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This week, we look at Microoft's big deal, Apple's Metaverse shun and Google jumps back into AR. Welcome back to Spatial Beats, AR Insider's weekly series that features observations and insights of author and futurist Charlie Fink. This post appeared first on AR Insider.
According to a report from Korean tech outlet The Elec , Microsoft has contracted Samsung to supply micro OLED display panels for what is described as “next-generation mixed reality devices.” Samsung and Google confirmed in July their forthcoming “XR platform” will be announced sometime this year.
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.
How many XR headsets is Apple working on, and when can we get our hands one them? Finally, why in the name of the geek gods is Google shutting down Poly? Google’s own Tilt Brush, an important content creation tool, relies on Poly. Tilt Brush co-creator Patrick Hackett just left Google, too. Not a good sign.
He has a very interesting working story, having worked for great companies like Microsoft and Fast Company. 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! VR is not only for enterprise.
Microsoft announces Mesh, an XR collaboration platform. Alex Kipman promised us a Microsoft Ignite conference with an amazing level of immersion , and he kept his word. But since Microsoft owns one of those studios (and using it costs around $100K/day if I remember well!), You are all fantastic! Here you are my flower for you!
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.
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. continuing here with Microsoft.
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. In fact, Apple’s Achilles heel for AirPods is the famously inept Siri.
It seems now that many of Magic Leap’s recently laid-off employees are helping Apple with its own AR headset ambitions. The flow from Magic Leap to Apple has been a constant one too, Protocol has found. Like with all things Apple, hardly nothing is clear about its upcoming AR headset. Image courtesy Protocol.
Meta announces at Connect Quest Pro and a partnership with Microsoft. There have been a few key announcements at Connect: Meta has launched Quest Pro , its new premium headset, for $1500 Meta announced its focus on a new vertical, productivity Meta has partnered with Microsoft and Accenture to tackle the XR enterprise world.
Microsoft’s enterprise-focused HoloLens 3 may be dead in the water, as a recent report maintains that internal divisions have hobbled the company’s efforts to release its next AR headset as planned. Alex Kipman wearing HoloLens 2, Image courtesy Microsoft. Microsoft Responds.
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? So why Apple, and why now? And that’s in spite of its $3,500 price tag.
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!
Can you afford to invest in premium options, like the Apple Vision Pro, or the Pico 4 Enterprise Ultra? Others prioritize flexibility for instance Google recently announced the creation of its Android XR system, which supports open standards. Whatever your use case, remember to prioritize ease of use, comfort, and ergonomics.
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.
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.
For example, Apple’s wearables are seeing strong revenue growth and offsetting smartphone revenue deceleration in the near term. After examining Amazon last week, it’s time to zero in on Microsoft. In addition to standard audio fare like music and phone calls, they’ll integrate natively with Microsoft products like Office.
Furthermore, the comparison with Microsoft doesn’t hold well: Microsoft was a software company that just didn’t have high standards, so it made products with many bugs. Apple way be working on a VR headset. According to Bloomberg, next year Apple is going to release a VR headset with limited passthrough AR functionalities.
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.
Later this year, Microsoft is increasing the cut developers earn when publishing on the Microsoft Store. Microsoft says in a blog post that gaming apps won’t see the raise from the standard percentage, which at the time of this writing is a standard 70/30 split. Check out more details on the Microsoft blog post.
Khronos Group , the consortium behind the OpenXR project which aims to standardize the way applications communicate with AR and VR headsets, just added Microsoft to its ranks. Among its count of members, the OpenXR working group consisted of nearly every major player in the industry except Microsoft until now.
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
Google Project Starline finally looks like it’s going to be rolling out to workplaces worldwide, potentially transforming the way we meet and collaborate in the future of work. Microsoft has its Mesh solution, and Immersive Spaces on Teams, designed to pull people into powerful virtual experiences during meetings.
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.
Apple announces ARKit 4, amongst new rumors of XR headsets. The story goes on telling that Apple VR headset had realistic visuals and sound, it was super-cool and probably we’ll see a release date of 2022/2023. More info (New rumors about Apple and XR) More info (Apple ARKit4). Google experiments on Lightfields streaming.
At least from the outside, it appears Microsoft isn’t actively competing for a seat at the XR table, which is fairly odd coming from a company that pioneered enterprise AR while simultaneously wrangling some of its top OEM partners to make a fleet of PC VR headsets for consumers in 2017. If Microsoft goes in half-cocked, maybe.
Company’s like Apple and Meta are leaving Samsung in the virtual dust. While company’s such as Apple and Meta have already begun the development of their own dedicated XR devices, however, Samsung has continued to focus on expanding its lineup of foldable smartphones. respectively. respectively.
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.
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.
Googles AndroidXR Provides Developer Passthrough Access Recent news from the AndroidXR camp highlights a significant development advantage that some believe positions the new operating system ahead of the veteran firm Meta. The shark tank is growing, and leaders will emerge.
According to a Bloomberg story published this week, Apple hired Jeff Norris of NASA to work on augmented reality initiatives. Norris has reportedly been an employee of Apple since earlier in the year, according to Bloomberg’s unnamed sources. Apple is currently something of a sleeping giant in the immersive tech industry.
Apple claims the M4 has a 50% more powerful CPU an d 4 times more powerful GPU than the M2 chipset mounted on the Vision Pro, so an M5 chipset may give the new Vision Pro unprecedented performances for a standalone MR headset. There are more than 10 apps that are already compatible with it, like Figmin XR and Osso VR.
Developers have explored potential solutions in the past, such as Google Daydream’s ultra-fun Drum Keys or Logitech’s VR compatible keyboards. Similar to the Apple Watch or Fitbit, TapID is worn around the users wrist. There’s always voice-to-text, but that can be frustrating on a completely different level.
For example, earlier in this series, we examined Google’s ambitions to create more direct user touchpoints (literally) that drive revenue-generating search by voice, visual and text. The story is similar for Amazon , Microsoft and Bose … but the biggest impact could come from Apple. Head Start.
Picking up where we left off last week, Apple is leading the way with wearables, which is partly to set the stage for its rumored AR glasses. They’re driven to future-proof their core businesses; or – like Apple – to diversify revenue in the face of maturing cash cows. That includes Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Snap and others.
You could be on Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, on a PC, Mac, smartphone, or even a Nintendo Wii and you’re still gonna see the same website. Today, Brandon Jones from Google (who is one of the chairs in the official WebVR Community Group ,) noticed that developers from Apple have officially joined the group.
That could be wayfinding with Google Live View , geospatial gaming experiences from Niantic, or location-specific social AR experiences like Snap’s Local Lenses. Google has correspondingly benefited from SMBs and multi-location brands that want to position themselves in the direct path of high-intent local searchers.
The thought is that devices like Apple Watch and AirPods condition consumers to wear sensors on their bodies, and thus acclimate to the cultural shift that will be required for AR glasses. Classic Apple. That includes smartwatches and “hearables” such as Apple AirPods and its equivalents. Trojan Horse.
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).
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.
For example, earlier in this series, we examined Google’s ambitions to create more direct user touchpoints (literally) that drive revenue-generating search by voice, visual and text. The story is similar for Amazon , Microsoft and Bose (kind of), but the biggest impact could come from Apple. Head Start.
The leaders of tech juggernauts like Apple, Google, and Facebook have been making aggressive moves into the space while publicly endorsing the world-changing potential of AR. Apple CEO Tim Cook. This month, Apple launched ARKit , a new AR development kit that has already produced some interesting experiences.
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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