Bleeding edge: the best of emerging tech

TECHLIFE’S PRACTICAL MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF EMERGING TECH EXPERIENCES, INCLUDING ALL THE LATEST VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY APPS, ALONGSIDE AI-DRIVEN BOTS AND OTHER USEFUL TOOLS.

CONSIDERING APPLE HASN’T had a single VR-ready PC to date, the company’s series of VR-related announcements at the 2017 World Wide Developers Conference absorbed most of the event’s limelight. Between the screened VR-ready reboot of its Mac Pro, the iMac Pro, an external GPU accelerator for the MacBook range and full support for Steam’s VR interface through an update of the Metal API, there was plenty to talk about.

The company also hedged its bets on smartphone AR development by launching ARKit for iOS, attracting the attention of many including The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Apple may have stolen the show this month, but Google’s I/O conference in May was home to some extremely useful AI implementations that will make many day-to-day tasks simpler.