Google launched ARCore, an augmented reality development platform for Android, in August. It’s available in preview on the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, and Samsung Galaxy S8 ahead of a launch on phones from LG, Asus, and Huawei. But that’s just the start. At an October 4 event in San Francisco, Google announced a slew of ARCore updates pegged for the holiday season.
One of the highlights is AR Stickers, a Google-designed app launching in preview alongside the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Using ARCore’s environment-scanning algorithms, the app overlays digital decorations on surfaces like floors, tables, walls, and chairs. Google demoed a few inspired by the hit Netflix series Stranger Things at the event in San Francisco, and said it’s teaming up with brands like Disney, the NBA, NBC, Netflix, and others for the first few sticker packs.
The other new ARCore apps are less exclusive — Google says they’ll work on “most” Android devices running 7.0 Nougat or newer. A new League of Legends app lets spectators watch matches unfold in their living rooms. An updated Lego app puts hundreds of digital kits and pieces at your fingertips. (Google showed a Lego astronaut zooming around in a spaceship.) And a shopping app from Houzz lets you pick, personalize, customize, and “place” furniture before you order it.
The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are uniquely optimized for ARCore, Clay Bavor, Google’s vice president of AR and VR, said. Thanks to high-fidelity gyroscopes and accelerometers, top-end cameras, and powerful image processors, they’re able to run most ARCore apps at a consistent 60 frames per second — a smoother image than you’re likely to get on less powerful devices.
Google said that ARCore focuses on three critical elements — motion tracking, environmental understanding, and lighting. It determines a device’s position and orientation in space by anchoring onto specific “landmarks” — furniture, for example — in a room, and adjusts for factors like ambient lighting. It’s not unlike Project Tango, the Google-designed depth-sensing platform built into LG’s Phab 2 Pro and Asus’s ZenFone AR. But Google sees the two technologies as complementary.
“We think of Tango more and more as an enabling technology — it’s akin to GPS, where you don’t see devices or apps branded as having this technical capability,” Google told us. “[The public] may not see consumer-branded Tango devices moving forward .”
The new ARCore-enabled apps will be available from Google’s AR Experiments showcase and the Google Play Store when they launch later this year.
Are you tired of paying for streaming services you never watch just to get a phone plan feature you actually want? T-Mobile has good news for you! The carrier is rolling out new plans, called T-Mix, in early November to replace its old Experience lineup with a build-your-own perks system called Picks.
The benefits you choose vary from streaming and gaming to food delivery, AI, satellite service, and phone discounts. But if you are satisfied with your existing plan, you can keep it.
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.