Android XR is getting a new feature that turns 2D apps, websites, images, and videos into “3D experiences.” The feature, which Google calls “auto-spatialization,” was initially announced last year, and it’s launching on Tuesday as an experimental feature for Samsung Galaxy XR headsets. Here’s a video from Google that gives you an idea about how […]
Neal Stephenson didn’t invent the virtual reality headset. But Meta certainly knows his name – in 1992, his seminal cyberpunk novel Snow Crash coined the phrase “Metaverse” to describe a virtual reality world experienced through VR goggles. It inspired many key VR developers – and in 2021, Facebook decided to rename its entire company to […]
In 2021, the virtual world was the future of the internet. The pandemic had sequestered everyone indoors, heightening the appeal of digital communities. Facebook rebranded to Meta – a sign of the tech giant’s investment in and commitment to the metaverse as the future of the internet. Despite losing billions in VR, Meta released an […]
Meta, after laying off about 10 percent of its Reality Labs division, closing three VR studios, stopping new content for VR fitness app Supernatural, and discontinuing its metaverse for work, is announcing a major change for its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform. Instead of attempting to make the 3D social platform work for both VR and […]
The Apple Vision Pro is finally getting an official visionOS YouTube app on Thursday. With the visionOS YouTube app, you’ll be able to watch all videos available on YouTube, including standard videos, Shorts, 3D, 360, and VR180 videos, Apple spokesperson Corey Nord tells The Verge. The Vision Pro launched more than two years ago, but […]
When you picture a virtual reality headset user, you’re probably not picturing someone like Sherry Dickson. At 69, the snowy-haired, retired elementary school teacher hops into her Meta Quest headset five days a week, for roughly 60 to 90 minutes at a time. She’s not attending live concerts or watching immersive films. Dickson, a fitness […]
Two months before it changed its name to “Meta,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally introduced us to his metaverse for work: Horizon Workrooms, envisioned as a virtual space for workers to collaborate. Today, the company announced it’s shutting that space down: “Meta has made the decision to discontinue Workrooms as a standalone app, effective February […]
Meta is laying off about 10 percent of its Reality Labs metaverse division, and the cuts include closing down some of its VR gaming studios. Twisted Pixel Games, the developer of Marvel’s Deadpool VR, Sanzaru Games, the developer of the Asgard’s Wrath franchise, and Armature Studio, which worked on the Resident Evil 4 VR port, […]
Meta’s Reality Labs team is expected to lose around 10 percent of its staff, with layoffs concentrated on the division’s metaverse employees, as reported by The New York Times. The layoffs are apparently a side effect of Meta’s AI ambitions, which are pulling focus away from its virtual reality division. According to the Times, Meta’s […]
Meta has “paused” its program to license its VR operating system to other hardware companies so they could build their own headsets using the platform, as reported by Road to VR . With the program, announced in April 2024, Meta announced that it would be licensing the Quest OS headset – which, at the same […]