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Hasbro integrates iPhone into NERF LAZER TAG guns for augmented reality HUD goodness

Posted by Andrey Malskiy Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Toys

Hasbro iOS lazer tag

Remember NERF guns? My cousin and I used to drive my parents insane running around the house in a battle for supremacy, taking out a few planters in the process. Now Hasbro is changing its NERF game a bit for the new generation of children everywhere.

The new line of NERF LAZER TAG will have an iPhone / iPod touch dock built in, and the device will serve as a heads up display. How sick is that? I know I had imagination and all growing up, but this to a child is the equivalent of being James Bond. I’m not gonna lie, I wouldn’t mind owning a pair of these guns for myself. But the main benefits of adding an iPod or iPhone to the gun, beyond the cool factor, is that your shooting range increase to 250 feet, and the iOS device stores all your scores and power ups using the NERF app. Apart from the multiplayer benefits, when another player is not available you can play in a single player mode. The guns, which you’ll probably end up using more than your children, will hit stores on August 1 and will sell for $40 each, or $70 for a set of two.

Read More | Engadget

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Hands-on with the String Labs Augmented Reality Showcase iPhone app

Posted by Reza Malayeri Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Product Reviews, Software, Videos

Take a look at the future of mobile virtual reality with the String Labs Augmented Reality Showcase app for the iPhone. This amazing new application is a tech demo from String Labs, celebrating the launch of their brand new augmented reality platform. Download the free app from the iTunes app store, and head over to the String Labs website to print out the five available image targets.

Choose from Pharaoh's Fury, Clayful, Scrawl, Proto, and Sneaker. When you launch the app, you can focus your rear camera on the image targets, and play with the games and utilities that show up in virtual reality. There are fun games, creative artistic drawings, and random virtual three eyed pets to play with. Check out our video, where we walk you through each one of the five image targets, and give you a taste of the technology. Take a look at the future of mobile virtual reality, and imagine all the possibilities.

What do you like about these new applications? Can you dream up an innovative way to use augmented reality? Share your idea's with us in the comments below. 

Read More | String Labs

Word Lens for iPhone review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Travel, Utilities, Reviews, Free Apps

 

 Word Lens review 

There was a time when a jaunt through a foreign country meant stashing a translation guide on your pocket so that you could whip it out at a moment's notice to read a sign or understand a spoken word. It's a rudimentary system that's worked for ages, but Quest Visual looks to change the game with its Word Lens free iPhone (free, but language packs cost $4.99) app, which translates printed text on the fly.

How It Works
The concept behind Word Lens is a simple one: You point your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or fourth generation iPod touch's camera at printed text and the app translates the word on the fly simply by tapping the green button in the toolbar. That ability isn't included by default; you have to purchase one of the $4.99 language packs. Unfortunately, only two packs are available at the moment—English to Spanish, and Spanish to English—so the selection is extremely limited. Other undisclosed languages are in the works.


Bleeding Edge TV 316: Yelp Monocle Hidden Feature Brings Augmented Reality to iPhone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Apple, Cell Phones, Features, GPS, Handhelds, Podcasts, Videocasts, Videos

My pal Robert Scoble announced that the Yelp iPhone and iPod touch app that was recently updated included a hidden Augmented Reality feature. Obviously, as soon as we saw, we had to give it a shot, and we figured we’d do it on video. Augmented Reality apps use the camera on the , along with overlaid information, to present location data while looking at the “real world” - it’s very cool, and you can expect a bunch more of these types of apps to make an appearance on the App Store very shortly upon the release of iPhone OS 3.1.

In this demo, we show you how to unlock the Monocle mode in the Yelp app, and also give you a look at what exactly it does. For now, our early opinion is that it’s a cool idea…it just needs to be refined a bit to be truly useful.


New York Nearest Subway augmented reality iPhone 3GS app

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Travel, Videos

For all of you who thought that the compass inside the was just a waste, think again. We’ve seen some apps that will be making use of the compass in ways you never thought possible, and one such app is New York Nearest Subway. Developed by acrossair, New York Nearest Subway is best explained as an augmented reality app that overlays information on top of a real-world view. You pull up the app, and the camera view is shown, with information telling you about which direction to walk to get to the nearest train station. It is truly genius. Hit the video above to see it in action. It’s not available just yet, but once it is, we will let you know.

You use this app alongside Exit Strategy NYC, and you are golden.


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