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

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

MAY 30, 2024

Magic Leap has entered a "multi-faceted, strategic technology partnership" with Google. The companies say the partnership will combine Magic Leap's "leadership in optics and manufacturing" with Google's "technology platforms". Google was an initial investor in Magic Leap, leading a $542 million funding round back in 2014.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 22, 2024

Two OEMs are already onboard: Lenovo and ASUS are already working on devices whose software will be built on top of the Meta Horizon ecosystem. Zuck always said that Meta is the “open ecosystem” that fights against Apple’s closed ecosystem, but until today there was nothing open at all.

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Next Reality AR

MAY 19, 2021

For most mainstream users, LiDAR sensors for precision depth sensing remain the exclusive domain of Apple iPhones and iPads, but Google is helping Android device makers close the depth gap on the software side via its ARCore toolkit.

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Upload VR

OCTOBER 2, 2024

Samsung is working on a Ray-Ban Meta glasses competitor with Google Gemini AI, The Information reports. Google Wants To Steal The Ray-Ban Partnership From Meta Google reportedly wants to steal the Ray-Ban partnership from Meta for its own Gemini glasses, but Mark Zuckerberg has a plan to stop it.

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Road to VR

AUGUST 29, 2017

In an answer to Apple’s recently released ARKit , a developer tool used for making augmented reality apps and games that run on newer iPad and iPhones, Google today released a preview of a new Android-compatible software development kit (SDK) called ARCore. Nougat and above.

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Upload VR

APRIL 22, 2024

Meta is rebranding its Quest software platform to Meta Horizon OS, and opening it up to third-party headset makers. They'll have access to the same core software and platform services as Meta Quest headsets, including Meta's tracking and mixed reality technology and store. And if so will it be Meta, or Google?

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Road to VR

MARCH 4, 2024

A report from The Information last week alleged Meta and Google held talks in effort to bring Android XR to Quest. Google abandoned Daydream after less than 2 years, while Meta grew Oculus (now Quest) to tens of millions scale,” explains Heaney. million apps built for iPhone in addition to 1,000+ visionOS native apps.

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Road to VR

JULY 31, 2023

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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Road to VR

AUGUST 7, 2024

Unlike Meta’s current line of Quest headsets, the alleged Microsoft headset will be used for “enjoying or watching content such as games or movies rather than the metaverse,” the report maintains (machine translated from Korean), potentially putting it in competition with Apple Vision Pro.

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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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GizModo VR

JANUARY 10, 2022

Once again, people are talking about how Apple won’t play nice with Android devices. This time Google Senior Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer, who oversees Android, is taking Apple to task over the green bubble struggle and urging the company to embrace a new text messaging standard that will make cross-platform… Read more.

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Road to VR

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Having launched its pilot program on PC VR earlier this year, YUR is now officially making its software available on Oculus Quest. The plug-in tracks calories burned while in any VR game or app while using Quest, and also extends to a mobile app that syncs to Apple Health and Google Fit. Image courtesy YUR.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 18, 2024

Ben: I do believe, like the world’s largest tech companies (Meta, Apple, Google, etc) that AR glasses are the inevitable evolution of the smartphone over the long term. If you’ve had a chance to use Apple Vision Pro, you can clearly see that this idea is more than just a dream. Are [AR glasses] a dead end?

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Apple MR headset may feature iris detection and legs tracking. A new week, a new set of rumors about the Apple headset. Ahah I love the nonsense of the rumors about Apple! More info (Report about Apple visor?—?Mac Mac Rumors) More info (Report about Apple visor?—?Upload Google Starline starts real-world testing.

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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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TechCrunch VR

JANUARY 26, 2021

As Facebook and Apple begin to fire up more projects in the AR/VR world, Google has spent the last year shutting down most of their existing projects in that space. Google also notes that the app will continue to be available in the app stores on VR headsets. A Google spokesperson declined to comment further.

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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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Upload VR

MARCH 1, 2024

Google reportedly asked Meta to partner and "contribute to" its upcoming XR platform, but Meta said no. That same year, Lenovo launched a standalone headset running Daydream, Google's own VR OS that included its Google Play Services, Play Store, Google apps, and VR core technology on top of AOSP.

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Road to VR

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

Samsung has partnered with Google to make an XR headset, although the South Korean tech giant hasn’t tipped its hand on what to expect just yet. That’s a patently Apple recipe though that Samsung may not be able to easily replicate. The question is: what can Samsung bring to the table that Apple and Meta can’t?

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Road to VR

APRIL 22, 2024

Today the company says it’s formally branding the Quest operating system as Meta Horizon OS, and with it, plans to allow third-parties to make new headsets that run the software stack. The company has already confirmed that Asus and Lenovo are building new headsets for Meta Horizon OS.

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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. A majority of the hardware-related layoffs however are set to affect its AR team.

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Upload VR

SEPTEMBER 2, 2024

Apple Vision Pro's gaze-and-pinch interaction system can feel like telekinesis at times, and makes watching media and simple interactivity a breeze. Yang says his team at Surreal includes former Alphabet engineers who worked on Google Glass, Google Maps, and the Waymo self-driving car project.

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Road to VR

JUNE 28, 2023

Google has reportedly shelved a multi-year project that sought to commercialize an AR headset, known as Project Iris. Provided the report is true, it appears Google will now need to rely on Samsung to compete with Meta and Apple in XR. And Google’s ambitions were, let’s say, very big.

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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).

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Upload VR

JUNE 27, 2023

Google reportedly killed its glasses hardware project. Business Insider's Hugh Langley cites "three people familiar with the matter" as saying the hardware, which resembled standard glasses, was canceled earlier this year amid the mass layoffs at Google and the departure of Google's AR/VR chief Clay Bavor.

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Upload VR

APRIL 11, 2024

Google I/O 2024 takes place on May 14, and the company confirmed it will include "AR announcements". Early last year Samsung officially announced it was working on an XR headset, with Google handling the system software via a new variant of Android and Qualcomm providing the chipset.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 28, 2023

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.

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AR Insider

OCTOBER 14, 2020

Continued steps in that evolutionary path were taken yesterday at Apple’s iPhone 12 event. Network rollouts still have a ways to go, but Apple is getting ahead of that. Triangulating Clues in Apple’s AR Roadmap. Image Credit: Apple. The second future-proofing move is lidar. Seeing in the Dark . The Long Game.

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Hypergrid Business

FEBRUARY 3, 2024

Apple Vision Pro. Image courtesy Apple.) I recently read a CNN article on Tim Cook and the risk he’s taking with Apple Vision Pro. The gist of it is this: The Vision Pro will be Apple’s riskiest launch in years and could end up being the product that defines Tim Cook’s legacy. Have you seen the Apple Vision Pro movie?

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 30, 2023

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!

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VRScout

AUGUST 29, 2017

When Apple first introduced ARKit back in June at WWDC , we were blown away. Apple’s massive leap into augmented reality with no additional sensors or hardware, only the phone in your pocket, seemingly opened up the largest AR platform in the world overnight. It looks like Google had something up their sleeves the whole time.

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VRScout

AUGUST 11, 2022

Those in Europe can download the app for free via the Apple Store and Google Play. CUSTOMCAST is now available free in Europe via the Apple Store and Google Play in the following languages: English, Japanese, and Chinese (Traditional/Simplified). We’ve talked about different types of VTuber software in the past.

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Upload VR

JANUARY 12, 2024

Google is eliminating hundreds of roles in its hardware division, mostly from its first-party AR hardware team. Here's the statement Google provided to news outlet 9to5Google : "A few hundred roles are being eliminated in [Devices & Services] with the majority of impacts on the 1P AR Hardware team.

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XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

AUGUST 29, 2023

Google is currently working with Samsung to create an XR headset that directly competes with upcoming Apple’s Vision Pro, leading to a “weird bureaucratic mess,” an employee told Insider. Another employee commented: At Google, there is a great fear that when Apple releases new products, it shifts the landscape.

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Upload VR

JUNE 25, 2024

Play For Dream's latest headset is a blatant Apple Vision Pro clone but with a Quest Pro style rear battery. But unlike the cheap Chinese knockoff we tried at CES in January, this new headset actually has the specs (though likely not the software) to rival Apple.

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