Apple Maps is essential to future innovation, from autonomous vehicles to AR experiences, so it’s noteworthy that Apple’s own Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) has been adopted as a community standard for indoor positioning services.What is IMDF? IMDF has been accepted as a community standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium in response to proposals from a cross-industry group that includes Apple, Google, Autodesk, and Ordnance Survey.To read this article in full, please click here

Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author.Mixed reality (MR) in the consumer market has been less than exciting, but it’s been a big hit in business — particularly in manufacturing and training. Lockheed Martin was one of the first companies to embrace this technology (along with other aerospace firms like Boeing). In a presentation this week, Lockheed Martin execs explained where the technology — which relies on Hololens — worked and where it could work in the future as it evolves. They also contrasted HoloLens I and II, saying the latter was far more useful over a more extended time.   To read this article in full, please click here

Editor’s note: Cisco and Microsoft are clients of the author.Cisco Webex and Arthur this week had events focused on each company’s collaboration approach. Cisco made a significant move to finally eliminate phones that can’t do video, attempting to do what AT&T promised to do back in the 1960s: move to video phones. While Cisco is using its dominance in traditional office telephony to drive change, Arthur focuses on mixed reality. Its goal: blend the way we used to meet with how we need to meet in a post-pandemic world. To read this article in full, please click here

Both the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max possess Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanners. Why should it matter to your enterprise?What is LiDAR? LiDAR systems are capable of measuring how long it takes light to reflect back from a surface in order to measure the distance traveled and create 3D depth maps of what they see. The technology helps support realistic AR experiences and provides a huge boost to photography in low-light.LiDAR is not a new technology. It relies on tiny lasers that bounce light pulses against objects around them to figure out spatial information based on the journey it takes to send and return that light. Most people first became aware of it when it was used to help Apollo 15 map the moon’s surface. (NASA is now developing the technology for Mars missions.)To read this article in full, please click here

Editor’s note: Dell is a client of the author.Like most tech events this year, Dell Technologies World is virtual. And like most companies, Dell is adjusting to the New Normal where most employees are still — and may remain — working from home. During the opening keynote of this year’s event, Dell CTO, John Roese presented a blended view of the future for several of the vertical markets Dell serves. For instance, he implied that medical care in the future would likely, at least in some cases, arrive in some autonomous vehicle/office as a more efficient and safe way to provide services in the post-pandemic world. To read this article in full, please click here