European Council Publishes Web 4.0 Strategy

The European Commission is already setting out to tackle Web 4.0. There’s quite a bit to unpack here, including the EC approach, the 4-point plan that they recently published, and – of course – what they mean by Web 4.0. What Is Web 4.0? It’s not a typo and you’re not asleep at the wheel. While most of us haven’t gotten the hang of Web 3.0 yet, Europe is already setting the table for Web 4.0. Don’t worry, this is just a new terminology for something that’s already on your radar. “Beyond the currently developing third generation of the internet, Web 3.0, whose main features are openness, decentralization, and user empowerment, the next generation, Web 4.0, will allow an integration between digital and real objects and environments and enhanced interactions between humans and machines,” reads the EC’s report. So, essentially, “Web 4.0” is the metaverse. But, why not just call

The XR Week Peek (2023.07.18): Roblox is coming to Quest, Google has an unclear XR vision, and more!

It is summer and usually nothing relevant in tech happens in this period, but actually, there have been quite a few relevant pieces of XR news this week. So, while I’m melting like Terminator in the hot lava (sorry for the spoiler of Terminator 2, but if you haven’t watched the movie yet, you deserve it), here I am summarizing these topics for you, so you are sure to not lose the most important things that have happened in XR! Top news of the week (Image by Meta)Roblox is coming to Meta Quest We already heard a few rumors about Roblox possibly coming to Meta Quest, but now it is official: Meta itself has stated that the popular gaming universe is coming as a beta to Meta Quest App Lab in the coming weeks, before being released to the official Meta Quest Store when it will be ready.  Roblox features around 15M experiences

The XR Week Peek (2023.06.20): Samsung to change its XR plans, Upload made a cool showcase, and more!

Another week, another roundup! I didn’t forget my promise of a big article about the Vision Pro, I just had to postpone it because I was too busy. But it’s coming this week, so be prepared… Top news of the week (Image by Google)Samsung may have changed its plan because of the Vision Pro announcement We just finished reporting the rumors about the Vision Pro and we start now reporting the rumors about the next big headset, the XR device that Samsung is designing together with Google and Qualcomm.  We all joked about Samsung waiting for the Apple Vision Pro announcement to copy it, but according to some rumors, this is exactly what is happening. It seems that the Korean brand was building a Galaxy XR device with a 2,000 PPI display, but after Apple revealed that the Vision Pro will boast 3400 PPI, the new plan is a device with at

The XR Week Peek (2023.05.15): Google confirms headset with Samsung, Ultraleap teases a new device, and more!

It’s time for another roundup of amazing XR news. Are you ready? Top news of the week (Image by Google)Google announces important AI and XR news at Google I/O This Google I/O has seen immersive realities back to the menu. During the keynote, CEO Sundar Pichai and his collaborators announced interesting features both for AR and VR. I’ve written a dedicated news roundup article dedicated to Google I/O today, so I won’t go deep into details here and I invite you to read that post (linked here below) if you want to have the details about the news. But to summarize, the most important XR-related tidbits have been: Google confirmed that is still working with Qualcomm and Samsung to build an XR headset. More information about it is coming “later this year” Project Starline, the booth to have volumetric 1-to-1 calls has been improved and optimized. Some journalists have tried it and

The XR Week Peek (2023.04.24): Apple headset to have iOS apps, Pico launches Pico 4 Pro in China, and more!

This week we had quite a few interesting pieces of XR news. From the nth rumor on the Apple headset to the announcement of the Pico 4 Pro in China, there have been a few things happening that you as an XR enthusiast can’t miss. Here in this roundup, of course, you can find them all. And together with them, you can also find a giveaway of keys for the audiobook about the metaverse by Luis Martins! :O Top news of the week (Image from an Apple event)Apple headset to run iOS apps The rumored launch of the Apple headset is getting closer, so the rumors about it are intensifying. The usual Mark Gurman has published an interesting report about it, in which he talks about the applications that should be available on the device. This is the list of apps, kindly reported by my friends at RoadToVR: iPad apps adapted for mixed

Skarredghost does not exist, he has always been an artificial intelligence

Today’s article will be a bit different than usual. Who is writing is not Skarredghost, but a spokesperson of UmbrellAI which has been authorized by the company to speak publicly. With today’s post, we want to communicate to the whole VR community a piece of news that may shock some of you, but that signals an important advancement of artificial intelligence technology: the VR blogger that goes under the pseudonym of Skarredghost does not exist, but he is a virtual human developed by our company. UmbrellAI Our logo, which inspires happiness and trust UmbrellAI Corp. is a company that has been focused on artificial intelligence for many decades. We were early believers in AI even in times when the technology was rough and its usability was questioned by many technology professionals. Over the years, we developed an incredible team hiring always

The XR Week Peek (2023.03.27): Vive inside-out Tracker announced, Pico’s launch in the US delayed, and more!

This has been quite an interesting week. We had at the same time the Game Developer Conference (the GDC) and the GPU Technology Conference (GTC) by NVIDIA, so we had lots of announcements about 3D technology in general and also about XR. Since there are these two conferences with a very similar name happening at a similar time and a similar place, I wonder why they don’t unify them in a single one called GTDC, or GXC, or something like that. Ok, of course, I’m kidding, but, you know, the possibility of saying the wrong name is so high that my proposal actually starts making sense… Top news of the week (Image by HTC Vive)HTC reveals inside-out-tracked Tracker With a totally unexpected move, HTC has revealed a new kind of Tracker.  The Tracker is one of the most successful products sold by HTC: it is mostly used by the VRChat community people

The XR Week Peek (2023.03.20): Meta to perform new layoffs, Google Glass to shut down, and more!

I’m back in Italy! My time at SXSW has been great, but now it’s time to be back to the usual routine. I still feel a lot tired because of the jet lag and the little sleep I had in Austin, but this is pretty normal, and in one week or such this feeling should go away. And I’m sure that the support from all of you will make me feel better even sooner 🙂 Top news of the week (Image by Meta)Meta to lay off people and focus more on AI It’s been a tough week for Meta. Mark Zuckerberg has communicated to his employees that in this “Year of efficiency,” the company is laying off another 10,000 people and canceling 5,000 open job positions. The layoffs will start affecting the recruiting departments in March, then the tech employees in April, and in the end, the business people in May. Together with

Arthur Releases Productivity and Display Updates

Arthur, an immersive virtual collaboration platform for enterprise, has recently rolled out its first major set of updates since its “Pro” version launched in 2021. The update brings solutions that are helpful in the platform but that VR in general has needed for a long time. To learn more about the platform’s growth in the space and the technology coming of age in the enterprise sector, I met in the platform with Arthur Business Development Consultant Lakshman Lattipally. We also showed off our full-body avatars and explored the platform’s many features both old and new. The Road So Far Arthur was founded in 2016 but became publicly available in 2020. The platform rolled out its first major updates the following year, which is when ARPost first introduced our readers to the platform. At the time, the company was largely presented as a “virtual real estate company” before that language was

The 2023 Polys WebXR Awards Recap

The third Annual Polys WebXR Awards took place this weekend. The show was bigger than ever thanks to the first-ever in-person awards and a special event saying farewell to AltspaceVR. However, despite some new categories, the overall category list was shorter this year as a number of previous awards were combined. A Very Special Polys The Polys launched during the height of the pandemic. Fortunately, not being in person has a way of not greatly hindering an event that’s already dedicated to WebXR. The event took place in a bespoke AltspaceVR world, with watch parties on YouTube as well as other remote platforms. However, this time, people were able to get together in person but they did it in a very “metaverse” way. In-person hosts, producers, presenters, and an audience gathered at ZeroSpace, an XR stage and motion capture studio in Brooklyn. Their actions on the stage were volumetrically