iOS: Augmented reality feels a little gimmicky — there are only so many games you can play on your coffee table, monsters you can drop into your backyard, and items you can sort-of measure. However, augmented reality apps that are thoughtful in their approach, such as Fields, are incredibly fun to play with.
iOS/Android: The second everyone started talking about this crazy new smartphone feature called "augmented reality", I thought two things: Most AR apps and games are going to be gimmicky and I sure hope someone makes a great measuring app, because I keep misplacing my tape measure.
While most of us think hard about spending $2 in the App Store, Apple has splashed about $400M to buy music matching service Shazam. While the app is really popular, the tech behind it is really the goose that Apple wants, as it adds the golden egg of AI to their Siri and Apple Music baskets.
iOS: I still think augmented-reality goggles are the future. Yes, Google Glass was creepy and off-putting, and yes, Snapchat Spectacles tanked, but as I crick my neck after a morning commute spent staring down at my phone, I feel nostalgic for the promise of a heads-up display that replaces my phone's most mundane functions. Especially navigation, the most ridiculous task to accomplish by burying my head in a device. And the iOS 11 app HotStepper reminds me just how fun AR navigation could be.
I spend a lot of my day reading in order to understand what's going on in the tech world. Among the big megatrends that are emerging as critical areas, augmented reality (AR) is shaping up to be one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century. But the hype is far from the reality.
Google I/O is the search and advertising giant's annual shindig for developers. This year, you could tick a few items off your buzzword bingo cards as they made a number of big announcements about mobile, security, AI - even Gmail received some love. Here are a few of the key announcements.
Facebook's annual F8 developer conference is in progress, in San Jose, with the social media giant spreading its wings further with a bunch of new business and enterprise products and features announced. While bots aren't new to Messenger, they will be easier to find. And Workplace, Facebook's business collaboration platform, will come with a free mode.
Perhaps you never thought of a sandbox as a piece of technology or a learning tool, but with a little work it can be both. Developer Oliver Kreylos and her team at UC Davis utilised the Microsoft Kinect to turn a sandbox into an auto-updating topographical map. And you can build one, too.
