The XR Week Peek (2022.06.27): Meta shows its R&D prototypes, Apple shows nothing as usual, and much more!

vrcoin on June 27, 2022

It’s hot and the drought is creating some issues here in northern Italy. But I had a nice weekend, plus I’ve been chosen by Onalytica as one of the top 5G+XR influencers on Linkedin, so I think of this and I stay happy. Top news of the week (Image by Meta)Meta showed prototype headsets from its R&D department With a completely unexpected move, Meta has given us all a glimpse of some prototypes created by its R&D department. Mark Zuckerberg himself has performed this marketing push, in which he claims that the company is working hard to make sure that its headsets will be able to pass the “Visual Turing Test”, that is that the visuals they offer become indistinguishable from reality.  To perform this ambitious goal, Meta is trying to tackle four different problems (thanks to Road To VR for this summary): Varifocal: the ability to focus on arbitrary depths of

Apple Reportedly Wants Nothing To Do With The Metaverse

vrcoin on January 10, 2022

A source claims the company’s highly-anticipated mixed reality headset will prioritize shorter experiences. Last year rumors began circulating that Apple is in development of its own combination VR/AR headset. As for when we can expect to get our hands on this long-rumored mixed reality device, some sources are reporting a potential 2022 release date, though the company has yet to comment.That said, whileApple CEO Tim Cook has stated that AR technology is “critically important” for the company’s future, it appears as though they have little to no interest in the “metaverse,” aka the future of everything.Image Credit: The InformationIn Mark Gurman’s latest “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, the Apple and consumer tech expert claims that Apple has little to no interest in bringing the metaverse to its mixed reality hardware and will instead be focusing its efforts on delivering shorter experiences best enjoyed in small “bursts.” These experiences could include

The XR Week Peek (2021.12.13): Horizon Worlds is now in open beta, Among Us VR is coming, and more!

vrcoin on December 13, 2021

This has been a pretty interesting week for me, having spoken at XR Safety Week and Stereopsia, and having published two cool articles about creating innovative SteamVR controllers and using Application SpaceWarp in Unity to almost double the framerate of your application.  But now, before starting the new week, it’s time to look back at the most important news of the previous one! Top news of the week (Image by Meta)Horizon Worlds goes open beta Finally, after two years in the works, Meta has decided to open the gates of its social VR space Horizon Worlds (previously known as Facebook Horizon). Or at least, sort of: the experience is still in beta (so this is officially an open beta stage) and it will be accessible without an invite only in the US and in Canada. Ah, and you must be 18+ years old.  The North-America-only limitation is quite a bummer for us Europeans, but