[CNN has launched an app that makes its content available for users of the Magic Leap One augmented reality headset, as reported in this story from Next Reality; see the original version for 2 animated gifs and a 0:40 minute video (also available via YouTube). Two short excerpts from other coverage, providing additional information and cautionary notes, follow below. –Matthew]
CNN Brings Its News Networks to Magic Leap One
By Tommy Palladino
February 28, 2019
News junkies who own the Magic Leap One received some good news on Thursday, as CNN has published an app for the headset to display the network’s news coverage in augmented reality.
Available immediately, the CNN app carries live news, on-demand programming, and digital exclusives from CNN, CNNi, and HLN via the Screens feature of Magic Leap’s Lumin OS.
Users can anchor the virtual screens anywhere in their environment and scale them to any size and interact with data layers to learn more about the subject matter presented in the news story.
In a blog post, Magic Leap also promises that CNN will bring more features to the app soon that will further leverage the device’s spatial computing capabilities and expand the boundaries of storytelling. Perhaps a volumetric version of Wolf Blitzer is on the way to our living rooms?
Although CNN is considered a pioneer in the realm of cable news coverage, this time the media giant is a bit of a follower, since the upstart news network Cheddar brought its news coverage to the Magic Leap One in December.
Still, CNN’s presence on Magic Leap comes with a bit foreshadowing, as AT&T has emerged as both an investor and a strategic content partner with Magic Leap in recent months. As part of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner, CNN will become part of AT&T’s growing media empire. As such, the CNN app also serves as a beta test of sorts for AT&T’s own DirecTV app, which the company announced last October.
While Magic Leap One is still considered a developer device and not yet a mainstream media machine, that hasn’t stopped Magic Leap and its content partners from pushing out consumer-friendly apps. So far, we’ve seen Star Wars, Angry Birds, Lowe’s, and the NBA apps arrive for Magic Leap One. News is another cornerstone of the consumer computing experience.
Alternatively, Microsoft has made it clear that it’s focusing on enterprise customers with HoloLens 2. Therefore, with AT&T already tapped as the exclusive carrier for the launch of the eventual consumer version of Magic Leap One, Magic Leap would appear to have a wider lane to move in on the consumer AR segment.
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[From Engadget]
CNN’s Magic Leap app lets you interact with the news, if you dare
Now you can project the tragedies of 2019 on your wall.
Christine Fisher
February 28, 2019
“While this is CNN’s first augmented reality app, the network debuted a VR app for Oculus Rift this time last year. Competitors are working with the technology, too. NBC has partnered with Google on VR “experiences” and dabbled in Olympic coverage, and Fox Sports VR lets you turn your living room into a stadium suite, sort of. Neither CNN nor Magic Leap provided much detail on how this new app works, but it’s available now if you want to go find out for yourself.”
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[From NewscastStudio]
CNN and Cheddar launch augmented reality channels … for some reason
By Michael P. Hill
March 1, 2019
“Magic Leap released a video clip that shows a woman cheerfully getting up, making herself a bowl of cereal, sitting down at a table, donning a Magic Leap One that makes her look a bit like a deep sea explorer and start watching CNN on a virtual screen floating in front of her kitchen peninsula.
You know, instead of … turning on the TV.
To be fair, the device can also be used to watch the live streams when you’re in a space that doesn’t have a television — such as outdoors, though with the possible downfall that you might look a bit odd wearing a Magic Leap One headset in public to watch CNN or Cheddar.
You know, instead of … watching it on your phone.
[snip]
Meanwhile, Anshel Sag, a consumer and chip tech analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, also noted that the sequence shown in the promo video CNN and Magic Leap released isn’t necessarily an accurate representation of the experience — particularly noting issues with rendering and narrow field of view.”