headset – Tech News

The Steam Frame is a surprising new twist on VR

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

VR Headsets Are Better Than Ever and No One Seems to Care

If mixed reality and virtual reality are still a big thing, you wouldn’t know it based on Meta’s Connect conference last week. There were no big Quest announcements (outside of maybe Hyperscape), no new Quest headset, and it felt like the only time Meta (traditionally the loudest and proudest purveyor of XR out there) really tackled XR and VR was through a surprise, and slightly out of place, fireside chat with… Avatar director, James Cameron.
https://gizmodo.com/vr-headsets-are-better-than-ever-and-no-one-seems-to-care-2000663098

Here’s what Samsung’s first Android XR headset looks like in person

The headset, which Samsung is developing in partnership with Google, runs Android XR, an OS designed specifically for headsets and smart glasses. My colleague Victoria Song got to try Project Moohan late last year, so if you want to know what it’s like to actually wear and use. Samsung plans to launch Project Moohan for developers first, but it won’t be available right away for consumers.
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/22/24349736/samsung-project-moohan-photos-android-xr-headset

Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2023

APPLE HELD ITS annual Worldwide Developers Conference today. The big news, of course, is that Apple's long-awaited mixed reality headset finally made its debut. The very expensive device may have overshadowed the other news from the event, but the company announced a whole host of other stuff, including new Mac computers and updates to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
https://www.wired.com/story/wwdc-2023-everything-apple-announced/

Kuo: Apple ‘Well Prepared’ for Headset Announcement Next Month

Pricing on the headset is expected to begin somewhere around $3,000. Perhaps with that in mind, Apple won't aim it at general consumers to start with, but will instead position it as a device for developers, content creators, and professionals. Apple expects to sell just one headset per day per retail store, and it has told suppliers that it expects sales of seven to 10 million units during the first year of availability.
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/15/kuo-apple-well-prepared-headset-unveiling/

Apple Focusing on Sports, Gaming, and Fitness Apps for AR/VR Headset

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in early April that the AR/VR headset is the "last hope" for persuading investors that AR/VR devices will become the "next star product in consumer electronics." Other devices from companies like Meta have lacked appealing software, and this is a major hurdle that Apple will need to overcome.
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/04/18/apple-ar-vr-headset-app-development/

Apple’s mixed-reality headset could arrive this year

Image Credits: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Over the past few years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated several times that augmented reality is a promising technology. “I think the [AR] promise is even greater in the future. So it’s a critically important part of Apple’s future,” Cook told Kara Swisher back in 2021.

But it sounds like Apple’s upcoming product is going to offer a mixed-reality experience. Users will be able to experience both augmented and virtual reality. Details are still thin about the potential use cases and apps for the headset as it’s easier to control software leaks compared to product leaks.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/09/apples-mixed-reality-headset-could-arrive-this-year/