode for PUBG Mobile Might Be Right Around the Corner

The recent 0.4.0 update for PUBG Mobile brought us a host of welcome features like the training ground and arcade mode. Sadly, one highly sought-after feature remained out of our reach: The ability to play in first person perspective, or FPP mode. Our wait may soon be over, as this gameplay mode could be out as soon as the next update hits for both Android and iOS.

News: iOS 11.3.1 Finally Fixed the QR Code-Scanning Vulnerability in Your iPhone's Camera App

One downside to iOS 11's awesome built-in QR code scanner in the Camera app is its only been live for a short while. In its short life, there has already been a security vulnerability discovered that was an issue for at least the last 4.5 months, but Apple has finally patched this weakness with its iOS 11.3.1 update.

News: Why the LG G7 ThinQ's New Super Bright Display Is Actually a Game-Changer

The LG G7 ThinQ will likely be lambasted for its notch and awkward name, but one thing they seem to have gotten right is the new display. The G7 ThinQ will give many a first look at a new type of panel with lots of promise. While it was previously limited to TVs, from what we know, it should really shine on a smaller screen.

News: ARCore Closes Gap with ARKit via Image Recognition from Viro Media

Upon Google's release of ARCore in February, the platform wasn't only playing catch-up with Apple and ARKit in terms of downloads, but it also lagged in capabilities, as Apple already had vertical surface recognition and image recognition on the way with ARKit 1.5 for a March release.

News: iOS 11.3.1 Released for iPhones with Third-Party Display Repair Patch & Security Fixes

Apple released the iOS 11.3.1 update for iPhones on Tuesday, April 24, 26 days after the official release of iOS 11.3 and eight days after the iOS 11.4 beta 2 update. It is the first minor update to iOS 11.3, and the biggest thing in it is a fix that lets displays fixed by third parties work again.

News: U2 Kicks Off Latest Tour with Augmented Reality App Experience

One of the most successful rock bands still making music has just made augmented reality an integral part of its upcoming tour. Irish rock band U2 has announced a new mobile app experience that allows you to preview the group's live performance in your own home in AR.

News: 12 Important Privacy & Security Features Google Added to Android 9.0 Pie

We know Android 9.0 will have the formal designation of Pie, following Google's age-old tradition of naming their OS after items you'd normally find on a dessert menu. And thanks to a slew of new features that centers around your overall security, P could also stand for Privacy.

News: In Time for Star Wars Day, Best Buy Slashes Price on Refurbed Lenovo 'Jedi Challenges' AR Headsets

If $200 was too much for you to get in on some Star Wars augmented reality action, Best Buy is now selling refurbished Star Wars Jedi Challenges sets for $79.99 and new ones for $99.99.

News: Microsoft Video Shows Off BAE Systems' HoloLens-Powered Manufacturing Training Solution

While some in the augmented reality space are tweeting about future amazing immersive experiences and others are showing off cool experiments, Microsoft continues to move forward with tangible business solutions right now that show how the HoloLens can improve business.

News: 12 Android Features We Want to See in iOS 12

I love my iPhone, but it would be a lie to say there aren't some Android features I wish would find their way to iOS. While iOS has plenty of its own advantages, Android has pulled ahead in many other areas. With iOS 12 coming later this year, we're hoping Apple takes a hint from Google and adds some of these awesome features to the iPhone.