Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D - Page 18

The Meta Quest 3 has just launched, and early word on the latest generation of the popular VR headset has been positive. The Verge review is positive, with the key takeaway being that it's "better than its predecessors in almost every way." Tom's Guide shares similar sentiments in its review, praising the "improved graphics and superior performance [compared to] the Meta Quest 2."

Per the specs and hardware, which adds mixed reality features via color cameras that sound very promising, the Meta Quest 3 not only improves the display and touch controllers but delivers double the performance of the Quest 2. However, like the Quest 2, the new Meta Quest 3 can be hooked to a PC to take advantage of superior discrete hardware and play VR games like Half-Life: Alyx.

Most achieve this via a single long Meta Quest Link cable that offers play-and-charge functionality over USB-C. Thanks to the Meta Quest range being an affordable VR option with simple-to-set-up inside-out tracking and motion controls, it's no wonder the headset is currently the most popular VR PC gaming solution on Steam (as seen in the latest Steam Hardware Survey results). But what about wireless VR, wire-free PC VR gaming with the Meta Quest 3? It's possible thanks to devices like D-Link's DWA-F18 VR Air Bridge.

The Apple Vision Pro headset is going on sale in early 2024, we're told. And when it does, it'll ship with a pair of displays that feature a variable refresh rate with a maximum of 100Hz. Although it probably won't spend much of its time at that rate.

That's according to a new report by MacRumors based on a tweet by a social media user going by the name of @M1Astra. They say, based on code that they've found in the latest visionOS beta, that the Vision Pro headset will feature two displays that can dynamically adjust their refresh rates based on their surroundings. In specific cases, they will increase it to 100Hz, but the majority of the time will be spent at 90Hz.

The code found in visionOS displays a string of text that suggests the headset will adjust the refresh rate to 100Hz in order to compensate for the 50Hz flicker caused by artificial lighting. The code also suggests that the headset will be limited to 90Hz when used in Travel mode, a feature that will be enabled whenever the headset is used on an airplane.

Apple's Vision Pro headset was first announced during an event in June 2023 and it will finally go on sale in early 2024, the company claims. It'll cost a whopping $3500, but that isn't the only awkward thing - if you wear prescription glasses, you'll need to order extra Zeiss lenses for use with the headset.

That means that there is no room for people to wear their existing glasses when they put the headset on their faces. Apple wanted to make the headset as small as possible which meant not leaving space for anything between the face and the headset's displays. But a new report claims that Apple is already working on fixing the problem, although it isn't perfect. In the future, people might be able to order a Vision Pro headset with their prescription built in.

That's according to the latest Power On, a weekly newsletter from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. According to him, Apple's desire to slim the device down meant leaving no space for glasses. And the future fix could see Apple offering built-in lenses. However, there are problems with such an approach.

Apple's Vision Pro AR/VR headset won't go on sale for another few months at best, with an early 2024 release window leaving plenty of wiggle room. However, the company continues to get its ducks in a row ahead of time and its new visionOS beta 4 release has confirmed a new feature that will try and dip into the pockets of new headset owners.

A new 9to5Mac report says that a new message has been found in the latest visionOS beta 4 release that warns users that their current headphones or earbuds aren't the best way to listen to audio from their headset. Instead, it'll tell them that they should consider picking up a new pair of AirPods Pro to get the most out of that headset.

The new USB-C 2nd-gen AirPods Pro are the only ones that support lossless audio when connected to the Vision Pro as confirmed last month. That's due to an upgraded H2 chip that allows for audio to be sent over the 5GHz band, allowing for more bandwidth. The Vision Pro headset will be the only product at launch that also uses that band for lossless audio, and Apple seems keen to make sure that customers know about it.

The creator of Facebook and now CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, has sat down for a remote interview with Lex Fridman on the Lex Fridman podcast.

The first-of-its-kind podcast was conducted in the Metaverse, where both Zuckerberg and Fridman assumed photorealistic avatars that are spawned into a virtual world where they can seamlessly communicate. Notably, both Fridman and Zuckerberg undertook a complex computer scan of their face to create what Zuckerberg calls a codec, which contains a virtual photorealistic avatar.

Fridman and Zuckerberg discuss the nature of reality and how this technology could impact the future of remote communication. Fridman says that one of the first things that come to mind when using this technology is being able to communicate with loved ones, and the next thing is being able to talk to loved ones "that are no longer here".

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has appeared on the Lex Fridman podcast to demonstrate bleeding-edge technology currently being developed at Meta.

When Zuckerberg first announced the creation of the Metaverse, the market didn't necessarily respond as well as the Facebook creator may have anticipated, especially following the release of Meta-created VR experiences that were cartoonish, lacked detail, and overall very barebones. However, Zuckerberg is seemingly on the way to reversing that bad taste in your mouth when you hear the word Metaverse with the release of a new technology that enables seamless communications with photorealistic avatars.

The Facebook creator sat down for a podcast with Lex Fridman to demonstrate the technology, where Zuckerberg and Fridman can be seen wearing the Meta Quest Pro headset and communicating with each other through photorealistic avatars from different cities. So, what is exactly happening here? Zuckerberg explains that he and Fridman were required to take a computer scan in Pittsburgh, which mapped all of the individual's facial expressions, muscle movements, aesthetics, and more to create a custom codec.

At Meta Connect 2023, Meta CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg was on hand to confirm that the Meta Quest 3 all-in-one VR headset is also now a mixed-reality device and is launching on October 10 starting from USD 499.99 for the 128GB version and USD 649.99 for the larger capacity 512GB model.

Yes, the new Meta Quest 3 headset features cameras on the front, with full-color passthrough to deliver mixed-reality experiences on top of serving as the next-generation all-in-one VR headset from the company. Meta notes that this full-color Passthrough presents your surroundings with 10 times more pixels than the Quest 2.

Of course, the main functionality of the Meta Quest 3 will still be as a VR headset. On that front, the new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 platform delivers double the GPU processing power than what's possible with the Quest 2 - alongside other features like faster loading for games.

Buying a new Apple Vision Pro headset might not get more affordable quite as quickly as we had hoped if a new report by a well-connected display analyst turns out to be accurate.

The Vision Pro headset was announced in June and was immediately slapped with a price that makes it out of reach for many. The starting price of $3,499 is a lot, but there were rumors that Apple already had plans for a cheaper version that would give more people an opportunity to get a headset of their own. However, a new report now claims that might not be happening after all.

Writing in a Medium post analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple may have canceled the low-cost version of its Vision Pro. If that's the case, it will mean that Vision Pro headset growth will be affected with anticipated 2025 growth simply not happening at all.

When it launched in 2019, the Valve Index was one of the most advanced VR headsets to hit the market - bolstered by excellent software support in the form of SteamVR. With the per-eye resolution of 1440 x 1600 pixels, wide field-of-view (FOV), and high refresh-rate support, it's still a capable headset. Not to mention Valve's excellent Index Controllers being designed specifically for VR.

However, with multiple wires to connect the headset and tracking reliant on base stations that you need to wire and power, even on Steam, the Index has been overtaken by the more consumer-friendly Meta Quest 2. The Quest 2, like the recent PSVR 2 headset for the PlayStation 5, adopts an inside-out tracking approach (with the latter offering full eye-tracking) with a single-cable solution.

In the case of the Quest 2, the option to go wireless. This makes recent updates and changes to SteamVR exciting, pointing to a massive overhaul. And with new battery information and rumors surrounding Valve's "Deckard" headset hardware swirling - Steam VR 2.0 and the Index 2.0 could be here soon.

Apple might have only just gotten around to announcing the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro devices, but the company is already hard at work on what comes next. We aren't talking about new iPhones, either. The Vision Pro headset was unveiled during an event in June and was tipped for a launch in early 2024, although some were skeptical as to whether that would happen. Now, CEO Tim Cook has sought to ease those concerns.

Speaking in a wider interview discussing Apple's future with CBS Sunday Morning, Cook let slip that he is already starting to use the Vision Pro in a number of ways - including watching the final season of the hit Apple TV Plus show Ted Lasso.

Speaking to John Dickerson, Cook said that he watched the entire season on his Vision Pro headset, admitting that he has access to some things that most people do not - hinting that the Vision Pro is perhaps just one of those things. He wasn't willing to discuss what those things were when pushed, but we somehow doubt that there's an Apple Car parked in his garage.