Welcome to Picks of the month, where I share a few things I have found useful the last month.
It can be anything from blog posts and software tools to books and techniques.
#1 LastPass
I really thought I had picked LastPass already, but it appears that I have not.
LastPass is the best password manager I have found out there. It saves all your passwords online and helps you to create strong passwords whenever you sign up for a new account.
LastPass also has support for all the major browsers and mobile platforms. In browsers and on Android LastPass can even autofill username and passwords for you, making things a lot quicker and easier.
All you have to do is to keep one master password. Create a super strong master password, and all your stuff is safe.
#2 LAFORGE Shima
I mentioned this one in my post about AR Glasses, and I just think they look so awesome that I wanted to mention them again.
The LAFORGE glasses are Google Glasses done right. Sure, it’s essentially just notifications and not mixed reality “magic,” but they look good, AND they are useful! You could wear these, and nobody would know you were checking your messages (until you start yelling into thin air to reply).
These glasses have focused on something entirely different than all the other ones on this list: appeal for the average person. Google Glass never had this. They had an attraction for the geekiest of us (me included, I must confess). I actually want to wear the LAFORGE glasses in public.
With these, you can control simple widgets for music, texts, exercise, calls, etc. The same things you could probably do with a smart watch, just easier. And more practical. You won’t be able to watch movies on these (they are not going to allow it, for whatever reason), but you would probably reach for your phone far less than today.
They can also be ordered (for no extra charge) with your own personal prescription. That means that if you need glasses today, you can switch them out with a LAFORGE Shime pair.
The LAFORGE Shima glasses are shipping you two glasses if you pre-order now ($590). First an Alpha shipping in Q2 2017, and then Beta Bold (more of a finished product) shipping sometime late 2017.
https://www.laforgeoptical.com/
#3 Android VR Webview Texture
This pick is probably not going to be interesting for everyone, but it was a great find! For an AR prototype I was working on I wanted to show a web page in 3D space - just floating in your view. Not covering the entire screen, but kind of as a texture on a plane tilted towards the user. Turns out, this is hard as f***. In Unity, you have to somehow stream a webview onto a texture, and it needs a different plugin/implemention based on platform.
There several solutions for this on desktop, because Chromium makes it possible. On Android and iOS however… “Luckily”, I only needed Android, so I didn’t have to think about iOS at least.
After a lot of searching, I finally found the solution: Android VR Webview Texture
https://jerome.gangneux.net/projects/2017-02-android-vr-webview/
Jérôme Gangneux created this as part of his VR learning experience. He has a series of blog posts that are really cool, please check them out: https://jerome.gangneux.net/blog/vr/
Follow me on Twitter: @gjermundbjaanes