This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
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.
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.
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?
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×
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!
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?
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).
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.
Recently, at the TED2025 conference, Shahram Izadi , the leader of Google’s AndroidXR development team, gave a public demonstration of the upcoming smart glasses operating system, following its initial launch in the new year, showcasing a prototype pair of smart glasses during the presentation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”.
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.
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.
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.
With Google promising camera access on Android XR , Meta close to releasing passthrough APIs, and Pico and Apple offering camera access for enterprise, I think it is important that you start considering this tool for your next mixed reality projects. As I’ve said, because I want to inspire you.
Samsung's first standalone headset is launching this year, running Google's new Android XR operating system and powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset. Both of the straps included with Apple Vision Pro are made of soft fabrics, which don't provide much of a counterbalance to the headset's weight. What Is Samsung's Headset?
Apple Announces Vision Pro Image courtesy Apple The News Apple announced is Vision Pro headset in June of 2023 marking the company’s first public step into the XR headset space. Apple also boldly announced the headset’s staggering $3,500 price, despite a launch date set for nearly a year later.
Unless there is an Apple drawn on it, of course. Ndreams announced Synapse 2, but only for Google Cardboard, and Voodoo DE showed a preview of a very futuristic device. They are just meant to see phone notifications and make photos and videos; this is not something for which people would spend $1000 on top of their phone.
This week at Mobile World Congress (CES) 2024 in Spain, HTC VIVE is showing face with a strong presence as a leading enterprise XR solutions provider reacting to industry trends to create its products. While HTC VIVE also offers user tracking for its XR headsets. Shen said that tracking is something HTC VIVE is invested in.
HTC released a video showing off its vision of the metaverse, a reflection of what the company thinks virtual spaces will look like in the near future. HTC’s most recent concept video isn’t at fault for shooting for the stars. To think, HTC and Oculus were once competitors back in the early days of consumer VR.
Microsoft released the first-gen Zune in 2006, an MP3 player that looked to compete with Apple’s largely dominant line of iPods. Apple wasn’t the first to make a portable MP3 player, although it was the first to make one everyone wanted. Azure Cloud Platform competes alongside AWS and Google Cloud.
Google first started its venture into virtual reality with Google Cardboard back in 2014. A look at the company’s job listings so far this year reveals Google’s expanding commitment and investment in VR and AR. Google is continuing to grow its AR and VR teams and shows no signs of stopping any time soon.
We’re talking, of course, about Google Glass. Google Glasses were the first arguably-AR glasses on the consumer market, coming out in 2013. After all, it was a Google product and a lot of people expected the world. Google Glass retired to the enterprise sector and much of the public gave up on AR glasses.
Someone invokes saviors like Google and Amazon, but even if they managed to succeed, they are other data-harvesting companies , so in any case, we are f**ked. Apple threatens future support in Unreal Engine. All Apple software, SDKs, APIs, and developer tools ?—?Pre-release The same on Twitter. Other relevant news.
Google has entered into a definitive agreement with HTC VIVE, granting the leading XR company a substantial investment of $250 million. This investment provides HTC with significant XR-related support from Google and access to a non-exclusive license for HTCs XR intellectual property.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 3,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content