Samsung, in partnership with Qualcomm and Google, has announced plans to develop a new extended reality product. XR is a term that encompasses virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality technologies. I myself switched from Apple to Samsung in 2015 specifically for Samsung’s Gear VR headset. But when Samsung cancelledRead More →
Experiencing a destination in the metaverse could make travelers more likely to visit the place in real life, according to a new study by Booking.com.Read More →
From AI art galleries in OpenSim to AI-created fully immersive three-dimensional environments, AI is already shaping how we experience virtual worlds.
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Gaming technology will be the biggest driving force for the evolution of the metaverse in the near term, according to a new report published last week by S&P Global Market Intelligence.Read More →
In a live – actually, it was prerecorded – keynote address, Zuckerberg announced the Meta Quest Pro, a new, business-focused advanced virtual reality headset the company’s been teasing for the past year.Read More →
Apple and Meta will soon be going head-to-head in the high-end virtual reality headset arena — and at enterprise price points. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the new Apple augmented and virtual reality headset could be called Apple Reality Pro and will be released sometime in January 2023. Apple’s headset may shipRead More →
Lenovo just released ThinkReality VRX, a new mixed reality headset meant for improving virtual 3D immersive enterprise remote training, collaboration, visualization, and meetings.Read More →
If you want to try high-end consumer virtual reality headset, one that’s not part of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta ecosystem, the best options are the headsets that you tether to a PC. One that I haven’t tried yet is the HP Reverb G2 VR headset. And it’s discounted today, from $599Read More →
According to psychologists, three reasons people love VR are that it reduces stress, helps us face our fears, and lets us have fun by warping our normal sense of time. As the VR industry takes off, VR headsets have become more affordable and accessible, leading to even greater adoption amongRead More →
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off four new headset prototypes a few days ago that, he said, make virtual reality feel almost real. The goal is to invent displays “that are as vivid and realistic as the physical world and much more advanced than traditional computer screens we use today,”Read More →
You can experience Creed in virtual reality before the release of Creed III, an upcoming boxing movie that premieres in theaters on November 23 and follows blockbuster successes Creed I and Creed II, released in 2015 and 2018. Creed: Rise to Glory is available on the Oculus Quest store for $30, andRead More →
If you haven’t heard about the metaverse, or you think it’s just something Facebook invented, you’re not alone.Read More →
The 29th edition of Sheffield DocFest, the United Kingdom’s biggest documentary and digital media festival, will take place from June 23 to June 28 this year — and it’s looking for submissions. Sheffield DocFest’s Alternate Realities program has some upcoming deadlines if you’d like to apply, and applicants from theRead More →
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic we’d expect hybrid teams to regularly meet, work and learn in virtual reality (VR), wouldn’t we? After all, over 10 million high-quality, reality-bending virtual reality (VR) headsets have been sold heavily. But here we are in our video meeting, staring at a webcamRead More →
Strapping on an Oculus Quest 2 to explore the vast game options on the Oculus store and all over the internet is thrilling, and some of them are sure to give you an adrenaline rush. I searched around and tried several games on my new Oculus Quest 2, thanks toRead More →
Virtual reality headsets are bulky and two companies have collaborated to take the weight off your head for augmented and virtual reality — and put it around your neck instead. Motorola yesterday announced a 5G neckband that’ll put connectivity, processing, and the battery in a collar and leave your heads upRead More →
This year, metaverses and NFTs are all the rage, and one company’s doing both. MultiNFT, a company that provides live shows and festival experiences to fans, launched a presale for its native token, $MNFT, and set up a club called Rage at Decentraland’s festival district. The club will host in-world virtualRead More →
Microsoft‘s purchasing of Activision Blizzard was the largest sale in the history of video games at US$68.7 billion dollars making the company the third largest gaming company after Sony and Tencent. The acquisition could solidify the company’s position in the overly hyped metaverse because of the large gaming user baseRead More →
While we still don’t have the flying cars, time machines, and holographic movies that sci-fi has long offered us, though other predictions have come to life, such as the Star Trek communicators that became Motorola flip phones. Today, virtual fiction is having its moment in the spotlight as the tech world leans into the metaverse.Read More →
It’s too expensive and it’s not available yet, but there’s a startup company that says we’ll be able to walk in VR. Ekto VR, a VR hardware startup, has invented a pair of boots that allow realistic walking in virtual environments with no risk of running into a wallRead More →
More than 300 valid responses came in for the 12th Annual OpenSim Grid Survey, and Wyldwood Bayou and Utopia Skye, two write-in grids, received the highest scores from their residents. Most years, there’s at least one smaller grid that does well in this user survey, because small startup grids typically haveRead More →
In a Thanksgiving mode this week? These ten headsets will help bring you closer to your family — or help take you away. And they all make great Christmas gifts. 1. Oculus Quest 2 Use case: Untethered high-end VR experiences. The Oculus Quest 2 standalone virtual reality headset is theRead More →
OpenSim is more flexible and economic to use when compared to other game engines like Minecraft, Mozilla Hubs, and Sansar, especially when it comes to creating and designing virtual worlds that can be applied for education. This is despite the OpenSim game engine being considered obsolete in graphical quality, saidRead More →
AviTron has published four non-fungible tokens — NFTs — on the OpenSea NFT marketplace, the first OpenSim grid to officially do so. Potential buyers have until May to bid on these items. AviTron is also supporting residents in creating and selling their own NFTs either in-world or external marketplaces suchRead More →
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook changing its name to Meta in order to focus on the metaverse. Facebook itself will remain, but will now be just one brand in the Meta portfolio, alongside Instagram and WhatsApp. Read More →
Facebook’s announcement of a $50 million research fund and plans to hire 10,000 employees in U.K. to help build the metaverse, clarifies that the company will be using massive resources to push the technology adoption for VR and gain a huge market share to become the central hub of theRead More →
I just ordered my Oculus Quest 2 headset this morning — and it already came this evening. Initial impression is that it’s the easiest-to-use headset I’ve tried so far. Very comfortable, very lightweight, and I didn’t even need to charge it up when I took it out of the box.Read More →
These holograms, created with mirrors and jets of air, could be the first steps towards a Star Trek-style holodeck.Read More →
Earlier this summer, Google shut down two more virtual reality apps, the 3D objects library called Poly, and the education-focused Google Expeditions.Read More →
How to pitch a guest post us and not get immediately sent to the spam folder.Read More →
When I arrived in Austria I had to complete a German language course before I could attend university, but I had trouble focusing in the online learning platform. Immersive virtual reality solved the problem.Read More →
Editor’s Note: The ArtGate International 2021 kicks off with an opening ceremony tomorrow night, followed by three days of virtual art events. The art exhibition is open to the public and there is no cost to attend the event. A virtual reality headset will make the experience more immersive, butRead More →
Signal Theory has built an immersive and interactive app that lets you take a selfie of yourself on Mars and share it on Instagram. Plus, the app lets you explore the red planet through the eyes of the Perseverance Rover. The app is built using the National Geographic Mars 360Read More →
Story telling is increasingly blurring the line between the physical and virtual worlds, according to presenters at the just-concluded this year’s  Technology + Storytelling: Engaging The Immersive Future event organized by NYC Media Lab. We’re already seeing this happen on the production sites in series like Disney’s The Mandalorian, as youRead More →
Apple’s new rumored mixed reality headset — expected to be released later this year — will reportedly have an 8K display and hand and finger tracking features, an Apple spokesman told Bloomberg recently. The new headset may also have a lightweight fabric exterior, but is expected to be priced higherRead More →
Many companies have switched to virtual offices and Zoom meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some are going a step further, into immersive 3D office environments, similar to that of Second Life or OpenSim. Auto manufacturer Audi, for example, has rolled out Audi Spaces, a virtual 3D version of Audi’sRead More →
The Sundance Film Festival starts tomorrow, and this year, for the first time, it’s all virtual. Now, Sundance has been featuring cutting-edge content at its New Frontier category for more than 15 years now, and virtual reality has been playing a bigger and bigger part for the past few years.Read More →
Apple’s first entry into virtual reality could be an expensive VR headset with limited AR capabilities, according to a Bloomberg report. “Apple Inc.’s first crack at a headset is designed to be a pricey, niche precursor to a more ambitious augmented reality product that will take longer to develop, accordingRead More →
Wouldn’t it be cool to fence with a real sword in VR? Russian VR studio Boxglass has released Fencer, a VR fencing trainer designed to help new players learn the sport of fencing while using a real fencing weapon. Fencer uses the Oculus Quest headset and controllers attached to aRead More →
Judging by the lack of breakthroughs at this year’s CES, the VR industry’s not going to have a break out year in 2021. The Consumer Electronics Show, which was all digital this year, ended last week with only a few new AR and VR products showcased, and none of themRead More →
Electronics giant Lenovo introduced a new set of augmented reality glasses this morning at the Consumer Electronics Show, held virtually this year. CES 2021 officially starts tomorrow, but Lenovo got a head start with its ThinkReality A3 smart glasses, which will be available to purchase later on this year. WhatRead More →
You can already see and hear in a virtual environment using a device like the Oculus Quest 2. There could be a device in the not too distant future that lets you feel like you’re actually moving around in VR too — and one man is starting to build it.Read More →
A new VR glove could be coming that tracks the motion of each finger and thumb bone. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office just published a patent application from Apple for a VR glove made with smart fabric that will be capable of this fine-level motion capture. The glove shouldRead More →
Most of us will be stuck at home for New Year’s Eve, but that doesn’t mean we can celebrate at a concert in Iceland — virtually, at least. Iceland has announced Polar Beat, a live and fully virtual New Year’s Eve concert experience, with Northern Lights and fireworks guaranteed. Icelandic techRead More →
You can now join virtual meetings in any location and see avatars of coworkers or friends. The VR and AR collaboration platform Spatial released a free AR app for iOS and Android last week. Instead of using a bulky and expensive VR headset, the platform now works with just aRead More →
Sales of virtual reality hardware and software will grow at double-digits rates over the next four years, according to a report by ARtillery Intelligence. VR revenue is predicted to grow from $4.98 billion in 2019 to $12.19 billion in 2024, a 19.6 percent compound annual growth rate. There was aRead More →
The global pandemic has affected the tech world — but not all in a bad way. Zoom has been getting all the attention, but demand is also growing for virtual and augmented reality, among other technologies. And this trend is going to continue, according to a report by global consulting andRead More →
The global pandemic’s forced people apart, but technology is stepping up to bring us all back together, even if we’re not in the same room. MeetinVR and Wolf3d, two major players in VR, have teamed up to make meetings as human as possible. MeetinVR’s been working since 2016 to makeRead More →
Half Life: Alyx is the 2020\’s VR game of the year. If you want to play the game the best way, we’ve put together a guide to the best VR headset for Half Life: Alyx. What is Half Life: Alyx? Half Life: Alyx is a VR game built from theRead More →
2020 has been a challenging year and nobody could be blamed if they were looking for a little reprieve from reality. One outlet that’s gained in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic is virtual reality or VR.Read More →
