ReportWire

Tag: VR

  • Meta’s Holy Grail AR Smart Glasses Have One Big Puck-Shaped Problem

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    Meta’s “Phoenix” XR smart glasses might not be out yet, but if there’s one thing we already know, it’s that when they are, they’ll need a little assistance on the computing side. That help will likely come from a puck that you’ll have to carry around with you—a puck that we may have just gotten our first glimpse of.

    A new mockup render shared on X by Noridoesvr, who claims to have seen prototypes of Meta’s hardware—a rumored pair of lightweight XR glasses in a goggle-like form factor—offers more insight into what Project Phoenix’s puck will entail.

    At first glance, the compute puck looks pretty manageable. It’s not oversized, it looks relatively innocuous, and it even has a waistband clip so you can cart it around without pockets. It sounds like no big deal, but it might also be the one thing that turns people off from Meta’s AR glasses.

    As promising as the future of AR glasses suddenly is, cramming a whole computer into a pair of frames that rest comfortably on your face is no easy task. Miniaturization is rough, and at a certain point, maybe even impossible. Shrinking down a computer to fit on your face butts against Moore’s Law pretty directly—you need the power to do all sorts of stuff in a form factor that’s light and ergonomic, but you need to do all of that without burning a glasses-sized hole through someone’s head (thermals are no joke).

    As a workaround to all of those issues, Meta seems interested in offloading the compute to a puck, which is a solution that Google and Xreal are also interested in pursuing with Project Aura. Google and Xreal’s partnership was recently showcased in December and relies on a wired puck to enable a computer-like experience where people can use Android apps on a big virtual screen. Think Vision Pro, but in a much, much, smaller form factor.

    Framed that way, the value proposition for tethered smart glasses makes sense. The Vision Pro might be an impressive technical feat, but wearing one for long periods of time sucks because of the weight and the resulting not-so-great battery. Tethered smart glasses take all the weight and put it… not on your face, which is objectively a win for your nose and forehead.

    In other ways, though, both of these form factors share the same problem. The Vision Pro, like Meta’s Phoenix smart glasses and Project Aura, also needs its own kind of puck—a battery pack. To shed weight, the Vision Pro connects to a battery that you have to carry along with you, along with a wire. It’s not ideal, but that’s the tradeoff for a face-worn computer that does more than mirror your connected device’s screen.

    It becomes even less ideal when you consider the puck is on your body. As you may have noticed, there appears to be an exhaust fan on the compute puck, which could presumably serve to direct heat away from your body. It’s hard to tell, but based on the renderings, it might be pointing up? That would be a strange choice, and there’s a chance that what I’m seeing as the correct orientation is actually the opposite. Here’s to hoping this thing doesn’t blast hot air at your torso.

    No matter which way you spin it, there are lots of downsides to using a puck for computing, and those downsides might be a little too much for some. The worst part is, if you’re waiting around for Google, or Meta, or eventually Apple to shrink the form factor down and fit it into glasses sans puck, you might be waiting forever. There’s no guarantee that the puck is a problem that can be solved, and Meta’s upcoming Phoenix smart glasses might be further proof.

    For now, we can at least enjoy the head-to-head between Meta and Google when they’re eventually released, which could be sometime in 2027 and late 2026, respectively. May the best XR video glasses with a portable computer puck win, I guess?

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    James Pero

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  • Meta burned $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 won’t be any better | TechCrunch

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    Earlier this month, Meta laid off 10% of the staff for Reality Labs, its virtual reality unit, reportedly cutting as many as 1,000 employees. Now, in a development that seems directly related, the company has revealed that the unit lost many billions of dollars last year.

    On Wednesday, Meta’s earnings report showed that its embattled virtual reality business had lost some $19.1 billion in 2025, which is slightly more than it lost in 2024 (that year, the losses hovered around $17.7 billion). In its fourth quarter, the unit posted a loss of $6.2 billion, the report shows.

    Those losses stood against what the unit generated in sales: $955 million in Q4 and some $2.2 billion throughout 2025.

    During the company’s earnings call on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg struck a tone of optimism for his company’s VR team while noting that losses in 2026 are expected to be very much the same.

    “For Reality Labs, we are directing most of our investment towards glasses and wearables going forward, while focusing on making Horizon a massive success on Mobile and making VR a profitable ecosystem over the coming years,” Zuckerberg said, during the call. However, the CEO noted that losses were expected to continue. “I expect Reality Labs losses this year to be similar to last year,” Zuckerberg said, while noting that this year would “likely be the peak, as we start to gradually reduce our losses going forward.”

    When Meta announced a pivot toward the “metaverse” in 2021, the move was regarded with a certain amount of skepticism and, during its first year of VR efforts, the company faced harsh criticism — even being referred to as an “international laughingstock.” Nearly half a decade later, that skepticism hasn’t exactly subsided. As the VR business continues to lose money and Meta continues an aggressive pivot away from VR and toward AI, it’s unclear what exactly will turn the ailing business around.

    Last week, CNBC reported that, in addition to the layoffs, Meta had plans to shutter a number of its VR studios — another sign that the company’s interest in virtual reality is waning. The company also recently announced that it would be retiring its standalone Workrooms app — which the company had pitched to office workers as a VR space that could be used to hold meetings.

    Techcrunch event

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    June 23, 2026

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    Lucas Ropek

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  • Apple’s Big Virtual Reality NBA Game Debut Demands More Interactivity

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    LeBron James looks taller in VR. That was the one thought that I kept returning to as I watched Apple’s big push into live sports. The “Spectrum Front Row in Apple Immersive” experience went live on Apple Vision Pro headsets last week, and already it may be one of Apple’s most ambitious entertainment ventures to date. If you’re a Los Angeles Lakers fan, it’s the best way to watch the game without shelling out hundreds or even thousands for season tickets. It’s still far from the best version of what VR live sports could be.

    The folk behind Apple TV are not going the Netflix route by further segmenting sports even more like it did with the NFL. Instead, Apple worked with Spectrum through the Spectrum SportsNet app to capture a total of six live games specifically for the brave few who hang onto their Apple Vision Pro headsets and also live in Southern California, Nevada, or Hawaii (the Lakers’ local broadcast territory) to get access to Spectrum internet or a supported cable provider. You can also access games the next day with the NBA app and a League Pass subscription.

    Cable cutters are still screwed if they’re trying to watch live games. Sorry if you’re a Lakers fan who just doesn’t happen to live in California anymore. Apple granted me a pass to watch the game from the cheap seats out in New York. I would have otherwise had fewer options for watching the game on the other side of the country. Of course, that also means I didn’t have any ability to record or capture screenshots in the app. You’ll just have to trust me when I say even the recorded footage and small broadcast blemishes looked striking inside the Vision Pro.

    Beyond the morass of live sports subscriptions, I’m not one who cares much about the NBA or really any sport that doesn’t help me get through the holidays without needing to talk to my parents. Still, watching basketball through the Vision Pro is the closest I’ll likely ever get to sitting courtside at a major NBA game. The experience is missing only one crucial element, and it’s something Apple has routinely struggled to grasp throughout its recent adventure with augmented reality tech.

    An expensive Vision Pro is still cheaper than courtside tickets

    © Apple

    I didn’t get to watch the Milwaukee Bucks play the LA Lakers live on Jan. 9. I was too busy sleeping through my flight home after covering CES 2026 for a week straight. So I came at the pre-recorded game with as much energy as was left in the tank the Monday after. It’s clear from the jump that Spectrum Front Row is a bespoke experience. Commentators Mark Rogondino and former Lakers forward Danny Green regularly mentioned how the experience was a special broadcast specifically built for those who paid $3,500 for a Vision Pro. However, if you’re planning to watch b-ball in your headset, you better be a fan of the LA Lakers. The specialist cameras that allow for this 180-degree capture are only positioned in the Crypto.com Arena.

    The camera regularly cut down to the court while players warmed up with pre-game drills. The national anthem sounded so loud my coworkers came over thinking there was a man outside our Manhattan office ironically intoning “home of the free” into a loudspeaker. And when the game finally started, I was taken aback by the feeling of being present. There are three cameras Apple set up to capture the near-180-degree footage you can watch through the Vision Pro headset. One is located at the scorer’s table. The other two are positioned behind the baskets.

    The Vision Pro’s 100-degree field of view means you’re supposed to move your head to follow the action. That means as I tried to follow Lakers’ Luka Dončić as he took a three-pointer from the far side of the court, I missed the Bucks’ defense gearing up for the return to the other side of the court. It’s what you don’t know that makes games interesting. When you’re watching at home, with the cameras high above the court, you feel more like an overlord than a spectator. It’s only when you can get down low enough to feel part of the action—as well as note just how large these 6- to 7-foot-tall players truly are—that you’ll finally see the appeal of ultra-luxury courtside tickets.

    Apple still hasn’t learned this lesson about AR

    Apple Vision Pro M5 08
    Watching live games in VR will inevitably be a very isolating experience. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

    The problem with this current camera setup is the full field of view gets cut off right at the corners of the court. That means you won’t see the coaches whinging on the outside, and you may miss a free throw from the far side. Instead of offering an ovular field of view, the outline cuts into the picture, with two half-circles intruding into your line of sight. The two cameras positioned behind each basket aren’t too shabby, either, though the hoop will sometimes obstruct what’s happening in front.

    Like any regular basketball broadcast, there’s a team behind the scenes dictating which camera they cut to for the sake of following the action. There’s a logic behind it. You want to see the dunks and alley-oops up close, where the twang of the basket is so much louder in your ears. The cuts weren’t so much disorienting as intrusive. There were times I would have preferred to remain at the scorer’s table, and other times I wanted to swap to the far side to see more of the action. The Spectrum SportsNet app doesn’t allow any modicum of manual control. The stream to your headset is merely media playback, just with the added benefit of an all-around view.

    That added bit of control would turn the experience from passive into a truly novel way to experience these games. Whereas Apple’s smattering of spatial experiences, like its short film Submerged, were designed to offer select shots for maximum effect, a live game is distinct. Sure, broadcasters have plenty of experience telling people what to watch when it’s happening, but discerning viewers who think they know better now have the chance to control that view themselves.

    Apple still has an opportunity here. Meta has already been in the game of live VR sports through its Meta Quest headsets and the Xtadium app. That includes Lakers games. The Vision Pro’s dual 4K micro OLED displays will offer better picture quality. Now, the only question is whether we’ll see a larger variety of sports available. That could be hockey or MMA, but I personally would enjoy watching volleyball or table tennis matches up close. There are more Apple Vision Pro Lakers games going on from February into March, just five more in total. It’s a shame so few people will get to experience it, considering the restrictive tie-in to Spectrum. In that way, courtside tickets will remain just as exclusive as they always were.

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    Kyle Barr

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  • Go Beyond 20/20 With These WIRED-Tested Smart Glasses

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    Other Smart Glasses We’ve Tested

    We’ve tested several more pairs of smart glasses—some good and some bad.

    Even Realities G2

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    Even Realities G2 for $599: We have not fully reviewed the Even Realities G2 yet—we have spent a little time with the hardware but are awaiting a prescription model for proper testing. There are a few bugs with the software, but Even Realities’ second-gen glasses are impressive. Thin, light, and easily passable for standard glasses, these don’t have a camera or speaker; instead, they focus on extending your smartphone with the display and microphone. The projected screen is 75 percent larger than the original G1, and you can thumb the R1 smart ring (separate purchase) to navigate the interface. You can see your notifications, translate real-time conversations, see navigation instructions, pin to-do lists, and talk to the company’s Even AI assistant about anything. There’s also a teleprompter function to convince people you’re a natural at public speaking. Again, the hardware is impressive, but we need to put these glasses through their paces; stay tuned for our full review soon. —Julian Chokkattu

    Image may contain Accessories Sunglasses and Glasses

    Photograph: Simon Hill

    RayNeo Air 3s Pro for $299: TCL-owned RayNeo offers many models, and I’ve tested several. The latest Air 3s Pro glasses boast a 201-inch virtual screen (1080p, 120 Hz, 1200 nits), but the 46-degree field of view lets it down a little. Both color vibrancy and brightness offer major upgrades over previous releases, like the Air 2s and the older TCL RayNeo Air 2 XR Glasses, and you can just about see the whole screen clearly (even after adjusting, I had to slide them down my nose a little to avoid blurring at the bottom). You will also need the lens shade to use them in brighter environments. While they are cheaper than our other virtual screen picks, I found them inferior in design, fit, and comfort. Rayneo has added some more on-device options, including spatial sound, but it didn’t work well for me, though the standard sound is fine. RayNeo’s software, required for 3 DoF, is still buggy and unpolished. This is a good virtual screen for the money, and perfectly suitable for watching movies and light gaming, but if you want more from your smart glasses, I’d pick a different pair.

    Chamelo Music Shield for $260: With a cool touch-control tint capability that enables you to adjust for the conditions, and built-in Bluetooth speakers for music, the Chamelo Music Shield could be up your sporty street. You can take these dimmable glasses from 17 to 63 percent light transmittance (almost clear to mirrored) by sliding your finger along the right temple. The sound quality is decent for glasses, but even cheap wireless earbuds sound better, and these are on the pricey side for their limited functionality.

    Image may contain Accessories Glasses Sunglasses Goggles Blade Razor and Weapon

    Photograph: Simon Hill

    Lucyd Reebok Octane for $199: Designed in partnership with Reebok for cyclists and runners, these lightweight Bluetooth sunglasses feature silver polarized lenses, good quality speakers, and 8-hour battery life. I enjoyed listening to music and podcasts while hiking, and I like that you can hear the world around you. The sound leakage isn’t too bad, so you won’t bother the people you pass. They also have physical controls that are much easier to use than touch controls, even when your hands are wet (they’re water-resistant, too). You can take calls, get directions, and ask your preferred AI assistant questions. Lucyd has been making Bluetooth sunglasses for several years now and offers a wide range of different styles. We also tried the Lucyd 2.0 Bluetooth Sunglasses a couple of years ago.

    Rokid Max 2 Glasses for $429: The Spider-Man style lenses give these comfortable smart glasses a bit of character, though they won’t be to everyone’s taste. They project a 215-inch screen (1080p, 120 Hz, 600 nits, 50-degree FoV) and boast diopter dials for focus adjustments, but I struggled to eliminate blurring around the edges, and instead of stylish electrochromic dimming, there’s a clip-on plastic blackout shield. I also tried the Rokid Station 2, which adds an Android TV interface to access entertainment apps, but also a trackpad and an air mouse for easier control. The original Rokid Station was a more basic portable Android TV.

    Don’t Bother

    Here’s the eyewear that fell short.

    Halliday Glasses for $499: While these could almost pass for chunky regular glasses, with a clever ring controller and a tiny unobtrusive display, I can confidently say they are not the future of smart glasses. After spending several uncomfortable hours trying to adjust the display to be readable, all I got was a headache. The ring seemed like a smart idea, but it’s big, ugly, plastic, laggy, and frustrating to use. The eavesdropping AI is slow, and squinting up to try and see the screeds of useless text it churns out is actually painful. The sound quality and battery life are equally awful.

    Amazon Echo Frames for $300: The Amazon Echo Frames (3/10, WIRED Review) are a bit old now, but you can still purchase them. Too bad they don’t do much. They work as sunglasses, filter blue light, and are IPX4-rated. Tech-wise, they have a speaker and microphone in each temple, and you can use them to query or command Alexa, as you would with a smart speaker, but there are no cameras here, making them far less capable than the similarly priced Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

    Image may contain Accessories Glasses Sunglasses and Scissors

    Photograph: Simon Hill

    Asus AirVision M1 for $399: I was excited to see Asus launch smart glasses, but the lack of fanfare was a red flag. My first impressions of the lightweight design were promising, and the M1 offers up to a 100-inch virtual display and impressive 1,100 nits brightness. Designed to plug into your phone, laptop, PC, or handheld gaming device, like the ROG Ally, via USB-C, the M1 also features built-in speakers and a microphone. Sadly, the refresh rate maxes out at 72 Hz and is limited to 60 Hz unless you employ the Airvision software, which also enables you to select different modes (working, gaming, infinity), tweak screen position, and set interpupillary distance (IPD). I found the in-focus sweet spot was small, and most of my virtual screen was blurry, no matter how I tweaked the settings, making them uncomfortable to use, especially for work. There’s also a basic plastic shield to block light, rather than electrochromic dimming, and the speaker quality is decidedly average, leaving me puzzled about why the price is so high.

    Solos AirGo Vision for $299: With a built-in AI assistant powered by ChatGPT, the Solos AirGo Vision adds a camera on top of the Bluetooth-connected speakers in the rest of its range. Grant it unfettered access to your location and photo library, and it can describe what you are seeing. The most obvious use cases are translation and navigation, though I’m not convinced about the accuracy of its suggestions. The design is interesting, with chunky temples housing the smarts and interchangeable frames. There’s no virtual screen or HUD, but you can get prescription lenses, and they look relatively normal. Sadly, the photo and audio quality are horrible, and the touch controls are frustratingly finicky. The app is also power hungry and demands too many permissions. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses do the same things better.

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    Simon Hill

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  • This Quest 3S Bundle Is $50 Off and Includes a Game and Gift Card

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    If you’ve been dreaming of getting into virtual reality but you’ve been holding out for a good deal, this may be your moment. I spotted a Meta Quest 3S bundle at Best Buy that not only knocks $50 off the normal price, but also includes Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and a $50 Best Buy digital gift card. That’s quite the deal on a product that doesn’t often see major discounts, and you can use that gift card to accessorize your new headset.

    Courtesy of Meta

    Meta’s lineup of stand-alone headsets has slowly improved over the last few years, with frequent updates adding functionality and growing the library of games. You don’t need a computer or console to power them, which makes it easy to just toss the headset on and start playing without any extra steps. With object and hand tracking, sometimes you don’t even need controllers, and the pass-through camera lets you blend the real world and the virtual one for awesome mixed reality experiences.

    While the Quest 3S is the more budget-friendly offering in the current generation of headsets, the compromises aren’t as major as you might be thinking. The screen is slightly lower resolution, and the pass-through isn’t quite as sharp, but otherwise the Quest 3S plays the same games and experiences as the more expensive Quest 3. Both headsets suffer from limited battery life, so don’t expect more than a couple of hours of play at a time.

    I haven’t had a chance to play the included game, Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, but it’s described as a survival action game set in a zombie-ridden version of New Orleans. You’ll have to make tough decisions about how to deal with other survivors, and it looks like there are plenty of opportunities to slay zombies. My vibe is usually more mini-golf than shotgun-wielding, but the game has overall positive reviews, and scary stuff can be a lot of fun in VR.

    If you’re ready to pull the trigger on this deal, make sure to swing by my guide to the best Meta Quest games. I’ve got some picks over there that can help you calm down after a long day of swinging your axe at zombies.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • Samsung’s Galaxy XR Mixed Reality Headset Undercuts Apple’s Vision Pro by $1,700

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    It has been five years since Samsung and Google stopped supporting their respective mobile virtual reality headsets. For a second try, the companies have partnered up with a bolder vision in the mixed reality space, starting with the new Galaxy XR. Announced last year as Project Moohan, it’s the first headset powered by Android XR, a new platform for smart glasses and headsets built on Android and Google’s Gemini assistant from the ground up.

    The Galaxy XR is available today in the US and South Korea for $1,800. (You can finance it for $149 per month for 12 months.) That’s a leap over standard VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3, but a significantly lower price than the $3,499 Vision Pro, which Apple is refreshing this week with the new M5 processor.

    Galactic Vision

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    I was able to demo the headset again last week at a closed-doors media event in New York City held by Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm—the Galaxy XR is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip—but not much was different from my original hands-on experience last year, which you can read more about here. The official name and price were the two big question marks, but that has now been addressed.

    The Galaxy XR purports to do nearly everything that Apple’s device does. Pop the headset on and you’ll be able to see the room you’re in through the pancake lenses and layer virtual content over it, or whisk yourself off to another world. Your hands are the input (controllers are available as a separate purchase), and it uses eye tracking to see what you want to select. You can access all your favorite apps from the Google Play Store; XR apps will have a “Made for XR” label.

    Samsung’s headset is more plasticky and doesn’t feel as premium as Apple’s Vision Pro—I noticed the tethered battery pack on a demo unit looked well-worn with fingerprint smudges on the coating. But this general construction makes it feel significantly lighter to wear. I wasn’t able to try it for a long period, but it felt comfortable, with the only issue being a sweaty brow after a 25-minute bout with it on. The headset was warm at the top, but the battery pack remained relatively cool. Speaking of, the battery lasts 2 hours or 2.5 hours if you’re purely watching video. That’s on par with the original Vision Pro, though the M5 version extends it to 2.5 with mixed use.

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    Julian Chokkattu

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  • Samsung’s Vision Pro Killer Is Way Cheaper, but Still Very Expensive

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    At long last, Samsung has fully unveiled Project Moohan, its rebuttal to the Apple Vision Pro, which we can now officially call the Galaxy XR. The headset wasn’t exactly under wraps to this point, given the fact that it was initially shown off in January of this year, but we now have all of the details, including the one major thing we were dying to know: the price. Without further ado: Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset costs *drum roll* $1,800…

    That is, as you may have noticed, quite a bit of money to spend on a headset. It is cheaper (about half the price) than the Vision Pro with M5, which still costs $3,500. It’s also $300 more expensive than the first “Pro” headset to make major splashes with its price, the Meta Quest Pro. As a refresher, that short-lived headset debuted at $1,500 in 2022, which caused a major uproar at the time. While that’s a lot of money to pay for a headset, Samsung is at least offering a Vision Pro-like experience on paper, so I guess (based on Apple’s absurd pricing) it’s technically a discount? Kind of?

    The Galaxy XR’s display is, like the Vision Pro, micro-OLED and clocks in at a resolution of 3,552 x 3,840 pixels per eye. That’s comparable to the Vision Pro, which has a resolution of 3,660 x 3,200 pixels per eye. The Galaxy XR headset will top out at 90Hz with a 72Hz default, while Apple’s Vision Pro with M5 brings a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. For reference, the original Vision Pro (with M2 chip) topped out at 100Hz and had a 90Hz standard refresh rate.

    © Samsung

    In addition to the premium display, the Galaxy XR headset also has a similar UI to the Vision Pro that is centered on hand and eye tracking, allowing you to pinch and grab things in virtual space without a controller. To enable that Vision Pro-esque UI, which is built on Android XR in collaboration with Google and Qualcomm, there are two hi-res cameras for passthrough, six outward-facing cameras devoted just to tracking, four inward-facing cameras for eye tracking, and a depth sensor. All of that should deliver an experience that feels similar to the Vision Pro, but if you do want a more traditional controller-based experience, you can go ahead and purchase controllers for an additional… $250. If you’re thinking, “Jeez, that brings the price to more than $2,000!” I’m here to tell you that your math is unfortunately correct.

    Xr Controllers Gray
    © Samsung

    In the battery department, you’ll also find near-parity. Samsung says the Galaxy XR headset is rated for 2 hours of general use and 2.5 hours for video playback, while the newest Vision Pro with M5 chip is rated for 2.5 hours of general use and 3 hours for video playback. Both headsets use an external battery pack to help alleviate the weight from your face. Samsung’s Galaxy XR is naturally powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, which is Qualcomm’s newest XR chip.

    But enough about hardware for now. You’re probably wondering what it is you can even do with this headset, and on that front, there are even more Vision Pro similarities. Samsung says Android XR is built for all sorts of standard XR stuff, including gaming and immersive sports, and can also “spatialize” 2D videos so that they can be watched in 3D on the headset. Given the close collaboration with Google, there’s also a noticeable dose of Gemini here. Samsung says that the Galaxy XR headset will feature a Gemini gaming coach and Gemini-powered features like Circle to Search.

    Google Maps Xr
    © Samsung / Screenshot by Gizmodo

    There will also be a few Google services that Samsung says are optimized for XR, including Google Photos, YouTube, and my personal favorite… Google Maps. I have no idea who is going to strap on a headset to use Google Maps, but Google has been building out Immersive View in Google Maps, which could be kind of cool to experience in XR, so I will suspend my disbelief until I try Google Maps in Android XR for myself.

    One area that I’m very curious whether Samsung will pull away in is comfort. Probably my biggest complaint about the Vision Pro is that it’s very heavy, and after long periods of use, it can really start to feel uncomfortable on your head and nose. The latest Vision Pro with M5 chip tries to combat that with a new headstrap with better counterbalances, but the Galaxy XR headset still has the Vision Pro beat in the weight department. According to Samsung, the Galaxy XR weighs 545g, while the latest Vision Pro with M5 weighs between 750 to 800g. A lot of the comfort does come down to how weight is distributed, so no winner can be decided on numerics alone.

    On paper, Samsung’s Galaxy XR sounds very similar to the Vision Pro, which could be a bad thing, but when you consider the huge difference in price, $1,800 looks a lot more palatable—especially when you consider headsets are still more of a toy than anything. If you’re eager to get your hands and your face on Samsung’s first headset, you can buy the Galaxy XR now on Samsung.com or in Samsung Experience Stores. Samsung is also offering 24-month financing, while Samsung Experience Stores are offering both 12- or 24-month financing options if the $1,800 price tag is too much in one sitting.

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    James Pero

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  • How Does Samsung’s First VR Headset Compare to the Vision Pro? These Leaks May Tell Us Everything

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    If you’ve been eagerly anticipating Samsung’s Project Moohan VR headset, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, we now (probably) know just about everything there is to know about its upcoming Vision Pro competitor. The bad news? We still have no idea when we’ll be able to use one for ourselves.

    Thanks to a comprehensive leak from Android Headlines, we now know that “Project Moohan” is probably called the Samsung Galaxy XR in the official internal lingo. One thing that caught my eye about the Samsung Galaxy XR is that, unlike Apple’s Vision Pro, the headset will come with two controllers that look a lot like the ones Meta includes with its Quest 3 and 3S. Those will be coupled with an eye- and hand-tracking UI that operates like visionOS, the software inside Apple’s Vision Pro.

    Leaks also suggest that the Samsung Galaxy XR headset will indeed use a 4K micro-OLED display in each eye, which definitely pits it against the Vision Pro in the display department and solidifies its place as a cut above cheaper headsets like the Quest 3 and 3s. One area that it may excel in, if leaks are to be believed, is that it’s a little bit lighter than the Vision Pro, clocking in at 545 grams as opposed to 600 grams. That’s not a groundbreaking amount of weight to shed, but any improvement on the Vision Pro-level heft is welcome in my book.

    Here’s the Vision Pro for comparison. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

    Oh, and it looks pretty comfortable too. There’s a lot of padding on the inside bits that rest on your forehead, which feels important if you’re planning to wear it for longer periods. One of my least favorite parts of the Vision Pro is how it really weighs on your face and neck, so any added support is huge. Speaking of wearing a headset for long periods, Android Headlines’ leaks suggest that the Samsung Galaxy XR has a battery life of around two-ish hours, which puts it on par with the Vision Pro. Unfortunately, it’ll take an external battery pack to get there, though, just like the Vision Pro.

    There is one enormous detail that we don’t know yet, and that’s the price. Based on all of the almost-confirmed information we now have, I would imagine that this isn’t going to be a cheap headset. Will it be Vision Pro-level expensive? Hopefully not. I can’t think of too many people who would be excited to buy a $3,500 headset. That being said, rumors have suggested that it could land anywhere between $1,700 and $2,900. On either range, that’s a lot of money to pay for a headset, even if it’s as premium as leaks would suggest. Maybe Samsung will have more success selling Vision Pro-like hardware, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet that Project Moohan is going to be quite the project for Samsung indeed.

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    James Pero

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  • The Vision Pro Was An Expensive Misstep. Now Apple Has to Catch Up With Smart Glasses

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    When discussing the development of AR and AR devices back in 2016, he said that most people wouldn’t find it acceptable to be “enclosed in something … because we are sociable people at heart.” He was spot on.

    It turns out that what people really want at this moment is to just wear something that looks good and feels like a normal pair of glasses, with use cases that are actually, well, useful. And no, Tim, that’s not to watch Ted Lasso on their ceiling.

    Coming to smart glasses in 2027 will feel almost impossibly late for a market that is taking off now, and while Apple is no stranger to starting behind, it will need to ensure its judgment on what its customers want in smart glasses is much more attuned than it was with Apple Vision Pro. At this point, it simply can’t afford another misstep.

    But Apple isn’t giving up on Apple Vision Pro either, and reports suggest it may well revisit it once the more pressing issue of smart glasses is dealt with. While Gartenberg remains unconvinced that Apple can get the Vision Pro cheap enough to make it truly accessible for all (“the things that Apple would need to do to get this thing down to a price for humans is extraordinary”), Sag suggests it might not have to.

    He points to the boom in gaming consoles as an example. Rather than flatlining the gaming PC market as was predicted, the proliferation of consoles actually helped drive sales of PCs, with more people getting into gaming, so more wanting to level up their equipment in time. He predicts the same trend will happen with smart glasses. People will start with more basic, familiar frames, then migrate into the chunkier, fully featured versions.

    “People need to remember that XR is a spectrum and that devices are going to exist along that continuum,” Sag says. “The cheaper, simpler devices are going to reach the most people, but then there’s going to be a lot of people who want more than this base level experience.”

    One day, Apple may be able to make that singular, gorgeous XR headset that people actually want to wear. But until then, it has to meet the market where it is headed—and that is in cheaper, lighter, more functional frames.

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    Boone Ashworth

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  • Meta launches Hyperscape, technology to turn real-world spaces into VR | TechCrunch

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    Although today’s Meta Connect developer conference was largely about new smart glasses, the social networking company did announce a handful of metaverse updates during Wednesday’s keynote. Of these, one of the largest was the introduction of Hyperscape, first demoed at last year’s event, which allows developers and creators to build more photorealistic spaces in virtual reality.

    The company announced that Hyperscape Capture is now rolling out in Early Access, meaning Quest device owners will be able to scan a room in a few minutes, then turn it into an immersive and photorealistic world that’s like a digital replica of a real-world space.

    The capture process itself only takes a few minutes, but the room’s rendering will actually take a few hours, Meta notes.

    At launch, users won’t be able to invite others into their digital spaces, though that functionality will be supported in time, Meta says, through a private link.

    Image Credits:Meta

    However, the tech has already been used to render some featured Hyperscape worlds, including Gordon Ramsay’s home kitchen in L.A., Chance the Rapper’s House of Kicks, The Octagon at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and Happy Kelli’s room filled with her Crocs shoe collection.

    Meta first demoed Hyperscape last year at its Connect conference, showing how it used Gaussian Splatting, cloud rendering, and streaming to make the digital worlds appear on a Meta Quest 3 headset. Now, it’s rolling it out to users 18 years old and up, who have either a Quest 3 or Quest 3S.

    The rollout will be gradual, starting today, so not all users may see it immediately.

    Techcrunch event

    San Francisco
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    October 27-29, 2025

    Meta also introduced more metaverse updates at today’s events, including a new lineup of fall VR games, including Marvel’s Deadpool VR, ILM’s Star Wars: Beyond Victory, and Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons:
    Battlemarked, and Reach.

    Its streaming app, Horizon TV, will add support for Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu, while a partnership with Universal Pictures and horror company Blumhouse will offer movies like “M3GAN” and “The Black Phone” with immersive special effects. A 3D clip of “Avatar: Fire and Ash” will also be available for a limited time.

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    Sarah Perez

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  • Live Updates From Meta Connect 2025 🔴

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    Well, ya’ll, it’s been a doozy. I’m back from Menlo Park with a lot to chew on and at least one new pair of smart glasses already in hand. I got to try Meta’s Ray-Bans with a display in them, and I’m not going to lie… they were pretty wild. I have a lot of thoughts about what they mean and what they could be, but I’m going to save those for the future when I hopefully get to try them on my own, sans Meta handlers.

    But even with unfinished thoughts, I can’t help but feel like this is a big moment for the smart glasses category. If you had any questions on whether smart glasses have arrived, I think Meta Connect 2025 should put them to rest. Maybe you’re on the fence about whether you need a pair of glasses with a screen in them (and a magic wristband that lets you control them), but I’m willing to wager that once you give both a whirl, you’re going to want a pair nonetheless.

    Anyway, I wanted to write something really epic and profound here, but I think I have about 3.5 brain cells left after a wild couple of weeks of smart glasses, earbuds, and new Apple products, so I’ll just leave you with this picture I took of Mark Zuckerberg and Diplo. Just one last lookie-loo for the road. See you next time! —James Pero

    © Meta

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    Raymond Wong, Kyle Barr, and James Pero

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  • Dynamic Duo Zuckerberg and Palmer Luckey Reunite for Army Combat Goggles Contract

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    Despite spending billions of dollars to make it happen, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey were never able to make virtual reality a profitable consumer product. Teamed up again, the pair have found an audience that is more comfortable with spending lots of money for slow development timelines and little return: the US Army. According to a report from Bloomberg, Luckey’s Anduril Industries and Zuck’s Meta Platforms were among three companies tapped to produce prototypes for mixed-reality style combat goggles.

    The project—which also invited a company called Rivet Industries that is headed up by the former Head of Mixed Reality at Palantir to participate, in case you were worried they couldn’t assemble the full Axis of Evil for this thing—will seek to build upon the Army’s massive, multi-billion dollar Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) project that it launched with Microsoft. The goal is to ultimately create “new helmet-mounted mixed reality systems.”

    The IVAS project will certainly be familiar to Luckey’s crew at Anduril, which took over the project after Microsoft effectively abandoned its VR/AR ambitions entirely—but not before handing over a demo product that an Army participant said “would have gotten us killed.” Just what they have done with it since taking over isn’t clear, though the project did get re-named to “Soldier Borne Mission Command” (SBMC), so that’s something.

    There does seem to be quite a bit of information that will help inform the new goggles project. Anduril claimed that it will be guided by “over 260,000 hours of soldier feedback from the IVAS program,” which comes after the Army poured $1.36 billion into research, development, prototypes, according to Bloomberg. Seems like a lot of that information will be on what *not* to do, but that’s a start.

    The project also appears as though it’ll make good on Zuckerberg and Luckey’s promised return to collaboration after a nasty falling out in 2017. Earlier this year, the two Trumped-up tech bros promised to make “the world’s best” AR and VR technology for the U.S. military under what they called “Project EagleEye.” The expectation was that the pair would make a joint bid for an Army contract that would be worth about $100 million. While the details on this latest deal weren’t made public by Anduril, the company did announce that Meta was a part of its bid and would be involved in the development of the goggles. Rival Rivet Industries said its contract was valued at around $195 million, per Bloomberg. So, it seems we may have a match.

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    AJ Dellinger

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  • Meta Whistleblowers Allege Company Buried Info on Child Safety

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    Whistleblowers allege Meta has suppressed research on risks for young children involving virtual reality devices and apps, including information about child predators, according to a new report from the Washington Post.

    The newspaper reports that Congress has received thousands of pages of documents related to Meta’s virtual reality programs, with four researchers coming forward to discuss their experiences with the company. Two of the researchers currently work for Meta, and two are former employees.

    In one of the most shocking claims, a researcher at Meta was allegedly told to delete information gathered from an interview with a family in Germany. A child in the family “frequently encountered strangers,” and a teenage boy reportedly told researchers that “adults had sexually propositioned his little brother.” His little brother was under the age of 10, according to the Post.

    The Washington Post reports that an internal Meta report on the research noted that German parents and teens were worried about grooming via VR in Horizon Worlds, but the report didn’t include anything about the teen who said that his young brother had actually been targeted. But Meta denies the characterization that anything improper happened while it conducted research.

    “These few examples are being stitched together to fit a predetermined and false narrative; in reality since the start of 2022, Meta has approved nearly 180 Reality Labs-related studies on social issues, including youth safety and well-being,” a Meta spokesperson told Gizmodo over email. Reality Labs is Meta’s VR division.

    “This research has contributed to significant product updates such as new supervision tools for parents to see who their teens are connected with in VR, how much time they spend, and the apps they access. We have also introduced automatic protections for teens to limit unwanted contact, like default voice channel settings in Horizon Worlds so individuals can hear or be heard only from people they know as well as personal boundaries,” the statement continued.

    “We stand by our research team’s excellent work and are dismayed by these mischaracterizations of the team’s efforts.”

    The allegations come as the tech giant is getting heat about a series of articles by Reuters reporter Jeff Horwitz detailing a set of policies that appear tremendously lax when it comes to how AI chatbots interact with children.

    An internal document from Meta gave the green light for its generative AI chatbots to engage in “sensual” conversations with children, according to Reuters. The report prompted outrage on Capitol Hill, where Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said last month he had launched an investigation into Meta’s AI policies and how the technology may be interacting with kids.

    “Is there anything – ANYTHING – Big Tech won’t do for a quick buck?” Hawley tweeted on Aug. 15. “Now we learn Meta’s chatbots were programmed to carry on explicit and ‘sensual’ talk with 8-year-olds. It’s sick. I’m launching a full investigation to get answers. Big Tech: Leave our kids alone.”

    Meta, which changed the name of its parent company from Facebook in 2021, has spent billions of dollars over recent years in an effort to make the metaverse a mainstream reality. Facebook first made a big investment in VR in 2014, buying Oculus. But it’s still an incredibly niche offering that most people ignore. Reality Labs has reportedly lost $60 billion, according to the Post.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Tuesday afternoon that will explore the allegations made by the whistleblowers. The title of the hearing: “Hidden Harms: Examining Whistleblower Allegations that Meta Buried Child Safety Research.”

    News also broke Monday that the former head of security for WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, had filed a lawsuit in California that employees at the company “could gain access to sensitive user data including profile pictures, location, group memberships and contact lists.” Big companies get sued all the time. But, needless to say, Meta is getting it from all angles right now when it comes to whistleblowers who are concerned about privacy and security.

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    Matt Novak

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  • Hands On With Googles Gemini-Powered Smart Glasses, Android XR, and Project Moohan Headset – GadgetNutz

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    I’m wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses on my face. They don’t feel heavy, but they feel chunky. I walk over to a poster of a painting—Girl With a Pearl Earring—and ask out loud what was so special about it. A brief answer detailing its expert use of light and color by Johannes Vermeer floats into my ears, and when I ask a follow-up about when it was painted, I quickly hear the same voice say, “around 1665.” I’m not talking to myself, I swear. Nor am I hearing imaginary voices. No, I’m wearing a prototype of Google’s upcoming smart glasses, powered by its Gemini voice assistant. The company teased these smart glasses at its I/O developer conference earlier this year, showing a proof-of-concept video of AI-powered smart glasses using the name Project Astra. The pair I gazed through and chatted with uses that same Astra technology, but here it’s been built into a functioning product. Even though the glasses are still in their development phase, Google plans to release them sometime in 2025. These smart glasses are one part of Google’s big announcement today: Android XR. This “extended reality” platform marks the 10th year of Google’s mobile operating system expanding to new platforms beyond phones, joining the ranks of Wear OS, Google TV, and Android Auto. It sets the stage for a new wave of virtual and augmented reality headsets and glasses with a customized version of Android running on them.

    Glass, a Decade Later

    I remember watching the first-ever Google Glass demo in my college dorm room—truly an iconic moment at Google I/O 2012, where people skydived toward the Moscone Convention Center wearing cyborg smart glasses that were streaming video of their approach over a Hangouts call. These Android XR–powered smart glasses don’t command that much fanfare but, in my limited time with them, I can say this: Of all the smart glasses I’ve tried, they come the closest to realizing the original vision of Glass. But Google is also in a very different place as a company than it was in 2012. A judge recently ruled Google Search to be an illegal monopoly, calling for the company to sell off Google Chrome. Yet Google (with Samsung) now wants to be the platform for the next wave of spatial computing. VR also has had a rocky road due to wavering consumer interest, and given Google’s history of killing off projects, it’s difficult to glean whether a face computing platform that requires special (and expensive) hardware will meet the fate of so many apps and services that came before. Izadi says the platform approach helps in that regard: “I think once you’re established as an Android vertical, we’re not going away anytime soon, so that’s kind of a guarantee we can give.” The big bet seems to be around Gemini and AI. Oh, and the synergy between Google and Samsung. As Kihwan Kim, the executive vice president at Samsung spearheading Project Moohan, says, “This is not about just some teams or company making this—this is different. It’s completely starting from the ground up, how AI can impact VR and AR.” He went on to say the collaboration with Google felt like “one single spirit,” adding that it’s something he’s never experienced before in this line of work.

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    Kermit

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  • Taskmaster VR doesn’t quite deliver on the promise of the TV show

    Taskmaster VR doesn’t quite deliver on the promise of the TV show

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    I’m a huge Taskmaster fan. The UK TV show pits five comedians (or funny-adjacent celebrities) against ridiculous tasks that are then arbitrarily scored by the titular taskmaster.

    Given that the tasks involve lateral thinking and physical movement, on paper, the TV show was ripe for a VR spin-off. Think Job Simulator with added jeopardy, in-jokes and British whimsy. Unfortunately, Taskmaster VR doesn’t deliver on the fun and charm of the show. Two points.

    After being teased (and available to wishlist) earlier this year, the game launched last week across Steam, Meta Quest 2 and 3, and Pro. I played the game briefly on Quest 2, the lowest-powered option, before shifting to the sharper screens of Quest 3.

    You’ll want to play it on a headset like the Quest 3 or better. The basic Quest 2 makes the whole thing very grainy. But that’s not the biggest issue. The problem is it’s not a great VR game. Collision detection is rough, and while it’s not the first VR title guilty of this, the fine motor control demanded of the game’s tasks makes things a pain.

    For example, the first game involves you trying to make a sandwich, matching Alex’s arcane sandwich request, plating it up, and putting it on the plinth, ready for judgment. However, you have to do all of that with a pair of spatulas. Opening a fridge with a spatula in real life is challenging enough; in a virtual world, it sometimes felt more like luck than dexterity whether I got that slice of bacon into my sandwich.

    In another game, I was to launch an egg as far as I could but land it in a frying pan. I struggled to keep a frying pan in the same place while constructing a poorly-considered ramp of pipes, boxes and wheelie bins. The in-game physics are so simplistic that most object surfaces behave the same. And my pan slid to the floor. Again and again and again. You can crouch in Taskmaster VR – when you drop the pan again – but the physics engine conveys a degree of momentum when you press the button to stand upright again, adding a ‘bounce’ to anything in your hand.

    Many of the games are multi-stage and expansive, which I appreciated. Circling back to the sandwich task, some ingredients need to be cooked – and you’ll have to turn on the stove burners to do so. Once you’ve made your sandwich, Greg, the Taskmaster will scrutinize the result. One slice of bread? He’ll go on a tirade about open-face sandwiches. Wrong plate? Your score will be dinged again. Something inedible? He’ll notice.

    There are also easter egg references to the show everywhere, from the tutorial onwards. Look out of windows; even the bushes and garden are filled with items and references only a Taskmaster fan would get. Do Americans think all Brits (I’m a Brit) are this whimsical? I hope so.

    In another game, you’ll have to rush around the entire Taskmaster estate (a tiny home and garden) searching for dog food, but only after you’ve escaped the garage. The tasks are considered, but I wish there were more. The TV show is famous for comedians’ unusual lateral thinking and solutions that the task makers didn’t plan for. I haven’t seen those possibilities – at least not yet.

    Why not mix up the codes for the safe featured in a watermelon smashing task? This would be especially useful if you’re playing with other Taskmaster fans who want to try the tasks themselves. A little bit of random number generation would work wonders. Having said that, there’s a Taskmaster VR Creative mode, where you’ll be able to craft your own levels and tasks, which could add longevity if it finds an audience.

    The banter between Taskmaster and his assistant is tonally accurate, benefitting from using the voices of Greg Davies and (Little) Alex Horne, but their in-game models don’t convey the weird, awkward charm of the duo. Maybe I’m just a superfan, and my expectations were too high, but there’s something about the sound quality (with lines recorded in a booth) that pulls you out of the illusion of being on a version of the TV show.

    I’m unsure if I’ll ever replay the entire game again. Fortunately, once unlocked, you can choose to play each task standalone, which is the perfect way for me to share the game with visiting friends.

    If the team behind Taskmaster VR can offer some new tasks through DLC (how about replicating a task from the next TV series?), this might be more of a draw. Their time starts now.

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    Mat Smith

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  • Meta shutters its first-party VR game studio Ready at Dawn

    Meta shutters its first-party VR game studio Ready at Dawn

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    Ready at Dawn Studios, the game studio behind the Echo virtual reality series for the Meta Quest, has been shut down by its parent owner, Meta, effective immediately.

    Android Central reported Meta’s decision to close Ready at Dawn Studios almost a year and a half after purchasing the game studio. The news comes on the heels of a mid-July report that Meta plans to cut its Reality Labs division’s budget by 20 percent by 2026 when it is reportedly scheduled to release the Meta Quest 4 and Quest 4s, its next VR headsets.

    Ready at Dawn’s reach in the gaming industry goes all the way back to the days of Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP). The studio released its first game in 2006 with Daxter, a PSP spinoff of the popular Jak and Daxter series. Ready at Dawn also released three titles in Sony’s God of War series for the PSP including Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta and the Olympus Collection that bundled its two earlier titles. The studio made the jump to consoles starting with the PlayStation 4 in 2015 with The Order: 1886. The Victorian-era third-person action adventure became one of the year’s most anticipated titles for its boundary pushing graphics. Following a wave of mixed reviews, Ready at Dawn took a stab at a multiplayer title with a cheerier disposition in 2017 called De-Formers for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Engadget senior editor Jessica Conditt described the colorful character combat competition as “cannibalism combat in a 3-D cartoon.”

    The rise of and ease of access to virtual reality prompted the studio to pivot again in 2018 to the new immersive game medium. The studio released the first two VR titles in its Echo game series including the free-to-play Oculus Rift and Quest virtual sport Echo Arena and the interactive, gravity-free sci-fi adventure Lone Echo. Both found a fanbase on the all-in-one VR headset leading to sequels including the free-floating arena shooter Echo Combat in 2018 and Lone Echo II in 2021.

    Oculus bought the studio in 2023 and allowed it to continue operations in its California and Oregon offices. The same year, Meta shut down its free Echo VR game due to dwindling player numbers.

    Meta has slashed more than 20,000 jobs since 2023, a period that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has characterized as a “year of efficiency.”

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    Danny Gallagher

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  • Best of ISTE24: AR and VR Continue to Get Real

    Best of ISTE24: AR and VR Continue to Get Real

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    While the acronym AI continued to take up the most oxygen in the convention hall this summer in Denver, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies continue to evolve as a practical classroom application as well. I was happy to have my annual VR state-of-play conversation Chris Klein, vice president of education at Avantis Education, who is frank about the potentials and pitfalls of these tools. Have a listen:

    Avantis is the creator of ClassVR, an all-in-one VR/AR headset and content platform designed specifically for K-12 classrooms. Used by more than 2 million students in 200,000 classrooms in 90 countries, it includes all hardware, software, tools, training, support and implementation services needed to deploy VR/AR in the classroom. It also provides access to the Eduverse platform, ClassVR’s library of content which gives teachers access to hundreds of thousands of pieces of VR and AR content and resources to enhance lessons and engage students more deeply in their learning.

    Key Takeaways:

    1. Evolution of AR and VR: From novelty to educational tool, AR and VR continue to integrate into mainstream education, enhancing engagement and learning outcomes.
    2. Educational Integration: AR and VR serve as supplements to traditional teaching methods, enriching lessons without disrupting established curricula.
    3. Future Hardware Development: Avantis teases a prototype of a device at ISTI, signaling a commitment to evolving hardware that aligns closely with educational needs and educator feedback.
    4. Industry Standards: The arrival of major players like Apple and Meta in the AR and VR space is expected to set industry standards and improve interoperability across platforms, benefiting educators and students alike.

    New this year: ClassVR is launching Eduverse360 –an expanded library featuring more than 300,000 360° images and videos from around the globe allowing teachers to take students on compelling, immersive field trips without leaving the classroom. Responding to increased demand for curriculum-aligned content across all subjects, new math resources are also being designed to make learning relevant, accessible, and fun. Popular English resources have been expanded to support English language teaching for K-2 and English as an additional language. While in biology students can shrink down to insect size to see pollination in action like never before.

    Avantis also introduced software enhancements designed to improve the user experience. These updates include:

    • A redesigned homepage that features curated playlists and subject-based browsing for easier navigation. 
    • ClassVR’ s teacher and student notes can now be viewed in a sidebar alongside the VR content, enhancing the educational experience.
    • Teachers will also benefit from the dynamic preview of 3D models, allowing them to quickly assess and view models with just a few clicks.
    • User and content management enhancements, including streamlined administrator management of playlists and updates to administrator controls.
    • New professional development options. Beginning July 1, 2024, all customers get free access to Avantis’ online continuing professional development (CPD) training materials to assist them with self-paced instruction on how to use ClassVR. New customers also have expanded options for training packages.
    Kevin Hogan
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    Kevin Hogan

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  • The Best VR Headsets and Games to Explore the Metaverse

    The Best VR Headsets and Games to Explore the Metaverse

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    The Meta Quest 3 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a massive improvement over its predecessor in almost every category—save price. It has improved specs across the board—slightly higher resolution, a faster processor, more RAM, and the option for up to 512 GB of internal storage—but the biggest change is mixed reality upgrade. The previous model, the Quest 2, had external-facing cameras for orienting itself in the world and a pass-through feature that lets you see the room you’re in to avoid obstacles. But the Quest 3 takes it several steps further, making immersive AR core to the experience.

    For starters, the pass-through cameras can now show you a color image instead of black and white. It’s also slightly higher-resolution, so it’s easier to tell what you’re looking at. It still feels a bit like you’re looking at a 2000s-era YouTube video of your own living room, but it’s worlds better than not being able to see your surroundings at all.

    This tech enables some innovative new games and experiences. One of my favorites, PianoVision, is designed to help you learn the piano by overlaying helpful information and even piano rolls onto video of your actual, physical keyboard. It turns practicing the instrument into a Guitar Hero–like experience, and it’s something that wouldn’t be possible with VR alone.

    The downside: The Meta Quest 3 is more expensive than the Quest 2 ever was (even after the latter’s midlife price hike). Starting at $500, it’s on par with buying whole game consoles, so it’s not quite an impulse buy, but if you’re looking for the best stand-alone VR headset with the widest library of games and apps that support both VR and mixed reality, the Quest 3 is the headset to beat.

    It’s also worth keeping in mind that the company behind it all is Meta (aka Facebook). You might not like that, given Facebook’s less-than-stellar history of managing user data (not to mention how that data is used). If you’re in the market for a VR headset, the Meta Quest 3 is still our top pick. Just try not to buy too many things from the Meta Store. Stick to purchases on a more stable marketplace, like Steam (which also supports the Quest 2).

    Supports room-scale VR, pass-through mixed reality, can operate with or without a PC, and comes with two controllers.

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    Eric Ravenscraft

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  • VR classics Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator come to Apple Vision Pro

    VR classics Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator come to Apple Vision Pro

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    The Apple Vision Pro was marketed primarily as a productivity machine, but as any active VR user can tell you, it’s the games that sell these devices. Apple’s headset offers access to hundreds of games, but mostly as quick and dirty iPad ports that show up as a virtual screen in your field of vision. This, however, is starting to change.

    Developer Owlchemy Labs just announced that two of its marquee titles, Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator, are now available for the Apple Vision Pro. These aren’t iPad ports. Both games are fully immersive VR experiences that have been optimized for Apple’s headset. This means that controls have been mapped to hand-and-eye tracking. The AVP’s lack of a dedicated controller would absolutely hamper some pre-existing VR games, but these two should work perfectly.

    For the uninitiated, Job Simulator was one of the first “must have” titles in the VR space. It’s a hilarious riff on corporate culture that tasks players with designing a cubicle, making coffee and participating in all kinds of shenanigans. Vacation Simulator extends the tomfoolery to leisure, with a colorful beachside location, the ability to take picturesque hikes and, well, knitting. Players can also relax in a fake hot tub, splash in a fake sea and even get in some fake yoga.

    Job Simulator costs $20 and Vacation Simulator costs $30, which are the same prices as rival platforms like the Meta Quest Store and Steam. It’s good to know there isn’t an Apple Vision Pro tax, beyond the initial $3,500.

    Interestingly, developer Owlchemy Labs is actually owned by Google, which doesn’t really have a horse in the VR race. As for the Apple Vision Pro, the games and unique experiences are starting to appear. There’s an interactive story based on Marvel’s What If…? that releases on May 30 and the tabletop RPG Demeo hit the platform earlier this week. The sales numbers for the headset haven’t exactly been rosy, so we’ll see if that discourages companies from developing software for the platform.

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    Lawrence Bonk

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  • My Life Outside of the Apple Vision Pro

    My Life Outside of the Apple Vision Pro

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    This has become a pattern: One minute he’s not wearing the headset, and the next he is. The transition would always happen unexpectedly—when I’d leave the room to jump in the shower, do my makeup in the bathroom, or get ready to go out.

    One time, after I finished brushing my teeth before bed, I walked out to the living room to find him sitting on the edge of the couch, staring into the distance with the Vision Pro firmly on his head. He was playing chess. I sat down next to him and watched in silence as he pinched his fingers and moved imaginary chess pieces through the air in multiple directions—left, right, diagonal—slowly pulling back to observe his opponent’s (a computer) next move.

    During similar interactions, I’d always ask, “Can I try?” In an attempt to persuade me to love the Vision Pro as much as he does, he’d always oblige. It’s not that I’m totally against owning my own headset, but I struggle to understand the need for it in its current form. Aside from the outrageous $3,500 price and heavy frame, I know that I’ll never reach for it as much as I do my iPhone, MacBook, or iPad. I’m content with my setup. Besides, shouldn’t that mean one per household is enough if you spend that much? Unfortunately, sharing the experience feels more like a hassle than fun.

    For starters, you have to log in to Guest Mode each time, so I’m forced to go through the 90-second calibration test every time. I also wear glasses. Technically, I’m supposed to buy the prescription Zeiss Optical Inserts. But I refuse to give Apple $150 because of something completely out of my control. It’s also annoying to think that you’d have to spend even more money if you live in a household with multiple people wearing glasses.

    I’ve also never had a problem using other headsets, like the Meta Quest 2, with glasses. And so, out of pure spite, I continue calibrating the Vision Pro with my glasses on anyway. It’s not foolproof—the internal eye-tracking cameras sometimes struggle to pinpoint where my eyes are looking. Some things, like spending time in virtual Mount Hood, watching Spiderman: No Way Home in 3D, and browsing the web on Safari, are easy. But anything that requires more precise eye-tracking, such as navigating visionOS or attempting to play a game, is a struggle.

    A Problem Shared

    When my boyfriend and I wanted to share the experience in any way, shape, or form, we’d try casting content on the TV using AirPlay. Unfortunately, a simple task like watching a movie wasn’t very successful. We tried watching Mean Girls, but because it’s on a streaming service, the content was blacked out on both the Vision Pro and the TV because of copyright.

    Meanwhile, playing a game like Fruit Ninja on the big screen is fun for only so long. Every time we wanted to switch players, we’d have to go back and forth between his profile and Guest Mode. I couldn’t help but think back to how easy this process was with a headset like the Quest 2. A few years back, when my dad, brother, and I played The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners for a few hours together, we simply passed the headset around between the three of us and jumped into the game without having to switch profiles or tinker with the settings. On the Vision Pro, however, my boyfriend and I must’ve played for a total of 10 minutes before the whole experience started to get boring.

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    Brenda Stolyar

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