vr – Tech News

Meta’s Horizon Worlds social platform is finally coming to mobile and the web

Meta is finally bringing Horizon Worlds out of virtual reality. The 3D social platform has previously been exclusive to its VR headsets, but Meta announced on Thursday that Horizon Worlds is starting to roll out on mobile and the web in early access. “To start, a small number of people can now access Super Rumble through the Meta Quest app on Android, with iOS rolling out in the coming weeks,” Meta said. “Early access is also available on any web browser at horizon.meta.com.”
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/14/23873820/meta-horizon-worlds-mobile-web-vr-early-access-release

Meta is rebooting Horizon Worlds as the VR platform struggles to grow

In an effort to make Horizon Worlds more compelling, Meta now has an in-house studio dubbed Ouro Interactive that’s focused on making first-party virtual reality games, Meta’s Vice President of Metaverse Vishal Shah said in an interview published Friday with the Lowpass technology newsletter. The studio’s first VR game, a shooter called Super Rumble, debuted Friday and reportedly contains better graphics and fidelity than other VR games built on top of Horizon Worlds. The video game will also be one of the first VR video games Meta plans to test when it eventually debuts a mobile version of Horizon Worlds, Shah said. “This is definitely more than just a new world,” Shah said, referring to it as “the next generation of Horizon Worlds.”
https://cnb.cx/3KhByam

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/

Apple’s Headset Has Metaverse Believers Hoping It Can Save Their Industry

After a period of disillusionment in the industry that some call the metaverse, many of its most fervent believers are banking on Apple to save the day. While an ecosystem of software startups built up around Meta Platforms’ lineup of Quest virtual-reality products, some companies have pulled back recently. Microsoft shut down a social virtual-reality platform it acquired in 2017 and trimmed the team building its HoloLens augmented-reality headset. Walt Disney Co. shuttered the division developing strategies for the metaverse.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-headset-has-metaverse-believers-hoping-it-can-save-their-industry-e692575a

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/

This App Lets You Relive Your Memories in VR, ‘Black Mirror’-Style

Andrew R McHugh hopes he can close in on this gap with a new app called Wist, which promises to let users capture videos on their phones and transform them into 3D, immersive memories viewable either via their phones with AR (augmented reality) or with a virtual reality headset. McHugh, CEO and co-founder of the app, explained to Motherboard that Wist is targeting the feeling that its namesake, wistful, evokes: longing and regret.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg5exb/wist-app-relive-memories-vr