$480 Million contract by US Army for Microsoft AR Devices

$480 Million contract by US Army for Microsoft AR Devices

I would say that Augmented Reality has arrived!

https://www.roadtovr.com/microsoft-wins-480m-defense-contract-provide-u-s-army-ar-headsets/

Gamasutra offers an Game Marketing 101 article to help anyone wanting to jump into the business.

Gamasutra offers an Game Marketing 101 article to help anyone wanting to jump into the business.

With an average of 20 new games a day on Steam alone, marketing is more important than development.

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/PatrykGrzeszczuk/20180827/325274/Make_games_and_stay_afloat_game_marketing_101.php

Cross platform Mobile developers are using Google’s Flutter to write custom UI code for Android & iOS.

Cross platform Mobile developers are using Google’s Flutter to write custom UI code for Android & iOS.

Write Once, Deploy Many has been a goal for cross platform developers, Alibaba Tech article starts one learning this open source framework.

https://hackernoon.com/making-the-most-of-flutter-from-basics-to-customization-433171581d01

Has it been a good year for innovation?

Has it been a good year for innovation?

What do you think?

https://youtu.be/dMrD2nYu4XA

Writing an app is only half the battle, marketing it is the more difficult task for most developers.

Writing an app is only half the battle, marketing it is the more difficult task for most developers.

Vlad Korobov of Live Typing describes his experience promoting his Indie Game Trigono

https://medium.com/@vladislavkorobov/lessons-learned-from-testing-and-promoting-an-indie-video-game-on-events-737ee5d09fd

Excellent introduction to Kotlin language, for developers of all languages.

Excellent introduction to Kotlin language, for developers of all languages.

Since Kotlin is a JVM platform language, it is can be used everywhere Java was previously used.  It may become the preferred Android software language.

https://www.infoq.com/articles/intro-kotlin-java-developers

As the AR cloud becomes more important, and shared, the question of who owns it becomes vital.

As the AR cloud becomes more important, and shared, the question of who owns it becomes vital.

Mike Boland of Venture Beat article explores some of the issues we are starting to see.

https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/27/who-owns-augmented-realities/

Open Source is way of life, so we need tools to make it easier.

Open Source is way of life, so we need tools to make it easier.

Kazz Yokomizo list the best 20 Open Source tools.

https://hackernoon.com/20-useful-tools-for-open-source-maintainers-ee86a09e04e5

Apple has quietly picked up another tech company, in this case, AI expert Silk Labs.

Apple has quietly picked up another tech company, in this case, AI expert Silk Labs.

Silk Labs creates AI-based personal assistant technology both for home hubs and mobile devices. Why would Apple want this? <grin>

https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/21/apple-silk-labs/

Another article: https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/21/18106192/apple-privacy-ai-silk-labs-acquisition

Happy Thanksgiving! Even the Turkeys are trying VR.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Even the Turkeys are trying VR.

Enjoy this list of the best VR Games for Turkey day.

https://www.roadtovr.com/best-vr-games-show-family-thanksgiving-year/

Two week technical sprint

A special thanks to John Nelson of Computation .com for joining with me to complete an intense 2-week technical sprint to explore ARKit,  Apple’s Augmented Reality toolkit for iOS. We have created a framework for AR that includes animated 3D images (SceneKit), plane detection, 2D image detection, and 3D object detection. And in typical Refactoring fashion, at the end of this sprint, we have decided to throw out what we created, to rewrite a better one from scratch. Seriously, now that we know the capabilities, the new design we have created will be even better. I do not know if we will release this framework as Open Source, or keep in for internal use only, but it has been two weeks of time well spent.  I suspect I will be starting similar research sprints for other technologies.

Arlind Aliu shows of 3 iOS Design Patterns and how to implement them in Swift.

Arlind Aliu shows of 3 iOS Design Patterns and how to implement them in Swift.

Object Pool, Singleton, and Observer Patterns. Know your patterns, use your patterns.

https://medium.com/swift2go/exploring-design-patterns-used-by-apple-on-ios-23328873ecd3

Taras Skytski shared what makes good UX Animation.

Taras Skytski shared what makes good UX Animation.

His article uses animation effect to really show what works, what doesn’t and why!

https://uxdesign.cc/the-ultimate-guide-to-proper-use-of-animation-in-ux-10bd98614fa9

How can I be nostalgic for something I really didn't like when it came out?

How can I be nostalgic for something I really didn't like when it came out?

It is so cute, and cuddly. A $99 classic PC that fits in your hand.

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-pc-classic-is-a-tiny-console-for-dos-games/

Video: https://youtu.be/2sjbrqR36w4

Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus, has a very negative opinion of current state of VR

Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus, has a very negative opinion of current state of VR

The quality of experience is not enough for most people not ready to accept VR, 

http://palmerluckey.com

Extreme Tech followup on posting: https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/280014-oculus-co-founder-vr-wont-go-mass-market-if-you-gave-it-away-for-free

Woz thinks Steve Jobs would be happy with where Apple has gone.

Woz thinks Steve Jobs would be happy with where Apple has gone.

The well known dancer Steve Wozniak interview by CNBC touches on a number of subjects 

https://9to5mac.com/2018/11/13/steve-wozniak-interview/

Direct Link: https://youtu.be/ck3Fdrzv-DQ

Wreck It Ralph Breaks the Internet will be a Disney VR Experience.

Wreck It Ralph Breaks the Internet will be a Disney VR Experience.

The VOID will be bringing the upcoming animated film as a Hyper VR experience to Disney locations.

https://www.roadtovr.com/wreck-ralph-smash-way-void-soon-ralph-breaks-vr-trailer/

Link to Teaser: https://youtu.be/_wsGGG_exEQ

BBC VR shows “Nothing to be Written”, a WWI interactive story to a couple of elderly army Veterans.

BBC VR shows “Nothing to be Written”, a WWI interactive story to a couple of elderly army Veterans.

What is important here is not the technologic achievement, but the obvious emotional impact of this VR Experience.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-46104435/chelsea-pensioners-verdict-on-ww1-vr-experience{

Link to “Nothing to be Written”: https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/sites/virtual-reality-prom/

Paul Hudson of Hacking with Swift is coming out with a book on Test Driven Development on Swift!

Paul Hudson of Hacking with Swift is coming out with a book on Test Driven Development on Swift!

TDD is more than just Unit Testing and UI Tests, it is a way to approach your programming goals.

https://www.hackingwithswift.com/store/testing-swift

Todd Moore of TMSoft announced Playapod, a Free Cross-Platform Podcasting App.

Todd Moore of TMSoft announced Playapod,  a Free Cross-Platform Podcasting App.

Perfect for this with multiple iOS & Android apps, Playapod syncs podcasts to the cloud, allowing for immediate playback across all devices.

https://www.tmsoft.com/blog/tmsoft-launches-playapod-free-cross-platform-podcasting-app/

Announcing: I will be speaking at MagFest 2019 on the State of the Union in Virtual Reality

Announcing: I will be speaking at MagFest 2019 on the State of the Union in Virtual Reality

This will be part of a selection of panels we organized on VR/.AR. I will be moderators for two group discussions.

https://super.magfest.org

Come enjoy the show!

The explosion of sensors from the internet of Things (IoT) means there is unused data. How to solve this?

The explosion of sensors from the internet of Things (IoT) means there is unused data. How to solve this?

R-Style Lab explains how visualization tools will be used to handle this huge problem.

https://www.iotforall.com/iot-data-visualization-tools/

People are still spending to much time feeling out forms, especially on mobile platform

People are still spending to much time feeling out forms, especially on mobile platform

Stephanie Walter’s 2 part article on techniques to help users fill In mobile forms.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/08/ux-html5-mobile-form-part-1/

Part 2: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/08/ux-html5-mobile-form-part-2/

From a few weeks back, the latest VR rumors out of Apple

From a few weeks back, the latest VR rumors out of Apple

100s of employees working on secret high end VR headset?  That is just one of the threads from MacRumors.

https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/apple-vr-project/

China Xinhua News previewed a entirely virtual Newscaster for English & Chinese broadcast.

China Xinhua News previewed a entirely virtual Newscaster for English & Chinese broadcast.

The flat delivery, stiff movement and negative reactions shows how China may have fallen into the “Uncanny valley”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46136504

Inkbot Design provides an engage article about the Math behind pleasing design.

Inkbot Design provides an engage article about the Math behind pleasing design.

Fibonacci, and Fractals and Polyhedra, oh my.  All UI developers should know these.

https://inkbotdesign.com/the-mathematics-of-design/

Business Insider reports that twice Apple was close to purchasing the VR hardware Magic Leap.

Business Insider reports that twice Apple was close to purchasing the VR hardware Magic Leap.

According to article, it was the Founder of Magic Leap who nixed the deal.

https://www.roadtovr.com/report-apple-nearly-acquired-leap-motion-but-the-deal-fell-through/

ps. Go Vote!

Youtube Channel Tested presents a hands-on review of Magic Leap AR system.

Youtube Channel Tested presents a hands-on review of Magic Leap AR system.

Magic Leaps are still hard to find, so I really appreciated this detailed look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrq2akzdFq8

Yahoo! Finance provides an animated origin story of Steve Jobs and Apple.

Yahoo! Finance provides an animated origin story of Steve Jobs and Apple.

New info for some, a tour down member lane for others. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/origin-story-apples-journey-steve-132818195.html

Non-game programmers should learn good game design, it is just another form of good user interface!

Non-game programmers should learn good game design, it is just another form of good user interface!

I think I own 4 of these books, and have read 2 others. I plan to finish the list!

https://www.buildbox.com/10-must-read-game-design-books/

John Sundell explores the power of Key paths in Swift

John Sundell explores the power of Key paths in Swift

What I like about his articles, is that he not only explains a feature, but what makes it powerful.

https://www.swiftbysundell.com/posts/the-power-of-key-paths-in-swift

Wired magazine went inside Google to talk about Privacy

Wired magazine went inside Google to talk about Privacy

These surprisingly even and detailed interview are worth reading.

https://www.wired.com/story/google-privacy-data/