Next Reality » Augmented & Mixed Reality News, Rumors & Dev Guides

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.

News: Starbucks Uses Instagram AR to Promote Sustainability via Holiday Campaign

Starbucks is spicing things up ahead of this holiday season with a little augmented reality joy. This week the company launched its first Instagram filter, called Holijoy, delivered like an early Christmas gift and packing four seasonal lenses.

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.

News: Disney Plus Serves Up Snapchat Lens to Promote Live-Action 'Lady & the Tramp'

Unless you've been totally off the grid, there's a good chance you're aware that the Disney Plus streaming video service launched this week. And, if you're on this site, you're likely salivating over the new Star Wars series, The Mandalorian.

News: Flow Immersive Launches Magic Leap Augmented Reality Data Slideshow App That Puts PowerPoint to Shame

Thanks to the expanding universe of augmented reality tools being made available, increasingly, anybody can liven up sleepy office meetings with immersive computing.

News: Magic Leap Adds Spotify Music to Growing Arsenal of Spatial Computing Apps

The spatial computing world of Magic Leap is no longer limited to the rarefied tones of Sigur Rós and Sennheiser's Ambeo Augmented Audio app. Now, the entire music universe will be at your augmented reality fingertips.

News: Snapchat Transports Gucci Fans to Trippy Tropical Island for Holiday Promotion

Baby, it's cold outside, but, with some help from Snapchat augmented reality, Gucci is thawing our wintery hearths with a virtual trip to the tropics.

News: Sally Beauty's YouCam-Powered AR Try-on Kiosks Land in 500 US Stores

Another major retailer is putting all its chips in on the relentless rise of selfie culture. Sally Beauty is rolling out kiosks to try-on "some of its best" hair dyes in 500 of its stores throughout the US. The in-store augmented reality-powered kiosks invite you to view yourself on video, overlay a punky (or otherwise) hair color, and snap a selfie on the screen to share your #glowup with friends.

News: Google Researchers Develop Method for Capturing 'Relightable' Volumetric Video

As the demand for realistic volumetric video for AR experiences begins to grow (along with the available facilities and services for capturing it), researchers at Google have figured out how to improve upon the format.

News: Nintendo Crafts AR Experience via Google Lens for Pokémon Sword & Shield Game Packaging

Pokémon, Google, and augmented reality go together like wasabi, soy, and ginger, and the trio has come together again for the release of the latest game from the Pokémon universe.

News: AR Cloud Startup Ubiquity6 Launches Display.land for 3D Capture via Smartphone Cameras

While its competitors are concentrating on building out AR cloud platforms to give advanced AR capabilities to mobile apps, Ubiquity6 is taking a step in a different direction.

News: Magic Leap Loses CFO Scott Henry & Effects Wizard John Gaeta Following News of Funding Woes

This week's news that Magic Leap's patents had entered collateral limbo, now in the hands of JPMorgan Chase, threw a dark cloud over the company.

News: University of Sussex Researchers Develop Method for Making Holograms Touchable

Most augmented reality experiences are purely visual, with spatial audio gaining in popularity to make visual experiences more realistic. However, leveraging the sense of touch may be the next frontier for AR experiences.

News: Looking Glass Launches 8K Immersive Display, a High-Resolution Holographic-Style Window into the 3D World

The next phase of the holographic display is upon us, and Looking Glass is aggressively making sure that it's at the tip of the spear when it comes to leading that charge.

News: Snap's Spectacles 3 Officially Go on Sale Internationally Online & at Retail

Following up on the initial tease over three months ago, Snap Inc. is finally letting the public get its hands on its new Spectacles 3 wearable device.

News: Kohl's Partners With Snapchat AR for Holiday Pop-Up & Black Friday Promotions

All Kohl's wants for Christmas is Snapchat augmented reality. In conjunction with a holiday pop-up hosted in New York City from Nov. 7 through Nov. 10, Snapchat ran a sponsored portal lens available to targeted Snapchat users in the AR carousel. The experience gave users the ability to virtually transport themselves to the pop-up.

News: Apple AR Headset Delayed Until 2022, Smartglasses to Follow in 2023, Report Says

After recently renewed enthusiasm for the arrival of Apple's long-awaited AR wearables -- the subject of multiple reports and rumors over the past few years -- some of that excitement may now be dampened a bit.

News: Magic Leap Patents Signed Over to JPMorgan Chase as Collateral Just Months After Major Funding Push

Is the augmented reality magic fading down in Plantation, Florida? That's the first question some may be asking following a casual revelation over the weekend that Magic Leap, the maker of the Magic Leap One, has assigned much of its patent portfolio over to JP Morgan Chase as collateral.

Market Reality: HoloLens 2 Arrives, Valve Reportedly Assists Apple with AR Device, & Niantic Prepares AR Cloud Launch

While the long-awaited HoloLens 2 officially arrived this week, details leaked about another, arguably longer-awaited AR headset, the fabled wearable from Apple, and a previously undisclosed partner assisting the Cupertino-based company with the hardware.

News: Microsoft Launches HoloLens 2 Worldwide, Here's a Close-Up Look at the $3,500 Device (Updated)

The long wait is over — the best augmented reality device on the planet is finally available.

News: Niantic Preps Multiplayer Mode for Pokémon GO, Plans Limited Launch of Real World Platform via Creator Program in 2020

Augmented reality gaming pioneer and Pokémon GO mastermind Niantic is putting the pieces on the gameboard to prepare developers and gamers for the launch of its AR cloud platform.

News: Apple iOS-Powered Sesame Street Yourself App Turns Kids into Their Favorite Characters via ARKit 3's New Features

The longest-running children's television show in the United States, Sesame Street, hasn't survived 50 years without leveraging new technology along the way.

News: Coca-Cola Opens a Can of Augmented Reality to Get Consumers into the Holiday Spirit

Halloween is barely in the rearview mirror, but Coca-Cola is ready to bypass Thanksgiving altogether to accelerate the arrival of Christmas, and the brand has enlisted augmented reality as an accomplice.

News: HoloLens & Augmented Reality Spiders Used in Univ. Study to Treat Arachnophobia

Halloween may be finished, but the augmented reality chills are not over yet for some people. Arachnophobes are bravely facing their fears by cozying up to augmented reality spiders for a university study.

News: 10 Ways Mobile AR Filters Are Making Consumer AR of the Future a Mainstream Reality, Today

Despite the fact that over 600,000 Snap Lens filters have been created since Lens Studio debuted in 2017, and Facebook is reporting that more than a billion users have interacted with its Spark AR filters across Facebook properties, social augmented reality filters get a bad rap in the AR industry.

News: Adobe Releases Aero App to Compete Head-to-Head with Apple's Reality Composer for Mobile AR Development

As one of the household brands in creative software, Adobe is now ready to lay its claim to the artistic side of augmented reality.

News: Apple Working with Valve on AR Smartglasses, Report Says

Rumors are what Apple dreams are made, so most of the time it's best to ignore the juicy ones -- but some Apple rumors demand a least a little attention.

Market Reality: Magic Leap Preps Magicverse, Facebook Reveals Computer Vision Research, HBO's 'Watchmen' Enter AR

Over the past year, Magic Leap has teased its cross-platform vision of the AR cloud, which it dubs the Magicverse. While the company shared a timeline for its debut next year, it also served up new developer tools for the present.

News: HBO Returns to the AR Well with 'Watchmen' Lens on Snapchat

After leaning on augmented reality for its outdoor advertising, HBO has called on augmented reality again via Snapchat to promote its Watchmen series.

News: User-Created Facebook & Instagram Face Filters Lead to Ban on 'Plastic Surgery' Effects

Facebook recently hit a snag in its quest to take augmented reality face effects to its millions of users.

News: Magic Leap Teases Magicverse Debut in 2020, Launches Magic Leap Toolkit for Developers

After talking up the Magicverse for the past year and adding new capabilities to Lumin OS to accommodate it, Magic Leap appears to be inching ever closer to actually launching its cross-platform flavor of the AR cloud while introducing a new tool for its development community.

News: Facebook Reveals Computer Vision Research That Could Hasten Development of AR Smartglasses

Just like Apple and Google, Facebook has been working to develop computer vision shortcuts designed to give mobile apps augmented reality superpowers.

News: 'Terminator: Dark Fate' Invades Snapchat with Pair of Augmented Reality Camera Effects

The original iterations of the Terminator film franchise have served as the inspiration (via the heads-up display of the T-800) for future augmented reality dreams, so it is fitting that the current crop of AR gives the latest installment in the series a promotional boost.

News: 8th Wall Expands Web AR Offerings with Cloud Editor + Hosting for One-Stop Development

Silicon Valley-based startup 8th Wall has spent much of the last few years building a reputation for enabling AR experiences that are platform agnostic via web browsers and mobile apps. Now, 8th Wall is promising to give developers the freedom to build and host AR experiences from anywhere via a simple web browser.

News: HBO 'Watchmen' Promo Rains Dead Squid Down on LA & New York via Augmented Reality Ad

Bus stops can provide shelter in the event of rain, and now they also protect you from augmented reality squid.

Market Reality: Samsung Diversifies AR Hardware Bets, PTC Acquires Onshape, & Nvidia Takes AR Content to the Cloud

It's no secret that Samsung is working on augmented reality hardware, as the company has been candid about its intentions. However, what we don't know is exactly how many AR projects the company is working on, as patent filings and reports revealed two more over the past week.