Skip to Content
Silicon Valley

Apple’s software improvements could make AR as universal as iOS

Apple would clearly like its new mobile operating system to take augmented reality mainstream.

The news: Apple unveiled iOS 12 at its Worldwide Developers Conference today, and some of the most buzzworthy features have to do with bringing new AR experiences to the iPhone and iPad.

For example: A new AR app called Measure lets users gauge the size of objects in the real world—like the suitcase that Apple exec Craig Federighi measured on stage using the app. A new AR development kit introduces a multiplayer mode for AR games, improved face tracking, and 3-D object detection. A demo from Lego showed how the new tools can add digital overlays to scans of physical Lego structures. Apple also announced that it has worked with Pixar to create a new AR file format, called USDZ, which makes it much easier to share across the iOS ecosystem.

AR for everyone? Look no further than Pokémon Go to see that AR has compelling consumer market potential. Apple’s betting its new AR tools will open the floodgates even further.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests.

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.