Augmented Reality News News

News: Snapchat Refocuses on Its Camera & AR Magic in New Marketing Push

With a fresh series of videos and a new webpage, Snapchat has composed an answer to its own question, "What is Snapchat?"

News: Snapchat's Easter Egg Hunt Showcases Potential for Branded Augmented Reality Games

Alongside the usual collection of holiday-themed Lenses, Snapchatters received an extra-special treat from Snapchat over the weekend—a world-spanning Easter egg hunt.

News: Magic Leap Teases Cross-Platform Augmented Reality Experiences with iOS Developer Job Posting

Why would Magic Leap, a company preparing to launch its first augmented reality headset this year, need a developer for iPhone and iPad apps? It's not as crazy as it sounds.

News: Meet the 8-Year-Old ARKit Developer Who Just Uploaded Her First Augmented Reality App to Apple's App Store

While you were busy browsing Instagram, composing tweets, or chasing Snapchat updates, an eight-year-old ARKit developer was hard at work on her first step toward taking over the tech world via augmented reality.

News: Apple's iOS 11.3 Update Arrives for All With AR Vertical Surface Detection via ARKit 1.5 for iPhones & iPads

If you have an ARKit-compatible iPhone or iPad, check for a software update, as iOS 11.3, with ARKit version 1.5 in tow, has just dropped. As we previously reported, ARKit 1.5 brings several new augmented reality features for app developers to use.

Dev Report: Microsoft's First HoloLens Update in Over a Year Now Available in Preview, Hints at Big Plans for 2018

After more than a year and a half of silence, the rumors have morphed into reality: Microsoft has finally released an update for the HoloLens. And with that update comes a collection of new features that hint at big plans for the HoloLens this year.

News: An Augmented Reality Game Brings the Monsters of The Rock's 'Rampage' to Your City Skyline

Given Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's blockbuster movie pedigree and the promotional power that usually accompanies his work, there's a certain predictable symmetry in the news that Rampage, a movie adaptation of the classic arcade game, has now become an augmented reality mobile app.

News: Niantic Defends Against App Clones with Quests & Mew Character for Pokémon GO

With the Google Maps API giving entertainment brands the means to build their own location-based AR games, Niantic is raising the bar for the genre with new updates to Pokémon GO.

News: Now You Can Bring NASA's Spacefaring Robots into Your Home via ARCore

Space might be the final frontier, but NASA is making a detour into augmented reality first. The Spacecraft AR app, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with Google, debuted exclusively for Android this week (an iOS version is also in the works).

News: Walmart Shoppers Can Now Use Their Smartphones to Become Marvel's Black Panther via Augmented Reality

Marvel and Walmart are looking to capitalize on the uber-successful Black Panther film with a mobile augmented reality app designed to push the franchise's merchandise.

News: Google Wants Everyone to Try Scribble Art in Augmented Reality

As part of its ARCore push this week, Google has promoted Just a Line from one-time AR experiment to a full-fledged app.

News: Magic Leap Resolves Legal Conflict with Former Security Director

Flying under the radar during Magic Leap's big week at the Game Developers Conference, the company settled a potentially ugly lawsuit with a former employee.

News: NY Times Brings Readers Closer to Bowie's Freaky Costumes in Augmented Reality

Continuing with its new paradigm of using augmented reality to cover the news, The New York Times has published a feature story that takes a peek into the late David Bowie's eclectic wardrobe of on-stage outfits.

News: Here's What Magic Leap's Creator Portal & Lumin SDK Docs Reveal About How You'll Develop for & Use Magic Leap One

Now that we've had a chance to jump into the Lumin SDK documentation at Magic Leap's Creator Portal, we now have much more detail about how the device will function and utilize software than any single piece of content released by Magic Leap to date.

News: Google Opens ARCore Floodgates with AR Section on Play Store & Exclusive AR Apps from eBay, Lowe's & Jet.com

In the weeks following Google's AR toolkit launch last month, the availability of quality ARCore apps has been somewhat limited. That changed on Tuesday, as a flurry of new and updated apps arrived on the Play Store, including some AR experiences available exclusively on Android.

News: Google Debuts an ARCore Exclusive with Curate App from Sotheby's International Realty

Just weeks after officially launching its mobile augmented reality toolkit, Google can now claim one of its first Android and ARCore app exclusives with the Curate app from Sotheby's International Realty.

News: Resolution Games Ports Popular Fishing Game from VR to Augmented Reality

Having pushed more than two million downloads of its Bait! game for the Gear VR and Daydream platforms, VR developer Resolution Games is bringing the virtual fishing fun to augmented reality.

News: Makers of Ghostbusters World Scare Up Sneak Peek of Gameplay Footage

Sony's Ghost Corps, the caretaker of the Ghostbusters franchise, just released some pre-alpha gameplay footage from the upcoming Ghostbusters World location-based AR game to whet the appetites of would-be hunters of the paranormal.

News: Creator Portal Confirms Magic Leap One Runs on Nvidia Tegra Chip

While much of the technical specifications of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition still remain a mystery, some clues to its internals are hidden among the guides in the now freely-accessible Creator Portal.

News: Unity, Unreal Engine & Mozilla Partner with Magic Leap as SDK Rolls Out to Developers

Following the surprise release of Magic Leap's SDK on Monday, March 19, Unity, Unreal Engine, and Mozilla followed up by announcing official partnerships with the company.

News: How 'Ready Player One' Used Microsoft's HoloLens to Help Build Its VR Cinematic Universe

A funny thing happened on the way to the release of the virtual reality epic Ready Player One — augmented reality grabbed a major piece of the spotlight. Specifically, Microsoft's HoloLens.

News: Magic Leap Opens Creator Portal & SDK to Developers

Magic Leap has reached a major milestone in the lead-up to the launch of its Magic Leap One: Creator Edition by opening access to its developer portal and software development kit (SDK) to all developers.

News: Apple May Bring TrueDepth Camera to More iPhone Models & iPad Pro This Year, Analyst Says

Apple's TrueDepth camera made its debut in the premium-priced iPhone X late last year, and since then, the reviews have been pretty positive. Now, Apple might be preparing to make the Animoji-friendly sensors available in more iPhones, as well as the iPad Pro, later this year.

News: Magic Leap Filings Point to 'Magic Shop' Branding for Online Store, L.E.A.P. Creator Conference Event

Magic Leap's recent flurry of patent applications prompted us to look around for any trademark movements from the company, and it turns out that the Florida-based company has been quite busy.

News: Ex-Magic Leap Employee Files Lawsuit Alleging Shady Hiring Practices

The legal travails of Magic Leap appear to have no end in sight, as a lawsuit filed by an ex-employee further threatens to dampen the startup's 2018 launch.

News: Magic Leap Patent Details Spatial Audio That Changes Based on Users' Head Movements

Just days after Bose did its best to frame a pair of glasses frames with spatial audio as "augmented reality," a patent application from Magic Leap, surfaced on Thursday, March 15, offers a similar idea, but with real AR included.

News: Magic Leap Patent Reveals Plans for Sign Language & Text Translation App

Another piece of Magic Leap's mysterious story has been uncovered thanks to a new patent application revealed on Thursday, March 15.

News: Developer Brings Street Fighter into Real World as Multiplayer Augmented Reality Mobile Game

The guy who recreated Super Mario Bros. as a first-person obstacle course is back with an augmented reality take on another classic game.

News: Magic Leap's Neal Stephenson Reveals What It's Like to Create Content for the Secretive Startup

Getting an insider view of the goings-on at Magic Leap is hard to come by, but occasionally, the company lets one of its leaders offer a peek at what's happening at the famously secretive augmented reality startup. One of those opportunities came up a few days ago when Magic Leap's chief futurist and science fiction novelist, Neal Stephenson, sat for an extended interview at the MIT Media Lab.

News: 'Walking Dead' AR Game Powered by Google Maps Coming This Summer, Gameplay Footage Released

Ever since the announcement of The Walking Dead: Our World game last fall, publisher AMC and developer Next Games have been quiet about the title. Almost too quiet.

News: Apple's WWDC Invite Tells Us That 2018 Edition Will Be All About Augmented Reality

Historically, Apple loves to drop hints about its major upcoming events through clues included on its invitations. Those invites usually require a good bit of deciphering to connect the dots, but in the case of Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2018 invite, the topic is immediately obvious: it's augmented reality.

News: Capital One Introduces AR Features to Ease the Car-Buying Experience

If you're playing word association with the terms "augmented reality" and "automobiles," your first thoughts probably center on navigation displays in cars or virtual models of exotic vehicles.

News: Facebook Debuts Image Recognition in Camera AR with 'Ready Player One' & 'A Wrinkle in Time' Poster Promos

Despite the wide availability of markerless augmented reality experiences for mobile devices, there is still a market for scanned triggers for content, as evidenced by the new image recognition capabilities on Facebook's Camera AR platform.

Apple AR: PGA Tour AR App Lets You Follow Golfers Live on Your Coffee Table

If you're a golf fan who can't attend the Arnold Palmer Invitational in person, you can still follow the next stop on the apparent Tiger Woods comeback tour in augmented reality with an iPhone or iPad.

News: Magic Leap Producer Interview Gives Rare Insight into Company's Culture Before Disappearing from the Web

In what's becoming something of a regular occurrence, Magic Leap has yet another internal, unforced error on its hands. Thankfully, this time it's not about legal skirmishes or theft, but a rather unusual break from company protocol that has been quickly swept under the rug.

News: Red Cross AR App Takes You Deep into the Life of a Child Plagued by International Warfare

Next to things like natural disasters and disease, the specter of war is one of the only things that threatens to derail the 21st century's long stretch of technological innovation. Now a new app is using augmented reality to remind us of that by focusing on those most impacted by war — children.

News: Intel Labs Chief Reveals the Secrets to Taking Augmented Reality Mainstream

Because augmented reality is still so new to so many people, there are a number of would-be experts opining online, often repeating basic facts anyone with a spare 15 minutes can find on their own. That's why it's important to point out when someone delivers what could be considered the ultimate cheat sheet for ramping up your AR IQ if you're unfamiliar with the finer points of the space.

News: Magic Leap Teams with Royal Shakespeare Company to Reinvent Modern Theater Productions

All the cash Magic Leap is amassing is probably going a long way toward hardware development and manufacturing, but it's also becoming increasingly clear that a large portion of that cash will be devoted to content. The latest proof is a new partnership between Magic Leap and the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

News: Yahoo! Japan's Maps App Unveils AR Mode with an Unbearably Cute Mascot to Guide the Way

Whenever Japan does something new in tech, the cute factor is almost always taken into account. The same holds true for augmented reality, as Yahoo! Japan has just revealed its take on AR map navigation with a new AR Mode.

News: Magic Leap Confirms Massive New $461 Million Investment from Saudi Investors & Others

Just a week after rumors surfaced of a massive new investment in Magic Leap led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the investment has been confirmed by the company's CEO Rony Abovitz.