Author name: Rejus Almole

‘roblox’-rumored-to-launch-on-meta-quest-in-late-2023

‘Roblox’ Rumored to Launch on Meta Quest in Late 2023

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Roblox already supports PC VR headsets in addition to every conceivable traditional platform out there, although a recent report maintains the metaverse powerhouse may land on Quest later this year.

The report arrives from The Verge’s newly released paid newsletter, Command Line, which was created by The Verge’s deputy editor Alex Heath.

In it, Heath reports Roblox may be arriving on Quest in the second half of 2023, however that “plans are subject to change.” Thus far, neither Meta nor Roblox has responded for comment.

This isn’t completely out of left field either. In the company’s Q1 2021 earnings call, Roblox CEO and co-founder Dave Baszucki said its free-to-play game made “perfect sense” for the Quest platform.

Still, creating a native Roblox app for Quest may not be as trivial as it sounds, and that’s despite the fact that the social gaming platform can run on even the humblest of Android devices. Like VRChat or Rec Room, the platform is awash with tons of user-generated content, and making sure that content can run on Quest 2 will require some performance hoops if the app wants to maintain its much famed cross-play functionality.

One thing is fairly certain though, if Roblox is coming to Quest, it probably won’t support Quest 1, as Meta is currently in the process of phasing out the headset for both first-party social functions and security patches.

‘Roblox’ Rumored to Launch on Meta Quest in Late 2023 Read More »

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ROSE and Mastercard® Augment the Miami Design District in a New Immersive Experience

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Mastercard cardholders can see Miami’s Design District in a whole new light, thanks to an immersive experience from ROSE. Follow along for a look at the #Priceless experience and exclusive insight from ROSE on how it came together.

Experience Miami’s Design District In AR

The newest experience on Mastercard’s “Priceless” platform is an AR tour of Miami’s Design District, led by CEO, entrepreneur, and art collector Craig Robins. Some of the seven stops in the viewer’s virtual tour are currently in Robins’ private collection.

ROSE and Mastercard immersive experience - Miami Design District AR tour

“This iconic destination provides enthusiasts with special access to the vibrant arts scene in Miami, as well as the multi-sensory dimensions of the Mastercard brand through our sonic music and immersive visual branding,” said Mastercard Executive VP of Consumer Marketing and Revenue, Monica Biagiotti. “To ensure the experience captures everything the Design District represents, we’re thrilled to partner with the ultimate insider, Craig Robins who introduces a special, curated tour for our guests.”

Each of the stops is marked by an orb that appears in the viewer’s camera feed on their connected smart device. Viewers can select experiences by tapping the orb or by moving toward it. Each bubble transports viewers to its own immersive experience, wherein they can further navigate around the artworks and architecture presented in the tour.

ROSE and Mastercard Augment the Miami Design District in a New Immersive Experience

“We’ve been dipping our toes in the AR space to better understand how people want to engage with this new technology,” said Biagiotti. “AR and other emerging data-driven technologies provide us with an opportunity to connect more consumers with their passions – like travel – in innovative ways so they can learn or experience something new and enriching.”

The stops along the tour include:

  • Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #1138;
  • Virgil Abloh’s Dollar a Gallon III;
  • Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome;
  • Criola’s Interdimensional Portal;
  • John Baldessari’s Fun Mural (Part 1);
  • Urs Fischer’s Standing Julian;
  • Jana Euler’s Two Brides.

ROSE and Mastercard - Priceless immersive experience

“Miami is becoming a destination for art and technology, this experience really marries the two as a way for Mastercard™ cardholders everywhere to experience iconic and large-scale art pieces from anywhere using immersive technology,” ROSE Associate Creative Director Nicole Riemer said in an emailed response.

How the Immersive Experience Came Together

This immersive experience is the second XR experience created by ROSE and Mastercard. The first was a Snapchat Lens for Mastercard’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign that launched last summer.

“Working with Mastercard™ has been great!” said Riemer. “For both projects, the Mastercard™ teams have been super excited about using augmented reality and have trusted us as experts in this space. That has allowed us to have a very collaborative relationship.”

Another familiar piece of the puzzle was 8th Wall. ROSE had been working with the company since before it was purchased by Niantic, and the relationship shows no signs of souring.

“Their support is always great. Their team is very available to work through how to implement our ideas on their platform, and being open to feedback about features,” said Riemer. “During the development of this project, their team checked in often to see if they could offer support, as well as planning for using this as a case study for their platform.”

How to Experience Miami From Anywhere

Mastercard cardholders can virtually visit Miami’s Design District here. The immersive experience runs through June 1, 2023.

(Terms apply. Quantities limited.)

ROSE and Mastercard® Augment the Miami Design District in a New Immersive Experience Read More »

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Meta Sharpens the Axe for Quest 1: First-party Social Ends in March, Security Patches in 2024

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It seems Meta is finally taking the original 2019 Quest behind the shed this year, as the company announced it’s set to deprecate first-party social features on the device, which includes access to Parties and Meta Horizon Home. Meta also announced it won’t be delivering new features beyond critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.

The company sent out an email to users of the original Quest detailing the upcoming changes. Here’s that email in full:

We launched Quest 1 over four years ago and we are grateful to the Quest 1 community for pushing VR forwards. As we look to the future, we remain committed to supporting the community of Quest 1 users and will continue to support the headset with a few changes:

  • You will still be able to use your Quest 1 headset and available apps.
  • We won’t be delivering new features to Quest 1.
  • We plan to continue maintaining the system software with critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.
  • Quest 1 users will no longer be able to create or join a party.
  • Quest 1 users who currently have access to Meta Horizon Home social features will lose access to these features on 5 March 2023. You won’t be able to invite others to your Home or visit someone else’s Home.

If you have any questions about these changes or about your Quest 1 headset, we encourage you to contact Meta Store support here: https://store.facebook.com/help/support/

Thank you to the entire Quest 1 community for helping us get to where we are today.

Launched in May 2019, the original Quest wasn’t just the company’s first 6DOF standalone headset—it was a valuable new platform that sparked an explosion in content revenue, making it the target platform du jour for VR game developers. Many of the hits of today owe their success to having gained foothold on the original Quest.

Quest (left) comapred to Quest 2 (right) | Photo by Road to VR

A little over one year later, Meta (ex-Facebook) released its successor, Quest 2, which substantively included higher resolution displays (1,440 × 1,600 OLED vs 1,920 × 1,832 LCD) and a higher refresh rate (72 Hz vs up to 120 Hz), both of which were driven by a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2—a significant upgrade over the Quest 1’s Snapdragon 835.

Undoubtedly, Quest 2 has since cemented itself as the go-to home for VR developers looking to maximize profit; two years after its launch, Quest 2 content has managed to generate $1.5 billion in revenue.

Although you’d think social function deprecation and a clear end date to security patches  for Quest 1 should come as no real surprise; it’s old and you’d be hard-pressed to find it new in the box anywhere. Still, seven of the top 10 best-rated games on the Quest Store support the original Quest in addition to Quest 2. A majority of them were released after the launch of Quest 2.

Granted, Quest 1 users should only really focus on the security patch death date; even then, the headset will still be able to access all store content in addition to being used as a PC VR headset with Steam.

Meta Sharpens the Axe for Quest 1: First-party Social Ends in March, Security Patches in 2024 Read More »

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UK pumps cold cash into green freight with new £7M tech fund

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UK pumps cold cash into green freight with new £7M tech fund

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Story by

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives. Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives.

On Monday, the UK government launched a £7M tech fund aiming to decarbonize the freight industry and improve transport links.

Over the course of three years, the Freight Innovation Fund (FIF) will go to up to 36 SMEs to develop innovative technologies that can make industrial transport more “efficient,” “resilient,” and “greener.”

“Each year in the UK, we transport 1.6 billion tonnes of freight using many different modes of transport, and it has never been quicker or easier,” Nicola Yates OBE, CEO at Connected Places Catapult — the government’s innovation accelerator — said in the associated press release. “The freight sector makes a huge contribution to our economy and contributes significantly to domestic carbon emissions,” she added.

The fund will support the development of ideas and respective technology which will mainly address three persistent issues in the freight sector:

  1. The lack of large-scale, cross-industry data collection and sharing between different modes of freight transport (such as road, rail, and maritime) that could boost efficiency and coordination.
  2. Issues in intermodal transport and ways to improve the division of large shipments into smaller ones, which could reduce emissions and traffic.
  3. Upgrades in freight distribution in ports across different transport modes that could have a positive ripple effect on the predictability, scheduling, and efficiency of journeys.

The FIF will be delivered to SMEs by Delivered by Connected Places Catapult, allowing them access to technical and business support from the organization.

The selected SMEs will also benefit from a freight innovation fund accelerator, which will provide support to innovators and help them access private investment, as well as from a freight innovation cluster — a community of innovators within the sector that organizes networking events and activities.

“Our freight industry is vital to underpinning the economy and keeps Britain moving, so it is crucial we invest in new innovations to make it greener and quicker, Roads Minister Richard Holden noted. “This fund will accelerate new ideas and technologies, helping to develop a future pipeline of innovations that can be rolled out to create jobs and allow everyone to get their goods faster and easier.”

UK pumps cold cash into green freight with new £7M tech fund Read More »

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Wind, solar, and hydrogen: How energy will get more sustainable in 2023

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Both the EU’s ambitious 2030 climate target and the current energy crisis have highlighted the need to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

And while wind, solar, and green hydrogen are already on the rise, there are still important steps to be taken the coming year to increase their sustainability — and improve what they’re capable of.

To find out how this will work, TNW spoke with three experts.

Wind power

Floating offshore wind is a “game changer” for the renewable energy industry and a “key technology” against climate change, Felipe Cornago — Commercial Director Offshore Wind, at BayWa r.e. — told us.

That’s because it has the potential not only to take advantage of areas with higher wind intensity, but also to open up markets previously incompatible with bottom-fixed technologies.

Compared to fixed installations, floating offshore wind farms also come with reduced environmental impact in maritime ecosystems, as well lower construction costs.

Floating wind offshore farm Norway
Illustration of the Hywind Tampen, Norway’s floating offshore wind far. Credit: Equinor

But despite accelerated development in recent years, as Cornago noted, there are still numerous challenges to be addressed.

“This is why industry and government efforts in 2023 should focus on a number of areas, including the establishment of clear regulatory frameworks as well as improving grid connection and grid planning,” he explained.

As per Cornago, focus should also be placed on the standardization of technological and commercial solutions. Currently, there’s a gamut of different designs and manufacturing methods, all of which drives costs up.

Finally, he believes that the lack of expertise in developing floating offshore wind platforms will start being mitigated in the coming year. This will be done “by tapping into pre-existing infrastructure and knowledge from the development of bottom-fixed offshore wind,” as well as “adapting existing supply chains.”

Solar

According to Frank Jessel — Global Director of Solar Trade at BayWa r.e. — 2022 has seen a rapid expansion in the adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and their accompanying energy storage solutions.

solar panels

Jessel expects this trend to continue in 2023 “with the endorsement of renewables within the residential and commercial PV market higher than ever, and the price of PV systems in particular falling mid-term due to technological improvements, decreasing freight prices, and economies of scale.”

However, there are still challenges that hinder accelerated growth and require solutions, he added. These are disruptions in supply chains and a shortage of skilled workers regarding the installation of PV systems.

Green hydrogen

Green hydrogen, powered by renewable sources such as wind and solar, is a clean and promising alternative to fossil fuels.

But for the industry to achieve efficient production, it’s necessary to recognize the vital role of digitalization, David Hall, VP Power Systems at Schneider Electric UK & Ireland, told TNW.

“The challenges in the scaled production of green hydrogen can be addressed largely by using new digital technologies available today,” he explained.

For starters, digital twin technology and 3D modeling allows the simulation of data throughout the entire lifecycle of a green hydrogen plant, reducing costs, risks, and time.

Secondly, Hall highlighted the importance of an “overarching” Energy Management System that will indicate the optimal times to use electricity from the grid and forecast power generation, to ensure hydrogen’s required volume production on a low-cost basis.

Finally, he noted the need for a Unified Operating Center. This translates to the use of a Pi system — a software that collects and analyzes operational data — that can bring together all the different assets to allow for better decision making, optimal performance, and reduced downtime.

green hydrogen Iberdrola
Iberdrola will invest €17 million in a green hydrogen facility to supply energy to vehicles and machinery at the port of Felixtowe in the UK. Credit: Iberdrola

Facilitating the faster adoption of wind, solar, and green hydrogen requires our efforts beyond 2023, but starting to apply some of the above measures definitely marks a significant start.

Wind, solar, and hydrogen: How energy will get more sustainable in 2023 Read More »

heads-up:-these-tech-jobs-will-not-be-trending-in-2023

Heads up: These tech jobs will NOT be trending in 2023

House of Talent, Insider / /

2022 was a year of highs and lows for job seekers. A turbulent economic landscape was scarred with job losses across the tech industry, rising inflation across Europe, and high energy and grocery costs drove a cost of living crisis, which, combined with a looming recession, made many workers understandably nervous.

Given that environment, it would be easy to think it’s a bad time out there for anyone looking for a new job, particularly if they work in the tech industry. The truth, of course, is a little bit different.

Those layoffs we’re seeing across tech behemoths such as Salesforce, Meta, and Amazon to the superstar fintech unicorns like Klarna and Stripe, are in many cases a reaction to previously over-confident predictions, and have been done in order to cut costs and preserve cash runways as the global economy slows down.

However, many sectors and jobs within tech remain remarkably buoyant as the effects of the pandemic give with one hand and take with the other. While some ecommerce companies, like Shopify, are feeling the pinch as future growth predictions failed to materialize once we went back to normal habits, the flipside is that the cloud computing and SaaS sectors are experiencing growth.

The pace of cloud adoption accelerated hugely during the pandemic thanks to the rise of remote working. A few months into the pandemic, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella went on record to say that Microsoft had seen two years of digital transformation in two months as customers started adopting cloud solutions.

More cloud services mean more security is needed to protect them and, as a result, cybersecurity roles are in hot demand, as are artificial intelligence and machine learning jobs. For example, OpenAI’s recent launch of ChatGPT was a mainstream success, garnering thousands of column inches in the media. Data science is another growth sector with the International Data Corporation (IDC) reporting that global data will grow to 163 zettabytes by 2025.

Echoing wider societal trends, jobs focusing on areas such as energy and sustainability, and policy and enforcement roles in the fields of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and diversity and inclusion measures are also tipped for growth.

But which jobs are in decline?

What the current round of tech layoffs does underline sharply is the kinds of roles we will be seeing less of in 2023.

Recruitment and HR functions look set to take a hit with Amazon announcing plans to make hundreds of its recruitment staff redundant last November. According to a confidential October 2021 internal paper, the company has been working towards handing over some of its recruiters’ tasks to an AI technology it calls Automated Applicant Evaluation (AAE). Built internally, AAE was first tested in 2021.

Another area slowing down is sales. This is broadly typical of a downturn and, according to Layoffs.fyi, sales roles account for 20% of the laid-off tech workers with the consumer and retail sectors accounting for almost 40,000 layoffs in 2022.

Necessary though it is, marketing budgets and teams often get slashed when there’s a downturn and belts need to be tightened. Development and research roles and teams will generally be left alone, if at all possible, but budgets for media activations, events, sponsorships, and all the other niceties around brand promotion are often allowed to lie fallow until economic outlooks improve.

Whether you’re already working in a secure sector or looking to shore up your employment prospects for 2023, The House Of Talent Job Board has a range of opportunities available. We’re looking at three jobs in growth areas below, and there are thousands more open roles to discover.

Front-end Developer (Mid-level/Senior), Cloud Solutions, The Hague

Cloud Solutions creates innovative digital products for its clients, including global e-commerce platforms, content websites and high-traffic middleware solutions. Work takes place in sprints of two to three weeks in teams consisting of (UX) designers, QA specialists, business analysts, solution architects, a scrum master, and a project manager. Within this team, the Front-end Developer will be responsible for delivering high quality software.

To apply, you’ll need two or more years of experience developing JavaScript/TypeScript applications with React, strong communication skills (both verbal and in writing), and experience with styling solutions such as Styled Components, Emotion, CSS Modules, and SCSS. Apply for this role now.

Data Scientist, Vodafone, Dublin

Vodafone is working hard to build a more connected, more inclusive, and more sustainable world. As part of this mission, it’s hiring a Data Scientist to work in its Commercial Operations Data Science team. You’ll produce analysis and actionable insights from multiple data sources to identify trends, providing outside-in perspective through voice of the customer and analysis. You’ll translate data into actionable insights and recommendations to improve customer satisfaction and grow value.

You’ll need around four years of experience as a Data Analyst or Data Scientist working with large data warehouses, analyzing data, and delivering actionable insights. Experience in using relational databases/data warehouses and experience with statistical software (R, Python) and database languages (SQL) is also required. Get the full job spec here.

AI/ML – Annotation Analyst, German Market, Apple, Barcelona

At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. The AI/ML team is passionate about technology, and is now looking for a motivated Annotation Analyst who demonstrates active listening, integrity, and acute attention to detail.

You’ll need fluency in German with excellent comprehension, grammar, and proofreading skills, English reading comprehension and writing skills, and active listening skills with the ability to understand verbal nuances. Additionally, you’ll need an understanding of the regions and cultural variations where German is spoken so you can demonstrate critical thinking skills in evaluation of Siri’s language usage and dialect. Interested in applying? Get more information here.

For more great opportunities in tech, visit The House Of Talent Job Board today

Heads up: These tech jobs will NOT be trending in 2023 Read More »

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New Chipotle AR Experience Motivates Fans to Keep New Year’s Health Resolutions

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Aside from serving great food made from fresh ingredients, restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill  strives to promote health and wellness by making healthy food more accessible and creating engaging experiences. This January, it kicks off the year with a Chipotle AR experience that motivates fans to keep their New Year’s health resolutions.

Chipotle AR Experience: No Quitting on Quitter’s Day

Chipotle fans are no quitters. And Chipotle is all set to prove this as it launches its new Snapchat Lens this Friday, January 13. The first Friday the 13th of this year also happens to be Quitter’s Day, the day when people are most likely to give up on their New Year’s resolutions. For Chipotle, this is the perfect day to give fans the drive to push forward and not quit their journey to good health.

“We’re making New Year’s resolutions fun by gamifying the experience and offering balanced meals made with real ingredients that you feel good eating,” said Chipotle CMO, Chris Brandt, in a press release shared with ARPost.

To help motivate people to keep their health resolutions this year, the Chipotle AR experience will encourage fans to move and meditate using AR Lens. Chipotle-inspired exercises and meditation prompts will guide users as they move their bodies and calm their minds for holistic well-being.

Chipotle AR experience - Snapchat Lens Quitter's Day

Moreover, 100,000 participants who complete the prompts will be rewarded with promo codes (10,000 codes will be awarded per day from January 13 through January 23, 2023) for free guacamole—an irresistible healthy treat that tastes great with almost everything.

New Lifestyle Bowls Inspired by New Wellness Trends

Aside from the Chipotle AR experience, the company is also launching a new Lifestyle Bowl menu to further inspire consumers to maintain their healthy resolutions. Lifestyle Bowls are digital exclusive menu items available in the United States and in Canada.

The new lineup of bowls is inspired by wellness trends popular among the Gen Z and Millennial crowd. It features seven new Lifestyle Bowls that reflect the individualized, holistic interpretations of wellness of the younger generations.

Chipotle Lifestyle Bowls

The 2023 Lifestyle Bowl menu includes the Wholesome Bowl, Grain Freedom Bowl, Plant-Powered Bowl, Full Veggie Bowl, Go Half Veggie Bowl, High Protein Bowl, and Balanced Macros Bowl. The new Lifestyle Bowls were designed to make healthy habits easy to sustain and incorporate into daily routines.

Chipotle AR Experiences to Live Your Best Lifestyle

With its new wellness-inspired AR experience, Chipotle has positioned itself as the first restaurant brand to create a Snapchat Lens that promotes fitness and health.

As it strives to meet the needs and demands of modern consumers, the global food giant is likely to create more Chipotle AR experiences that encourage consumers to maintain healthy habits. By leveraging immersive technologies to enhance customer experiences, Chipotle helps fans live their best lifestyle.

New Chipotle AR Experience Motivates Fans to Keep New Year’s Health Resolutions Read More »

hands-on:-vive-xr-elite-is-lightweight-&-compact,-but-shares-quest-pro’s-woes

Hands-on: Vive XR Elite is Lightweight & Compact, But Shares Quest Pro’s Woes

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At CES 2023 HTC revealed its new Vive XR Elite headset which is positioned as a Quest Pro competitor. In terms of features and hardware, the headset is largely a refinement of formfactor over anything else; and while it’s undoubtedly compact and lightweight, it may be hampered by an unclear value proposition and some ergonomic details that went overlooked.

For a detailed look at Vive XR Elite’s specs and features, check out our announcement article

Everyone’s head shape, nose size, and eye positions are different. That said, the first time I put on Vive XR Elite it was clear to me that there wasn’t nearly enough room for my nose… something that I have no issue with on almost every other major headset on the market (even HTC’s other VR headsets).

It’s not that it’s impossible to get the pressure off your nose—the optional top-strap (which HTC smartly included) makes this easy enough—but the problem is that if I raise the headset up to get weight off of my nose, my eyes are no longer in the sweet spot of the lens, making the view through the headset sub-par. More padding around the nose would have a similar issue of moving the lenses out of the sweet spot.

While I didn’t get to use the headset for an extended period of time, I have a strong suspicion that the nose thing is going to be a literal and figurative pain point on this headset. And as someone who doesn’t have a particularly large nose, I can’t imagine I’m going to be the only person with this issue.

Photo by Road to VR

The nose thing isn’t the only ergonomic oversight that was immediately apparent. There’s also the fact that the rear pad, which is designed to cup the back of your head, doesn’t cushion your head enough to prevent contact between your skull and the battery on the back. That means that as you tighten the headset you can feel a big, flat, plastic surface pushing against your head. That’s compared to something like the Quest 2 Elite Strap (which the rear of Vive XR Elite appears to emulate), where I can only feel the pads hugging the back of my head, but never the battery behind them.

Photo by Road to VR

Beyond these worrying ergonomic subtleties, the headset’s fundamentals feel solid across the board, making the Vive XR Elite the company’s most refined standalone to date. But from a feature and performance standpoint, the headset feels more like Quest 2 than Quest Pro, which puts it in an awkward place with its $1,100 pricetag.

Visually, Vive XR Elite’s pancake lenses are pretty good on the clarity front, with good edge-to-edge clarity, though falling short of the excellent lenses on Quest Pro. The use of non-Fresnel lenses means a reduction in glare and god rays compared to Quest 2, though the resolution and visibility of the screen door is about the same between the two headsets (1,920 × 1,920 vs. 1,920 × 1,832). And while the peripheral field of view feels a little tight, the added dioptre control (for changing the focus of each lens) will be welcomed by those with glasses, and even those without will be served well by the continuous IPD adjustment (which includes an on-screen measurement readout and calibration pop-up).

Photo by Road to VR

Inside-out head-tracking feels pretty good and is surely ‘good enough’, though the instantaneous rotational latency doesn’t feel as tight as Meta’s bar-setting inside-out solution. Importantly, the tracking feels better than Vive Flow, which in my experience has too much latency for long-term comfort. Controller-tracking on Vive XR Elite also feels solid, and with cameras on each side pointed almost entirely to your left and right, coverage ought to be good (potentially surpassing Vive Focus 3).

As the name implies, the HTC is pushing the XR Elite as a headset that does passthrough AR in addition to VR. The headset’s color pass-through view isn’t stellar. Similar to Meta’s headsets, the XR Elite attempts to rebuild the depth of the real world virtually to provide geometric correction and depth cues, but even with a depth-sensor on-board (which Quest Pro lacks), my experience with the headset’s passthrough AR showed a lot of warping due to incorrect depth-mapping.

Without being able to do a direct side-by-side comparison, my impression was that XR Elite wasn’t quite as sharp as Quest Pro when it comes to passthrough AR. Granted, the passthrough AR on both headsets headsets is definitely in the same approximate ‘class’ (not sharp enough to read text from your smartphone and quite poor dynamic range at that).

Photo by Road to VR

Just like with Quest Pro, the quality and application of passthrough AR feels entirely undercooked, with the handful of AR apps I tried on the headset not sufficiently answering the question ‘why AR?’. But now that another headset on the market is embracing and enhancing this capability, perhaps the answers to that question will come a bit sooner.

 – – — – –

Photo by Road to VR

Considering its performance and features, Vive XR Elite seems to share the same core problem as Quest Pro—and that’s the value proposition. Even if we ignore any potential ergonomic mishaps… at best Vive XR Elite is akin to a somewhat more compact version of Quest 2. And even if we ignore that Quest 2 has a much more extensive content library… it’s difficult to see how, for most people, Vive XR Elite can justify an $1,100 price tag compared to Quest 2 at $400.

Hands-on: Vive XR Elite is Lightweight & Compact, But Shares Quest Pro’s Woes Read More »

intel-partners-with-meta-to-optimize-flagship-wi-fi-card-for-low-latency-pc-vr-gaming-on-quest-2

Intel Partners with Meta to Optimize Flagship Wi-Fi Card for Low Latency PC VR Gaming on Quest 2

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Quest 2 users have a few choices when it comes to cutting the cable and playing PC VR games over Wi-Fi. You can opt for something like a dedicated dongle, or simply configure your network for the most optimal Wi-Fi setup, which usually means having your PC connected directly to the 2.4/5Ghz router with an Ethernet cable and maintaining line of sight with the router. If your PC has Intel’s latest Wi-Fi 6e AX1690 card though, that’s about to change.

Intel announced at CES 2023 that they’ve partnered with Meta to make better use of its flagship Wi-Fi card by optimizing it for use with Quest 2, which means reduced latency and no need for Ethernet cables connecting to your PC.

As reported by Wi-Fi Now, Intel says its Killer Wi-Fi 6e AX1690 card is now capable of using its Double Connect Technology (DCT) for VR headsets like Quest 2. Although the product of an Intel/Meta partnership, Intel’s it’s likely other standalone headsets will benefit too, including Pico 4 and the newly unveiled Vive XR Elite too.

Intel says AX1690, which is compatible with the Intel’s 13th-gen Core HX platform, is capable of reducing overall wireless PC VR gaming latency from 30ms to just 5ms, essentially making it indistinguishable from conventional wired connections, such as Link. We haven’t seen it in action yet, so we’re reserving judgment for now, but it basically seems like having all the functionality of that slick $99 dongle from D-Link, albeit built into your PC gaming rig.

Image courtesy Intel

“I’m a firm believer that pushing the boundaries of wireless in VR and AR will only be possible if the whole industry work together,” said Meta Reality Labs Wireless Technology chief Bruno Cendon Martin. “I’m extremely happy to see the announce today by Intel Corporation Wireless CTO Carlos Cordeiro of the work we’ve been doing together to get Wireless PC VR to the next level with Meta Quest and Intel Killer.”

Intel also released a video to demonstrate the benefits of using two simultaneous Wi-Fi connections which enable VR headsets to wirelessly access data directly from a PC (1-hop) vs. through an access point (2-hops) for reduced latency and better PC VR gaming experiences throughout the home.

Intel Partners with Meta to Optimize Flagship Wi-Fi Card for Low Latency PC VR Gaming on Quest 2 Read More »

the-uk-counts-down-to-its-first-ever-orbital-satellite-launch

The UK counts down to its first ever orbital satellite launch

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The UK counts down to its first ever orbital satellite launch

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Story by

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives. Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives.

The first ever orbital satellite launch from the UK — and Europe — is set for takeoff tonight (Monday, January 9). The so-called “Start Me UP” mission, led by US-based Virgin Orbit, will set out from Spaceport Cornwall at Newquay Airport at around 21: 15 UTC.

You can watch the launch via Virgin Orbit’s livestream below: