The XR Week Peek (2022.03.07): Samsung is planning to launch an XR device, PSVR may arrive in 2023, and more!

Another week has passed by, and while the situation in Europe is always more complicated because of the war, in the XR landscape nothing particularly special has happened. It has been a pretty boring week, notwithstanding the MWC, which, as it happened the last few years, hasn’t brought important news about XR. But this roundup will be worth reading anyway, so don’t go away too fast! Top news of the week (Image by Samsung)Samsung is close to launching an XR device, or maybe two The metaverse hype is growing, and with it, all the interest of the big brands towards XR. Last month, we got to know that (according to a rumor) Samsung is working together with Microsoft on new AR glasses, most probably powered by a Qualcomm chipset. This week, instead, we discovered that Samsung is actually working on another headset in parallel.  According to the Korean magazine Electronic Times, the device

The XR Week Peek (2022.02.28): PSVR 2 revealed, Meta working on AI and 5G, and more!

I know that in these crazy war moments probably we all are a bit less interested in the news about XR, but this is my job, so today you can find here the new weekly roundup I prepared for you, as usual. I hope it serves to distract you by giving you something to read to not think about the terrible things happening in this world. I just hope for peace to come to Europe again soon: I have friends on both sides of the conflict, and no one of them wants this war, but all of them have to stand the consequences. I really hope for the best for all people that are in this awful situation.  I have also a little announcement to make: in the upcoming weeks, starting from today, I will start a paid partnership with NVIDIA to promote the GTC. I am usually not interested in

The XR Week Peek (2022.02.12): Altspace VR to introduce safety measures, Horizon audience is growing, and more!

This Monday, before digging into the news, let me announce to you two things: I have added a new section to this newsletter, called “Other news”. There I will just put a description and a link of those pieces of news I find interesting, but a bit less relevant than the others. These are articles I would have probably not shared with you in the previous editions of the newsletter, but with this new format, I can at least acknowledge that these things have happened. Please tell me if you find this new approach useful so that I can decide if keep going with it or not;We of New Technology Walkers (me and my partner Massimiliano Ariani) have been featured on the local news section of an important Italian newspaper! We are pretty happy about it and I wanted to share this with you. Since “pics or it didn’t happen”

The XR Week Peek (2022.02.14): SteamVR headsets go beyond 3M, body-tracking leaked for Quest SDK, and more!

Happy San Valentine’s Day everyone! We are all in love with XR, so this is our day… and I also wish you celebrate it with other meaty humans that you love. So much love and hugs from me: I send you good vibes, hoping for your bright future! Remember that I root for you ❤ Top news of the week (Image by Valve)Steam VR headsets reach an all-time high Despite the rumors about PCVR being dead, the number of monthly connected headsets on SteamVR reached an all-time high. According to the estimates by Road To VR, the number could be as big as 3.4 million.  I think this is a great stat because it shows that PCVR is not dead, but more like in a complicated transitional situation. There are many sides to consider of the whole story.  First of all, the market is growing with a good rate of 30% year-over-year, and this

The XR Week Peek (2022.02.07): Meta has invested more than $10B on XR, Hololens 3 may have been canceled, and more!

I’m exhausted after two weeks of overworking, but I’m keeping thriving.. and so I’m here writing you this roundup of the best AR and VR news to keep you informed about what is happening in our ecosystem. I hope you’ll appreciate that! By the way, this new lunar year has begun in the best way possible for me, with two great people, Eduardo and Alan, joining my Patreon, so I guess that the red socks I bought on AliExpress to bring me luck worked! 😉 Before leaving you to the news of the week, let me just tell you two things that may interest you: If you missed them, don’t forget to read my predictions about augmented reality and virtual reality in 2022;This Thursday at 5 pm CET AWE Nite Florence comes back! Cecilia Lascialfari and I will talk about “digital rights in the metaverse” together with experts from XRSI. It will be

The XR Week Peek (2022.01.31): Meta builds a new AI supercomputer, Magic Leap 2 details unveiled, and more!

Happy Chinese/Lunar new year! On this occasion, I wish every one of you a lot of happiness, joy, peace, good health, money. I hope this new lunar year is going to bring you the best possible outcomes!  Tonight starts the year of the Tiger… which is going to be my year! According to the tradition, it should be a year that will be important for me, either in a good or a bad way, so it should be pretty exciting. I have already a red bracelet and I just bought some red socks that are considered a way to help me in having an amazing new year. I just hope that the quality of the new year won’t be the same as the socks: I have bought some cheap ones on AliExpress, and the embroidery of the tigers seems made by some kid under the effects of Rohypnol. I hope the

The XR Week (2022.01.24): Google AR headset is “Project Iris”, Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard, and more

The international situation scares me a bit, but I’m trying to focus on the good things that happened to me this week. The Oxymore musical VR experience we of VRrOOm have organized with Jean-Michel Jarre went great; someone posted a tweet where he shows he finished our game HitMotion: Reloaded; and one of my readers made an amazing meme about my tutorials. I can say it was a great week for me, professionally speaking… and I hope that the next one will even be better. What about yours? Let me know how things are going for you! Top news of the week (Image by Google)Project Iris is the codename of Google’s AR glasses According to a report on The Verge, Google is working on AR glasses. This shouldn’t surprise us given the recent acquisitions performed by the Big G, but now we have more details about what is happening at Mountain View. The AR

The XR Week Peek (2021.12.27): a great Christmas for Quest 2, Rec Room is worth $3.5B, and much more!

Happy Winter Holidays! It is that time of the year when people relax, eat, and hope for a better future, and while I’m not relaxing that much, I’m for sure eating a lot :D. This week I have written a long post to wish you Happy Holidays and a wonderful new year, and if you haven’t done that, go reading it now, because I’ve also used the word “Christmasverse” in it haha Working-wise, it’s been a great week for me: my article on my hands-on with AR contact lenses had success, and with New Technology Walkers, I have launched the final update of the free demo for our game HitMotion: Reloaded, and until now it’s going pretty well (please get it on App Lab and leave a positive review!). Top news of the week (Image from Reddit)Oculus Quest 2 had a great Christmas The VR ecosystem can end 2021 with a big smile

The XR Week Peek (2021.12.21): Google is building an AR OS, Nike acquires RTFKT, and more!

I’m super-late with this newsletter because we of New Technology Walkers are working on some cool stuff for our game HitMotion: Reloaded! Be sure to check it out on App Lab in a few hours, even if you have already completed it in the past… 😉 And please, give it 5 stars, it’s super-important to have a positive review for our future… do it as a Christmas gift to me!  I’ll write a separate post for that, but in case you won’t read it, let me wish you all some amazing Winter Holidays to spend with the people you love the most! Top news of the week (Image by Google)Google is reportedly working on an AR operating system In some of my past newsletters, I warned you that we shouldn’t forget about Google/Alphabet in the race to our mixed reality future. Google owns the best search engine (Google), all the data of the

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

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