Market Reality: Magic Leap Seeks Series E Funding, Apple Delays AR Headset, & Snap Starts Selling Spectacles 3
The week in AR business news started out with a bang with two bombshell reports that cast a shadow on the AR industry as a whole.
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News: SK Telecom Rolls Out Magic Leap In-Stores in South Korea, Announces Harry Potter & League of Legends AR Partnerships
The partnership between Magic Leap and leading South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom took on an added importance earlier this week as the company unveiled the world's first nationwide 5G network.
Market Reality: Magic Leap Prescription Lenses Arrive, Niantic Challenges Devs with Real World, & Blippar Goes Under
Mixed reviews of Magic Leap One aside, it would be hard to deny that Magic Leap has had a big year. And the AR unicorn isn't coasting to the finish line, with a number of new apps dropping and prescription frames finally arriving to bring relief to those who wear eyeglasses.
News: Ubisoft Proves They're Serious About AR Gaming at United Europe 2017
Though the Microsoft HoloLens' release to the consumer market is still a distant thought at the moment, Ubisoft is preparing for the future with the unveiling of AR video game prototypes.
LG’s New G4 Flagship Phone: Everything You Need to Know
It's already that time of year again—LG has unveiled its latest high-end smartphone, dubbed the G4. In past iterations, LG released its flagship devices in the fall. But slowly over the course of the past 2 years, the release schedule has been bumped up to be more in line with HTC and Samsung's springtime releases, and further away from the sales-sucking iPhone event each fall.
News: Nreal Collaborates with Qualcomm & Deutsche Telekom to Build Prototype Enterprise AR App
As a frequent collaborator with Qualcomm, it would be kind of weird if Nreal didn't have something new to unveil at this week's Snapdragon Summit.
News: Team Behind Popular Photo App FaceTune2 Jumps on the AR Bandwagon with Cosmetics Try-On Filters
Following in the steps of Snapchat, Instagram, and YouCam, another popular photo app has gotten into the virtual try-on augmented reality game.
Market Reality: Snap Inches Toward Smartglasses with Spectacles 3, Meta Patent Suit Ends, YouTube Launches AR Makeup
This week, Snapchat parent Snap came closer to fulfilling its smartglasses destiny by adding new 3D content capabilities to its third-generation Spectacles. At the same time, the now defunct Meta Company continued its fall from grace, as a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the patent infringement case against the Meta 1 and Meta 2 headsets.
Market Reality: HoloLens 2 Lands at FCC, Samsung Adds Depth Cam to Galaxy Note 10+, & the Magic Leap Apps You Can't Miss
Developers and enterprise customers chomping at the bit to get their hands on HoloLens 2 may not have to wait much longer, as Microsoft passed one of the remaining hurdles needed to release their new tech into the wild.
News: Unity 2018.2 Release Continues Optimization of 3D Content Performance for Mobile Devices & Desktops
On Tuesday, Unity released the latest version of its 3D engine, which brings improvements to the Scriptable Render Pipeline that the company introduced earlier this year.
News: It's Official — New iPhone 8 Coming September 12
It's official! This year's iPhone release event is scheduled for September 12 at Apple's new campus.
News: Hella & ZF Want to Go Big Together in Cameras, Radar
German groups ZF Friedrichshafen AG and HELLA are collaborating to add to their autonomous portfolios with camera and radar development.
How To: Disable Facebook Places on your Facebook page to preserve your privacy
Facebook Places is a new location-based sharing tool that Facebook unveiled not too long ago. It works like Foursquare, in that you can check yourself into locations. Not only that, you can check other people in, and other people on your Friends list can also check you into other locations as well. So if you don't want to broadcast your every move to the universe, you'll have to go into Facebook and update your privacy settings. Again. Better to be safe than let your boss know by accident tha...
How To: Prepare your face for a barbershop shave
Find out how to give yourself the perfect beard treatment as common misconceptions are unveiled. This video will not only show you how to execute the simple processes of shaving correctly, but also tell us what not to do, and why the barbers we have been going to have not strictly been doing their job right! For a good shave the hot towel should be applied before the lather is applied to the beard. This makes for a smoother and more effective shave, not to mention a more comfortable one. This...
Market Reality: HTC Vive Concept Smartglasses, Coronavirus Hits Apple, Holographic Celebs, & Snapchat Ground Effects
The coronavirus continues to disrupt the tech industry, including the augmented reality segment, with Apple and the iPhone the latest to feel the impact.
News: New Consumer AR Smartglasses Contender Emerges with Action Air from China's Shadow Technologies
We last saw China-based augmented and virtual reality headset maker Shadow Technologies at last year's Augmented World Expo, where they had the Action One, one of the wildest augmented reality headsets we've seen, on display.
Market Reality: HoloLens 2 Secrets Revealed, Nreal CEO on AR Future, Meta Lawsuit Update, & Verizon Teams with Vuzix
As Microsoft continues to bask in the glow of its HoloLens 2 unveiling and begins ramping up the hype to launch, Nreal and Vuzix are carving out their own niches in the AR hardware landscape.
News: Galaxy S9 Announcement, Preorder & Release Dates
Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8+ are two fantastic devices. That's why we're so excited about the upcoming S9 and S9+. With dual cameras, super slo-mo, dual aperture, and even smaller bezels, the S9 looks to be a device worth picking up day-one. Thankfully, we now officially know when that day is.
News: After Leaks, OnePlus Puts It All Out There with OnePlus 5 Photo
Here it is folks, after weeks of constant leaks and speculation surrounding the highly anticipated OnePlus 5, the company has decided to release a high-res image of the new phone on the official OnePlus Google+ page.
News: Watch the Galaxy S8 Live Stream at Samsung UNPACKED 2017
All the news and rumors regarding the Galaxy S8 have finally coalesced and brought us to this moment, and it couldn't come soon enough. Samsung's flagships are making their official debut live on Wednesday, March 29. The stakes are especially high for the South Korean tech giant, following the Note7 debacle and the political scandals that plagued its highest echelons. Simply put, Samsung's fortunes are now riding on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Will the Galaxy S8 and S8+ be the ultimate Android sma...
News: (Updated) Your First Real "Look" at iOS 8
Update: June 2nd, 2014 Over the weekend, someone snuck in to Apple's presentation dry run, and grabbed a quick video of the new iPhone will look like.
News: Bosch Designs Easy to Deploy Optical System for Smartglasses Makers
With big-name tech companies like Apple and Facebook gearing up to push out their own smartglasses in the coming years, engineering conglomerate Bosch has been working on the optical components that could help the competition catch up.
News: Amid Motorola Razr Hype, Lenovo Unveils AR Glasses Concept for Private Computing
After drawing attention from nostalgic Gen Xers for its Motorola Razr reboot with a foldable screen, Lenovo has a new augmented reality smartglasses concept that the company hopes will also turn some heads.
Market Reality: Mimesys Joins Magic Leap, Samsung Funds DigiLens & Lenovo Moves in on Microsoft's AR Territory
Magic Leap and Samsung are putting their money where their augmented reality plans are, with the former acquiring an AR collaboration technology and the latter funding a waveguide display maker.
Market Reality: Magic Leap Launches, L'Oréal Friends Facebook, & Nickelodeon Takes TV to AR
The long, long, loooong wait finally ended this week for the augmented reality community as the Magic Leap One was finally released. The Florida-based company has loomed over the industry for years promising something big, and now the AR cat is finally out of the bag. Now we get to see if it will live up to expectations, but early reviews are a bit skeptical.
News: HoloLens Can Now Wirelessly Tap Rendering Power of Any Desktop PC via UWP Apps Built in Unity
Looking to inject a little more processing juice into your HoloLens? Unity can fix you up with the Standalone Universal Windows Platform Holographic Emulation.
Market Reality: Magic Leap Captivates Developers & Settles a Lawsuit, While Avegant Undergoes a Shakeup
This week's Game Developers Conference came at just the right time for Magic Leap, a company that was riding a wave of bad news from legal troubles and rumors regarding Magic Leap One.
News: Creator Portal Confirms Magic Leap One Runs on Nvidia Tegra Chip
While much of the technical specifications of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition still remain a mystery, some clues to its internals are hidden among the guides in the now freely-accessible Creator Portal.
News: WayRay's Auto Techno Video Will Make You Want to Add AR to Your Driving Experience
When it comes to marketing, sexy sells, a point that has been lost on most augmented reality hardware makers focused mostly on the geek space. But a new promotional spot from AR-in-the-car accessory maker WayRay indicates that AR companies are beginning to see the virtual sizzle reel light.
News: Continental to Supply Driverless Tech to Startup NIO in China
Driverless partnerships continue to appear as Continental AG, leading German automotive manufacturing company, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with global electric startup, NIO. The goal of this partnership is to research, share, and develop autonomous technology, among other developments.
How To: New iPhone 6S, Apple TV, iPad Pro, & More—Everything You Need to Know
Apple's special September event just wrapped up with the company unveiling several new products, including the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPad Pro, and the new Apple TV set-top box. In addition to hardware, Apple also discussed a couple of its latest software platforms, iOS 9 and watchOS 2. Check out everything that Apple unveiled below.
News: Vuzix Reveals Next-Gen M4000 Enterprise Smartglasses, Shows Off Smart Swim AR Wearable for Aquatic Athletes
While consumer-grade smartglasses are the holy grail for tech companies, smartglasses maker Vuzix knows where its bread is buttered, and that's in the enterprise segment.
Market Reality: The Year in AR — HoloLens 2, Magic Leap's Rocky Ride, Apple's Future, & AR Startups Under Pressure
When filtered through the prism of the top stories of the year, the business of augmented reality 2019 was defined as much by epic failures of AR startups as it was by the promising developments that propelled the industry forward into 2020.
News: Verizon Acquires Jaunt After Startup Moves from VR Services to Augmented Reality Focus
It looks like Jaunt's pivot from VR to volumetric captures services for augmented reality experiences has paid off.
News: China's Huawei Reveals Its Vision of the 5G-Powered AR Cloud Called the Cyberverse
The augmented reality cloud will probably be one of the most important pieces of digital real estate in the next few years, and China has no intention of being left out of the virtual land grab.
News: Smartphone Maker Vivo Enters Consumer Smartglasses Market with Vivo AR Glass
A company whose sole product line is smartphones might be worried about early proclamations that the smartphone is dead with the advent of augmented reality wearables.
News: Magic Leap Shakes Up C-Suite, Shuffles Two Top Executives to Advisory Roles
In the aftermath of the launch of the Magic Leap One, Magic Leap has ejected two more executives from their leadership roles.
News: ThirdEye Reveals X2 Smartglasses Design & Retail Partnership with b8ta
Smartglasses maker ThirdEye has announced that its X1 model wearable will be updated by the slimmer, as yet unreleased X2 model. Both devices will be promoted and sold through its partner, brick and mortar technology retailer b8ta.
News: First App for Meta 2 Headset Lets You View 3D CAD Models in Augmented Reality
Augmented reality headset maker Meta Company unveiled Meta Viewer, its first software application, during its keynote at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on Wednesday.
News: DAQRI's New Smart Glasses Made Tough for the Manufacturing Sector
DAQRI, a company mostly known for its odd but fun-looking industrial Smart Helmet, unveiled their new Smart Glasses product at CES 2017. Their smartglasses look like a strange attempt to answer the Microsoft HoloLens, and the price tag of $4,995 for the developer's edition reinforces that notion.