Apple’s big push into augmented reality will grow even greater with the powerful new hardware packed into iPhone X. The device is expected to bring new camera technologies that, combined with iOS 11, make AR experiences even greater.
Yet another analyst is warning that this year’s big iPhone 8 upgrade will launch late, but they promise it will be worth the wait.
Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty has told investors that the device won’t be available until October, rather than September, but it will bring “the most meaningful feature and technology upgrades in iPhone’s history.”
Apple will pack lasers into the iPhone 8 to deliver improved augmented reality and autofocus, according to a new report. One source says that the rear-facing sensor will provide better depth perception in ARKit apps, and sharper photos.
Developers are already finding some incredible uses for ARKit that will change the way we do things with our iPhone. In the impressive concept below, one product designer shows how awesome AR maps could be used by Airbnb to show guests around their accommodation.
Not convinced about how augmented reality has the opportunity to improve our apps? Then check out a couple of neat demos of Apple’s ARKit, the AR toolkit Apple showed off at WWDC to allow “fast and stable motion tracking” for augmented reality apps.
Between them, they depict how you’ll soon be able to use your iPhone as a tape measure by pointing your device at an object or scene, tapping two points on it, and then accurately measuring the distance between them.
Check them out below.
This year’s WWDC keynote was an early Christmas for Apple fans. It delivered the big updates to iOS, macOS, and watchOS we were eagerly anticipating; a 10.5-inch iPad Pro; updated Macs with Intel Kaby Lake processors, plus nice surprises like the iMac Pro and HomePod.
But is this Apple back at its best, or do we need more out of Cupertino? Are fancy software updates enough to breathe new life into boring hardware? Is Apple’s new push into virtual reality and machine learning too little, too late?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over a bumper WWDC!
New clues about prototype products Apple is currently testing may have just been revealed by leaked documents originating from Apple’s Cupertino campus.
A report on Apple compiled by an Environment Health and Safety contractor has reportedly leaked online today. Inside the report are over 70 different incidents that occurred on the campus. Most of the incidents in the report are fairly ordinary, but a couple entries hint at Apple developing augmented reality glasses.
Apple hasn’t done much with the Smart Connector since it debuted on the iPad Pro in 2015, but according to a new rumor, the data and charging port could finally be headed to the iPhone.
Facebook has reportedly hired a 15-year Apple veteran to head up its Oculus VR division’s hardware team.
Michael Hillman worked on multiple major projects at Apple, including as lead designer with the iMac team. At Facebook he’s being charged with helping to take the company’s virtual reality mainstream.
A stunning new iPhone 8 concept imagines what it would be like if Siri could use AR to interact with the real world.
Apple “may have over 1,000 engineers working on a project in Israel that could be related” to augmented reality, claims UBS analyst Steven Milunovich in a new note to clients.
Because of this, Milunovich suggests that Apple is viewing AR as one of the next big areas of tech innovation. One possible application could be, “moderate 3D mapping” which might arrive as soon as this year’s iPhone upgrade — along with an AR software development kit.
We’re all expecting Apple to deliver something spectacular for the iPhone’s tenth anniversary next year, but what comes after that? According to some analysts, it will be a “decade-long malaise” that will cause Apple to fall.
We’d play this game in a heartbeat, especially if it can bust video games into our living rooms in such a realistic way.
Putting on a typical virtual reality (VR) headset like an Oculus Rift can be disorienting at first, as VR tends to shut you out of the real world and into a, well, virtual one. Augmented reality, like you might find with Google Glass, for example, tends to place the digital world into the real one.
This Sulon Q looks like a VR rig, but lets you see the real world through it, with some digital overlay to make the fantasy of a video game look like it’s in the same place as you are.
In the video below, you’ll see a demo of a Jack and the Beanstalk game which starts out in the Sulon offices, but then things get fantastic fast as the giant beanstalk finds its way upward to the sky.
Check it out and thrill along with us.
Apple has finalized an acquisition for the augmented reality company Metaio in a move that could soon bring the German firm’s AR tech to iOS and other Apple devices.
Metaio, which specializes in creating augmented reality tools for other businesses as well as other computer vision solutions, mysteriously announced last night that it would stop selling its services, but filings with the German government reveal that the company has transferred all of its shares over to Apple.
Take a look at their incredible tech in action:
Back In The Day™, when men were men, cars were cars and boys were forced to work to support their families before their stupid brains were even half developed, we fixed automobiles by kicking their tires and sucking our teeth.
Fast forward to the Space Year 2013 and cars now repair themselves. All you have to do is take it to a repair shop, where they plug it into a computer which sucks the money from your bank account while you take a spin in a “courtesy” car.
But what if you want to tinker? If you own a Ford and an iPad, and don’t mind getting your hands (literally) dirty, then you’ll be happy to hear that there’s a (concept) app for that.
This is a rather specialized iPhone case, but if you’re, say, an interior designer or even just a fan of the color scheme of the end-of-level doors on first-person shooters, you’re going to love it.
The case comes from Incipio, and it turns your iPhone into a virtual tape measure.
My parents never let me play with them as a kid because they were afraid I’d get shot by a trigger-happy cop, which is perhaps why, to this day, I get a little giddy when I hear or read the words “LAZER TAG,” and feel myself ethereally tugged away — John Carter like — to a distant world where I am a member of the Lazer Team, policing the galaxy for perps who can be non-violently terminated by aiming my ray gun at the conveniently placed sensors strapped to their back, head and torso.
So when I saw that Hasbro has just announced the next update of their Lazer Tag guns — and that these sets actually use an iPhone or iPod touch as an augmented reality display and HUD — I immediately got excited, then disappointed as I remembered my parents wouldn’t let me have one. But wait! I’m an adult now, and as an adult, I can wave around as many plastic toy guns as I want! Hooray!
It’s no secret that the iPad 2 should open the floodgates of the augmented reality experience — and here’s another example of what the iPad 2 can do with AR.
No doubt in anticipation of Yuri’s Night, Vito Technology has just released an AR-equipped version of their venerable star-watching iPad app, Star Walk ($5). Just hold the screen up to the sky and the app will superimpose constellations and all sorts of other info onto a realtime image of the sky being viewed through the iPad 2’s camera. And that’s on top of all the other cool features, like a satellite tracker, night mode and a time-machine function that lets you see what the sky looks like on any given day or time.
Still saving for an iPad 2? That’s ok, the iPhone version has the same features (but not the awesomeness of the iPad’s giant screen), and it’s on sale for a buck till April 12 — which, not coincidentally, is Yuri’s Night.
Bargain-hunting just got more interesting — Metaio has added yet another augmented-reality channel to their AR iPhone app, Junaio. This time they’ve partnered with eBay and created a channel that lets users scan their surroundings for deals in eBay Classifieds, itself a newish, local version of eBay.
It works just like any other Junaio channel; looking around through the iPhone with the eBay channel switched on will, in this case, display local eBay Classifieds listings — apartment buildings will show unit listings superimposed, shops might show discounted stuff available, etc. The channel is also searchable by keyword.
This prototype iPhone nav system mounts on standard bike helmets to help get cyclists where they’re going. Devised by Tokyo iPhone app developers Ubiquitous Entertainment, it runs on an original app that in addition to using the iPhone’s compass and GPS maps can also receive push notifications from Twitter (via TwitBird Pro) or phone calls with A2DP.
The head mounted device (HMD) is retractable, and as you might expect, the screen is a little jiggly during ride. Test cyclist Sho checked out the map while stopped or at traffic lights, not while pedaling. The HMD was so light it was secured with scotch tape; in later trials the iPhone was stuck in a pocket to avoid potential tumbles from the helmet.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1AzailvJB0
As an urban biker sick of pulling out maps or trying to check Google maps on my phone, I love this idea, though I would stick to keeping the phone in a pocket to avoid worry about someone snatching it and the perils of sudden showers.
Via Make
