Next Reality News
News: E-Commerce Gets an Augmented Reality Upgrade for Mobile Web Platforms from Vertebrae & Shopify
Two companies armed with web-based augmented reality tools, Vertebrae and Shopify, are ready to help online retailers boost their sales.
News: In a Major Hit to Apple, Rovio to Launch Angry Birds in AR for Magic Leap
Considering Rovio Entertainment quite literally owes its existence to Apple and the App Store, it may ruffle a few feathers that the company has opted to aim the augmented reality debut of its blockbuster Angry Birds franchise at Magic Leap instead.
News: Auto AR Tech Company WayRay Sets Its Sights on Unicorn Status with $80M Funding Round Led by Porsche
Automotive augmented reality company WayRay has set its destination for a $1 billion valuation with an estimated time of arrival of 2019, and it has just passed a major milestone towards that goal.
News: Illumix Emerges from Stealth with $8.6 Million in Funding to Build a Mobile AR Gaming Platform from the Ground Up
Apple often cites its tight integration of hardware and software for its success. Startup Illumix is looking to do the same thing for AR gaming by building an AR platform for its apps.
News: 10 New AR Features in iOS 12 for iPhone & iPad
Apple's iOS 12 has finally landed. The big update appeared for everyone on Monday, Sept. 17, and hiding within are some pretty amazing augmented reality upgrades for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. We've been playing with them ever since the iOS 12 beta launched in June, and here are the things we learned that you'll want to know about.
News: Young Developers Are the Future of AR — This 11-Year-Old Has Already Created 2 AR Apps
While most kids his age are busy playing Fortnite, 11-year-old Yumo Soerianto is developing augmented reality games. Kids like Soerianto are the future of the augmented reality field — they'll likely be coming into their own as professional developers right as AR technologies become lightweight and powerful enough to be contained in a pair of sunglasses.
News: USA Today Turns to Augmented Reality to Tell the Story of Corruption in Chicago
To punch up the launch of its new podcast, USA Today has created an augmented reality experience to introduce listeners to the story of corruption in Chicago.
Market Reality: Tim Cook Tops NR30 Mobile AR Leaders, Magic Leap Expands, & Snap Exec Departs
Cited by many listed on this year's NR30 list as the most important event in the last 12 months, last year's release of ARKit catapulted Apple CEO Tim Cook to the top of Next Reality's rankings. This week, we dug deeper by explaining why he's at the top of the list of NR30 Mobile AR leaders.
News: Magic Leap L.E.A.P. Conference Speakers Announced, Includes Celebrities & a Major Tech Partner
Applicants looking to attend Magic Leap's first annual L.E.A.P. conference next month in Los Angeles have begun receiving their confirmation invitations, and now we have more detail about some of what will happen at the event.
News: This Android App Lets You Search for Specific Words in Books & Documents via Augmented Reality
One of the neatest tricks available in Google Lens, an app that can identify and interpret real world information, is the ability to copy text from the app's camera view and paste it into a digital document.
News: Verizon Is Giving Away the iPhone XS via Snapchat AR Scavenger Hunt
Now that the iPhone XS is officially available for pre-order, Verizon and Apple are giving Snapchat users the opportunity to win the device through an augmented reality scavenger hunt rather than forking over $1,000 for one.
News: The Weather Channel Uses Broadcast AR to Warn Residents in the Path of Hurricane Florence
If you've gone anywhere near a television in the US in the last 48 hours, you've probably seen some of the reports of Hurricane Florence and its devastating wind and rain making its way toward the Carolina coast.
News: Mobile AR Apps Can Now Track Any Surface Using Plane Detection via Wikitude SDK
In the latest update to its augmented reality platform, Wikitude has introduced new plane detection capabilities that can anchor virtual content to surfaces at any orientation.
NR30: The Mobile AR Leaders of 2018
This time last year, we got our first taste of what mobile app developers could do in augmented reality with Apple's ARKit. Most people had never heard of Animojis. Google's AR platform was still Tango. Snapchat introduced its World Lens AR experiences. Most mobile AR experiences existing in the wild were marker-based offerings from the likes of Blippar and Zappar or generic Pokémon GO knock-offs.
News: NBA Star Steve Nash & Classic Galaga Game Come to AR to Show Off ARKit 2.0 as Apple Unveils New iPhone Lineup
On Wednesday, as expected, Apple unveiled the next generation of iPhones, namely the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max along with the more affordable iPhone XR, each equipped with a TrueDepth sensor.
News: Niantic Begins Accepting Nominations for PokéStops in Pokémon GO
Augmented reality gaming developer Niantic has decided to give its players the opportunity to make their mark on Pokémon GO with a PokéStop nomination system.
News: Magic Leap Expands to Switzerland with New Optics Center, Reveals More About Seattle Facility
Facing mixed reviews for the Magic Leap One, Magic Leap has already returned to the lab to improve on the device's successor.
News: 8th Wall Beats Google & Apple to Market with an AR Platform for Web
Google and Apple are working to enable augmented reality content for the web, but startup 8th Wall has managed to launch a web AR platform that works on mobile browsers now.
News: Meta Company's Funding Fallout Followed by Furloughs, Report Says
After a $20 million funding round fell through, augmented reality headset maker Meta Company has been forced to furlough (or place on temporary leave of absence) approximately 65% of its workforce for 30 days.
News: Exec Shuffle — Snapchat Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan Resigns, Lampix Marketing VP Gordon Meyer Exits
In an SEC filing published on Monday, Snap, the company behind Snapchat, disclosed that Imran Khan, its chief strategy officer and a member of the NR30, is leaving the company to "pursue other opportunities."
News: KLM Packs AR Suitcase into iPhone App to Help Passengers Check Luggage
Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) is making it easier for its passengers to travel by employing an incredibly practical new augmented reality feature included an update to its iOS app.
Market Reality: Apple, Snapchat, Magic Leap, & Unity Demonstrate Why They Make Up Top 4 of the NR30
This week, Next Reality published its annual feature on the leaders in the augmented reality industry, the Next Reality 30. So it's no coincidence that the companies represented in the top four spots of the NR30 also made business headlines in AR this week.
News: Warner Bros. Conjures 'The Nun' Snapchat AR Lens to Scare Up Ticket Sales
The latest sponsored augmented reality experience on Snapchat from a movie studio might be its scariest — and perhaps most popular — yet.
News: 3D Scanning App for iPhone Makes Capturing & Sharing AR Content as Easy as Taking a Picture
Augmented reality app developer Laan Labs has shared a preview of a beta app that achieves 3D scanning with just an iPhone and produces highly-detailed models for sharing with others.
News: First Truly Mainstream, Hit Augmented Reality App May Arrive Through Advertising, Says Unity CEO
Despite the launch of ARKit a year ago, and ARCore this year, a true killer app has not arrived for either platform, that's according to the head honcho for one of the leading development environments for 3D applications.
News: 7-Eleven Puts Augmented Reality in the Game to Attract Football Fans
Not content to let NFL's official pizza sponsor corner the market for feeding football fans, 7-Eleven has taken a page out of Pizza Hut's playbook with a promotional augmented reality game.
News: Turn the Sky into a Shared Canvas with This Fun Augmented Reality App
While we've seen Snapchat apply sky segmentation to AR content, the makers of the Blue Sky Paint app have applied similar capabilities to create and share airborne art.
News: Magic Leap Teams with Andy Serkis Effects Studio Imaginarium for New AR Experience
The critics of Magic Leap have been circling for a couple of weeks now, but that isn't stopping the company from pushing forward with major new partnerships. The latest Magic Leap tie-up is with none other than motion capture actor Andy Serkis and his UK-based The Imaginarium Studios.
News: Model Ashley Graham Struts Through Augmented Reality via 3D Capture by the New York Times
Traditional media institution The New York Times continues to break new ground in its augmented reality news coverage, this time with a 3D volumetric capture of model Ashley Graham.
NR30: Next Reality's 30 People to Watch in Augmented Reality in 2018
Welcome to the first annual Next Reality 30, our list of people who've made the biggest impact on the augmented reality space in the last 12 months — and what a 12-month roller-coaster ride it's been. Apple introduced ARKit-powered apps last fall, Google launched ARCore for Android soon after, Snapchat began monetizing AR, and the Magic Leap One headset finally came out. These are historic times.
News: Snap Shows Us the Future of AR Smartglasses Through New Styles of Spectacles 2 Camera Glasses
While they don't do augmented reality just yet, the latest styles of Snapchat's Spectacles 2 camera glasses serve as a peek into the future of how mainstream AR wearables may look.
News: Former Apple iPhone Engineer Explains Why He Thinks Augmented Reality Is the Future of Mobile
Any little bit of new light shed on Apple's rumored augmented reality plans is irresistible, and the latest comes from a fairly powerful source — a former Apple engineer who worked on the iPhone.
News: Pizza Hut Teams Up with NFL for Scannable Pizza Boxes & Augmented Reality Beanbag Game
After parting ways with Papa John's, the National Football League has drafted Pizza Hut as its official pizza purveyor, and the company has hit the field with an augmented reality game to entertain hungry football fans.
News: ARKit App WiARframe Wants to Be the Destination for AR Prototyping & Discovery
A new app for iPhones and iPads gives developers a sandbox for testing their AR experiences and sharing them with the world.
News: Samsung Sends Family Guy into Augmented Reality to Showcase Connected Home Products
On Friday, at IFA 2018 in Berlin, Samsung invited attendees into the residence of Family Guy's Griffin family to learn all about its "smart home" products via augmented reality.
Market Reality: AR Display Companies Cash in as Apple Acquires Akonia & Avegant Closes $12M in Funding
For the augmented reality hardware industry to progress towards the consumer segment, display technology needs to get better. Investors recognize that, and they are showing AR display makers the money.
News: Magic Leap Releases Helio Experiments Demos, Finally Gives Us the Infamous AR Whale
You want whales? Ok, you'll get whales! That seems to be the unspoken message from Magic Leap via its latest update in the form of several new experiments posted inside its Helio app.
News: VR Veteran Jaunt Develops Portable 3D Capture Service for Volumetric Augmented Reality Content
Better known among consumers for its virtual reality apps, Jaunt is now pivoting toward solutions for augmented reality developers.
News: World of Tanks App Lets You Relive Military Battles in Augmented Reality
Despite the popularity of Pokémon GO, augmented reality gaming hasn't quite caught on yet. The makers of the popular World of Tanks game aren't taking a shot at Niantic's crown yet, but they are looking at giving spectators a new way to watch the game.
News: Apple's Focus on Smartglasses Becomes Clearer with Acquisition of AR Display Maker
While Apple may not be ready to divulge its roadmap for shipping its rumored augmented reality headset, the company's actions tell us a different story.