Apple Archives - VR World

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), iOS, Mobile, News, OSx, Smartphones, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Meet USDZ, an AR file format from Apple and Pixar

As part of Apple’s recent ARKit 2.0 announcements, Apple also debuted USDZ, a new file format from their partnership with Pixar. We’ll dive into this below. What is USDZ? This file format is described as a “zero compression, unencrypted zip archive” by Pixar. It’s made to work with a USD runtime and doesn’t require unpacking on the user’s end. As a new file format from Apple and Pixar, it’s designed expressly for managing 3D objects in Augmented Reality. There’s a number of more features than that, but that dives into jargon-y territory we’d like to stay out of. For now, we’ll just explain what it

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Mobile, News, Smartphones, Tablets, VR World

Apple reveals new ARKit 2.0 features

Apple is finally iterating on ARKit with ARKit 2.0, and this is big news for AR development on iOS devices. Below, we’ll briefly go over what ARKit is and what 2.0 is bringing to the table. What is ARKit? ARKit is Apple’s solution for AR on iOS devices. Essentially, it provides a backend and multiple features for AR on iOS applications, and it’s used as a backend for many popular iOS AR apps. While it’s possible to create non-ARKit AR applications in Apple devices (Pokémon Go being the most popular by a considerable margin), using ARKit makes things easier and provides access to a wider

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Details of Project T288, Apple’s hybrid VR/AR headset, emerge

Recently, Shara Tibken of CNET came out with an exclusive scoop on Apple’s next revolutionary hardware release called Project T288. Project T288 looks to create what may be the ultimate VR/AR headset, then release it to the public in 2020. If what we get in two years looks anything like what these leaks entail, it’ll change everything. That Apple has a vested interest in AR is no secret. Through initiatives like ARKit, which we’ve covered before, Apple has been pushing for augmented reality development for a while now. ARKit has enabled a number of AR applications on iOS devices and has served as a natural

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), News, transportation, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Stories You Might’ve Missed: Apple Swift Playgrounds and how VR is hopping into cars

Image Credit: Apple Swift Playgrounds In this Stories You Might’ve Missed segment, we’ll be covering the third week of March, from the 17th to the 24th. Namely, we’ll be covering two stories that broke over this span of time, most interestingly a new module for Apple’s Swift Playground program. Apple introduces AR module for Swift Playgrounds Swift is a proprietary programming language from Apple, and Swift Playgrounds is an interactive iPad app that helps users- even children- learn to code with Swift in an easy way. The Fundamentals of Swift lesson, for instance, is a full and playable 3D game where people have to input

Apple, VR World

Apple patents ambitious zombie VR experience for self-driving car

Do you like zombies, self-driving cars or VR? That may sound like a question randomly-assembled from trending topics of the day, but it’s actually relevant to today’s story from Apple. In addition to Apple’s focus on excellent smart devices, they’re also getting active in self-driving car and VR development. Perhaps as part of their self-driving car initiative, Apple has put out patents alluding to in-car interactive VR experiences for passengers that will help alleviate boredom and motion sickness. Image Credit: CNET The most popular of these experiences is a zombie chase, but there are others, including hang-gliding. The potential range of experiences made possible by

2018, Android, Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Google, Mobile, News, Smartphones, Tablets, VR World

Google to release ARCore during the Mobile World Congress

2017 has been a busy one for VR/AR teams at Google, with company’s continued push into the space with Google Cardboard, AR for Pixel phones and, most recently, ARCore framework. The latter was announced mid-2017, and after all of this time in development, ARCore is finally ready to start shipping to developers and manufacturers. The framework will allow developers to more easily develop augmented reality applications for supported Android phones. While Google seems to want to make ARCore near-universal, there’s a fair chance that it will only launch for a select few devices for the time being, with the Pixel and Galaxy series being a

Apple, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Wearables

New Apple patent describes optical system for VR headsets

Details of Apple’s new design for a wearable VR device went public last Thursday when the United States Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application Apple filed in 2017 related to optical systems. The patent describes an “Optical System for Head-mounted Display” intended to make VR headgear more comfortable. In the application, Apple notes that VR headsets can be “cumbersome and tiring to wear” due to “bulky and heavy” lens arrangements. VR devices typically use microdisplays, requiring high magnification of visual content and thus thicker lenses between the display and the wearer’s eyes. Currently, many popular headsets overcome this issue by using Fresnel lenses–a type of

AMD, Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Gaming, Hardware, iOS, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), Mobile, Mobile Computing, Nvidia, Operating Systems, Reviews, Smart Home, Smartphones, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Windows

VRWorld: Our Most Popular Stories of 2017

While we have recently covered our choices for the Top 10 VR/AR Stories of 2017, and while some of those stories happened to also be among the most popular amongst our readers last year, there were also a number of additional stories that proved popular. In this piece, we take at the top ten stories — based on reader popularity — in 2017. #10: Bethesda’s VR World: DOOM VFR, Fallout 4 VR and Skyrim PSVR This summertime article addressed how AAA game developer Bethesda was poised to bring a dramatic improvement to VR gaming with the then-pending releases of Doom VFR, Fallout 4 VR and

2018, Android, Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google, Hardware, Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile, News, Samsung, Smartphones

CES: uSens strives to bring augmented reality to billions of users

HCI systems manufacturer uSens, Inc. announced the availability of uSensAr, a smartphone augmented reality engine, this week at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. uSensAR is designed to run optimally on lower-end Android hardware, including systems with lower-resolution cameras and comparatively underpowered CPUs. “ARcore currently only serves about 30 million Android phones, which is just five percent of the entire Android smartphone ecosystem,” said Dr. Yue Fei, uSens CTO and co-founder. The company indicated their platform could expand the reach of AR technologies to an estimated two billion smartphones. “With the release of uSensAR, we are allowing developers, smartphone manufacturers, and content creators to build those

2018, Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Mobile, News, Wearables, Wearables

CES: Lumus provides sneak peak of its AR pipeline

Lumus, a developer of transparent displays for augmented reality hardware is showcasing its latest technological innovations this week, at CES 2018. The company is demoing both its new Vision optical engine — a solution in the AR visor space — and is also providing a sneak-peak of technologies that will be used to empower a glasses-style AR device. The Vision engine boasts a top-down, 40 degree field of view at 1080 pixel resolution in full colour and daylight viewability, displayed via transparent lenses that do not distort the user’s view of their natural environment. “From ongoing discussions with tier one companies and major ODMs working

Apple, CPU, Hardware, News, OSx, Virtual Reality (VR)

Most powerful Mac ever could cost you over $13,000

Those in the market for a very expensive, last-minute Christmas gift may be in luck — on December 14, Apple made its new iMac Pro available for purchase. Lauded as the most powerful Mac in the company’s history, the workstation-class iMac Pro features Xeon multi-core processors, a 27” 5K Retina display, and heaps of additional features. That this new machine is being released at the same time as a significant upgrade to Final Cut Pro X is not coincidental. This is decidedly not a computer intended for consumer audiences — it is, rather, a powerful workstation intended to provide the raw computing power needed for

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), News, Software Programs, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Apple adds VR features to Final Cut Pro

Apple this week announced a significant upgrade to its pro video editing app, Final Cut Pro X. Released contemporaneously with the new, high-performance iMac Pro, the application introduces a variety of new features, including 360-degree VR video editing and support for full-resolution 8K video. Also upgraded are Apple’s Motion and Compression applications. Motion is Apple’s companion app that is used for creating and editing motion graphics, titling, and composting, while Compressor is intended for video and media compression. Among the new VR-specific features in Final cut Pro X are 360-degree 2D or 3D titles; VR-specific blurs, glows and other effects; controls to assist in editing

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Mobile, News, Smartphones, Tablets

“High-touch” fashion industry sees advent of AR technologies

The traditionally “high-touch” fashion industry is among the latest to embrace augmented reality, with the advent of Code and Craft’s new AR Product Catalog tool. The mobile app, which utilizes Apple’s ARKit technology, allows fashion vendors to showcase their collections in an augmented reality environment. The company says the technology allows them to replace the traditionally expensive sample interaction process with a “life-like 3D online showroom experience.” Women’s apparel brand Maggy London International is the first to pilot the new technology. Notably, the AR experience of the product catalog is also integrated into their ERP system, which allows viewers to access key product information such

Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Facebook, Fintech, Google, Intel, Microsoft, News, Nvidia, Virtual Reality (VR)

Investors Guide: Investing in AI and AR Stocks is the New Gold

The year is coming to an end and if you were thinking about investing in tech companies – now may be the right time. The bullish market still lasts (eighth years in a row now), and this year was pretty good for investors despite the threats of a nuclear or potential trade war and/or crypto currencies rising . Through the end of November, the S&P 500 Index gained 21%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25%, and the Nasdaq Composite surged 27%. Big technology companies in the Nasdaq 100 Index, tracked by the popular QQQ ETF, have jumped 32% since January. Take AR for

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Companies, News

You can now customize your new BMW i with ARKit

BMW is first brand to offer a configurator through Apple’s Augmented Reality app using ARKit with iOS 11. The BMW i Visualizer app allows you in that way, to select and customize a life-sized version of the BMW i3, i3s, or i8 car while in any location. Now customers in select markets can use their iPads and iPhones to to view real-size 3D renderings of BMW i cars like the i3 and i8. While the app is available in 17 countries already, there’s support for over 21 languages offered through it. “Our products are highly emotional vehicles which customers need to experience,” said Andrea Castronovo, BMW Group

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Education, Entertainment, News, Smartphones, Tablets

With Parker AR Bear kids learn through play

I guess many of us remember Tamagotchi or Furby. Those first tech-enhanced toys were already then thought of as a “parents nightmare”. They were blinking, beeping (often in the middle of the night), they needed batteries and sometimes they were a cause of a humongous amount of child tears (when mum accidentaly washed it). However, nowadays it’s easier to live (at least for parents). Parker: Your Augmented Reality Bear is a new iPad and iPhone-enhanced toy from Seedling. This charming bear is fully squeezable with no caveats: it doesn’t have any wires or batteries inside, and it won’t make a peep or start to glow

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Google, Hardware, Microsoft, Military, News, VR World, Wearables

Apple Manufacturer Quanta Partners With Lumus For AR Displays

Quanta Computer Inc. is a manufacturing partner for Apple and many other hardware manufacturers in the PC/smartphone space. They’re one of the most important companies that consumers have never heard of. Recently, they reached out to Lumus, an Israel-based business that designs displays for AR glasses and headsets. If you recall Google’s “Glass” project from a few years back (which included very limited shipments of Google Glasses), Lumus works on similar hardware and has been doing so for quite a while. In 2008, they sold the PD-18, one of the first AR glasses of its kind, and just a few years later they started producing hardware

Apple, Breaking, Business, Companies, News, startups, Virtual Reality (VR), Wearables

Apple Acquires VR Headset Company Vrvana

Apple recently purchased Vrvana, a startup company that developed an augmented reality headset called Totem, reports TechCrunch. Two sources with knowledge of the deal confirmed the acquisition, but Apple declined to comment and did not provide its usual acquisition statement. Apple did not deny the story, though, and several employees who were previously with Vrvana are now with Apple. The price of aquisition is supposed to be around $30 million. It sure is no secret that Apple was interested in creating an augmented reality headset, and has been looking to create one for release sometime in 2020. Now the company may have gotten a bit of a jump

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Hardware, Rumors, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

More hints emerge about Apple’s AR effort

While the web is perennially rife with speculation about Apple’s plans to develop a hardware device in the AR/VR space, a somewhat under-the-radar story out of Taiwan may shed a bit more light on the company’s plans. As reported by the Nikkei Asian Review, one of Apple’s supply chain partners, MacBook and Watch assembler Quanta Computer, hinted during their most recent earnings conference call that they may be playing a significant role in the development of an augmented reality device. Reportedly, such a device built by Quanta would be released no later than 2019. Although Quanta executives did not state for whom they would be

Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Business, Companies, Entertainment, News

Hitting it Big with Apple: MekaMon, the Robot is in Stores

Bristol-based start-up Reach Robotics will announce today that it’s won a crucial deal with Apple which will see the US technology giant promote its MekaMon robot in its stores and online in the run-up to Christmas. The robots are upgradable and customizable with detachable legs, shields, and weapons. They feature four IR sensors, so the robot can measure distance and location and also accurately track and attack opponents. The robot can also flip on its back and stabilize rather quickly. Each robot weighs around 2.2 pounds, with a dimension of 11.8 x 11.8 x 5.9 inches. The toy connects to the smartphone app through Bluetooth,