Rumors have circulated about an Apple-produced augmented reality headset or smart glasses for quite a few years, but so far the iPhone producer has yet to officially confirm the hardware is in development. The additions made to ARKit in iOS 13 as well as a plethora of patents and other reports indicate Apple is closer to revealing its work than ever before.
This week on the AppleInsider Podcast, Daniel Eran Dilger speaks to us live from WWDC and fills us in on the news plus just what it's like being at this event.
The new ARKit 3 features replace hours of frame compositing with real-time calculations that make it quick to build interactive environments and also to place people and objects within the same scenes.
The Khronos Group has ratified and publicly released a provisional specification for OpenXR, an open standard for AR and VR platforms, but while many major firms are supporting the effort, Apple does not appear to be publicly offering its own support.
Augmented reality gaming using ARKit is in its second year on iOS, and developers are getting the hang of creating games using Apple's framework. AppleInsider takes a look at some of the top AR games that iPhone and iPad owners should try out on their mobile devices.
At its Snapdragon Tech Summit, Qualcomm outlined its new 855, a chip it hopes will power the next generation of premium Androids. It addresses silicon work Apple has driven in its Application Processors leading up to the latest A12 Bionic, but it's less clear who will be building high-end Androids with Qualcomm's most advanced processor yet, and for how long.
Rumors that Apple was seeking to acquire UK firm Shazam Entertainment Ltd. first floated back in December. Following an EU approval process, Apple officially announced it had finalized the purchase on Monday, ostensibly to "provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music." That appears to be a major understatement.
With iOS 12, comes Apple's collaboration with Pixar on the USDZ format for a common augmented reality data file format. AppleInsider explains what it is, and how it helps expansion of AR.
Online shopping will get a lot more interactive this fall when iOS 12 launches, thanks to the new feature AR Quick Look. Instead of relying on user-installed apps, AR Quick Look makes it easy to view AR capable images right from within Safari.
Measure is a simple ARKit application allowing you to measure objects in the real world using the camera on your iOS device.
Every year Apple invites student developers to its Worldwide Developer Conference. This year there were 350 scholarship winners in attendance. This afternoon I met up with Collin DeWaters of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who already has four titles in the App Store and put together a new 3D racing game for his Swift Playground application in three days. He's 21.
Apple's ARKit may make a big leap forward at WWDC, with Apple adding the ability to allow multiple iPhones to share the same the same virtual environment while also limiting personal data transmitted to the company's server.
Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference is often mistaken for a hardware product launch event. However, the main purpose of WWDC is to introduce Apple's latest software enhancements and tools to the third party developers who use them to create apps for Apple's platforms. However, both hardware and software play a role in advancing Apple's future plans—and WWDC serves as the company's unfurling roadmap of strategic direction. Here's a look at what we've already seen and what we can expect next week.
Apple's ARKit made a public debut at WWDC 2017 and was later released with iOS 11, enabling any iOS device with an A9 or newer processor to run augmented reality games and apps. Like clockwork, Google introduced a competing product in ARCore for devices running Android. We take a closer at the respective AR platforms in this video.
ARCore 1.2, Google's updated augmented reality framework, includes a new cross-platform feature called 'Cloud Anchors,' which can allow both iOS and Android device users to share the same AR experience despite using different underlying AR technologies.
Apple is frittering away its lead in the augmented reality space after setting a rapid pace with ARKit in iOS 11 and advanced hardware in iPhone and iPad, according to KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who sees Chinese upstart Oppo gaining ground with less complex — and less expensive — solutions.
iOS 11.3 was released yesterday for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. We went beyond the release notes to find everything new in Apple latest iOS update from big features, to small tweaks.
Fresh statistics from market research firm Sensor Tower suggest uptake of Apple's ARKit is on a steady upward trajectory, with more than 13 million augmented reality apps downloaded since the framework launched last September.
Apple on Wednesday released its anticipated iOS 11.3 update, but only for the 2018 "budget" sixth generation iPad, which was announced on Tuesday and will only ship to most people in the beginning of April.
A new batch of Apple patent applications published on Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows Apple is still working on technology relating to virtual and augmented reality, with filings showing a multi-resolution system for creating VR content, headset concepts, and a 3D document editing system.
{{ summary }}
Malcolm Owen
Victor Marks
William Gallagher
Daniel Eran Dilger
Mike Wuerthele
Andrew O'Hara
AppleInsider Staff
Mikey Campbell
Roger Fingas
