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Top news of the week (Image by Google) Google acquires HTC Vive engineers for $250M Completely out of the blue (at least from our eyes), Google decided to acquire some XR-related engineers from HTC Vive (together with a non-exclusive license on some HTC IP) for the whopping amount of $250M.
Google is reportedly set to acquire Canada-based eye-tracking startup AdHawk Microsystems Inc. As reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Google is allegedly acquiring AdHawk for$115 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter. This isn’t the first time AdHawk has flirted with an acquisition by a key XR player.
Passthrough camera access is a hot topic in the XR community right now and while the positions of Meta, Apple, and Pico are known, everyone is wondering what Google will do with Android XR. Meta, Pico, HTC, then Apple… all of them prevented the developers from accessing the camera frames. We did it guys!!!
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.
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.
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.
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. Image by HTC). HTC is teasing the launch of a new hardware.
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. Google launches “Immersive Stream for AR”. Chinese giant Baidu (The Google of China) has announced its XiRang platform aimed at building the metaverse.
This week, following last month’s AndriodXR announcement and this week’s Samsung Moohan teasers, Google made a massive parrel move. The firm entered a definitive agreement with HTC VIVE, giving the leading XR firm a massive $250 million investment. What a HTC/Google Unitifaction Mean?
According to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, HTC will halt trading of its stock as of September 21st, pending an unknown announcement from the company, reports Bloomberg. Following several years of financial difficulty, the future of HTC seems less clear than it’s ever been. SEE ALSO HTC Vive Gets Major Price Cut, Now $600.
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. Notably, Samsung hasn’t released a VR product since the launch of the PC VR headset Odyssey+.
Pico, Varjo, HTC VIVE, and even Meta are all experimenting with premium and affordable VR headsets for business use, as well as intuitive device management software. Can you afford to invest in premium options, like the Apple Vision Pro, or the Pico 4 Enterprise Ultra? So, how do you pick the right solution for your needs?
Chialin Chang, HTC’s President of Smartphone and Connected Devices Business, has made his resignation official, reportedly bringing with it a melding of the company’s smartphone and VR divisions—a move that possibly points to the HTC putting greater focus on VR in the face of the company’s waning smartphone business.
In terms of compatibility, the platform is cross-compatible with nearly every major VR & AR device, including the HTC Vive, Oculus Quest 2, Microsoft HoloLens 2, as well as AR-enabled iOS and Android devices; it’s never been easier to take your friends’ money!
Colocating a Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro for same-room mixed reality works with Figmin XR. 0:00 / 0:34 1× The app is in closed beta for Apple Vision Pro and we're in active communication with creator Javier Davalos to get a link to the app's listing on Apple's storefront as soon as it is available. 0:00 / 3:52 1×
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.
This week, following last month’s AndriodXR announcement and this week’s Samsung Moohan teasers, Google made a massive parrel move. The firm entered a definitive agreement with HTC VIVE, giving the leading XR firm a massive $250 million investment. What a HTC/Google Unitifaction Mean?
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.
A new FCC listing appears for an HTC Vive headset. And in fact, a new request to FCC for a new device has arrived from HTC. FCC certifications are requested before releasing an electronic device in the US (to certify that it is safe to be used), so this is a clear sign that HTC is going to release a new headset soon.
Just to make an example, I was there when there was the Netscape vs Internet Explorer war, but now the leading web browser is Google Chrome. Google Chrome, for instance, has been helped a lot by the fact that it is the pre-installed browser on all Android phones. Render of the possible upcoming Apple device (Image by Antonio DeRosa).
The approach chosen by Meta is similar to the one that Google promised to take with Android XR. This means that Samsung wont go all-in with hand tracking like Apple did. This will let Google enrich its content library pretty fast. It is not clear if the controllers will be shipped in the headset box or not , though.
After having seen the teaser of the Quest 3 and especially the announcement of the Apple Vision Pro (about which you can read my opinion here ), I’m always more convinced that we have entered into a new phase of XR history. Google joined forces with Samsung (and Qualcomm) to release a new headset soon.
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!
With Apple’s newly public interest in VR , developers from the company have join the W3C WebVR Community Group to have a say in the development of the WebVR standard. SEE ALSO Apple Adds VR Rendering Essentials to MacOS via Metal 2. SEE ALSO Apple's Job Listings Seek 'VR File Format Engineer', 'VR Pipeline Engineer', & More.
These glasses have outperformed the sales of Ray-Ban’s first-generation smart glasses, ‘Ray-Ban Stories’ This potential deal could grant Meta more control over EssilorLuxottica’s smart glasses division and strengthen its position in the competitive market against tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
Apple may announce its headset at WWDC 2022. A new week, a new rumor about Apple. This time it comes from Bloomberg, which predicts that Apple will announce its MR headset in June 2022 during WWDC , to launch it some months later, probably during the holiday season. Image by HTC). Google details Project Starline.
After a long and somewhat awkward period of Google keeping all of their VR apps from Facebook’s VR platforms on desktop (with Rift) and mobile (with Gear VR), Tilt Brush is the first VR olive branch extended across the platform gap between these two major tech competitors. But, a new glimmer of hope has emerged.
In that way, Google is well-positioned because the spatial web will need to be parsed and indexed, similar to what Google has done for 20 years on the 2D web. Is Google Building an ‘Internet of Places?’ I see it as an expanding surface area for how people can ask questions and get information about the world.”
Apple revealed a lot of details about its impressive new ARKit platform at its event at WWDC 2017 last month, but it didn’t mention that one of its most popular apps already supports the new feature. The latest version of Apple Maps has ARKit support built in. Take a look at the support below. It’s quite a thing.
Apple is jumping firmly into the world of augmented reality. Apple also showed off what the new development tool would look like with the popular AR game Pokemon Go. Apple also mentioned AR apps from IKEA and Lego. Earlier during the keynote, Apple set the stage for VR with a killer Star Wars demo on the HTC Vive.
A new cycle of XR The Apple Vision Pro launch has been a disruptive moment for our industry (Image by Apple) As I said in a popular post a few months ago , I think we have entered a new cycle for immersive realities. Huawei and Pico are rumored to be working on an Apple Vision Pro competitor).
Today it’s a great day for virtual reality: at WCVRI conference, HTC has just announced a kit to provide 6 DOF controllers for Vive Focus and has showcased a hands-tracking technology for the Vive Pro ! The Venture Reality Fund and of course HTC. — Alvin Wang Graylin (@AGraylin) October 18, 2018. Really fantastic.
As I said a few months ago , we are in the middle of a paradigm change: the cycle that started with the Quest is arriving at an end, and a new cycle driven by new technologies (mixed reality headsets) and new players (Apple, Google) is starting. They are Apple AR glasses!” I have this impression for a few reasons.
One is that Google will contribute to developing the device via the AndriodXR OS, another is that the device will adopt elements of Samsung’s mobile AI technology, and thirdly, it will receive more public-facing updates this year. Notably, Google is developing this XR OS in collaboration with Samsung.
More info Some news about Apple Vision Pro The news and rumors about Vision Pro never end. In these two weeks, we got to discover that Apple is planning to organize demo sessions of Vision Pro inside the Apple Store venues and that in the beginning, the only way to buy a Vision Pro will be going to an Apple Store.
update, now including official support for Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore software dev kits, and support for SteamVR on Mac. ‘Production-ready’ support for Apple’s ARKit working on iOS11 was initially announced during Apple’s iPhone 8 and iPhone X unveiling last month.
We may know the field of view of Apple AR headset. Of course, since he has not an Apple HMD, the only thing he could obtain was the screen splitting in two on his phone, showing that view that we XR developers know very well. It is now sure that Apple is going to release an AR headset , the questions are just when and what.
As a long-time AR enthusiast, and one of the first to have tried Google Glass in Italy, I have to admit that I will consider AR mainstream only when it will be on glasses that we will wear all day , when we’ll live in a completely shared mixed reality world (the AR Cloud). Facebook and Apple will jumpstart the smartglasses ecosystem.
HTC announced today it is expanding the online presence of the HTC Vive to Best Buy’s website, Walmart.com, and other online retailers. Paired with recent news with Apple, Google and Intel, we’re seeing major retailers and direct-to-consumer companies endorse Vive as the premier VR experience.”.
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!
A Horizon game is coming for this new headset, and some rumors talk also about Half-Life: Alyx potentially be available in the future; HTC has announced the Vive Wrist Tracker, a 6 DOF tracker for the Vive Focus 3. New rumors on Apple and Meta devices. It seems like a great tethered headset for the PS5. Other relevant news.
Owlchemy Labs, the Google-owned VR studio, announced it’s bringing the chart-topping VR games Job Simulator (2016) and its sequel Vacation Simulator (2019) to Apple Vision Pro. The post Two Classic VR Games From Google’s VR Studio Coming Soon to Vision Pro appeared first on Road to VR.
When it comes to Google searches, “HTC Vive” has recently matched “Oculus Rift” and may be continuing to rise. “HTC Vive” didn’t exist as a search term until the headset’s relatively recent reveal back in early 2015.
Play For Dream MR's hardware and software design is definitely heavily inspired by Apple Vision Pro, and a representative admitted as much to me. Currently, Play For Dream MR runs its own fork of Android (heavily visually inspired by Apple's visionOS), similar to the approach Pico and HTC have taken.
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