Apple’s AR hardware rumored to go into production in Q4 2019

Previously mentioned here, in the Episode #2 article.

There was no talk of AR at this past month’s Apple Keynote as it was mainly focused on their media (News+, TV) launches, but here’s a video by Rene Ritchie which goes more in-depth regarding the highly anticipated hardware announcement, including the mention of Apple’s internally dubbed ‘rOS’, or rather ‘reality operating system’.

CNN Released an app for Magic Leap, providing news in AR.

Previously mentioned here, in the Episode #2 article.

While there hasn’t been too much buzz regarding the CNN app, Magic Leap is continuing with their partnerships and just last week announced their NBA app, which can you read more about here on their news page. Their YouTube channel also includes an ‘experience trailer’ of the new app.

VR Hardware Announcements Aplenty!

Towards the end of the month at GDC 2019, there were announcements from Oculus and HP regarding their VR headset releases respectively, and although Valve made no announcements during the conference, they advised consumers that it wouldn’t be long before they’d make a big reveal. Well, at the very end of the month (and maybe slipping into April), Valve made the announcement that their new VR hardware, named Index, will be available to the masses in June. There’s not much technical information about the Index, but it’s stated that the device will have manual IPD adjustment, compared to the Oculus Quest. (Oculus’ founder and now ex-employee highlighted why automatic IPD adjustment isn’t good for everyone).

You can read more about the Valve announcement here: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18291013/valve-index-vr-headset-product-page-early-launch-date

Interested in ARKit Development? Here’s a tutorial!

The Ray Wenderlich team have introduced a ‘Beginning ARKit’ course for those who are interested in getting to grips with Augmented Reality and ARKit on their Apple devices. Right now, the course is free to take, and provides 2 hours and 22 minutes worth of excellent, informative video content.

You can read more about the course here: https://www.raywenderlich.com/737368-beginning-arkit

And that’s a wrap-up for March!