Help me, George Clooney. You’re my only hope. If that mash-up of cultural references doesn’t make sense, it will momentarily. To promote The Midnight Sky, the new film starring George Clooney and dropping via Netflix on December 23 (Happy Festivus), the streaming studio is launching an augmented reality experience that gives consumers the ability to...
Tag: #augmentedreality
Snapchat Delivers Augmented Reality Gifts with New Holiday AR Lenses
You won’t have to ask Santa for holiday-themed augmented reality experiences, because practically any social and shopping app that offers AR effects has them available now. Despite the relative ubiquity, a new set of seasonal AR Lenses in Snapchat (iOS | Android) stand out, as they also showcase the app’s powerful machine learning chops. Don’t...
New Wallace & Gromit Game Amps Up Job Simulations with AR Interactivity
While most established media brands are satisfied with copying Pokémon GO to jump into augmented reality gaming, at least one property is taking a slightly different approach. Launched this week, Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is a mobile game fitting into the life simulation genre that appoints players as partners in the titular...
AR Snapshots: Anime Makeovers, Mandalorian Helmets, Twerking Muppets & More on Snapchat
In the three years since Snapchat launched Lens Studio, developers and artists have created more than 1.5 million AR camera effects with the desktop tool. Beginning this week, AR Snap Shots will feature five augmented reality filters that showcase the innovative, trendy, or just plain cool AR experiences available on the Snapchat app. • Don’t...
Samsung Beats Apple to the Punch with SmartTags+ & AR Finder
Over the past two product cycles, Apple has been rumored to be preparing to reveal its Apple AirTags tracking devices that can help iPhone owners find their possessions with augmented reality. Now, it’s 2021, and AppleTags are nowhere to be found. But Samsung has leapfrogged Apple with its own take on the product category. Don’t...
The New York Times Reinvents the Crossword Puzzle for Augmented Reality via Instagram
At first glance, it may not sound like there’s much value in doing a crossword puzzle in augmented reality, but The New York Times has managed to revamp the pastime as an immersive game. On Tuesday, the media company published its December 22 mini-crossword puzzle via the Spark AR platform for Instagram as Shattered Crossword....
Magic Leap CEO Teases Secret New AR Virtual Meetings App Called ‘C3’ Being Used Internally
The past year has revealed a gaping hole of opportunity in the world of business called virtual meetings. Some existing players like Zoom hopped on that opportunity, while others like Skype seemed stuck on the sidelines, and Google Meet just managed to catch up in time to snag some of the shift in remote work....
Magic Leap Made Me Cry, Probably for the Last Time. Here’s Why That’s the Good News
A lot of digital ink has been spilled heaping scorn on Magic Leap. Much of that media schadenfreude was due to what some believed were unmet promises versus some of the early hype around the product. Others just seemed to be rubbed the wrong way by the startup’s Apple-esque secrecy and penchant for attempting to...
The pandemic has probably killed VR arcades for good
A lagging trend of the past few months has been witnessing startups that COVID seemed poised to kill end up scaling back some of those deep cuts and taking off again. Not all spaces have been quite so lucky, in particular, lately we’ve seen a host of location-based virtual reality startups shut their doors. Virtual...
Facebook changes name of its annual VR event and its overall AR/VR organization
Facebook is moving further away from the Oculus brand. The company says it is changing the name of their augmented reality and virtual reality division to “Facebook Reality Labs,” a division which will encompass the company’s AR/VR products under the Oculus, Spark and Portal brands. The company’s AR/VR research division had its title changed from...