People to follow: Robert Scoble tried 120 ARkit apps and he made a great list.
*Note: The article was originally written on Facebook by Robert Scoble” You can find Robert on Facebook at…
*Note: The article was originally written on Facebook by Robert Scoble”
You can find Robert on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble
Here are the augmented reality, er, ARKit, apps that survived my 20 second test on my iPhone 7+ with iOS 11.01.
This doesn’t mean you’ll like them, or that they have much value beyond the fact that they had enough value after 20 seconds for me to include them in this list. I tried more than 120 apps to make this list, the majority didn’t survive even 20 seconds.
Warning, you need an ARKit-enabled iPhone or iPad to play these. That means loading iOS 11.01 and having a relatively recent device. Also, on my 7+ these ate a LOT of battery. So, play with them when you have a charger or extra battery nearby.
They are not in any particular order.
I did NOT include any measuring apps because they just aren’t accurate enough for my liking but might do a separate post on those later in the year to see if they increase in accuracy. I also didn’t include any of the retail store apps, like the one from IKEA, because they don’t really show off augmented reality in a deep way. I might do a separate post on those, too, later.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchfab/id1201268000?mt=8 Search for 3D things and scenes and bring them into where you are.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/orb/id1282295219?mt=8 Orb lets you build things in 3D. Pull out basic shapes and then sculpt, rotate, and paint them to create your own Orbs.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/app/puzzlar-world-…/id1252735237… Put together the Statue of Liberty in this puzzle game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/holo/id1194175772?mt=8 8i is a new volumetric camera company and it built this app so you can see the quality of holograms its camera can capture. Fun to demo AR with.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/app/army-of-ro…/id1261443979&mt=8 Army of Robots. Game where you shoot robots coming at you from all directions.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paint-space-ar/id1260267722… Paint Space AR — paint in all directions and then walk through your art.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-ninja-ar/id1274871322… The Math Ninja makes it fun to learn math for kids.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-brush/id1277410449… paint with brushes on the world around you.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/a…/follow-me-dragon/id1276049016… This little dragon is cute but kept getting interrupted by dialog boxes. Developers need to work on just keeping it fun and not over explaining things with dialogs.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/insight-heart/id1280845473… walk around a virtual human and into his heart.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/monster-park-dino-…/id1259767702… My kids like dinosaurs but this app isn’t all that useful beyond a quick “hey, look at the dinosaur in the kitchen” kind of thing.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/app/nitro-nation-on…/id985158853… a drag race car game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/acen/id1276116927?mt=8 aCen is a target shooting game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fitness-ar/id1274233318?mt=8 Fitness AR lets you explore your Strava bike rides and runs in augmented reality.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/powardup/id1271762334?mt=8PowARdup is a fast-paced arcade survival game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magic-sudoku/id1286979959… aim this app at a sudoku board game and it’ll solve it for you.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/app/dronetopolis-ar/id1280548570… Fly a virtual drone around.
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/dance-reality/id1277367395… Learn to dance in AR.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/my-very-hungry-cat…/id1277085142… a cute caterpillar game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/conduct-ar/id1256506674?mt=8Conduct AR! is a train game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/color-blastar/id1277211749… Cartoony creatures invade your real-life world in this walk-around augmented reality game for kids ages 6–12.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ar-runner/id1275938861?mt=8 This game gets you to run around.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/…/splitter-critters/id1107320261… Splitter Critters game. Split the world with a swipe of your finger then rearrange it to guide critters back to their spaceship.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/arrived-ar-god-sim…/id1246829781… game where you get to play an AR god.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/giphy-world-ar-gif…/id1279438563… This is probably the lamest of the AR examples but my son Ryan loved putting down gifs around the house.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/ar-sports-basketba…/id1278231813… AR Basketball game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ar-basketball/id1270144940… Another basketball game. Haven’t decided yet which one is best.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/drive-ahead-minigo…/id1268524653…Minigolf app that works better than the others I found.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/mammoth-mini-golf-…/id1267751860… This minigolf app is also good. Wacky caveman theme.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stack-ar/id1269638287?mt=8 So far the most popular game on the iTunes store that uses AR, but it isn’t the most original thing you’ve ever seen. You stack blocks up into a building until it falls down.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/carrot-weather/id961390574… Weather app that shows you the weather on top of the real world (I can’t really test this in California because the weather is always the same here. Heh).
https://itunes.apple.com/…/zombie-gunship-rev…/id1254976492…Zombie Gunship Revenant. Shooter game where you take control of a heavily armed helicopter gunship and obliterate zombies from the sky.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/app/pigeon-panic-ar/id1272651887… every kid loves running through flocks of pigeons. This game needs to be played outside or in large spaces, though.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phantogeist/id1284644739… first person shooter game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-machines/id1280682965… The Machines. Bring an AR battlefield to life in front of your eyes.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/…/yume-alices-dream/id1279220869…YouME: a story about a dream within a dream. Story, puzzles, games.
Domino World AR https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1282105342 setup Dominos and then topple them.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/app/shark-by-curis…/id1276542911… For some reason this demo is my favorite to show people what AR on iPhones does. After all, who doesn’t love a shark flying through their kitchen?
https://itunes.apple.com/…/twilight-pioneers-…/id1271259466… Dragon ARena is an AR game based on NetEase’s first mobile VR action adventure game which tells an Oriental fantasy story.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ar-balloons/id1286483429… Pop Balloons in augmented reality.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/knightfall-ar/id1285582974… Knightfall AR is an augmented reality experience that places you into the world of Knights Templar as they seek to defend the city of Acre from an invadaing army.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-box-ar/id1268182688?mt=8 The Box AR. Every day you get new functionality. Yesterday it was a portal that brought you into a 360-degree photo.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mancala-fs5/id300868307?mt=8Mancala FS5. Board game.
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Tomorrow we are teaching an online class about augmented reality and the future of work and will cover what I learned by testing all these apps. Join us at https://www.transformationgroup.io/learning
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Hey, developers, you should really do much more work when releasing an augmented reality app.
1. Your user testing sucks, er, get your user to “winning” FAST. I hit a lot of apps that just didn’t work, had too many forms to fill out before getting to the game, didn’t have good game play, etc.
2. Most apps have no reviews. That’s your fault. If I were a developer of apps I’d make sure I had at least 50 reviews by the end of the first day. That’s hard, yes, but then developing a game is hard. How do you get there?
Anyway you can. When we published our books we had the same problem. I gave away 800 copies of our book to friends, people I’ve met, and others, in order to get the 50 reviews we had on the first day.
3. Make augmented reality scanning better. Yes, all these apps needed to scan the floor or table that these things would work on. But most apps didn’t explain how to get a better scan. Most users are trying this functionality for the first time, you need to provide a far better scanning experience than most of you have.
4. Make sure I can find your app on Google. Several didn’t come up for searches on the app name. That tells me you haven’t even thought about the basics of marketing online.
You can find Robert on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble
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