With ARKit in the wild for a few months now, Apple’s special iPhone 8 event was the place to announce the coming wave of augmented reality apps. Senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller took the stage to introduce a few apps coming to the App Store later this month, which left us wanting more.
Calling augmented reality ‘the smartphone camera’s third category’ behind its ability to take video and photos, Schiller only introduced four AR apps—less than we’d hoped for, but pretty cool none the less.
There’s likely plenty more coming, as the company has already revealed that they’re working with IKEA, Lego, and a number of others to bring AR apps and games to the App Store—not to mention the slew of creators developing AR apps on the “hundred of millions of devices” that can already run iOS 11. Critically missing was anything from Niantic, the creators behind breakout success Pokemon Go.
The Machines
Coming from Directive Games was the star of the show, The Machines. Warranting an on-stage demo, the competitive multiplayer RTS lets you duke it out with your friends in the same room in augmented reality. Using two Apple iPhone 8s, the developers played a quick game to show off the little tabletop game.
Warhammer 40k: Freeblade
Much like a true AR-version of Pokemon Go’s ‘AR mode’, Pixel Toys’ Warhammer 40k: Free Blade lets you activate a special AR camera mode to bring characters from the game into the physical world and play it right where you’re standing.
Major League Baseball – At Bat
So you’re already watching a game a baseball game on TV, but with MLB’s At Bat app, you’ll soon be able to see real-time player info and stats overlayed on the game you’re watching.
Sky Guide
One of the coolest app updates we’ve seen is Sky Guide’s new AR function, which lets you quickly learn the constellations by simply gazing up into the sky and looking at your phone.
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