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.

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AR Insider

OCTOBER 23, 2020

The most notable updates came from Google, Apple and Facebook, in order of recency. This includes Google’s updates to its visual search efforts; Apple’s Lidar-powered iPhone 12 Pro; and Facebook’s developments in Live Maps, experimental AR glasses … and of course Quest 2.

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AR Insider

MARCH 24, 2021

That could be wayfinding with Google Live View , or visual search with Google Lens. As you can tell from the above examples, Google will have a key stake in this “Internet of Places.” Apple signals interest in location-relevant AR through its geo-anchors and Project Gobi. Part II: Apple . Look Around.

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Road to VR

JANUARY 21, 2022

Bernard Kress, principal optical architect on Microsoft’s HoloLens team, has left the company to take on the role of Director of XR Engineering at the recently formed Google Labs. Now Kress is back at Mountain View working on Google’s next AR headset.

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AR Insider

MARCH 11, 2021

That could be wayfinding with Google Live View , or visual search with Google Lens. As you can tell from the above examples, Google will have a key stake in this “Internet of Places.” Apple signals interest in location-relevant AR through its geo-anchors and Project Gobi. Part I: Google .

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 14, 2023

Last week, Google delivered its most important event of the year, the Google I/O. Of course, AI has been the star of the show , with the public release of Google Bard and the announcement of a new language model, but there have been also interesting pieces of news about XR.

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Road to VR

JANUARY 23, 2025

So no demos beyond those early, closed door hands-ons allowed last month.Check out the video below, courtesy of The Verge : Drawing design and software cues from Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, the device features a rigid strap, eye-tracking, pancake lenses, and ergonomic design, which wethought was pretty close to Quest Pro in terms of comfort.

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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

MARCH 8, 2021

If Microsoft commits to building this platform and doesn’t abandon it (a la Google), it can become an incredible tool for us developers. They could build together something that could seriously compete with Facebook and Apple: let’s keep an eye on them. HTC is teasing the launch of a new hardware. Other relevant news.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

In his latest report, Gurman says Apple canceled some tethered AR glasses that should have been connected to the iPhone to show a large screen in front of the user. This does not mean that Apple has given up on AR glasses, though. But they got bad feedback from early testing so they were canceled altogether.

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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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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). Become a supporter!

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Road to VR

MAY 5, 2022

Google is adding to its portfolio of XR microdisplay designs and talent, as the company announced it’s acquired microLED (µLED) designer Raxium. The Information’s report held Raxium was sold to Google for $1 billion, however official details of the acquisition are still murky. Image courtesy Raxium, Google.

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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

DECEMBER 9, 2024

A VPS system detecting visual features in the surrounding environment (Image by Google) VPS stands for Visual Positioning System. GPS together with the sensors on the phone is all that we need to orient ourselves on a 2D map like Google Maps that we use every day. What is VPS? How do you develop an application using VPS?

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Road to VR

MARCH 1, 2024

According to a report from The Information , Google and Meta held a meeting late last year wherein the two companies discussed the possibility of bringing Android XR to Meta headsets. The post Meta Reportedly Rejected Google Partnership to Bring Android XR to Quest appeared first on Road to VR.

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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

JANUARY 22, 2025

Google is acquiring "some of" HTC Vive's engineering team to "accelerate the development of the Android XR platform". As an interesting parallel: in late 2017 Google acquired some of HTC's mobile devices engineering team, and leveraged these engineers to vastly improve the hardware of its Pixel phones.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 23, 2022

New reports highlight some episodes of the life of Apple XR glasses. This week The Information has written a long report about the history of Apple XR glasses. A report from Bloomberg instead, points to the fact that Apple’s board of directors has tried the headset and this is a signal that is close to being launched.

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Road to VR

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Note: Samsung and Google aren’t yet sharing any key details for this headset like resolution, weight, field-of-view, or price. Hands-on With Samsung Project Moohan Android XR Headset Image courtesy Google Starting from the Project Moohan hardwareit’s a good-looking device, no doubt. We went hands on with an early version.

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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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The Ghost Howls

JULY 25, 2022

Google starts testing its AR glasses in the wild. Google has announced that it is going to start to test the prototypes of its AR glasses in the wild. What is relevant about this piece of news is that Google has just confirmed its strong commitment to augmented reality. More info (Google testing AR glasses?—?Official

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XR Today - Virtual Reality

JANUARY 15, 2025

VR Hardware Advancements For years now, major VR vendors have been fine-tuning and improving their headsets, focusing on making VR innovations for enterprises. Apple demonstrated how problematic a limited app market could be when it initially launched the Vision Pro, and other vendors are now taking steps to avoid the same problem.

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Road to VR

JANUARY 12, 2024

XR was the future of computing, he wagered, and in buying a little known startup called Oculus, Meta would beat Apple to the punch. Ten years ago, long before Facebook became Meta, Zuckerberg reached the conclusion that XR was the future of computing and it was critically important for his company to beat Apple to the punch.

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Road to VR

APRIL 25, 2024

This puts Meta in an entirely new position as a platform holder, as it now seems the company is trying to beat Google at its own game. Apple vs. Microsoft. Apple vs. Google. And you know what, it just might win. It’s a tale as old as time.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 22, 2024

Zuck’s genius move before Google I/O I was kinda shocked reading this piece of news, but I was also quite happy because I’m all in for open platforms, and seeing finally Meta breaking the walls of its walled garden is for me a good thing. And with the operating system comes also Meta’s store.

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Road to VR

DECEMBER 13, 2023

According to a report from The Information , ByteDance subsidiary Pico Interactive is pulling the release of its next consumer-focused standalone headset in effort to no longer compete directly with Meta Quest, instead positioning its next device to compete with Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

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AR Insider

DECEMBER 8, 2020

As shown in the Google Glass era, cultural receptivity and comfort levels for face-worn hardware (with a camera, no less) will be a years-long uphill climb. But history tells us if anyone can accomplish that feat of mainstreaming emerging tech – or at least catalyze the process – it’s Apple. Apple of My Eye.

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Road to VR

AUGUST 28, 2024

In a post on X, Meta CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth says the company is happy to do the “heavy lifting” on bringing Apple’s media streaming to Quest— if Apple will allow it. I always wanted to get Apple AirPlay support on Meta Quest, but it was said that Apple wouldn’t cooperate.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 17, 2022

If you are not going, well, expect to read some articles on mine about the hardware that I will try there, so you will feel as if you have been there, too… and I will also eat and review some delicious pasteis de nata for you :D. Apple MR headset may feature iris detection and legs tracking. More info (Report about Apple visor?—?Mac

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Road to VR

MARCH 12, 2024

Apple’s significant impact on the market tends to draw attention from companies that might not have otherwise entered a specific product category—aka “The Apple Effect.” So why Apple, and why now? And that’s in spite of its $3,500 price tag.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 18, 2025

The success of the Ray-Ban Meta has triggered the smartglasses hype: when I was at CES, I saw many startups launching their AI-powered smartglasses and we have heard rumors of all the major brands (including Apple and Samsung) working on their own smartglasses devices, too. But as usual, I warn you to be careful of the hype.

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ARPost

JULY 30, 2020

But AR/VR solutions are not limited to Google Glass, mobile apps for trying on shoes or accessories, and AR-based games. At the same time, personal voice assistants developed by tech giants — Alexa from Amazon, Siri from Apple, and Google Assistant — are standing at the forefront of the audio augmented reality market.

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Upload VR

DECEMBER 12, 2024

UploadVR Ian Hamilton If you missed the news, Samsung finally revealed its standalone headset today, and Google revealed the Android XR platform that it will run. But Google is building a platform it hopes will be the industry standard, and at least three other companies are already building devices to run it: Sony, Lynx, and Xreal.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 18, 2025

The approach chosen by Meta is similar to the one that Google promised to take with Android XR. I have no idea what will happen with all the hardware that has been sold and all the headsets that integrated an Ultraleap controller. This means that Samsung wont go all-in with hand tracking like Apple did.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 21, 2021

Image by Google). Google is reportedly working on an AR operating system. In some of my past newsletters, I warned you that we shouldn’t forget about Google/Alphabet in the race to our mixed reality future. Now we have finally an official confirmation of the fact that Google is working on an AR device. Tilt Brush).

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XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

FEBRUARY 17, 2025

As reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman ; the Apple visionOS 2.4 This marks an evolution evolution in the company’s mixed reality strategy, as Apple recently ceased development of its planned Mac-ready AR smart glasses to focus exclusively on Vision Pro. Professional Applications of the VisionOS 2.4

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