The augmented reality game developer Niantic announced on Thursday that it has agreed to buy a company, well known within augmented reality circles, called 8th Wall, which has developed a way for users to view AR experiences on mobile devices without the need to open an app. Niantic says the 8th Wall technology will become one of the tools it offers to developers in its Lightship development platform. Developers use Lightship to create games and other experiences on top of the same platform Nian
Magic Leap, the storied consumer AR company that’s found a second chance servicing the enterprise market, has taken the wraps off its new Magic Leap 2 headset. I found it to be a meaningful improvement over its predecessor, the Magic Leap 1. The new headset is Magic Leap’s first to be designed for the enterprise market. The Magic Leap 1 (formerly called Magic Leap One Creator Edition) was originally designed for the consumer market, well before the company pivoted to the enterprise
This past October, in Baltimore, high school students had to show proof that they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, in order to play sports. While Baltimore has made that call, the story is different in other neighboring districts, like Cecil County and Allegany County, where public schools are not asking for vaccination status or doing surveillance testing of any kind. Like many states across the U.S. there are no longer unified COVID protocols. Decisions on va
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When you think about things having a copyright, what probably comes to mind are movies, music, books—really anything that has a well-documented history of piracy or plagiarism. Because that’s what copyrights are for: to promote the creation of original work by giving those creators the ability to make money from their efforts withou
After months of speculation, Amazon finally gave users a peek at Amp, a live radio app that it sees as a competitor to Clubhouse. The early results showed potential, even if the current iteration was light on customization. Amp says it will allow users to “be a DJ” of their own online space, letting them create live shows where they can discuss, well, anything. Amazon has already lined up an army of celebrities and personalities to drum up interest in the platform: Influencers Niki
The executive order that President Biden signed early Wednesday on the government’s approach toward cryptocurrencies is getting good reviews from both the crypto world and key government officials. The crypto industry had been nervously awaiting some clarity from the government on how it would try to regulate the tech. After all, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has repeatedly expressed anxiety over the stability of the new currencies, and SEC chair Gary Gensler has called crypto a “
You may have already thought we had too many streaming services to deal with, but sports fans should prepare for the situation to get worse. On Tuesday, Apple announced a deal with Major League Baseball that will bring two games to Apple TV+ every Friday night starting this season (assuming the league can end its lockout with the season intact). Those games will be exclusive to Apple TV+, which means they won’t be carried by regional sports channels or other traditional TV networks. On it
The book industry had a banner year in 2021 thanks, in large part, to TikTok. In a niche corner of the app, #BookTok—a community of TikTokers who review books and give recommendations—has blown up since the start of the pandemic. While users are treated to a bountiful number of new reads, authors of those books have seen an increase in sales and appearances on the New York Times Best Seller list years after release. According to NPD Bookscan, the publishing industry sold approximat
The pandemic doled out hard lessons for the healthcare industry. Among the challenges that needed to be reckoned with was the extent to which primary care is undervalued, as well as the inaccessibility of both primary and specialty care outside of metropolitan areas. This year’s Fast Company list of the most innovative health companies is recognizing the organizations—from well-known multinationals to scrappy, inventive startups—that made real progress in keeping the country
After a year consumed by vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, innovation in the pharmaceutical industry was a little more mundane this year—in a good way. Diseases that have had burdensome treatments or worse, no treatment, finally got addressed. At the same time, companies are beginning to redefine what it means to be medicine. Software is starting to treat physical ailments just like pills do. And yes, companies continued to find ways to help prevent COVID-19. All of the pharmaceutical