Is the Vision Pro Dead? Apple Reportedly Stops Work on Its Pricey Headset

image via pcmag.com
image via pcmag.com

Apple has reportedly stopped work on its Vision Pro headset and shifted staff to other teams within the company, MacRumors reports. Some employees who worked on the Vision Pro have been transferred to the company’s Siri team, while others are being moved elsewhere.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/is-the-vision-pro-dead-apple-reportedly-stops-work-on-its-pricey-headset

Meta’s metaverse leaves virtual reality

image via techcrunch.com
image via techcrunch.com

Meta has announced a major update for its immersive virtual world, Horizon Worlds, on Thursday that will see it leave the metaverse behind. The tech giant said it’s shifting focus for Horizon Worlds to be “almost exclusively mobile” and that it’s “explicitly separating” its Quest VR platform from the virtual world.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/meta-metaverse-leaves-vr-horizon-worlds-mobile/

Well, there goes the metaverse

image via techcrunch.com
image via techcrunch.com

Meta’s enormous bet on virtual reality ended last week, with the company reportedly laying off roughly 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division — about 10% of the unit’s staff — and shutting down several VR game studios, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s a huge reversal for a company that, just four years ago, staked its entire identity on the concept.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/19/well-there-goes-the-metaverse/

No one knows what to call these things

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

It turns out “smart glasses” is out as a term. The term “AI glasses” is in. Kind of. Actually, it seems no one’s fully on the same page. Regardless of definitions, one thing is becoming clear: there’s a fundamental shift happening here.

https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/841536/smart-glasses-ai-glasses-xr-ar-headsets-terminology-wearables

Meta eyes big cuts to its metaverse budget in the AI era

image via qz.com
image via qz.com

According to Bloomberg News, Meta is considering slashing its metaverse spending by as much as 30% in 2026 — although no plans are final yet — after meetings at Zuckerberg’s Hawaii compound laid out a slimmer future for its namesake ambitions. For three years, the company tried to brute-force another new reality into existence: new name, new stock ticker, new keynote vocabulary about “presence” and “embodied internet.”

https://qz.com/meta-metaverse-cuts-mark-zuckerberg-reality-labs

Meta’s Hyperscape is ready to turn your real living room into a VR hangout

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

Meta’s impressive, photorealistic digital replicas of real places built using its “Hyperscape” capture tech, which uses the cameras on a Quest 3 or Quest 3S VR headset to scan a room, have so far been solitary spaces. But beginning this week, Meta is rolling out the ability to share links that will let other people visit Hyperscape rooms with you in a Quest 3 or 3S VR headset or via the Meta Horizon mobile app.

https://www.theverge.com/news/825705/meta-hyperscape-social-links-capture-scan-metaverse

The Steam Frame is a surprising new twist on VR

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

The new headset is called the Steam Frame, and it’s trying to do several things at once. It’s a standalone VR headset with a smartphone-caliber Arm chip inside that lets you play flat-screen Windows games locally off the onboard storage or a microSD card. But the Frame’s arguably bigger trick is that it can stream games directly to the headset, bypassing your unreliable home Wi-Fi by using a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless dongle that plugs into your gaming PC. And its new controllers are packed with all the buttons and inputs you need for both flat-screen games and VR games.

https://www.theverge.com/games/816118/valve-steam-frame-vr-headset-streaming-arm-steamos-hands-on