Hacking Emperor

In these times of social distancing, video calling is becoming the technological substitute for face-to-face connections. For those who carry an iPhone, the art of video calling defaults to FaceTime, the native app on iOS that is exclusive to Apple devices. But what do you do if you or the other party is on Android? Unless hell freezes over, Android devices will never have a FaceTime app (FaceTime for web is another story). But that doesn't mean that those who prefer Android can't join in a video call with iPhone fans. It just means that everyone needs to decide on a common platform that can... more http://dlvr.it/S2nGXC

Yo dawg, Snap heard you using Snapchat augmented reality Lenses in your messages, so it's putting its AR Lenses in other messaging apps. On Wednesday, Rakuten Viber flipped the switch on an update that brings Snapchat's popular AR Lenses to many users of its Viber messaging and voice communications app. Don't Miss: Snap Releases Lens Studio 4.0 with 3D Body Mesh & More, Upgrades Scan as Fashion Assistant Viber users will now have access to 30 Lenses at launch for augmented video messaging and photos created in the app, but the selection will expand over time, with Rakuten Viber planning to... more http://dlvr.it/S2nGVs

No, Jack Dorsey's Cash app isn't about to launch an augmented reality device (er, I don't think...), but its latest outing is about as close as we've come to full confirmation that the wearable AR age is upon us. The popular payments app loved by the clout-chasing and the famous alike, which is owned by Square, recently rolled out a flashy new marketing video (see below). And while AR isn't the star, it's worth unpacking the major cultural cues contained in the spot. • Don't Miss: Snap's Non-Creepy, Fashionable Spectacles Wearable Camera Proves We're Ready for Mainstream AR Smartglasses The... more http://dlvr.it/S2kQcj

The herd of augmented reality cloud startups that emerged in 2018 have been hunted to near extinction, with Google-backed Ubiquity6 the latest to move from an independent entity to a wholly-owned asset. On Monday, the company revealed that it has been acquired by Discord, the seemingly ubiquitous chat platform for gamers. Don't Miss: Hands-On with the Lego Snapchat Augmented Reality Experience That Lets You Build With Friends Remotely "Our mission at Ubiquity6 has always been to unlock new ways for people to connect through shared experiences. Joining Discord today allows us to accelerate... more http://dlvr.it/S2fVmC

While Snap may eventually compete with Apple and Samsung in selling smartglasses to consumers, today it is helping them achieve their business objectives via augmented reality. That's not all that's new with Snap. the company has also brokered a major content deal with Universal Music Group and showed off a new AR app for its next-generation Spectacles. On the AR headset front, Microsoft HoloLens 2 is helping one museum wow its visitors, while the Varjo XR-3 is fueling a breakthrough in remote virtual collaboration. Apple Promotes Apple Pay via AR & Snapchat Lens Now that vaccinations have... more http://dlvr.it/S2TJHH

The Paris-based technology conference Viva Technology, which hosted the likes of Apple's Tim Cook and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, is now over. But there are still a few more treats to discover from the annual gathering. Namely, from new Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson. • Don't Miss: 'The Matrix' Movie Effects Pioneer & Former Magic Leap Exec Reveals 'Tragic Story' of Startup's Recent Struggles Unlike Cook and Zuckerberg, who both appeared at last week's tech conference via remote video, Johnson instead decided to appear in person. Although we're not aware of Johnson's specifics around the... more http://dlvr.it/S2SrXw

The march of Snap to become the world's augmented reality engine isn't slowing down. In a new deal announced on Thursday, Snap has revealed that it has signed an agreement to become the software driving Universal Music Group's (UMG) mobile AR music offerings. • Don't Miss: Taylor Swift Invites You to Dance to Her Music in Augmented Reality As the home to major artists like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, the Jonas Brothers, Rihanna, Adele, Justin Bieber, and many others, the deal effectively gives Snap an exclusive pipeline into the some of the most popular entertainment content on the... more http://dlvr.it/S2PcHj

While Apple was one of the first to integrate LiDAR into mobile devices for depth sensing, headset maker Varjo has developed a truly remarkable feat with its implementation of the sensor. On Thursday, Varjo introduced Varjo Reality Cloud, a system that uses the LiDAR sensors embedded in its XR-3 device to scan an environment and stream volumetric video of it in real-time, essentially simulating the teleportation of people and spaces. Don't Miss: Hands-On: Hands-On with Spatial's Remote Meeting App on Microsoft HoloLens With Varjo Reality Cloud, an XR-3 headset can scan and record an... more http://dlvr.it/S2P7vQ

We already know that the US Army will be using its modified HoloLens 2 for special missions, and major businesses are deploying the augmented reality device for enterprise use cases. Nevertheless, despite Microsoft's mostly business-focused push for the advanced AR device, there are still creative studios using it to expand the boundaries of entertainment. One of the latest is bringing us an immersive trip through time. • Don't Miss: Microsoft's HoloLens 2 Makes Primetime Debut on Fox TV Show 'The Resident' This month, the National Museum of Natural History (Muséum national d'Histoire... more http://dlvr.it/S2KmVv

Many years ago, when I first traveled to Tokyo, Japan, I was amazed by the contactless IC card turnstiles embedded in the county's subway system. Well, despite New York City also being a top-tier city, its famed subway system has only recently added contactless payment, and Apple is leading the charge, powered in part by augmented reality. • Don't Miss: Snap Spectacles Get a New App for Hands-Free Drawing in AR New York's MTA transit system One Metro New York (OMNY) contactless payment system launched a few years ago and starting adding an Apple Pay option back in 2019. Now that... more http://dlvr.it/S2FxxY

Now that Snapchat has extended its virtual try-on powers from the face and feet to the wrist, Samsung is leveraging the new capability, along with an interactive twist, to sell its smartwatches. Samsung Electronics UK partnered with Snapchat to run a virtual try-on for Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 using the app's wrist-tracking technology to project the product onto consumers' wrists. Don't Miss: Snap Releases Lens Studio 4.0 with 3D Body Mesh & More, Upgrades Scan as Fashion Assistant After scanning the Snapcode or selecting the Samsung icon from the Lens Carousel, users can scroll through... more http://dlvr.it/S2Dthk

If you thought Snap's Spectacles were limited to a couple of demos, you haven't been paying attention. During the initial launch of the augmented reality wearable, the social media giant said that it had seeded Spectacles with a wide range of developers, and now we're getting the chance to see what another one has done with the AR smartglasses, • Don't Miss: How to Get a Pair of Snap's New Spectacles AR Smartglasses Pittsburgh-based AR and VR developer Matthew Hallberg used Snap's Lens Studio to create a new app for Spectacles that he calls Sketchflow. To demo the app, he takes us on a... more http://dlvr.it/S2B9H0

The recent release of the Looking Glass Portrait has gotten the public excited about personal displays that simulate 3D visuals, but in the public display marketing space, this is an area that has already received a lot of attention. In the latest example, we have Nissan UK, which debuted an innovative new cube installation this weekend in London's Southbank area. • Don't Miss: Volkswagen Offshoot Cupra Born Electric Vehicle Debuts with Impressive AR Features Although the installation doesn't appear to actually use any of the holographic or augmented reality innovations we regularly cover... more http://dlvr.it/S29h5D

The makers of arguably the two most important mobile AR apps, Niantic and Snap, both had good news this week, with the former preparing to replicate its success with Pokémon GO for another franchise and the latter notching another popular augmented reality Lens for Snapchat. Meanwhile, leaders of two of the top companies vying to take on consumer-grade AR wearables (Apple and Facebook) tipped their hands ever so slightly this week. In other news, Tencent continues in its role of investing in the AR ecosystem and Looking Glass is showing the world a different take on immersive experiences... more http://dlvr.it/S21SVf

Ever since Facebook announced its partnership with Luxxotica brand Ray-Ban to produce smartglasses, the augmented reality space has been on high alert awaiting more details. Unfortunately, those details have been scarce, until now. During a session at the Paris Viva Technology conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg offers a bit more detail on what the company has planned. • Don't Miss: Why the Nightmare Scenario of Facebook's Quest VR Advertisements Is Actually a Win, & Will Ultimately Boost AR The Zuckerberg session followed the opening chat from Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this week... more http://dlvr.it/S21SRq

The recent announcement that Facebook will begin inserting advertisements into its VR experience on its Oculus Quest headset has set the VR and augmented reality industry into a frenzy. At first glance, the first thing many will point to is the recent history of Facebook and its somewhat rocky path regarding political and social issue ads. And while the company is still working on much-needed fixes, immediately writing off advertisements in VR (and later, augmented reality) as problematic may be an overreaction. Let's unpack why. • Don't Miss: Facebook Develops AI That Can Copy Typefaces... more http://dlvr.it/S1xqGr

Over the past decade, China tech giant Tencent has invested in several companies with varying roles in the augmented reality industry. Its latest bet backs a startup with some short-term impact related to the COVID-19 pandemic but more future-focused growth potential in the coming AR smartglasses era. Don't Miss: Ultraleap Improves Tracking of Two-Handed Interactions with Gemini Software Update According to a Sky News report, Image Frame Investment, Tencent's venture capital arm, will invest approximately $50 million into UK-based Ultraleap as part of the company's on-going Series D round... more http://dlvr.it/S1xPLG

For awhile now, Google has offered the ability to translate text through smartphone cameras via Google Translate and Google Lens, with Apple bringing similar technology to iPhones via Live Text. Hold our beers, say AI researchers at Facebook, who have now developed computer vision technology that can handle real-time text translation and then some in augmented reality. Don't Miss: Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg Talks Immersive Remote Video & AR Smartglasses Following Major Reveals from Snap & Google This week, Praveen Krishnan, a postdoctoral researcher for Facebook, and Tal Hassner... more http://dlvr.it/S1wpDm

The Apple rumor mill never stops churning and when it comes to augmented reality smartglasses, the chatter has been particularly hot in recent months. Now Apple CEO Tim Cook has made a new appearance where he makes a few comments that may stoke even more excitement for what's coming next in that direction. • Don't Miss: Apple AR Smartglasses Concept Shows the Virtual Desktop of the Future The comments from Cook were made on Wednesday during the Paris, France tech conference Viva Technology. During a remote conversation with Guillaume Lacroix, the CEO of Brut, Cook decided to talk about what... more http://dlvr.it/S1t1vW

Not all Kickstarters are created equal. Some take forever to get their products to supporters, and when the product does arrive (usually much later than promised) it's often very rough around the edges. I'm here today to report that the exact opposite is the case with the Looking Glass Portrait holographic display, which ultimately raised over $2.5 million for its crowdfunding effort. Not only did the device come around the time it was promised, but the packaging and fit and finish are so well done that I felt it deserved the full unboxing treatment. • Don't Miss: Looking Glass Responds to... more http://dlvr.it/S1ngfK

For its latest augmented reality trick, Snapchat has brought the world an AR Lens that has become a bit of a viral hit on Twitter as users turn themselves and their favorite movie stars into characters out of a Pixar movie. According to a Snap spokesperson, more than 215 million Snapchat users have interacted with the Cartoon 3D Style Lens since its launch on June 10. The Lens has tallied more than 1.7 billion views over that period. Don't Miss: AR Snapshots: Celebrate Pride Month with These Snapchat Augmented Reality Lenses With the Cartoon 3D Style Lens, Snapchat can remix photos taken... more http://dlvr.it/S1kKsH

With the tagline "More Than Meets the Eye," the Transformers franchise was pretty much preordained to have its own augmented reality game, and AR gaming pioneer Niantic has stepped up to fulfill that destiny. Niantic will now join forces with toymakers Hasbro and Tomy and development studio Very Very Games to build Transformers Heavy Metal on its Lightship AR cloud platform. Don't Miss: Niantic Bringing Buddy Interactions to AR+ Mode in Pokémon GO, Shared Experiences with Other Trainers to Follow The game is slated for a soft launch "soon" with a global launch before the end of the year... more http://dlvr.it/S1jGVH

Over the past few weeks, Google, Snap, and Facebook have all taken their turns to show off their new augmented reality technologies. This week, it was Apple's turn, with new AR features for iOS 15 along with new capabilities for developers. Meanwhile, Facebook's plans to launch a smartwatch in order to circumvent the dominance of Apple and Google over the mobile ecosystem leaked this week, and those plans include a future symbiotic relationship with its forthcoming smartglasses. Also, Snap shared a new AR experience developed via Lens Studio for its next-generation Spectacles smartglasses... more http://dlvr.it/S1Yb9y

Magic Leap has had a rough couple of years, highlighted by high-profile executive departures, lawsuits, troublesome patent shuffles, and massive layoffs. Despite this, things seem to have calmed down at the augmented reality startup under Peggy Johnson, but there are still questions as to how things went awry under the old regime. • Don't Miss: Magic Leap Experiencing Yet Another Major Executive Shake-Up, Report Says Most former Magic Leap staff have remained tight-lipped, but now one major former executive is finally shedding some light on the situation. Magic Leap's former senior vice... more http://dlvr.it/S1YBtG

This week, Apple unveiled its own version of Google Lens in the form of Live Text. In response, Google just hit back with a new feature for its visual search tool called Places, a new search category that can recognize landmarks and return information on them within the camera view. Don't Miss: Nintendo Crafts AR Experience via Google Lens for Pokémon Sword & Shield Game Packaging Places for Google Lens, which is available now worldwide, uses image recognition and Google Earth's 3D map assets to identify locations. Once you activate the Places filter, Google Lens identifies the landmark and... more http://dlvr.it/S1Xcm6

The debut of the augmented reality version of Snap's Spectacles came with several examples of how the wearable can allow creators to transform the world around them. Now, weeks after the initial launch of the AR smartglasses, we're getting yet another example of how the device can facilitate new kinds of immersive experiences. • Don't Miss: How to Get a Pair of Snap's New Spectacles AR Smartglasses Los Angeles-based technical designer Katherine Harris managed to snag a pair of Spectacles and decided to use the device to develop a new kind of teaching tool. Harris, a veteran of Microsoft... more http://dlvr.it/S1TVb5

One of the more exciting augmented reality announcements Apple made during its WWDC keynote on Monday came in the form of Object Capture, a new 3D scanning feature coming to macOS Monterey. That cry you just heard in the distance came from the chorus of companies who have published 3D scanning apps leveraging the LiDAR sensors of recent or built their business models around 3D capture services. Don't Miss: Apple Delivers Competitor to Google Lens & Google Maps AR Features in iOS 15 Meanwhile, Unity is in the catbird's seat of Apple's Object Capture car. Among the early access partners... more http://dlvr.it/S1Q9rZ

Like its predecessors WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel's latest series for Disney Plus, Loki, has its own augmented reality experience. However, while the former titles did not debut their AR content until just ahead of their respective season finales, the latter arrives just in time for the debut of the God of Mischief's time-traveling exploits. Don't Miss: The Best Marvel Movie Scenes Featuring Augmented Reality Concepts That We Might Use in the Near Future For Loki, Disney Plus has opted to publish its AR experience as a Sponsored Lens on Snapchat. The experience... more http://dlvr.it/S1PlvN

While Apple introduced new AR features for iOS 15 and Object Capture for Reality Kit 2 during the WWDC 2021 keynote, updates for ARKit were curiously absent in the official presentation. That doesn't mean there isn't anything new coming to Apple's toolkit for mobile AR apps, and the next update helps evolve AR experiences via ARKit towards the sci-fi dream of the Metaverse, also known as the AR cloud. Don't Miss: Snap Releases Lens Studio 4.0 with 3D Body Mesh & More, Upgrades Scan as Fashion Assistant The headlining feature for ARKit 5 is Location Anchors, an expansion of the persistent... more http://dlvr.it/S1P9L9

One of the more exciting augmented reality announcements Apple made during its WWDC keynote on Monday came in the form of Object Capture, a new 3D scanning feature coming to macOS Monterey. That cry you just heard in the distance came from the chorus of companies who have published 3D scanning apps leveraging the LiDAR sensors of recent or built their business models around 3D capture services. Don't Miss: Apple Delivers Competitor to Google Lens & Google Maps AR Features in iOS 15 Meanwhile, Unity is in the catbird's seat of Apple's Object Capture car. Among the early access partners... more http://dlvr.it/S1LQbg

When we got our first look at US Army soldiers testing Microsoft's modified HoloLens 2 last year, it still looked very much like the commercial edition, with some additional sensors attached. Today, the prototype Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), produced under an initial $480 million contract, looks much more like battle-ready technology, with a much larger visor and sensors bundled in a rugged-looking, beige enclosure. Don't Miss: US Military Shows Off Modified HoloLens 2 Augmented Reality System Now that the US Army has extended a five-year, $21 billion contract (with a... more http://dlvr.it/S1KP8d

As brands and content makers create more augmented reality experiences, the demand for tools to create 3D content grows in kind. And Apple may have just leveled the playing field for 3D content creation. Don't Miss: Apple Delivers Competitor to Google Lens & Google Maps AR Features in iOS 15 On Monday, at WWDC 2021, Apple introduced Object Capture, a photogrammetry tool built on the Swift programming language and coming to the Monterey edition of macOS via RealityKit 2, the next version of Apple's AR engine. Object Capture stitches together a series of photographs to create a 3D model of... more http://dlvr.it/S1GD96

Mobile augmented reality for iOS via ARKit, but Apple is borrowing a few pages from Google's playbook and bringing AR directly to iOS 15. During the keynote presentation at the WWDC 2021, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering for Apple, unveiled Live Text, a new camera mode coming to iOS 15 that delivers much of the same functionality that Google Lens offers for Android smartphones and Google Photos. Don't Miss: Apple's AR Spaces in Updated Clips App Uses iPhone & iPad LiDAR to Give You New AR Video Powers Live Text will enable iPhone users to point their capture... more http://dlvr.it/S1GD5D

It's (virtual) developer conference season, and this week was Facebook's turn with F8 Refresh. Like Google and Snap, Facebook had some new AR capabilities to show off. And while Google and Snap made big AR hardware reveals, Facebook did not. However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg did reveal insights into the company's AR device roadmap after the virtual conference. In the AR headset segment, Magic Leap set the stage for its future devices by selecting AMD to design a semi-custom processor. Facebook Introduces Support for Shared Video AR Experiences for Spark AR After introducing a pair of new Spark... more http://dlvr.it/S15cJn

The last few weeks were fairly busy in the realm of augmented reality and remote meetings developments. Most of that activity was generated by some mammoth announcements from Snap and its Spectacles AR smartglasses, and Google, with its Project Starline experimental holographic video conferencing system. Now, right on cue, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has emerged to give some (veiled) responses to some of what we've seen from the competition in the last few weeks. • Don't Miss: Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Uses Latest Appearance to Triple Down on Augmented Reality & Creator Revenue-Focused... more http://dlvr.it/S15Bqk

After introducing a pair of new Spark AR capabilities last week, Facebook had one more trick up its sleeve to unveil at its virtual F8 Refresh developer conference. On Wednesday, Facebook gave its audience a sneak peek at its new Multipeer API, which will enable Spark AR creators to build AR camera effects that sync multiple video callers on Messenger and Instagram as well as its Portal smart camera lineup. Don't Miss: This Viral Instagram Augmented Reality Filter Will Tell You Which Disney Character You Really Are Multipeer API opens up opportunities for shared experiences for video calls... more http://dlvr.it/S0xzSv

After tapping Nvidia for its first AR headset, Magic Leap is calling in reinforcement for its future enterprise-focused efforts. On Wednesday, Magic Leap disclosed a partnership with chipmaker AMD to produce a "semi-custom" system on a chip (SOC) that will handle computing, graphics, and machine learning, particularly computer vision and spatial computing, for its AR headsets. Don't Miss: 10 Remote Collaboration Apps for HoloLens, Magic Leap, & Mobile That Can Substitute for in-Person Meetings In its partnership with AMD, Magic Leap is aiming for top performance to run advanced AR content... more http://dlvr.it/S0xWYr

Numerous potential exploits are found for every operating system each month, and Android is no exception. Trouble is, lots of Android devices don't receive timely updates — but many are now getting regular monthly security patches to at least shore up these vulnerabilities. If you want protection from the latest dangerous hack, you'll need to be on the newest security patch level. Google publishes these each month alongside a report on what's been changed, but they can only guarantee the updates will be sent out to their own Pixel devices. For all other phones, there's a chance you might not... more http://dlvr.it/S0t8Xw

Few brands have been more enthusiastic about augmented reality than Lego, which has now expanded its AR experiences from toys to theme parks. The brand recently opened a new attraction, dubbed Mythica: World of Mythical Creature, at Legoland Windsor in the UK. Don't Miss: Hands-On with the Lego Snapchat Augmented Reality Experience That Lets You Build With Friends Remotely Visitors who download and install the Legoland Windsor Resort app can scan four codes located adjacent to the statues of Chimera, Alicorn, Hydra, and Sky Lion. Upon scanning, the app opens virtual portals, where visitors... more http://dlvr.it/S0t8Wd

June is Pride Month, an annual celebration of LGBTQ+ communities in commemoration of the Stonewall uprising of 1969. With Lens Studio, developers and creators have the capacity to create augmented reality experiences that celebrate a wide variety of interests, including LGBTQ+ rights. Here are some Snapchat Lenses to help celebrate your identity or your support of the LGBTQ+ community... Don't Miss: Snapchat Celebrates Pride Month with New Landmark AR Experiences Dress Up in These Virtual Pride Costumes Our first pair of Lenses give you the opportunity to put on virtual festive... more http://dlvr.it/S0sb50