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How To: Unlock Themed Icons on Android 12 for Colors That Dynamically Shift with Your Wallpaper

Google's new Material You theming engine in Android 12 adds a personal touch to your user interface. The main colors of your wallpaper dynamically affect the colors in menus and apps, essentially putting you in control of the overall theme. But there's another new design element for app icons that's hiding in your settings.

How To: Unlock Android 12's Developer Options on Your Pixel for Powerful Hidden Tools Anyone Can Use

When you start up your new Google Pixel 6 or 6 Pro, one of the first things you should do is unlock the hidden "Developer options" menu. Don't let the word "developer" scare you because there are little-known features in this secret Android 12 menu that every Android user can enjoy.

How To: Android 12's Upgraded Search Gives You Quick Access to Contacts, App Shortcuts, Phone Settings, and More

The new Material You theme engine with its fancy widgets is a sexy change for Android, but there's another new Android 12 feature that's more than just pretty colors and curves.

Android 12 Phones: Complete Up-to-Date List of Devices That Support or Will Support Android 12

Android 12 was released to the Google Pixel devices on Oct. 19, 2021, so anyone with a Pixel 3 or newer model can install the new operating system with an over-the-air update. The AOSP version of Android 12 was released a few weeks earlier on Oct. 4, so that OEMs can use or modify the source code on their smartphones. So, what devices have or will have Android 12 then?

How To: Turn Your iPhone into a Personal Sound Machine in iOS 15 to Help You Focus, Rest, and Stay Calm

If you get distracted or stressed out easily, your iPhone might be able to help you focus or calm you down, as long as you've updated to iOS 15.

How To: Hide Specific Content in iOS 15's New 'Shared with You' Sections Without Disabling the Entire Feature

After updating to iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, you'll notice a new "Shared with You" section in certain Apple apps that contains recent shares from conversations in Messages. If you don't like seeing shared content from specific contacts or groups, there's a way to block them from Shared with You on your iPhone or iPad.

How To: Screen Share on FaceTime in iOS 15 Using SharePlay

Apple's hottest new FaceTime feature, SharePlay, comes packed with sharing options, and the biggest one lets you share your device's screen with the people you're FaceTiming. It didn't make it in time for the big iOS 15 release, but it's coming soon in iOS 15.1. Here's how it works.

News: The Future of Apple Augmented Reality Wearables Through the Lens of Steve Jobs & His Legacy

Today is the 10-year anniversary of the death of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. To commemorate the occasion, Apple has posted a message and a mini-documentary on its website.

iOS 15 Emoji: All 112 New Characters Coming Soon to Your iPhone

The latest set of emoji characters, Emoji 14.0, was approved on Sept. 14, 2021, less than a week before iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 hit iPhones and iPads. There wasn't any time to get any new emoji into iOS 15.0, but they are coming soon in a 15.x update later this year. So get ready for "Melting Face," "Biting Lip," and "Troll," to name just a few.

News: Facebook Outage Takes Down the Metaverse, Oculus Quest & Ray-Ban Smartglasses Users Impacted

On Monday, the social media giant Facebook suffered a massive outage that, as of this writing, is still in effect.

Market Reality: NASA AR Launches, Smartglasses Showdown, Vuzix Secret Lab, Magic Leap Turns the Corner

The beginning of autumn has delivered a number of new augmented reality developments, and we're on top of it.

News: Microsoft HoloLens 2 & Unity Used to Highlight the Threat to Endangered Whales at the Smithsonian

Although the enterprise use cases for the Microsoft HoloLens 2 continue to impress, the arts community just can't stay away from the best augmented reality headset on the market.

News: What Is the Difference Between Facebook Ray-Ban Stories, Snap Spectacles, & Amazon Echo Frames Smartglasses?

The emergence of Facebook's collaboration with Ray-Ban to launch Stories smartglasses has finally put an exclamation point on a new category of smartglasses: the pre-augmented reality wearable segment.

News: NASA Launches First Woman to Moon via AR App, & Delivers Interactive Visit to New Space Telescope

The team at NASA is in full mission preparation mode as they prepare to send a new team to the moon for the first time in decades via the Artemis program in 2024.

News: Robots, Drones, Disney, Halo View & More — Here Are the New Gadgets & Alexa Skills Amazon Wants to Fill Your Home With

Amazon really wants to make itself at home in your home. Like, everywhere in your home, from your doorstep to your kitchen, your kids' rooms, and everywhere in between.

News: BlueJeans Video Conferencing Giant to Launch Native Google Glass App for Remote Assistance

If you're a normal, non-corporate video conferencing user, you may not have heard of BlueJeans, but in the corporate world, the software has long been a major staple when it comes to remote meetings.

News: Apple Maps Revamped with 3D Map Navigation in iOS 15

With its latest version of Apple Maps, Apple has made perhaps its strongest push since the launch of the app to dethrone Google Maps from its perch atop the App Store rankings.

News: Vuzix Smartglasses Factory Reveal Gives Another Glimpse of Next-Gen AR Wearable

Away from the hype around Facebook's smartglasses, the high-end fascination with the Microsoft HoloLens, and the unending rumors about Apple's AR wearable is the small but powerful darling of the enterprise AR world—Vuzix.

News: NASA Integrates Microsoft HoloLens into Regular Maintenance Operations on International Space Station

As NASA nears the launch of another mission to the Moon in 2024, and a subsequent mission to Mars in the 2030s, augmented reality is increasingly being woven into the normal space operations to test various capabilities.

Market Reality: Instagram Smartglasses, Oculus AR Gaming, Google AR Search, & Facebook Exec Shuffle

As we move toward the end of the year, the wheels of the augmented reality space continue to shift in major ways.

How To: Copy Text from Real World & Photos via Live View for iPhone on iOS 15

Google Lens has easily been one of the more useful AR apps, and a tantalizing tease of life with smartglasses in the not-so-distant future.

News: Facebook's AR/VR Chief Andrew Bosworth Tapped as New CTO

If the importance of augmented reality and VR hardware to Facebook's future wasn't already clear enough, a shake-up in the executive ranks at the company has made it as clear as smartglasses lenses.

News: This Billie Eilish Oculus Quest 2 Video Inadvertently Offers a Peek at AR Gaming on the VR Headset

It's always fun to get an unexpected glimpse of the future, especially when that peek is so close you can actually feel the excitement of the new emerging dynamic.

News: Google Adds Famous Monuments & Iconic Buildings to Augmented Reality Search Feature

Even with unlimited resources and a serious case of wanderlust, it's unlikely that you or I will be able to see all of the most famous structures in the world in person.

News: Facebook Makes Portal Portable, Upgrades Portal Plus, & Adds Microsoft Teams

With the arrival of Facebook Ray-Ban Stories smartglasses commanding the recent spotlight, the tech world acted like it forgot about Facebook's first foray in consumer hardware — the Portal line of video calling devices.

News: Upgrade to iOS 15 & Play with These 10 New Features

If you're not planning to upgrade to a new iPhone 13, the new version of the iPhone operating system will breathe some new life into your iOS device.

News: Netflix Launches Oculus Quest Immersive Game for Animated Streaming Series 'Eden'

We usually focus on augmented reality here, but when something important in VR happens, we highlight it as part of the overall immersive computing story.

Opinion: Facebook's Big Smartglasses Mistake—Not Pairing Ray-Ban with Instagram Instead

One of the best recent outings in the Marvel universe is the animated series What If...?, which explores alternate universe takes on various superhero storylines that deliver fascinating scenarios if one single factor had been different in the story.

News: Convert Your Furniture into a Wireless Charging Surface for Less Than $50 with This Ikea Product

Wireless charging is pretty much ubiquitous among modern iPhones and Android smartphones, but the technology has brought a lot of clutter with it.

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.