Road to VR

MARCH 16, 2023

Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2, the company’s work-focused version of its iconic but once maligned smartglasses, is being discontinued. Google says in a device support FAQ that, starting March 15th, it will no longer sell Glass Enterprise 2, adding that it will only support the device until September 15th, 2023.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 22, 2024

Two OEMs are already onboard: Lenovo and ASUS are already working on devices whose software will be built on top of the Meta Horizon ecosystem. Zuck always said that Meta is the “open ecosystem” that fights against Apple’s closed ecosystem, but until today there was nothing open at all.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 16, 2024

After the announcement of the release date of the Apple Vision Pro, the whole community is just waiting for its preorders to open up this Friday. The headset will be sold in physical stores and on the Apple website. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple has only 60–80K units available at this time , so most likely they’ll go sold out.

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Upload VR

APRIL 22, 2024

Meta is rebranding its Quest software platform to Meta Horizon OS, and opening it up to third-party headset makers. They'll have access to the same core software and platform services as Meta Quest headsets, including Meta's tracking and mixed reality technology and store. And if so will it be Meta, or Google?

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Upload VR

AUGUST 24, 2023

Google reportedly plans to provide AR glasses system software for hardware companies from 2025. In June Business Insider's Hugh Langley reported that Google had cancelled its own glasses hardware project amid the mass layoffs at the company and the departure of its AR/VR chief Clay Bavor.

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Road to VR

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Samsung’s 2023 Unpacked event was all about the company’s Galaxy S23 hardware, although at the end of its hour-long presentation the South Korean tech giant announced it was working with Qualcomm and Google to develop an XR device. Samsung was one of the first truly massive tech companies to develop VR hardware.

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Next Reality AR

MAY 19, 2021

For most mainstream users, LiDAR sensors for precision depth sensing remain the exclusive domain of Apple iPhones and iPads, but Google is helping Android device makers close the depth gap on the software side via its ARCore toolkit.

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Road to VR

MARCH 4, 2024

A report from The Information last week alleged Meta and Google held talks in effort to bring Android XR to Quest. Google abandoned Daydream after less than 2 years, while Meta grew Oculus (now Quest) to tens of millions scale,” explains Heaney. million apps built for iPhone in addition to 1,000+ visionOS native apps.

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Road to VR

AUGUST 29, 2017

In an answer to Apple’s recently released ARKit , a developer tool used for making augmented reality apps and games that run on newer iPad and iPhones, Google today released a preview of a new Android-compatible software development kit (SDK) called ARCore. Nougat and above.

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Road to VR

APRIL 22, 2024

Today the company says it’s formally branding the Quest operating system as Meta Horizon OS, and with it, plans to allow third-parties to make new headsets that run the software stack. The company has already confirmed that Asus and Lenovo are building new headsets for Meta Horizon OS.

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Road to VR

JULY 31, 2023

Apple Vision Pro is coming next year, not only making for the Fruit Company’s much awaited first XR headset, but also spurring a resurgence in public interest (and likely investment) in the XR space. Apple has a tendency to undervalue gaming initially, though perhaps reluctantly, eventually acknowledges its importance.

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Upload VR

MARCH 1, 2024

Google reportedly asked Meta to partner and "contribute to" its upcoming XR platform, but Meta said no. That same year, Lenovo launched a standalone headset running Daydream, Google's own VR OS that included its Google Play Services, Play Store, Google apps, and VR core technology on top of AOSP.

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AR Insider

MARCH 11, 2020

For example, Apple’s wearables are seeing strong revenue growth and offsetting smartphone revenue deceleration in the near term. After examining Amazon and Microsoft , it’s time to zero in on Google. For Google that of course means search. Several Google moves over the past decade had that same underlying goal.

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GizModo VR

JANUARY 10, 2022

Once again, people are talking about how Apple won’t play nice with Android devices. This time Google Senior Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer, who oversees Android, is taking Apple to task over the green bubble struggle and urging the company to embrace a new text messaging standard that will make cross-platform… Read more.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 3, 2023

Top news of the week (Image by Google) Google killed its AR glasses Project Iris Do you remember the name Project Iris? Various reports indicated it as the internal codename in Google for a project meant to build augmented reality glasses. It was our hope for Google entering the AR race together with Meta and Apple.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 20, 2023

More info (Official statement by Mark Zuckerberg) More info (Meta to lay off 10,000 people — Road To VR) More info (Meta to lay off 10,000 people — Upload VR) More info (Meta focusing more on AI — Yahoo Finance) More info (Meta focusing more on AI — CNN) Other relevant news Google is discontinuing Glass It’s the end of an era.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Apple MR headset may feature iris detection and legs tracking. A new week, a new set of rumors about the Apple headset. Ahah I love the nonsense of the rumors about Apple! More info (Report about Apple visor?—?Mac Mac Rumors) More info (Report about Apple visor?—?Upload Google Starline starts real-world testing.

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Upload VR

APRIL 11, 2024

Google I/O 2024 takes place on May 14, and the company confirmed it will include "AR announcements". Early last year Samsung officially announced it was working on an XR headset, with Google handling the system software via a new variant of Android and Qualcomm providing the chipset.

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Road to VR

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

Samsung has partnered with Google to make an XR headset, although the South Korean tech giant hasn’t tipped its hand on what to expect just yet. That’s a patently Apple recipe though that Samsung may not be able to easily replicate. The question is: what can Samsung bring to the table that Apple and Meta can’t?

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Road to VR

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Having launched its pilot program on PC VR earlier this year, YUR is now officially making its software available on Oculus Quest. The plug-in tracks calories burned while in any VR game or app while using Quest, and also extends to a mobile app that syncs to Apple Health and Google Fit. Image courtesy YUR.

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TechCrunch VR

JANUARY 26, 2021

As Facebook and Apple begin to fire up more projects in the AR/VR world, Google has spent the last year shutting down most of their existing projects in that space. Google also notes that the app will continue to be available in the app stores on VR headsets. A Google spokesperson declined to comment further.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 1, 2020

In the interview with me, he talked about many topics, like the rumors he heard on Apple Glasses, on the Oculus Quest 2 , the America vs China war, XR entrepreneurship, Tesla, and more! 2022 may be the key year when they actually buy it, also thanks to Apple , an d finally, the market will reach the magic number of 10 million devices.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 28, 2023

First of all, Google has to keep the work on the headset very secret also internally , because Samsung is afraid that Google will steal its expertise to build a competing product. Google is working in parallel to build the Android XR operating system for this headset and a Micro XR operating system for AR glasses.

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Upload VR

APRIL 17, 2024

A wave of emulators are starting to roll out across Apple platforms, Vision Pro included, as Joy-Cons and other official gamepads prove useful input accessories. There's Xbox streaming, Steam streaming, and PlayStation streaming available in various incarnations on Apple, Meta, and Google app stores.

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Road to VR

JANUARY 11, 2024

Google is reorganizing a number of its hardware teams, which will see layoffs affecting a few hundred roles across its Devices & Services units. As reported by 9to5Google , Google’s first-party AR hardware team is taking the brunt of the blow. A majority of the hardware-related layoffs however are set to affect its AR team.

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Hypergrid Business

FEBRUARY 3, 2024

Apple Vision Pro. Image courtesy Apple.) I recently read a CNN article on Tim Cook and the risk he’s taking with Apple Vision Pro. The gist of it is this: The Vision Pro will be Apple’s riskiest launch in years and could end up being the product that defines Tim Cook’s legacy. Have you seen the Apple Vision Pro movie?

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 29, 2020

Google is going to buy North. A report says tha t Alphabet, the company behind Google, is in the last stages of the acquisition of North, the Canadian startup that makes the Focals smartglasses. Google adds depth APIs to ARCore. Apple adds spatial audio to AirPods. Other relevant news. Image by North).

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 30, 2023

I’ve read a lot of articles and XR news this week, but actually, at the end of the day, nothing relevant has happened, except for the usual rumor about Apple… so you can close this roundup now… no ok, I’m kidding! This doesn’t sound to me very “Apple”. And by the way, on the personal side, things are going well for me!

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XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

AUGUST 29, 2023

Google is currently working with Samsung to create an XR headset that directly competes with upcoming Apple’s Vision Pro, leading to a “weird bureaucratic mess,” an employee told Insider. Another employee commented: At Google, there is a great fear that when Apple releases new products, it shifts the landscape.

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AR Insider

OCTOBER 14, 2020

Continued steps in that evolutionary path were taken yesterday at Apple’s iPhone 12 event. Network rollouts still have a ways to go, but Apple is getting ahead of that. Triangulating Clues in Apple’s AR Roadmap. Image Credit: Apple. The second future-proofing move is lidar. Seeing in the Dark . The Long Game.

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Apple AR Trends Technology 269

Upload VR

JUNE 27, 2023

Google reportedly killed its glasses hardware project. Business Insider's Hugh Langley cites "three people familiar with the matter" as saying the hardware, which resembled standard glasses, was canceled earlier this year amid the mass layoffs at Google and the departure of Google's AR/VR chief Clay Bavor.

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Upload VR

JANUARY 23, 2024

Like Netflix, YouTube also didn't make an Apple Vision Pro app and is opting out of making its iPad app available. Apple previously announced that iPad & iPhone apps are available on the visionOS App Store "by default" and developers have to intentionally opt-out if they don't want theirs to be. UploadVR David Heaney

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Upload VR

MARCH 18, 2024

Gaming with Apple Vision Pro is like playing in a strange new alternate universe. 0:00 / 0:54 1× Myst from Cyan designed for iPad and iPhone plays great on Apple Vision Pro with gamepad. 0:00 / 0:54 1× Myst from Cyan designed for iPad and iPhone plays great on Apple Vision Pro with gamepad. Would you like to know more?

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Road to VR

JUNE 28, 2023

Google has reportedly shelved a multi-year project that sought to commercialize an AR headset, known as Project Iris. Provided the report is true, it appears Google will now need to rely on Samsung to compete with Meta and Apple in XR. And Google’s ambitions were, let’s say, very big.

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Upload VR

JANUARY 12, 2024

Google is eliminating hundreds of roles in its hardware division, mostly from its first-party AR hardware team. Here's the statement Google provided to news outlet 9to5Google : "A few hundred roles are being eliminated in [Devices & Services] with the majority of impacts on the 1P AR Hardware team.

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Google AR Hardware Strategy 101

The Ghost Howls

JULY 10, 2023

Top news of the week (Image by Google) Samsung XR headset may have been delayed The new rumor in town is that Samsung has delayed its upcoming headset that it is building in partnership with Google and Qualcomm. It’s been another interesting week in immersive realities, so let’s see what happened in our field in the past few days!

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VRScout

AUGUST 11, 2022

Those in Europe can download the app for free via the Apple Store and Google Play. CUSTOMCAST is now available free in Europe via the Apple Store and Google Play in the following languages: English, Japanese, and Chinese (Traditional/Simplified). We’ve talked about different types of VTuber software in the past.

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