Smartphones News
News: Bioimplants Will Bring Augmented Reality Straight to Your Brain
We're already glimpsing the future when we look at mixed reality through a headset, but is the real evolution of this technology something that will exist as part of our bodies? As intense as that may sound, TechCrunch's Jay Donovan offers compelling reasons why it's not such a crazy idea:
News: Pokémon Go Significantly Changes the Classic Game, for Better or Worse
Pokémon Go takes the popular franchise and brings it into the real world through augmented reality, allowing us to play the game while exploring our physical environments at the same time. It doesn't just put pocket monsters into a more realistic context, but it changes the game in some major ways that may delight some players... and upset others.
News: vTime Brings Human Interaction to Virtual Reality
One of the major criticisms of virtual reality, and much modern technology in general, is the antisocial nature it creates. But vTime wants to overcome the isolating nature of VR headsets with a virtual hangout space for you and your friends.
News: The Hololens Could Change How Buildings Are Designed & Built
With developers already figuring out how to use the HoloLens for home improvement tasks, it's no surprise that the device has greater applications in construction. Tech blog Digital Trends points out that holograms are a natural evolution of the blueprint, and several other aspects of construction work.
News: Lenovo's New Tango-Powered Phab2 Pro Marks the Rise of a New Wave of Mixed Reality
Augmented reality began on smartphones but technical limitations have prevented further development. Google's Tango (formerly Project Tango) aimed to change all that, and with Lenovo's help, they now have their first device.
News: Data Mining & Augmented Reality Make for an Alarming Combination
Our future technology has a lot of amazing possibilities, and few have more promise than augmented and mixed reality headsets. But these advancements come with several concerns over privacy, and if we don't understand them, we may lose control of our own data without even knowing.
News: Meta's Latest Mixed Reality Headset Sets a High Bar
Microsoft enjoyed a few months in the spotlight after releasing the developer version of the very first mixed reality (MR) headset, but now we're starting to see the competition jump in.
News: At Last, Someone Came Up with a Way to Run Android on an iPhone
A developer from a firm named Tendigi came up with a way to run Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 on an iPhone 6 Plus, and it's pretty awesome. The hack is the brainchild of Nick Lee, who had previously installed Windows 95 on an Apple Watch, and you can see it in action below.
News: How to Try Out the Microsoft HoloLens (& Other Reality-Altering Headsets) Near You
Mixed reality (MR) feels like an amazing, almost mind-blowing futuristic technology—but only once you've experienced it for yourself. Words, images, and even videos simply cannot describe the experience in full. If you want to really peer into the future and experience MR for yourself, you can sign up and just go in many cities.
News: HoloTube Brings YouTube to the HoloLens, but It Needs to Be Way Better
HoloTube, a new unofficial YouTube app for the Microsoft HoloLens, brings a whole bunch of new content to the mixed reality headset. While it's nice to have, the experience feels focused on quantity, not quality. HoloTube has a simple interface most people will recognize. You get a page of video categories, and as you drill down through each option you're presented with videos to watch. You can view regular, flat videos on the wall (or wherever you like)—which has its merits.
News: Magic Leap's Mysterious Mixed Reality Headset Might Cover Your Entire Face
We've experienced the HoloLens, learned a lot about the Meta 2, but almost nobody knows exactly what to expect out of Magic Leap's mixed reality headset. Thanks to a patent dug up by Quartz (which we saw first on Tech Insider), we now might have a better idea.
News: T-Mobile Is Giving Away Free Stuff Every Tuesday
T-Mobile is going for broke. The carrier recently announced it will be giving away free stuff to its customers every Tuesday through a new app called T-Mobile Tuesdays for Android and iOS, and that's in addition to one share of stock and free in-flight Wi-Fi. The app will give out "food, movie tickets, gift cards, subscriptions, ridesharing, and more," the announcement said. You just have to be the primary account holder and you're good to go. One person will win a huge prize every Tuesday, l...
News: 'See Through' Walls with This HoloLens Stud-Marking App
The HoloLens can do some pretty crazy things such as create a robot invasion in your walls, but it can also help you do simple stuff, like hanging frames, paintings, or anything else on those walls—after you repair them from the robot attack, of course.
News: Microsoft Brings Outlook to the HoloLens, Rounding Out the Office Suite
One of the more surprising omissions from the HoloLens' original app selection was email. You could write a word document or make a spreadsheet but only email through the browser. While not a major encumbrance, Microsoft's addition of Outlook makes the whole office experience feel complete.
News: The HoloLens Lets You Watch TV in a Whole New Way
Are there any benefits to watching a movie in a holographic mixed reality headset, or should you just stick with your TV? It's not as cut and dried as you might think. While TVs have some advantages, so does the virtual screen of a Microsoft HoloLens.
News: The First Meta 2 Mixed Reality Headsets Will Begin Shipping in Two Weeks
Microsoft's enjoyed being the only mixed reality headset on the block for a little while, but the Meta 2 intends to join the party very soon. According to UploadVR, in a couple of weeks they'll begin shipping alpha versions of their headset with improved hand tracking.
Beyond Snapchat: Test Out New Looks with ModiFace's Augmented Reality Apps
Augmented reality has a variety of applications, but lately the face has been a major point of concentration for many companies. We're all pretty familiar with face swapping by now, but ModiFace employs similar technologies for more practical purposes.
News: 72 New Emojis Are Coming—These 5 Didn't Make the Cut
The Unicode Consortium just unveiled 72 new emojis that will be included in the upcoming Unicode 9.0 release, but we're not here to talk about the winners. Instead, let's take a look at the five poor emojis that will have to wait until at least next year to join the Unicode roster.
News: Microsoft's HoloLens Is Going to Transform How We Do Work
Mixed reality headsets have limited hardware capabilities and naturally imprecise interfaces. While that works just fine for games and entertainment, can they actually function as a tool for productivity?
News: Microsoft's Windows Holographic Is Breaking Free from the HoloLens
Not content with bringing the first untethered mixed reality headset to market, Microsoft wants to expand their Windows Holographic operating system beyond HoloLens into vastly more robust technologies.
News: Facebook Messenger Brings 1,500 Diverse Emoji to Its App
In an effort to be more inclusive, Facebook will release over 1,500 ethnic and gender diverse emojis for its Messenger app across all platforms on June 2nd, 2016. The update includes the usual emoji diversity inclusions, such as skin tone choice for faces and hand gestures, and widened gender roles such as female police officers, surfers, and runners, to name just a few, along with fancier "gender-agnostic" options. Beyond the diversity choices themselves, the update will allow you to set a c...
News: This Accessory Lets You Control Almost Any VR Headset with Gestures
The Oculus Rift's virtual experiences become a little less immersive when you're barely moving in a chair with a headset on, playing on a gamepad—but you don't have to accept that reality anymore.
News: HoloLens' First Update Adds Voice Commands, Multitasking, & Much More
Microsoft released a robust version of the HoloLens when shipping the developer kits, but there's still lots of room left to grow. Today, they've released the first update to Windows Holographic, the operating system of the HoloLens, with a whole bunch of cool new features like voice commands and app multitasking.
News: Watch Mountains & Rivers Come to Life with This Sand-Based Map
Most sandboxes wait for children on a playground or the occasional zen garden raking. This one combines light, sand, and depth cameras to create a completely malleable topographical map you can alter with a brush of your hand.
News: I Ditched My iPhone for Windows & Went Right Back After 100 Days
I've been an iPhone user in the iOS ecosystem for years now after a brief stint in the Android realm. But, I'm also enthusiastic about varying forms of technology in general; I realize that iOS is far from perfect and that healthy market competition is beneficial for all. So, naturally being curious about other platforms, I decided to take Windows Phone for an extended trial run.
News: The HoloLens Might Have a Small Field of View, but That's Actually a Good Thing
Microsoft's HoloLens is certainly a leap into the future of mixed reality interfaces, but it's not without drawbacks.
News: What Augmented Reality Needs to Come of Age
Augmented reality (AR) holds much promise for how we'll interact with technology in the future, but we still have many hurdles to clear before that dream fully comes to fruition.
News: The Hollagram Selfie Booth Shows How Close We Are to Functional Holograms
Walking, talking, life-size holograms aren't just for staging Hatsune Miku concerts and reviving Tupac, Michael Jackson, and other fallen stars.
News: Angry Birds Movie Wants You to Break Out Your Smartphone in the Theater
Having your phone on during a movie is a major annoyance to the majority of moviegoers, a fact that some theaters learned the hard way. One major film release is taking a different approach, however, and actively encouraging you to turn on your smartphone—during the end credits, at least. That film would be The Angry Birds Movie, and it's hitting theaters on Friday, May 20th, 2016. Rovio and Sony have been heavily promoting this upcoming 3D animated comedy, and the two worked closely together...
News: Augmented Reality Turns Rock Climbing into a Real-World Video Game
Augmented reality (AR) generally exists through the lens of our smartphones as information layered on top of what the camera sees, but it doesn't have to. Developer Jon Cheng worked with an indoor climbing facility in Somerville, Massachussetts, called Brooklyn Boulders, to turn rock climbing into a real-world video game where participants compete in a time trial to hit virtual markers on the wall.
News: What's the Difference Between AR, VR, and MR?
Several technologies seek to change the way we perceive our reality, whether that involves entering a virtual world, augmenting an existing one in a realistic and interactive way, or somewhere in-between.
News: Google's New Duo App Will Change the Way You Video Chat with Friends
Google I/O is like Christmas for smartphone fans. At their annual developer's conference, the Mountain View search giant gave us a glimpse of what they've been working on over the past year—and they've been quite busy, to say the least.
News: 3 Big Virtual & Augmented Reality Announcements We're Expecting from Google This Week
Google I/O is right around the corner, and everyone's expecting new virtual and augmented reality news. Here's what to expect from this week's announcements.
News: Sign Up Now to Join the Exciting Pokémon Hunt in Augmented Reality
Want to actually catch 'em all? Pokémon GO has long-teased the opportunity to hunt for Pokémon in the real world through augmented reality, but few have had the opportunity to actually see it in action.
News: Google's New Group Messaging App Is Like Pinterest & Hangouts in One
Google is launching a new app called Spaces that lets you share things from the web with small groups of people. The aim of Spaces appears to be granting you a forum with like-minded people to help cut down on off-topic comments that can steer a conversation off the rails. Spaces comes with Google Search, Chrome, and YouTube built in, so you won't need to switch apps to go hunting for interesting content to share. You can invite people to your groups—or "spaces" as they're called in the app—b...
News: New Lenovo Phone Augments Reality from the Palm of Your Hand
Lenovo is teaming up with Google to debut the first Project Tango smartphone, which uses 3D sensors to map the world around it. The Tango phone will be able to give directions without the need for GPS, and it can augment reality to bring things like dinosaurs and cars into your environment.
News: Do the Absolute Bare Minimum This Mother's Day with These Hangouts Easter Eggs
Google adds Easter eggs to Hangouts from time to time, and they're marking Mother's Day this weekend with the addition of three pop-up animations.
News: Big Changes in Apple Music Will Fix Some Annoyances (But Not All)
Apple is planning to completely overhaul its Apple Music streaming service this summer, and is expected to unveil the changes at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, according to reports from Bloomberg and 9to5Mac.
News: Facebook Is Taking Snapchat Head-On with Disappearing Messages & Pictures
Facebook Messenger is getting ready to roll out a Snapchat-esque feature that will let users send messages that self-destruct after a certain amount of time, so you'll have an extra level of security when you need to send sensitive financial information or, more likely, risqué texts or images.
UnaPhone Zenith: The No-Google, Super-Secure Android Phone
With the FBI getting access to iPhones, and apps like Waze being used to track people's locations, you've got to wonder just how safe and secure your smartphone is... or isn't. When you consider everything you do on your phone, from taking and sharing pictures to mobile banking, keeping your information safe is a crucial step that may seem out of your hands.