The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 22, 2021

Regarding the glasses, I have not big hopes for true AR glasses, but I think that thanks to Facebook and Apple, finally we’ll have some important smartglasses entering the market , making the mainstream think about wearing something on their face to enjoy notifications from the phone. Didn’t work (Image by Microsoft).

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Augmented Reality Magic Leap AR Apple 537

AR Insider

MARCH 30, 2021

This traces back to Facebook’s Oculus acquisition in early 2014 that kicked off the current wave of excitement….including That excitement culminated in 2016 after the Oculus acquisition had time to set off a chain reaction of startup activity, tech-giant investment, and VC inflows for the “next computing platform.” Part V: Apple.

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Wearables AR Strategy Apple 365

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 17, 2022

The news of the week is that Meta is poaching talents from all the other companies : in particular, it has been able to “steal” 100 employees from the HoloLens team in Microsoft. The same has happened with Apple, which is now offering bonuses to employees to keep them inside the company. Apple may have delays for its headset.

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Survey Apple Sony AR 535

ARPost

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

billion in 2019, with many billions more being invested in R&D by the likes of Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and many more. Their Oculus app allows real-time collaboration without ever leaving your home. A company still in stealth, but with founder pedigree from Apple.

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Augmented Reality Machine Learning New York Los Angeles 368

The Ghost Howls

JULY 24, 2023

But I hope you’ll enjoy this newsletter coming from the world of the undead anyway… Top news of the week (Image by Apple) Apple starts accepting applications for Vision Pro devkits Apple has started accepting applications from interested developers to get a Vision Pro to develop XR experiences.

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Apple Survey Machine Learning AR 357

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 7, 2024

Or maybe “relaxed” is not the right word to use, considering the little drama on Microsoft’s headsets. Top news of the week (Image by HP) Microsoft officially drops support for its Mixed Reality headsets Microsoft has just released the infamous Windows 11, version 24H2 update. I think this speaks a lot.

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Microsoft Samsung Apple Unity 401

The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

These are huge numbers for VR: if you look at the most recent SteamVR survey, you get that Oculus headsets are now at 67% of the whole PCVR market. A report from Insider states that Microsoft may have canceled its plans for HoloLens 3. It’s basically a monopoly. But there is also bad news to talk about. Some updates on Meta products.

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Virtual Reality Microsoft Data Machine Learning 401

AR Insider

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

The tech industry is looking to replace the smartphone — and everybody is waiting to see what Apple comes up with. I n 2007, Apple unveiled the iPhone. Apple didn’t invent the smartphone — companies like Palm and Blackberry had been selling them for years. But Apple’s not the only company working on these products.

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Augmented Reality Amazon Apple Virtual Reality 198

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 1, 2021

Oculus has also partnered with Virtuclear to offer prescription lenses for the Quest 2 for $80. All the 3 major VR runtimes (Oculus, SteamVR, Microsoft) are now compatible with OpenXR , and this means that on the runtime layer on PC, now OpenXR has been fully integrated. Qualcomm announces AR Smart Viewer reference design.

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Sony Oculus Unity AR 411

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 30, 2020

The same day of the launch of Half-Life: Alyx, Hewlett-Packard has announced its new virtual reality headset, the Reverb G2 , made in collaboration with Microsoft and Valve. Valve could provide some audio-visual improvements, while Microsoft its WMR platform, with inside-out tracking of controllers. Apple ARKit 3.5

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Apple AR Eye Tracking Virtual Reality 284

AR Insider

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

For Apple, AR’s job is to sell more hardware. Amazon wants AR for product visualization, pursuant to boosting e-commerce sales and reducing returns. Microsoft wants to double down on a longstanding position in enterprise productivity, and Facebook wants AR (and VR primarily) to boost social engagement and ad revenue.

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Exercises Magic Leap AR Data 268

The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

An Amazon ad appearing on the streaming platform Peacock shows the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S and the caption: “Meta Quest, starting at $299.99”. Regarding the actual release date, we have also a rumor: someone spotted on the Australian Amazon page an entry about the Quest 3S and the availability date being October, 16.

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Unity Kenya Samsung AR 349

AR Insider

JANUARY 21, 2020

We’ve generally stated “tens of billions” for the collective investment scale of the big five — Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple. More importantly, this aligns with the timeframe that followed its 2014 Oculus acquisition. billion for a representative baseline of pre-Oculus spending.

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Head Mounted Display Exercises AR Trends 258

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 19, 2020

Oculus Go price cut down to $150. Facebook has permanently cut down the price of the Oculus Go to $150 , the same price that made it sell incredibly well on Amazon during the Cyber Monday. More info (Oculus Go price cut) More info (Xiaomi laying off the team dedicated to Go). Top news of the week. Image by Engadget).

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AR Oculus Magic Leap Microsoft 219

AR Insider

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Why Facebook and Amazon have joined the race to bring computing to your face. — Facebook and Amazon each discussed computer glasses at launch events this week. — Amazon’s approach is to get a lightweight product out now, while Facebook is promising advanced technology in a few years. by Kif Leswing, CNBC, 9/29/19.

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Amazon San Jose Google Microsoft 160

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 4, 2021

I have to say that this “leak” comes in a very timely fashion , by chance exactly at the moment when Facebook was building the hype for Oculus Quest 2 Pro , convincing so some people to wait for Valve’s moves before buying the new Oculus headset. Apple Maps are going AR. Facebook hires the first Oculus Ambassadors.

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HTC Oculus AR Gaming 369

Robert Scoble

MAY 15, 2021

I have been talking with hundreds of people across the industry and have discovered that the changes coming to Apple are deeper than just a VR/AR headset. This is the fourth paradigm shift for Apple. So, what is Apple getting ready to announce over the next year? Eventually, I hear, Apple will even bring 3D to 2D monitors.

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Apple Google Amazon Augmented Reality 144

AR Insider

OCTOBER 1, 2020

The story is similar for Amazon , Microsoft and Bose (kind of), and the 800-pound gorilla in wearables, Apple. For one, it includes the thing that kicked off the current AR & VR era: Oculus. Orbiting Initiatives. Before getting into how wearables fit in, let’s take a quick look at that entire picture.

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Wearables Machine Learning AR Apple 266

AR Insider

MARCH 16, 2021

This traces back to Facebook’s Oculus acquisition in early 2014 that kicked off the current wave of excitement….including That excitement culminated in 2016 after the Oculus acquisition had time to set off a chain reaction of startup activity, tech-giant investment, and VC inflows for the “next computing platform.”

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AR Google Data Examples 346

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2021

The Oculus Quest 2 is selling incredibly well because it offers the right combination of affordable price, good hardware, and a good software ecosystem. Not to mention the millions spent on marketing , especially in the US (Oculus was one of the sponsors of NBA, for instance). The Quest will still be the king.

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Virtual Reality Trends China HTC 545

ARPost

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

According to CBINSIGHTS , tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple (FAMGA) have all been acquiring AI startups aggressively in the last decade. Apple leads when compared with other giants in terms of acquisitions made. Apple leads when compared with other giants in terms of acquisitions made.

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AR Augmented Reality Machine Learning Google 217

The Ghost Howls

JUNE 7, 2021

BUT today is the day of the WWDC, and who knows if Apple will tease something about AR glasses. It doesn’t seem to be on par with the Oculus Quest 2, but as a first device by Nolo, it is not that bad. The second one is a Chinese video comparing some technical characteristics of consumer Pico Neo 3 and Oculus Quest 2.

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Magic Leap AR Tips China 378

Road to VR

JANUARY 16, 2020

Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC. Amazon Technologies Inc. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Intel Corp. LG Electronics Inc. Ford Global Technologies LLC. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

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Head Mounted Display Strategy AR Machine Learning 245

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

To make you understand how these features are incredible, Qualcomm has stated that “the [XR2] reference design has 2x the CPU and GPU performance, 4x more video bandwidth, 6x higher resolution and 11x AI improvement compared to our current widely adopted XR platform [the Oculus Quest ]”. Image by Microsoft). News worth a mention.

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Hand tracking AR Oculus HTC 284

Road to VR

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

Yesterday Apple held a keynote presentation to update the world on their latest products. It’s too early for Apple to jump into the AR/VR game. That much was made clear on stage at the company’s latest keynote where they revealed the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch Series 2. Acquisitions.

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Apple AR Head Mounted Display Augmented Reality 100

AR Insider

OCTOBER 31, 2019

The incumbents have an advantage with existing mapping such as Google Maps, Earth, Street View, Apple Maps and the Indoor Maps Program, and Bing Maps but there are also significant geographic data players such as Foursquare and OpenStreetMap. Some recent acquisitions include AltspaceVR (Microsoft), and Escher (Niantic).

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Magic Leap AR Microsoft Apple 158

ARVR

APRIL 5, 2021

This traces back to Facebook’s Oculus acquisition in early 2014 that kicked off the current wave of excitement….including That excitement culminated in 2016 after the Oculus acquisition had time to set off a chain reaction of startup activity, tech-giant investment, and VC inflows for the “next computing platform.”

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Wearables AR Strategy Apple 130

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

Is Apple partnering with Valve on AR? A report by DigiTimes claims that Apple is partnering with Valve for the production of its AR glasses. The news would be incredible: Apple is a company that knows how to create something usable and cool to see, while Valve has a long expertise in experimenting with AR and VR.

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Augmented Reality Google Machine Learning AR 179

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Facebook – NASDAQ: FB – Oculus VR, VR headset, VR Camera, VR content, VR platform. Samsung – KRX: 005930 – GearVR (partnership with Oculus VR) and 360 Camera. Amazon – NASDAQ: AMZN – VR Content & Game Engine. Microsoft – NASDAQ: MSFT – VR operating system, VR platform, VR headset. Unconfirmed.

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Industry Magic Leap Samsung Amazon 100

ARVR

JANUARY 6, 2023

Users can use HMD devices such as Google Cardboard, Oculus Quest, Rift or HTC Vive to experience an imaginary environment. Microsoft Hololens is a key player in the MR market. ARKit  — ARKit is one of the powerful AR SDK released by Apple on 2017 to build AR solutions using iOS devices.

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Augmented Reality AR Machine Learning Data 246

Upload VR

OCTOBER 13, 2022

Of course, platform-building tech giants don’t have a great track record in gaming, with Google’s Stadia effort shutting down, Apple disappointing gamers for decades, and forgettable efforts from Amazon. Meta also renewed partnerships with some key platforms this week.

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Gaming Amazon Microsoft Immersion 103

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

Additionally, founding the Upload Academy, a VR/AR developer training program, which graduated its first class in August with a number of success stories including Found – a gorgeous Miyazaki-esque narrative experience created by four of our students which was recently recognized on stage during the Oculus Connect Keynote. January 2016.

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San Francisco HTC Unity Conference 100

ARVR

MARCH 24, 2021

This traces back to Facebook’s Oculus acquisition in early 2014 that kicked off the current wave of excitement….including That excitement culminated in 2016 after the Oculus acquisition had time to set off a chain reaction of startup activity, tech-giant investment, and VC inflows for the “next computing platform.”

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AR Data Google Automotive 130

Charlie Fink

JUNE 7, 2019

Apple begins its World Wide Developer Conference on Monday, June 3rd; Microsoft, Facebook (Oculus), Google, Amazon, Snap, and Magic Leap, had theirs earlier in the year. AWE is a snapshot of a developing industry, though it does not have participation from major players with developer conferences of their own.

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Magic Leap Leap Motion Conference Hand tracking 60

Mashable VR

JUNE 2, 2022

Microsoft Xbox Series S Fortnite & Rocket League bundle — $274.99 Microsoft Xbox Series S Fortnite & Rocket League bundle — $274.99 That's right, Walmart is stepping up to the plate to win you over with a slew of stellar deals. We love an underdog story. inch notebook — $249 $445 (save $196) Gateway 15.6-inch

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Samsung Apple Controllers Sony 66

Robert Scoble

OCTOBER 4, 2019

Mark Zuckerberg talks about the future of VR and AR at Facebook’s recent Oculus Connect conference. It isn’t alone, we know of many companies that are spending billions on same, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Sony, Magic Leap, Huawei, and others. The tech industry is gearing up for a new paradigm shift.

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AR Augmented Reality Magic Leap Immersion 62

EnterpriseWear

DECEMBER 4, 2018

Going into 2019, the industry eagerly awaits HoloLens 2 and Glass Enterprise Edition 2, as rumors swirl around the possibility of AR glasses from Apple and/or Facebook in the near future. Just three months ago, the company revealed it’s putting 17,000 Oculus Go headsets in Walmart stores for employee training.

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Magic Leap Training Wearables Immersion 58