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Tech

‘Holo’ Is a Dumb New Augmented Reality App That You Should Get

Keep technology stupid.
Beeld Holo, de auteur

I should preface this "consumer tech" post by saying I generally do not give a shit about consumer tech. However, I love things that are A) dumb, and B) fun. If I can't explain why—even better.

That's why if you've downloaded the lastest version of Apple's iPhone operating system, iOS 11, there's really only one app that you need to enjoy its shiny new augmented reality features, and it is also the dumbest one. It's called Holo and it's a lot of fun if you don't care about using AR in an even remotely practical way. With Holo, you point your phone at whatever's in front of you and drop a little character in the frame. It might be a cop, or a soccer ref, or a guy who's fallen into a trash can, or Jon Hamm (yes there are a couple celebrity avatars, but they're the lamest part.)

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And, uh, that's it. It's worth noting that Holo launched on iOS before Apple added its ARKit for augmented reality, but added support on Wednesday.

You can then export the clips to serve up Twitter burns, or make dumb jokes, or whatever. I don't know, it's pretty self-explanatory. And it works properly, unlike other augmented reality apps that try to do practical things like measure objects in the real-world. It's also not low-key turning you into a corporate flak like Ikea's app, which lets you turn the entire world into a drab and vaguely European meeting room.

I'll probably get bored of Holo in a week, but if you want to try out this whole augmented reality thing while you can still appear cool for doing so (the clock is ticking on this one), you should get it.

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