Most people even outside of the technology industry have wondered what the next 'mobile phone' would be. Some analysts are banking on the next 'mobile phone' being some form of eye-wear that would incorporate augmented reality. Facebook and the Ray-Ban's owner might just be building that.

CNBC has said that Facebook has now partnered up with Luxottica, the owner of Ray-Ban, Oakley and other big companies in the eye-wear industry. The contacts close to the deal have said that these companies are planning on building the 'next mobile phone' in the form of augmented reality glasses that would allow for users to make calls, see information, livestream what you are seeing, while also features apps and more.

This new product has been titled Orion and according to sources close to this deal the new pair of shades wouldn't be reaching the market until 2023 - 2025. While that might seem like some time away from us, Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly said that he considers this project to be a 'priority' over at Facebook.

The 2016 launch Vive headset will soon be much harder to buy throughout the rest of 2019, and will eventually be discontinued, HTC confirms.

Now that there's a galaxy of new Vive headsets like the Vive Focus, Vive Cosmos, and Vive Pro, HTC will soon retire the original launch Vive. The new modular $699 Vive Cosmos aims to replace the 2016 Vive with inside-out tracking, reduced cords, and the ability to attach various mods like wireless receivers.

"We felt like it's time to start bringing in a new replacement for the Vive CE. That product is going to start coming out of the market very shortly. By the end of the quarter it's going to start becoming very scarce in channel," HTC VR general manager Dan O'Brien told UploadVR.

HTC's new Vive Cosmos headset will cost $699, putting it between the self-contained Vive Focus at $599 and the premium Vive Pro at $799.

The new Vive Cosmos VR HMD is built around ease-of-use and accessibility, and brings spec performance boosts over original Vive headset. The Cosmos has two 3.4-inch panels at 1440x1700 pixels per eye for a combined 2880x1700p or about 88% more pixels than the base Vive, complete with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 110-degree field of view.

The major difference is the Cosmos doesn't require base stations for movement tracking. It's outfitted with six cameras for inside-out tracking, making setting up a breeze. The Cosmos is also modular. HTC teased smartphone interactivity when the Cosmos was first announced, but the only mod that's official is an external tracking mod that allows you to use old Vive tracking base stations for improved immersion.

Nate Mitchell has announced he's leaving Facebook in a post on Reddit, with the co-founder of Oculus saying: "Hey everyone - I have some bittersweet news to share with this community. After 7 incredible years, I've decided to move on from Oculus / Facebook".

I first met Nate back at PAX Australia 2013 when Oculus was a small start-up, and he was one of the most humble guys I'd ever met. He remembered me again at CES 2015, and again was a humble human being even with Oculus going through its meteroic rise with Palmer Luckey and creating a VR market out of nothing really.

Facebook is looking internally and externally to find a replacement for Mitchell, according to someone who spoke with WIRED. Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer said in a reply to Mitchell's post on Facebook: "Nate thank you for all you've done for VR and FB. Was and is an amazing ride and blast working with you. THANK YOU! Hope you get some well-deserved rest and I can't wait to see what you do next!"

We all gawk at the glitz and glamor that is Hollywood. It has been said that Hollywood film and shows of the sci-fi genre tend to show future items which one day may come to pass. This one just came along much quicker than most.

The haptic suit which most likely will come to the front of your mind via the recent box office nostalgia/retro-futuristic hit Ready Player One. Haptics is nothing new but the idea of a full-body suit which can alter your immersion level into a VR environment has been the tale of many sci-fi onlookers. VR immersion is nice but imagine being able to feel every hit, impact, or explosion in your game in accordance with its positioning.

Valve corp, yep the same one that brought you Steam, has canceled their VirtualLink adapter.

VirtualLink is a USB-C connection which can carry power, DisplayPort, and data all through a single interface and was touted as the potential next step for VR.

Facebook already knows the smallest nitty gritty details about our lives, but anyone who knows more about the company would know they're working on some freaky Black Mirror level stuff in their R&D labs.

In a huge update for its brain-computer interface, the social networking giant talked about the strides its made in its push towards being able to "decode silent speech" without the need of implanting electrodes into the brain. Facebook first unveiled its brain-computer interface research initiative at its F8 conference in 2017, and has since worked with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.

The researchers have published a new paper in Nature that details they've been working with people who have had brain surgery for epilepsy, creating an algorithm that can "decode a small set of full, spoken words and phrases from brain activity in real-time".

Wasteland developers at inXile are hiring for a new multiplayer VR game. What could it be?

inXile is no stranger to VR games, and VR Focus reports this new unannounced project has been in the works for two years now. Before we get too excited and think Microsoft is making a VR headset for the next-gen Project Scarlett Xbox console, remember this VR game was in dev before Microsoft acquired the studio.

The VR project sounds pretty ambitious in scope and could be a huge experience. It's apparently an open-world survival RPG with multiplayer elements set in a live service wrapper (which'll Microsoft very happy), and it's built with the flexible Unreal Engine 4.

We've known details about Sony's new PlayStation VR 2 for a while now, but it seems more patents and leaks are here about the PSVR 2 that are painting a clearer picture.

Sony's next-gen PSVR 2 will not see the light of day until late 2020 at the earliest, with leaked specs suggesting a $249 price and 2560x1440 screen at 120Hz refresh rate. Better yet, it would feature eye and head tracking as well as up to 5 hours of battery life with a large 220-degree field of view.

Inverse is reporting the new PSVR rolling out starting at $249, being completely wireless and having a high-end 1440p 120Hz refresh rate and 220-degree FOV. This new information comes from a recently-published patent application by the USPTO, confirming that Sony is indeed working on a new VR headset with both eye and head tracking.

Sony confirms it's new ultra-powerful PlayStation 5 console won't come with a brand new PSVR headset.

The PS5 is shaping up to be quite a beast that's flexible as well as powerful. The next-gen PlayStation is a true leap with its AMD-powered Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU architecture, an ultra-fast SSD, and a host of new services and content, but the PS4's legacy will live on through the new gen. Sony confirms the PS5 is fully compatible with all existing PS4 games, peripherals, and even the PlayStation VR. This backward compatibility means Sony isn't in any hurry to refresh its PSVR headset for the new gen--even if the hardware is somewhat antiquated.

In a recent interview with CNET, Sony R&D exec Dominic Mallinson says the PS5 won't have a new advanced PSVR at launch. "There's no reason for us to coincide it with a new console. From the point of view of the consumer, to be bombarded with many many things is a message that we don't want to send. In some ways it's good to have a little breathing space between those things."