The Ghost Howls

JULY 14, 2019

Apple has killed its AR glasses project… maybe. A piece of unexpected news has shaken the XR communities this week: according to a report on Digitimes Taiwan, Apple has abandoned its AR/VR glasses project and all the members of the team have been re-allocated in other teams. AR is still alive, Apple will still release its AR glasses.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Every year I like to write a detailed report about all the major news from Oculus/Facebook/Meta Connect. But maybe we can compare it to the moment Palmer Luckey launched the Kickstarter of the Oculus DK1 : it’s the start of something new. I think the comparison with the early Oculus DK1 prototype holds for many things.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

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!” ” and made the brains of the whole crowd explode.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 24, 2020

Oculus devices will require a Facebook login. The enormous piece of news of the week is tha t Facebook has communicated that from October, 20th, all people that want to use an Oculus device for personal use will have to use their personal Facebook account to log in. Top news of the week. Image by Tweakanalogy). The same on Twitter.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

The consumer market without a Quest moment The biggest difference between the Chinese VR ecosystem and the Western one is the lack of the Oculus/Facebook/Meta/Horizon/whatever Quest. The Apple Vision Pro Still, I’ve met people who are developing content from Vision Pro.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

If you were wondering, we in Italy do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but I would love one year to participate in its celebration hosted by an American family. You can buy headsets at a discounted price, or accessories, or even lots of games on Steam, Viveport, and Oculus Store! Apple XR headset may have great processing power.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I think I’ll miss the joys of summer (and all the trophies that Italy has won), but at least I’ll be able to enjoy again some delicious hot chocolate Before leaving you to the news of the week, I’m happy to announce to you that I’ve been selected as a speaker for AWE US 2021 ! Apple VR headset may feature a 3000PPI microOLED display.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 10, 2022

All these tools look amazing also for the creation of very realistic VR experiences, but actually, we should hold our enthusiasm: both Nanite and Lumen are not available for VR yet, and Epic has not announced any kind of improvement of the workflow for development for Oculus Quest 2, either. Image by Apple). Apple WWDC is back in June.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 29, 2021

It’s a sunny lockdown day here in Italy, the sun is shining and the trees are blossoming. Well, I think that if a game can be on the top-downloaded lists on various platforms like Xbox and Oculus Quest, for sure it has the X-Factor to thrive and earn many millions. Apple XR headset may weight less than 150g.

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Las Vegas Apple Italy AR 389

The Ghost Howls

APRIL 13, 2020

Well, if the rumor becomes reality, this would mean that all next Apple devices will have both front and back depth cameras, for high-precision Augmented Reality and 3D reconstruction. Well played Apple. And this is possible because they both have big cash cows: Oculus has Facebook’s advertisement, and Valve has the Steam game store.

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Augmented Reality Virtual Reality Apple Tools 386

The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 4, 2023

I’m back to Italy after my trip to Helsinki! More info (HTC Vive Ultimate Tracker — Road To VR) More info (HTC Vive Ultimate Tracker — Upload VR) Valve releases its own version of Quest Link Out of the blue, Valve has launched Steam Link, which basically is… Oculus Air Link offered directly by SteamVR.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 17, 2021

Roblox CEO hints at the Oculus Quest as a future platform. And among these platforms onto which the game could be ported in the future, he has also mentioned the Oculus Quest. Some intriguing news on the Oculus Quest. Apple is working on a whole spatial ecosystem. Another week, another speculation on Apple.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

I’m currently in Beijing and today I’m taking the plane to get back to Italy. Here in Italy, I have no idea where to buy any smartglasses, but I’ve seen many shops selling Ray-Ban Meta. Apple makes an exception because it is a fashionable brand itself and it has already a wide network of stores where people can buy its devices.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 22, 2021

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.

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Augmented Reality Magic Leap AR Apple 476

The Ghost Howls

MAY 4, 2020

While in Italy we get ready for the “Phase 2” of the lockdown, I write the best AR/VR news of the week just for you! This is why we praise so much the Oculus Quest (1M+ of engaged users) and not the Cardboards (20M devices, almost unused). A rumor about Oculus Go 2.0 Top news of the week. Image by Road To VR). More info.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

These are pretty cool, also because the Snapdragon XR 2 is much more powerful than the 835 mounted by the Oculus Quest. Considering that this number doesn’t count the Quest users connected via Oculus Link, the actual number of VR users on Steam is even higher. Still no news on Oculus For Business program and Multiplayer SDK for Quest.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Coronavirus is back in Italy and from yesterday we’re having new restrictions like a night curfew, some kind of shops closed, etc… I hope that you and the people you love are safe. While Oculus is getting all the glory for the Quest, its competitors are not sleeping. Other relevant news.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 27, 2020

Another busy week has passed by, and here in Italy we just got the news that lockdown measures will start to loosen from next week, but the road to go out as we wish is still long. We’re looking for a Unity dev for a freelance gig lasting 1–2 months, ideally from Italy or a nearby country (for easier management).

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 4, 2022

Inflation here in Italy is ramping up, and the impression I have is that we are entering into a recession phase. Of course for some ad-based tech companies, the current economic situation is not the only problem, but there is another big one which is Apple and its new privacy features embedded into iOS. Some news on content.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 19, 2021

It’s a nice summer day here in Italy, and I hope things for all of you are going well. Inside this growing VR market, the headset that is selling the most is the Oculus Quest 2. Or of a hybrid AR/VR headset like the Lynx or like the rumored Apple visor? Top news of the week. Facebook totals now 60.2%

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 1, 2020

They should guarantee better tracking both for the headset and the controllers; The controllers are smaller and seem a mix between the Oculus Touch and the WMR 1 controllers. I don’t see this device stealing the scene from Oculus, since Oculus is cheaper, but I’m quite sure this new headset will be able to grab a good market share.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

The shape of the controllers is slightly different than the one of the Oculus Touch, though, and there is a ring that surrounds the wrist of the user. There is also “finger-tracking” a la Valve Index , but just for the thumb, index, and middle finger (so, it is more a la Oculus Touch). Image by Microsoft).

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

To make you understand how these features are incredible, Qualcomm has stated that “the [XR2] reference design has 2x the CPU and GPU performance, 4x more video bandwidth, 6x higher resolution and 11x AI improvement compared to our current widely adopted XR platform [the Oculus Quest ]”. Oculus fixes two of the greatest issues of Oculus Link.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 24, 2018

Of course, these are US prices : here in Italy, the headset only costs €879 and all other bundles are more expensive because of taxes (damn taxes). I’m a bit comparing pears with apples, I know that. Oculus for business costs $900. Again, for one Vive Pro business, you can almost buy two Oculus for business.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 16, 2021

We were all expecting this since AR and VR are a bit in a transitional moment and the biggest brands (like Facebook and Apple) have their events through which they’ll announce their new devices, but for me, this lack of news was worse than the expected. We had a few interesting news, but nothing truly disruptive. Other news.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2021

The Oculus Quest 2 is selling incredibly well because it offers the right combination of affordable price, good hardware, and a good software ecosystem. Not to mention the millions spent on marketing , especially in the US (Oculus was one of the sponsors of NBA, for instance). The Quest will still be the king. Me wearing a Valve Index.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 29, 2019

Me participating at the press conference of Rome Reborn, in Italy. I gave a presentation of the first idea of a videodisc of the “ Plastico ” at a private conference held at Apple Computer in 1986 (my talk was published in 1998 here ). The Oculus Rift shipped in spring 2016. Oculus Go headset (Image by Oculus).

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 13, 2021

In that period, the Oculus DK2 ordered by Gianni arrived, and he told me that I should go to his office to try that device, and my reaction at that time was like “Oculus what??” You can clearly see from the videos that we did our first demos inside the Oculus samples scenes. From it, ARKit has born, I guess.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 30, 2022

It is also promoting the metaverse everywhere, also on mainstream media: yesterday a friend of mine who doesn’t work in tech told me to have seen a TV spot here in Italy about the metaverse. Meta wants all of us closed in a VR prison, but Apple/Snap/Niantic instead are the good guys doing AR. Meta is bad, Apple is our savior!

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

If you will be in Italy, please come visiting me! Is Apple partnering with Valve on AR? A report by DigiTimes claims that Apple is partnering with Valve for the production of its AR glasses. More info (Apple and Valve partnering) More info (Road To VR’s skeptical editorial on the news). Oculus Link is coming soon.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 20, 2021

Italy, Canada, and China together to create an amazing video about these VR glasses! The kit is composed by: An inside-out tracking add-on , that you attach to your glasses so that that they can track themselves (positional tracking) and the controllers; Two controllers that are very similar to the Oculus Touch.

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China Controllers Video Course 511

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 27, 2019

I’m back in Italy, and finally, I can eat again some good pasta… even if I will miss ?? Image by Oculus). Oculus Quest may have sold only 400,000 units. The Quest is selling well, and Oculus itself didn’t expect billions of sales. Bloomberg publishes new hints on Apple glasses. for breakfast a lot!

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 2, 2021

What a fun thing, this is the power of the intern… no, sorry, of the metaverse. (And if you were wondering, yes, I’m very happy about the two amazing gold medals that Italy won yesterday at the Olympics!). So he said that if you want to attach to it an Oculus Quest, technically you can. Top news of the week. Image by Facebook).

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 16, 2022

This is ridiculous, not only because the Pro costs a lot of money, but also because it is sold as a “work device” I don’t know how things work where Zuck lives, but here in Italy, a typical workday is 8 hours, not 2. Unless Apple kills it, of course… Productivity ecosystem. Other productivity applications.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 18, 2022

Anyway, today should be a vacation in Italy, but here I am writing this roundup for you, so if you want to show your appreciation, don’t forget to make a donation on Patreon ! It lacks all Oculus Exclusive titles like Beat Saber and Population One, but its store is becoming anyway interesting. Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 27, 2021

I mean, yes, it’s dead… I like to put on my dead Oculus Quest 2 to play dead beautiful games like InDeath: Unchained and have dead fun. At the end of 2017, VR Porn dot com published these statistics that proved that people were more interested in adult VR content than on Oculus’s official website.

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360 Video Apple AR Video 533

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 28, 2024

What I’m not a big fan of is the overall shape of the headset, which seems a mix of Oculus Go, Meta Quest 2, and Meta Quest 3. There is also the USB-C port to charge the device (with its typical Oculus-logo shape that was there also on Quest 3) and a tracking camera. In Italy, its starting price, VAT included, is €330.

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