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

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

The XR Week Peek (2022.06.20): Roblox may come to Quest, Meta launches Avatar Store, and more!

It seems that in many countries of the world this weekend was Father’s Day… so my best greetings to all of you that are fathers! It’s curious that actually in Italy we celebrate this in March… but who cares, whenever is the day, it’s always good to celebrate our daddies 🙂  I’ll be very upfront with you: this week in XR has been very boring, so you won’t find super-news here below, but there are some interesting things that have happened in our ecosystem anyway. One of them is that I’ve become for the third year a judge of the VR Awards! Yay! I am very thankful for the trust that AIXR puts in me, and I can’t wait to begin the judging process. Top news of the week (Image by Roblox)Roblox may come to Meta Quest There is a rumor that is circulating this week: Roblox may come to Meta Quest. I don’t

The XR Week Peek (2022.06.13): Apple doesn’t show its AR glasses at WWDC, Meta delays its AR plans, and more!

I’m finally back in Turin! I miss a bit the joys of traveling and especially all the amazing people I met, but I have a lot of cool things I have to work on here, so I’m glad I have again the time to do them! And regarding this… would you be interested in working with me? We at VRrOOm are hiring to do our innovative XR events, check the “Friends” section of this newsletter if this opportunity can interest you! Top news of the week (Image by Apple)Apple has not announced any glasses at WWDC Every year, we have the same ritual: we wait for an event by Apple, hoping to hear some news about an upcoming XR device, then nothing happens in this sense, we are disappointed and so we hope for a new reveal next year. This WWDC has not been an exception in this sense, and now all

The XR Week Peek (2022.05.30): Niantic launches VPS, Pico launches Neo 3 Link, and much more!

Hello everyone from San Jose, California! I’m here ready to attend AWE… tomorrow I’ll start having the first meetings, and then from Wednesday, the real deal will begin! Don’t forget to read the coverage about it on my blog… Before leaving you to the news, I have to publicly compliment Emerson for having given the most correct answer to my contest. I made a troll Twitter contest in which I used some regular sunglasses gifted by Nreal to my friend Eloi Gerard and asked people what smart glasses were they… he guessed may be Nreal or just a pair of regular sunglasses, so he went close enough. Emerson, you have the eternal glory for this. Top news of the week (Image by Niantic)Niantic releases Visual Positioning System Niantic has finally launched its VPS (Visual Positioning System), a solution that will allow developers to create AR applications that are persistent and shared in

The XR Week Peek (2022.05.16): Meta teases Cambria, Google shows new AR features, and more!

This has been a week full of interesting news. But before digging into them, let me show you the first episode of The Spatial Show, the comedy show about the metaverse organized by Ori Inbar in which I took part. If you watch the video, you can see me say stupid things about XR… well, more or less as I do every day in my life…  Have fun! Top news of the week (Image by Mark Zuckerberg)Zuckerberg teases Project Cambria Mark Zuckerberg has teased Project Cambria, the upcoming headset by Meta. In a video published on Facebook, he showed himself wearing the headset and let us also see what he was seeing inside, with some footage directly from his point of view. To hide the real appearance of the device, his face wearing it was pixelated: the most interesting things in life are always pixelated, as in the hentai movies. Zuck has also

The XR Week Peek (2022.05.09): Meta to release four VR headsets, NFT sales are going down, and more!

I feel better than last week, so I’m back to business with the usual newsletter. But I’ve still to fully recover, so every hug you send me is still highly appreciated!  I’m also sending good vibes to my friends in China who are facing lockdowns. I know the situation is not the best now, but I hope things will get better soon. I hug you. Top news of the week (Image from Reddit)Meta to launch four VR headsets before 2024 According to a report by The Information, Meta is going to launch four VR headsets from now to 2024: The first one is Project Cambria, which is going to be released this Autumn, probably at Meta ConnectThen there are two Quest headsets, codenamed Stinson and Cardiff, to be released in 2023 and 2024. One is probably the Quest 3, while the other is not clear if it is a higher-end version (Quest 3

The XR Week Peek (2022.05.02): Meta predicts the metaverse for 2030 and beyond, Snap launches a drone, and more!

I’ve been sick this weekend. I’m getting better, but I’ll need days to fully recover, I still feel like if I was hit by a train. I’m doing my best to work, and I don’t want you to miss this appointment with my news roundup, so I’ve prepared it the same… I just warn you that my usual commentaries will be shorter this time.  Send me hugs 🙂 Top news of the week Zuckerberg sets the Metaverse for 2030 and beyond The Zuck has had the hard task to speak with Meta’s investors and tell them that while the revenues of Reality Labs are increasing thanks to Quest 2, actually all the “metaverse” division is losing $3B a quarter. Zuck has explained to them to be patient because the Metaverse, which no one knows what actually is, is happening beyond 2030. So all these huge investments will pay off in the very long run.

The XR Week Peek (2022.04.25): Meta had its Quest Gaming Showcase, Pico may launch its “Cambria” in September, and more!

Today is a bit of a special day for this newsletter because this article you are reading is the 250th roundup about XR news I’ve written! If you make the calculation, it means that it is almost 5 years that every damn weekend I collect the best news of the week in AR and VR (and the “mmmmmmmetaverse”) and I organize them for you! If I think about it, I can feel all the fatigue and the time I spent in the process, but I’m happy doing that because I know it is useful to many of you from the XR communities. So, let’s make a little toast to celebrate this announcement, and… now let’s get back to work: what are the pieces of news I have selected for you this week? Top news of the week (Image by Meta)Meta announced interesting games at its Quest Gaming Showcase On April, 20th, Meta

The XR Week Peek (2022.04.18): Pico Neo 3 Link launches in Europe, Meta offers monetization tools in Horizon, and more!

Happy Easter Holidays to whoever celebrates it! Yesterday I have eaten a lot, including a chocolate egg and an Easter cake with tons of pistachio and hazelnut cream. And today I’m going to do the same… the goal is gaining 10 kilos in 2 days haha. VR is cool and all the rest, but Italian food is even better! Anyway, today should be a vacation in Italy, but here I am writing this roundup for you, so if you want to show your appreciation, don’t forget to make a donation on Patreon! Top news of the week (Image by Pico Interactive)Pico Neo 3 Link has been launched in beta At Laval Virtual, Pico has announced the Pico Neo 3 Link, its first consumer-oriented headset.  Pico Neo 3 Link is basically the same device as the Pico Neo 3 Pro, with just some little modifications. The headset is more or less a clone of the

The XR Week Peek (2022.04.10): Epic releases Unreal Engine 5, Meta cancels F8, and more!

I know you weren’t expecting my newsletter for today, but since I’m going to have a very busy next week, I’ve anticipated the release of my roundup! This afternoon I’m flying to Paris to then go to Laval to attend Laval Virtual, one of the oldest events about virtual reality, where I’ll be as an attendee, a virtual speaker (about the game HitMotion: Reloaded), a host of the AWE Nite Florence (featuring great speakers like Charlie Fink… ), and also as a.. I can’t tell you the last one because it will be a surprise! I have written a little blog post about my participation there. It’s going to be very interesting and very busy… I hope to meet you in Laval! Top news of the week (Image by Epic Games)Epic Games releases Unreal Engine 5 Epic Games has finally released the latest iteration of its popular game engine: Unreal Engine 5. UE5