Next Reality

News: Bentley Concept Car Gets Its Own Augmented Reality App, but the Price of Admission Is Steep, Sort Of

When it comes to building luxury cars, Bentley certainly knows what it's doing. However, when it comes to building an AR app, Bentley is looking less Continental GT and more Geo Metro.

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.

News: Mad Gaze Joins China's Consumer Smartglasses Gold Rush with Glow Wearable

It appears that the floodgates of consumer-grade augmented reality smartglasses from China are now open, with Mad Gaze being the latest company to rush its product through.

News: Hollywood Taps into Tech Paranoia Around Augmented Reality in 'Auggie'

Ever since Skynet took over the world in the Terminator film franchise, a large segment of the world's population has feared artificial intelligence.

News: Crypto Startup WAX Offers Blockchain-Based Collectables That Can Displayed in AR via Terra Virtua App

Increasingly, cutting-edge platforms like blockchain technology and augmented reality are overlapping, forging new digital frontiers that promise to change the way we interact with the virtual and the real world.

News: Judge Issues Permanent Injunction Against Meta Company & Founder in Patent Lawsuit, Prevents Sales of Meta 2 AR Headset

It was a long time coming, but we finally have a meaningful conclusion to the legal case against augmented reality startup Meta Company.

News: Facebook Opens Spark AR Beta for Instagram to All Creators, Intros Effect Gallery for Browsing AR Experiences

With Snapchat making the leap into the smartglasses realm, Facebook had to find a way to try and steal its competitor's augmented reality thunder.

News: Startup Light Field Lab Lands $28 Million in Funding from Samsung, Verizon, & Comcast for Holographic Displays

The venture arms of Samsung and Verizon Ventures, along with Comcast, are among the strategic investors backing startup Light Field Lab and its glasses-free holographic displays in a $28 million Series A funding round

News: Snoop Dogg Becomes Snapchat AR Character for His Latest Record

He might be an O.G. rapper, but Snoop Dogg has officially entered the cutting-edge of technology via a hidden feature included with his newest music release.

News: Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture Demonstrates the Future of Music Videos via Volumetric Capture

Video may have killed the radio star, but will volumetric capture and augmented reality kill the video star?

News: ReplayAR Anchors Your Photos in Real-World Locations So You Can View Them in AR Later

Imagine sitting on your patio, scrolling through your phone's photos, reminiscing about the past. Now imagine being able to see those photos floating in the air, at the exact vantage point from where they were taken a year ago.

News: YouTube Unleashes First AR Makeup Try-On Tool with Mac Cosmetics

While Modiface, YouCam, and others have been playing in the virtual make-up marketing pool for a while, here comes Google ready to splash down with a cannonball.

News: Snap Finally Enters AR Smartglasses Territory with Spectacles 3

After teasing what smartglasses powered by Snapchat might look like with two product cycles of camera glasses, Snap has now added augmented reality capabilities to its third take on Spectacles.

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: India Telecom Giant Reliance Jio Partners with Startup Tesseract to Bring Augmented Reality Headsets to the Home

We already know that major players like Magic Leap have been planting the seeds of augmented reality for mainstream consumers through wireless partnerships with AT&T, NTT Docomo, SK Telecom.

News: Younique Joins Growing AR Makeup Try-On Market by Launching Web-Based App

Now that some of the best-known beauty brands are leveraging augmented reality to market and sell products, the rest of the market is beginning to catch up — fast. The latest competitor to add AR to its arsenal is direct sales makeup company Younique.

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: Samsung Elevates Galaxy Note 10+ with Depth Camera for 3D Scanning & Augmented Reality Apps

The mobile augmented reality war for dominance between Apple and its Asia-based rivals is in full effect.

News: 5 Magic Leap Apps You're Probably Missing, Including Star Wars, the Magicverse Matrix, AR Jenga, & More

Whenever the name Magic Leap comes up, the talk inevitably seems to turn to the company's big-name backers and "unicorn-level" amounts of cash poured into the venture. And if it's not that, observers tend to focus on the company's market strategy and overall prospects.

News: Startup Tilt Five Preps Kickstarter Launch for AR Gaming Glasses, Plans to Ship Product by December

Augmented reality gaming startup Tilt Five is ready to reinvent old school Dungeons & Dragons-style games for the modern age with its augmented reality headset and tabletop game system.

News: Facebook Creates 'Virtual Wing' Art Exhibit at the Tate Museum in London, Powered by Spark AR

Ever since Facebook announced Spark AR at the 2017 F8 Developer's Conference, the social media giant has been looking for ways to implement its mobile augmented reality camera platform in the lives of everyday users.

Market Reality: Magic Leap App Makes Waves, Norm Glasses Push Smartglass Future, & Facebook's Mind-Powered Controllers

When it comes to the business of augmented reality, companies that aren't already introducing new products or apps are focused on producing the AR technology of the future. But in the realm of real products and apps, Magic Leap continues to show off what its headset can do, this time via a new app that transports users to the ocean's depths.

News: Microsoft FCC Filing Hints That the Wait for HoloLens 2 Is Almost Over

We know that Microsoft's HoloLens 2 is due to start shipping later this year, but despite the trickle of news about the device, we still don't know when.

News: Slipknot & Guns N' Roses AR Masks on Facebook's AR Camera Let Fans Virtually Wear the Music Experience

While Snapchat augmented reality often embraces pop stars like Drake and Ariana Grande, a couple of bands from the louder side of the music industry have found a home with Facebook.

News: Amazon Sumerian Gains Support for Physically-Based Rendering & Product Templates

Thanks to a new update to Amazon Sumerian, developers will now be able to not only create more realistic 3D content, but also build AR experiences more easily.

News: Snapchat Turns Jack in the Box Augmented Reality Experience into a Build-a-Burger Contest

Fast-food chain Jack in the Box has decided to put an augmented reality twist on the traditional sweepstakes promotion by employing the immersive powers of Snapchat.

News: Microsoft Discontinuing Major OS Updates for HoloLens 1

With HoloLens 2 (hopefully) just around the corner, Microsoft has announced that it will no longer be providing any major operating system updates to the original HoloLens.

News: Facebook's Brain Control Interface Research Could Eventually Produce Thought-Controlled AR Wearables

Who's ready to let future Facebook augmented reality smartglasses read their brain? Well, ready or not, the tech giant is making progress in the area of brain control interfaces (BCI) by funding research.

News: Zynga Debuts Pagini Hypercar in Augmented Reality via CSR 2 Mobile Game

Already among the first game makers to add augmented reality content to an existing game upon the launch of ARKit, Zynga is breaking new ground with mobile AR once again.

News: Apple's [AR]T Walk Brings Contemporary AR Art Installations to the Streets of Major Cities

In recent years, augmented reality has increasingly helped to take art off museum walls and bring it (virtually) into people's homes and communities, offering new perspectives on classic pieces and modern creations alike.

News: Startup Human Capable's 'Norm Glasses' AR Smartglasses Are Like Google Glass in a Regular Pair of Shades

What if, back in 2013, Google Glass had launched not as a Star Trek Borg-like eyepiece, but as a pair of seemingly normal shades, with the augmented reality lens and camera hidden within the frame?

Hands-On: Hands-On with Magic Leap's Undersea, an AR Experience That Transports You to Another World

The latest immersive production from Magic Leap Studios finally got its debut on Monday at Siggraph, during which the company also released the app to the general public, so we took it for a spin.

News: Google Challenges Apple's iPhone X Series with Face Unlock & Air Gestures on Pixel 4

It's been almost two years since Apple added the TrueDepth depth-sensing camera of the iPhone X for Face ID and Animojis, but now Google is ready to upgrade the front-facing camera on its Pixel series.

News: US Navy Using Magic Leap AR Technology to Improve Warfare Training

In recent years, the US military has been utilizing augmented reality as a training tool, giving officers and soldiers an opportunity to train and hone their decision-making, tactical efforts, and weapons accuracy via virtual scenarios.

News: Adobe Previews Stationary Augmented Reality Display Called Project Glasswing

It appears that the Project Aero 3D content development tool isn't the only augmented reality project that Adobe has in the works.

Market Reality: Magic Leap One Tested as Office Companion, Nreal Releases SDK, & Apple Files for AR Navigation Patent

Now that we've had our hands on the Magic Leap One for almost a year and early adopter developers have had the opportunity to publish apps for the AR headset, it's time to see how it stands up against the rigors of a day at the office. We did just that, and we wrote about it!

News: AR Puzzle Game PuzzlAR Makes Jump from Smartphone to Magic Leap One

Augmented reality jigsaw puzzle game PuzzlAR: World Tour, formerly only available on mobile devices, has been given a major upgrade via a new version for the Magic Leap One.

News: Magic Leap's New Overture App & Background Music Service Hope to Bring Music into Your AR Workspace

The mystery surrounding Overture, an app that showed up in the Magic Leap World app store along with the latest Lumin software release, has been cleared up.

News: Apple's Latest Patent Proposes Augmented Reality Navigation for Cars via Mobile Device

With Google taking on the sidewalks with augmented reality walking navigation for Google Maps, Apple has its sights set on the road.

News: I Spent a Full Day Working in the Magic Leap One & Discovered the AR Office of the Future

Why do you need augmented reality? Because enterprise, they say. And while that's certainly true for several disciplines, there's still that mainstream use case hanging out there waiting for users to discover beyond the realm of enterprise and gaming.