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Market Reality: The Matrix vs. The Metaverse, Xiaomi AR Wearable, & Snap Art AR History

This was a busy week in the tech space. After everyone got over the major announcements of Apple's latest, we examined the metaverse through the lens of Hollywood, and then took a closer look at Facebook's first smartglasses.

How To: Find Out Your iPhone or Android Trade-In Value & Get a Discount on a New iPhone 13

So now that we know what the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro and their respective mini and Max versions are all about, you've probably made your decision on whether or not to upgrade (or swap over from Android) during this cycle.

News: Registration Open for 2021 Facebook Connect AR & VR Conference, Speakers Include Mark Zuckerberg & John Carmack

It's about that time again: Facebook has announced the dates for its annual Facebook Connect (formerly known as Oculus Connect until last year).

How To: Protect Your iPhones & iPads by Installing Apple's Emergency 14.8 iOS Security Update

With all of the hype around the new iPhone 13 series and new iPad and iPad mini unveiled this week, it would be easy to overlook a very critical update for the device you already have in your pocket.

News: Snap Teams with Sotheby's to Launch Historic AR Lens Hailing the Art of Christo & the Arc De Triomphe in Paris

One of the most iconic architectural landmarks on the planet, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, will become a part of augmented reality history thanks to a new project from Snap.

News: Xiaomi Wearable Uses Waveguide Tech to Mount Challenge to US Smartglasses Market

As if answering Apple's major iPhone event on Tuesday, Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi held its own product launch event the following day.

News: Apple Adds Pro Features to iPad & Revived iPad Mini, Upgrades Display for Apple Watch Series 7

During its annual autumn keynote address, Apple didn't move heaven and earth. Instead, the company pushed the envelope ever so slightly forward for its marquee consumer devices.

News: Apple Makes iPhone 13 a Serious Filmmaking Device with Cinematic Mode, ProRes Support for Pro Models

After the dust settled from Apple's annual iPhone event, there's not a lot to get hyped up about the iPhone 13 lineup, particularly if you upgraded your smartphone last year.

News: How to Sample the New Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro in Augmented Reality

The much-hyped Apple event is now history, and we finally know what the Cupertino tech giant had up its sleeve: new iPhones.

News: Facebook and Ray-Ban Stories Smartglasses Unboxing

The competition to secure the top slot in the smartglasses space is now in full swing, with Facebook challenging Snap's Spectacles and Amazon's Echo Frames with its own collaboration with Ray-Ban called Stories.

News: How 'The Matrix Resurrections' Can Help Us Answer Some of the Most Important Questions About the Emerging Real Metaverse

"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is, you have to see it for yourself." That's the line just before Morpheus gives Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) the red pill, finally opening his eyes to the tapestry of code that has veiled his eyes for his entire life.

Market Reality: Apple AR Event Surprise, Facebook Smartglasses Debut, Snapchat Interactive Update, & an Epic Games Win

When it comes to the ever-shifting sands of the augmented reality space, you never know which week will end up being truly historic. Well, this one was one for the history books.

News: How Epic Games Major App Store Win Against Apple Could Change the Mobile Augmented Reality Space Forever

The fight to wrest control of apps from Apple's revenue-focused grip just took a major turn in favor of Epic Games.

News: Facebook & Ray-Ban Stories Smartglasses, Details on the Specs, Colors, Prices, Software, and Availability

Just hours after an early leak via Twitter, Facebook and Ray-Ban have officially released their new wearable collaboration.

News: Facebook Ray-Ban Smartglasses Leak Reveals Fashionable Device with Cameras, Multiple Colors

Facebook promised that it would release a pair of smartglasses in partnership with Ray-Ban sometime this year and now it looks like we have our first look at the device.

News: Snapchat Launches Birthdays Mini Feature to Let You Celebrate Your Friends via AR Lenses

The art of creating Snapchat Lenses is really only the beginning of the augmented reality experience on the social media platform.

News: Apple Kicks Off September Event with Augmented Reality Welcome Mat

We always know roughly when Apple events are coming, but when their new product events pop up, they're always a pleasant tech refresher from the Cupertino tech giant.

Market Reality: Oculus Quest Fuels AR Apps, Why Spatial Audio Is the Killer App, & Xerox Becomes a Major AR Player

Amid a troubling resurgence in coronavirus cases, led by the new Delta variant, augmented reality is once again moving back into the spotlight as a solution, especially now that the move to return to offices has been stalled.

News: Xerox Augmented Reality Unit CareAR Raises $10 Million in Funding from ServiceNow

The enterprise-focused category of augmented reality doesn't often get the headlines due to its relatively sedate profile as a mostly factory floor and training-based tool.

News: Facebook's Oculus Quest Turned into Augmented Reality Guitar Hero Experience via This Developer App

The augmented reality passthrough abilities of Facebook's Oculus Quest were only fully opened to independent developers recently.

News: Spatial Audio Update in Clubhouse Is Another Piece of the AR Virtual Meetings Puzzle Coming Together, Here's How

In our review of Amazon's non-augmented reality Echo Frames smartglasses, we made the case for audio virtual assistants being the linchpin for AR wearables.

Market Reality: TikTok Enters AR Battle, Facebook Crypto Mystery, Candyman in AR, Avon Immersive, Snap Spectacles Evolve

The year leading into fall is turning out to be packed with a flurry of augmented reality activity. Most notably, TikTok is adding another major weapon to its AR arsenal. Also on deck are the powers of Hollywood horror in the form of an innovative approach to AR marketing that uses sounds.

News: This Is How the Augmented Reality World of the Metaverse Could Be Opened to the Visually Impaired

One of the primary assumptions in the world of VR and augmented reality is that the user has the ability to "see" virtual objects and the real world structures around them. But what if the user doesn't have perfect eyesight, or any eyesight at all?

News: This Snap Spectacles Game Lets You Grow a Digital Pet in Augmented Reality

While the rest of Big Tech is still moving relatively slowly on augmented reality smartglasses, Snap continues to supercharge its own experimental AR wearable called Spectacles.

News: Is Facebook Trolling the Winklevoss Twins with Its New AR Smartglasses Project Code-Named Gemini?

The initiative known as Project Aria has been the focus of curiosity around Facebook's augmented reality plans ever since Mark Zuckerberg revealed the device around this time last year.

News: Avon Teams with Perfect Corp. To Launch Augmented Reality Virtual Makeup Try-on Tools

The beauty industry has increasingly relied on the powers of augmented reality to drive sales in recent years, and now that virtual "everything" is on trend due to the pandemic, yet another big player is entering the fray.

News: Universal Pictures Uses Sound to Trigger Augmented Reality Horror Experience for 'Candyman' Movie

The practice of using sound to trigger augmented reality interactions hasn't been widely used, but a new experience is so impressive that it could kick off more use of the dynamic.

News: TikTok Looks to Challenge Snap & Facebook AR Platforms with Effect House Tool

The Chinese short-form social media giant known as TikTok is getting into an increasingly crowded and competitive space: augmented reality effects tools.

Market Reality: Air Force Gets Immersive, Crypto's AR Future, Inside Amazon's Echo Frames, & Metaverse Goes Mainstream

The march to the mainstreaming of augmented reality can sometimes seem slow, but this week things picked up in earnest.

News: Snap Scores Big in Battle for Augmented Reality Platform Talent, Pulls Two Executives from Rival Facebook

The battle for augmented reality and social media supremacy starts with the people working behind the scenes, and this week Snap pulled off a telling win that could indicate a shift in the AR space.

News: The IRS Is Finally Getting into the Augmented Reality Game and Wants Your Help

The US Department of Treasury isn't generally known for being on the very edge of technology innovations (see the current hubbub around crypto), instead usually waiting until certain tools have been battle-tested in the mainstream or enterprise sector.

News: Augmented Reality Startup Red 6 Lands Multimillion-Dollar Contract to Support US Air Force Training

The emergence of Microsoft's HoloLens 2 as a cutting-edge US Army tool has focused a spotlight on the marriage between augmented reality and the military.

Opinion: There's a Blind Spot in Augmented Reality, and the Clarifying Lens of Crypto Is the Prescription, Here's Why

On this platform, we talk a lot about the future of augmented reality, and we pay attention to what is being said elsewhere as well.

News: How Amazon's Echo Frames Point the Way to Our Augmented Reality Smartglasses Future

Part of the mainstreaming of augmented reality is learning to adopt new habits around the hardware delivering these groundbreaking next-gen interface experiences.

Market Reality: Olympics AR Content on Instagram & Google, Facebook's Metaverse, & Snapchat's Magic Karaoke

Over the past week, practically every major tech company working on augmented reality has held their quarterly earnings calls with investors, and each addressed or at least mentioned the role of AR during their prepared remarks. However, Facebook's earnings call had some of the spicier commentary on the technology.

News: Grid Studio Turns Old iPhones into Works of Art

Apple is known for its dedication to design, attention to detail, and for its apparent belief that its products are half device, half art. If you've ever felt similarly about that latter point, or had a desire to hang your iPhone on the wall, Grid Studio might just have the piece for you.

News: Facebook's Smartglasses Are the New AR Hype, but It's Becoming Clearer That a Metaverse Platform War Is Coming

Facebook's earnings calls are generally focused on numbers—revenue and user growth. But this week the company's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, carved out a significant portion of the call to elaborate on Facebook's plans for immersive computing.

News: New York Times Revives Its AR Storytelling on Instagram with Tokyo Olympics Experiences

Old school media stalwart The New York Times launched its augmented reality news content in 2018 with a feature on the athletes of the Winter Olympics.

AR Snapshots: Snapchat's Latest Augmented Reality Lens Turns Celebrities into Lip-Syncing Pop Stars

The Lens Studio community, now made up of more than 200,000 creators, has generated some impressive augmented reality effects in the last few years. Amazingly, the groundbreaking Lenses for Snapchat continue to come, often from the internal AR team at Snap.

News: Google Adds More Olympic Athletes to Its Roster of Augmented Reality Search Content

After facing delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Olympic Games are underway in Tokyo, but a surge in cases worldwide has taken the spectator out of these spectator sports.