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

News: WarDucks Lands $3.8 Million Funding for Location-Based Augmented Reality Gaming, Adds Legendary Doom Developer

With plans to compete with Niantic and other augmented reality game developers, game developer WarDucks has closed a $3.8 million funding round.

News: Angry Birds Returns to Its Mobile Roots with 'Isle of Pigs' Augmented Reality Game

After launching its first augmented reality title for Angry Birds on the Magic Leap One, Rovio has doubled back to the platform that made its franchise famous.

News: Mapbox Beta Gives Developers Tools for Integrating Augmented Reality into Car & Mobile Device Navigation Apps

Location services provider Mapbox is expanding the reach of its augmented reality development capabilities to include apps for automobiles as well as smartphone navigation.

News: Torch App Teams with 6D.Ai to Add Occlusion & Persistence to AR Creations

Over the past year, two trends have emerged among augmented reality development software: make it easier to create AR content, and give AR apps better environmental understanding with just a smartphone camera.

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: Puppetoon Promises to Give Your iPhone the Freedom to Create Augmented Reality Animations

Current-generation mobile augmented reality apps offer users numerous opportunities to punch up photos and videos with 3D content, but there's surprisingly few options for users to express themselves using virtual characters.

News: Spatiate Brings Multi-User Augmented Reality Painting to Magic Leap One

While painting in augmented reality is not a groundbreaking pursuit, the ability for Magic Leap One, iPhone and iPad, and Android users to collaborate remotely on virtual artwork would be.

News: Vuzix Strikes Reseller Partnership with Verizon for Enterprise Customers

It looks like it's cuffing season for AR hardware makers and telecommunications corporations. With AT&T aligned with Magic Leap as its exclusive wireless retailer on the high-end AR side, Verizon has also reached a master reseller agreement with Vuzix, according to a filing with the Securities Exchange Commission.

News: Epic Games Launches $100 Million Fund to Support 3D Experiences Created Using Unreal Engine

While some widely praised immersive computing initiatives at Google are shutting down, over at Epic Games things are just ramping up, and it involves quite a bit of cash available to indie augmented reality developers and startups alike.

News: Scope AR Snags $9.7 Million to Expand Its Enterprise Augmented Reality Platform

While the tech industries giants and eager startups chase the dream of widespread consumer augmented reality, enterprise AR is living the dream today.

News: Google Backs Mojo Vision's 'Invisible Computing' Augmented Reality Platform in $58 Million Funding Round

Four months have passed since Mojo Vision emerged from stealth, and we are no closer to seeing exactly what its "invisible computing" technology looks like.

News: Magic Leap & Weta Workshop Preview Multiplayer Mode for Dr. Grordbort's Invaders at GDC

Visitors to the Unity booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco will get a special augmented reality treat courtesy of Magic Leap and Weta Workshop.

News: Miller Lite & Trigger Global Turn St. Patrick's Day into an Augmented Reality Celebration

Every year, fans of Irish culture, as well as those looking to celebrate their own culture, come together on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

News: Meta Company Patent Lawsuit Update, Court Denies Startup's Request for More Time

In the latest update to the ongoing Meta Company patent infringement case, the court has responded to a request from the defendants, and the answer isn't good news.

News: Microsoft's HoloLens 2 Team Answers More Questions About Biometric Security, Audio, & Hand Tracking

Now that the dust has finally settled on Microsoft's big HoloLens 2 announcement, the company is circling back to offer more granular detail on some aspects of the device we still don't know about.

News: Christian Dior Fashion Fans Can Now Try on Sunglasses & Headbands via Augmented Reality on Instagram

Fashion brand Christian Dior is using augmented reality as a carrot to drive up their follower counts on Instagram.

News: Nreal Founder Explains Why Smartglasses Tethered to Smartphones Are the Future of Augmented Reality

If you've ever spent any serious time examining the Chinese tech startup world, you know that it moves fast — very fast. The tech startups hailing from Beijing and Shenzhen are moving so fast that they're now in serious competition with Silicon Valley.

News: Niantic Conjures Preview of Harry Potter Augmented Reality Game, Opens Pre-Registration on Google Play

While a release date for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has not yet materialized, co-developers Niantic and WB Games have finally released gameplay footage and an in-depth game description to whet the appetites of eager Harry Potter fans.

News: HBO Crowns Snapchat as King of Its 'Game of Thrones' Augmented Reality Promotion at SXSW

The hype for HBO's Game of Thrones reached proportions as epic as the series itself this week with the latest release of the final season's official trailer, but it's a Snapchat promotion that will truly make fans at SXSW bend the knee.

Market Reality: Microsoft's HoloLens 2 Team Speaks, Apple AR Glasses Update, Matterport Lands $48 Million

While the long awaited HoloLens sequel is scheduled to arrive later this year, Apple may force Microsoft to share the AR wearables spotlight, if reports of the company's first entry into smartglasses territory end up coming to fruition.

News: Apple to Start Augmented Reality Smartglasses Production Later This Year, Report Says

The Apple rumor mill is getting its first real workout of 2019, and this time the whispers are more exciting than usual.

News: Microsoft HoloLens 2 Team Interview — Inside the Specs, Design, & Future of Enterprise Augmented Reality

As I've mentioned in recent days, it was refreshing to discover that Microsoft's HoloLens 2 stage production was every bit as accurate as presented (check out my hands-on test of the device for more on that).

News: Microsoft to Debut HoloLens 2 Livestream Video Series with Demos, Updates, & Developer Info

To build hype for the HoloLens 2 among developers, Microsoft is borrowing a page out of Magic Leap's playbook.

News: Google & Actress Tilda Swinton Help CERN Tell the Story of the Big Bang in Augmented Reality

Every now and then, Hollywood has a moment where two (or more) movies arrive at around the same time, most recently with the release of dueling Fyre Festival documentaries.

News: Matterport Lands $48 Million Investment for 3D Content Capture Technology

The augmented reality industry has an insatiable lust for 3D content, which makes an investment of $48 million into Matterport a no-brainer for investors.

News: Google Turns Annual Android Partner Walk at MWC into Showcase for ARCore

Last week at Mobile World Congress 2019, Google put an augmented reality twist on its annual Android Partner Walk via its ARCore toolkit.

News: Meta Company Asks Court for More Time in Patent Infringement Lawsuit Case

The legal drama framing the closure of Meta Company continues even after the company's assets have been sold to a new owner.

Hands-On: Hands-On with Google Maps Walking AR Navigation Experiment, a Peek into Our Smartglasses Future

While Google isn't ready to commit to a wide release of the AR walking navigation mode for Google Maps, the company has begun testing the feature with members of its Local Guides crowdsourcing community.

Market Reality: As the HoloLens 2 Arrives, Magic Leap Aligns with SK Telecom & CNN

On Sunday, Microsoft did what everyone expected the company to do by unveiling the long awaited HoloLens 2.

News: Magic Leap & SK Telecom Seal Exclusive Wireless Partnership for South Korean Market

As Magic Leap continues to spread its influence in the US with the help of wireless carrier AT&T, the augmented reality startup is also working its way into East Asia.

Hands-On: Hands-On with the Nreal Light, Smartphone-Powered Augmented Reality Immersion

While Microsoft dominated the augmented reality news at this year's Mobile World Congress, a small AR startup we've covered in the past arrived in Barcelona, Spain, to unveil the next phase of its mission.

News: Magic Leap Reveals First of Developer Grant Winners & Promises More Recipients Amid Developer Complaints

Ten days after Magic Leap declared that it had selected the winners of its Independent Creators Program, the company has officially released an almost full list of grant recipients.

News: CNN Brings Its News Networks to Magic Leap One

News junkies who own the Magic Leap One received some good news on Thursday, as CNN has published an app for the headset to display the network's news coverage in augmented reality.

Hands-On: Hands-On with the HoloLens 2, the New Best Augmented Reality Experience You Can Get

In the last couple of days there's been a lot of speculation about the powers of Microsoft's HoloLens 2, but few have had a chance to get their hands on one to see if the company's claims live up to what HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman showed off on stage.

News: Microsoft's Azure Kinect Standalone Depth Sensor Powers Major Augmented Reality Improvements for $399

As the opening act to the grand unveiling of the long-awaited HoloLens 2 at Mobile World Congress Barcelona on Sunday, Microsoft showed off the standalone Azure Kinect time of flight sensor, which also happens to supply the improved human and environmental understanding capabilities of the next-generation augmented reality headset.