Meta announced in early 2024 it was planning to release Horizon OS beyond Quest in an apparent bid to become the ‘open’ alternative to Apple’s staunchly monolithic Vision OS. While this year’s big Connect reveals are behind us—with no announcements for new XR headsets to speak of—the company confirmed with Road to VR that partner devices are still coming.
Today at Connect, Meta said it’s rolling out an updated version of the engine that powers Horizon Worlds. The new tech will purportedly speed up loading of Horizon Worlds spaces and allow “well over 100” users in a single space.
The newly announced Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, and the ‘Neural Band’ input device that comes with them, are still far from proper augmented reality. But Meta has made several clever design choices that will pay dividends once their true AR glasses are ready for the masses.
At the Connect developer conference today, Meta officially unveiled its next generation of smart glasses built with Essilor Luxottica, essentially confirming yesterday’s big leak, which includes the long-rumored pair with a single heads-up display.
Undoubtedly the smart glasses headliner of Meta Connect this year was the new $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses, which pack in a single display into a familiar Wayfarer-style package. Alongside it though, Meta showed off two new smart glasses: the Oakley Meta Vanguard and next generation of Ray-Ban Meta.
Meta Connect 2025 is nearly here, with company CEO Mark Zuckerberg only a few hours away from telling us what’s next for the most influential company currently working in XR.
VITURE has now launched Luma Ultra AR glasses, which pack in Sony’s latest micro-OLED to go along with spatial gesture tracking thanks to onboard sensor array.
Reach is the debut title from nDreams Elevation, coming to all major VR headsets next month. I got a chance to go hands-on with the Quest 3 version during the first in-person VR Games Showcase event in London earlier this month, where Reach proved to be an immersive and surprisingly cinematic adventure I truly can’t wait to get my hands on.
It seems Meta has a new generation of smart glasses to show off at Connect this week, and it appears we’ve just got an eye-full of the long-rumored version with a built-in display, previously codenamed ‘Hypernova’.
You don’t have to look far to find reports of people who have used VR headsets and then felt ‘off’ after removing them. While motion sickness is surely the most well-known post-VR symptom, a subset of people say they have experienced feelings of being ‘stuck in VR’ after taking off their headsets. It’s tempting to brush off such reports as someone having seen The Matrix (1999) one too many times, but it turns out there is a clear scientific basis for the sensation.
Snapchat creator Snap today released Snap OS 2.0, the XR operating system powering its fifth and upcoming sixth gen Spectacles AR glasses, which are expected to launch next year.
Virtualware, the Spain-based XR and 3D simulation software company, announced it’s secured a €5 million ($5.8 million) deal to broadly roll out its VIROO platform in vocational training facilities supported by Spain’s Ministry of Education.
Feel free to double-check the calendar… yes, it is in fact September 12th and not April 1st. Nintendo, always managing to surprise in one way or another, is reviving its infamously failed 3D gaming console, the Virtual Boy.
