The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

As I said a few months ago , we are in the middle of a paradigm change: the cycle that started with the Quest is arriving at an end, and a new cycle driven by new technologies (mixed reality headsets) and new players (Apple, Google) is starting. PSVR 2 Hero view of PSVR 2 (Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment) I had big hopes for PSVR 2.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 17, 2022

The same has happened with Apple, which is now offering bonuses to employees to keep them inside the company. Apple has performed very strategic acquisitions as well, and the news of the week is that Snap has acquired Compound Photonics to gain a key supplier of LCOS and Microled displays. Image by Sony). Beat Games).

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 23, 2020

Apple announces ARKit 4, amongst new rumors of XR headsets. The story goes on telling that Apple VR headset had realistic visuals and sound, it was super-cool and probably we’ll see a release date of 2022/2023. More info (New rumors about Apple and XR) More info (Apple ARKit4). We all can’t wait. Other relevant news.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 10, 2022

My favorite ones have been: Sony Interactive Entertainment has revealed that the next PSVR headset will be called PSVR 2 and will feature 2K x 2K per eye, up to 120 Hz framerate, and 110° FOV. New rumors on Apple and Meta devices. This is why companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta are exploring similar technologies.

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Ryan Schultz

APRIL 28, 2024

Many people are already talking about the death of the Apple Vision Pro…what’s the real story? This report ignited no shortage of opinions on the matter, both pro and con, with some even going so far as to say that the Apple Vision Pro was “dead.” And the Apple Vision Pro memes were in abundance.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 1, 2024

I don’t know how many of them will prove to be true, but for sure they all can be something that can inspire you to define your XR strategy for this year. Huawei and Pico are rumored to be working on an Apple Vision Pro competitor). Investors, which were all focused on AI started to wonder if they should focus on XR again.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 13, 2019

This game made by Sanzaru Games together with Oculus Studio is one of the best and longest games ever released for virtual reality. It is clear that we are looking at a game that raises the quality bar of VR gaming , thanks to the talent of people at Sanzaru Games and the high budget offered by Oculus. October, 9th 2019.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 23, 2020

More info (How to pre-load Half-Life: Alyx) More info (Leaked review of Half-Life: Alyx) More info (Suggestions on how to stream the game) More info (Valve Index on top of Steam charts) More info (Oculus Rift S soldout) More info (Vive Cosmos Elite gives Alyx for free) More info (Vive Cosmos Elite review) More info (Gabe Newell talks BCI).

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 25, 2022

I can’t guarantee that these predictions will come out to be true (I always joke about the fact that I miss many of the predictions about Meta/Oculus), but I think they will be worth reading anyway to understand what can be the trends to look for in this new year. No one has an idea on how to build it. GENERAL TRENDS.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

I’m sure the reviews have been positively influenced by the demos that Sony has given to the journalists, in particular Horizon: Call Of The Mountain, which has been praised for the astonishing graphics comparable to the ones of Half-Life: Alyx. Everyone has been impressed by this experience.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 13, 2020

Well, if the rumor becomes reality, this would mean that all next Apple devices will have both front and back depth cameras, for high-precision Augmented Reality and 3D reconstruction. Well played Apple. This week Sony has showcased the new DualShock controller for the PS5, dubbed DualSens. Other relevant news. Image by Acer).

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 1, 2023

And of course, they are going to appeal this decision… More info PSVR 2 to be sold in retail stores Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that “soon”, PSVR 2 will be sold in dedicated retail store locations. And this will be beneficial for everyone in the field. I hope for this second scenario, of course.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 2, 2021

More info (Facebook announces 128 GB Quest 2 and silicone cover) More info (How to request your free Quest 2 cover) More info (Upload VR on the number of distributed facemasks) More info (Only 80K recalled units in Japan) More info (NWN’s estimates on Quest 2 sales). Sony has sold 10M PS5 worldwide.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 21, 2019

Original image from Oculus). Oculus Rift and Gear VR have sold 10M units. At the beginning of the week, Jack McCauley, one of the founders of the Oculus startup, had claimed in an interview with CNBC that Facebook VR will never succeed. Of course, he was not only talking about Oculus but about VR in general.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

In two days there will be the Facebook Connect, an Apple event and a Sony event about PS5! If you remember well, this platform is based on a modified version of the Snapdragon 865 (3 generations after the 835 of the Oculus Quest) and supports features like eye tracking, high-quality passthrough AR, and 5G. Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

These are huge numbers for VR: if you look at the most recent SteamVR survey, you get that Oculus headsets are now at 67% of the whole PCVR market. This is amazing for us developers, but unluckily it is a feature tied to using the Oculus SDK, which is not cross-platform. Image by Apple). Apple may implement WebXR in Safari.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 15, 2020

Image by Sony, from Road To VR). Sony announces PS5, it supports PSVR. With an online livestream of around 1 hour, Sony has finally unveiled the design of the PlayStation 5. But Sony has confirmed that while we wait for it, the PS5 will be able to work with the current PSVR device. I hope you’ll enjoy it…. SSD (8–9 GB/s).

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 3, 2021

Or better, maybe it’s not totally merit of HTC, it is mostly the fact that everyone is hoping for a good headset that can compete somehow with the Oculus Quest , even just in the prosumer segment. The Oculus Quest 2 keeps its march towards 10M users. The Oculus Quest 2 keeps selling incredibly well. This is amazing.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 26, 2020

My impression is that in the best case, this Deca is the new Pimax, a company with great ambitions, a good spirit, but no idea on how to execute, and this will lead to delays, confusion in the logistics, higher prices than expected, etc… And this is just the best case. Notwithstanding all this hate, the Oculus Quest 2 is selling very well.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

Apple now lets add you add “buy” button to AR Quick Look. A piece of simple news, but a very important one, has hit the AR industry this week: Apple now lets companies add custom buttons (usually the “Buy” one) to AR Quick Look. Add custom environments to your Oculus Quest… if you can. News worth a mention. More info.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 12, 2022

Does Palmer want Oculus back? I tweeted the news saying that “Palmer Luckey is not doing that bad without Oculus…” and Palmer Luckey himself answered to me commenting “Without Oculus for now, anyway”. More info (Anduril getting $1.48B of investments) More info (Palmer Luckey commenting about Oculus). Image by Valve).

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

These are pretty cool, also because the Snapdragon XR 2 is much more powerful than the 835 mounted by the Oculus Quest. Considering that this number doesn’t count the Quest users connected via Oculus Link, the actual number of VR users on Steam is even higher. Still no news on Oculus For Business program and Multiplayer SDK for Quest.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 4, 2020

This is why we praise so much the Oculus Quest (1M+ of engaged users) and not the Cardboards (20M devices, almost unused). This money includes all the revenues not related to the main business of Facebook (advertisement), but Facebook has clearly specified that this big increment is mostly related to Oculus hardware and software.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 6, 2020

It has now an agreement with Plessey, a company working on MicroLED displays, and that was previously one of the acquisition goals of the competitor Apple. Apple strikes deal for indoor maps and buys NextVR. This has been a great week for competition in the AR space since also Apple has performed some interesting moves.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 8, 2021

They could build together something that could seriously compete with Facebook and Apple: let’s keep an eye on them. The Rec Room community is growing pretty steadily, also thanks to the great sales of the Oculus Quest. I’ve found a very detailed tutorial on how to develop your own multiplayer WebVR experience based on A-Frame.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 7, 2021

All major companies have some stores of theirs (think about Amazon’s recent futuristic stores), but of course, Meta wants to specifically copy Apple in this. Oculus Quest Application SpaceWarp can give apps a +70% boost of performances. Sony patents a new kind of foveated rendering. News worth a mention.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 31, 2021

The whole event was all about Facebook creating a parent company called Meta that is going to control all the products that until now were in the Facebook’s family, that is Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Oculus, Portal, and all the rest. Sony is reported to launch a mobile VR headset. Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 20, 2021

First, they acquired Oculus and said that nothing would have changed for the startup, and they promised Palmer that no Oculus Rift would have required a Facebook account. Then they slowly kicked away all the previous executives from Oculus and took control of the company. Then they absorbed Oculus into Facebook.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

Sony is finally accepting preorders for the PSVR 2 headset. People who expressed interest ahead of time via Sony’s official website received emails with pre-order windows, and many have already placed their pre-orders. New rumors about the upcoming Apple headset. As usual, take this rumor with a grain of salt. Image by Vuzix).

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 11, 2022

PlayStation VR 2 Logo (Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment). I’ve seen what companies are doing nowadays to use tracked props on the Oculus Quest: they have to add bulky mounts to install the even bulkier Touch controllers on them. Oculus Quest 2 ) to know the pose of the fingers. Further references. Other news.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

To make you understand how these features are incredible, Qualcomm has stated that “the [XR2] reference design has 2x the CPU and GPU performance, 4x more video bandwidth, 6x higher resolution and 11x AI improvement compared to our current widely adopted XR platform [the Oculus Quest ]”. Very cool, actually.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

With the trend of Gaming entrepreneurs, for example, Samsung, HTC, Sony, and Oculus transferred from games to virtual reality and we started to keep eye on the VR area. Since Meta made the acquisition and took over Oculus, VRTUOLUO began to write original and in-depth articles on the XR industry.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 31, 2021

This has not been the most interesting week in AR, VR, but I think that in the next times we’ll see some shots fired: in some days there will be the F8, the official shipment of the Vive Pro 2, then the Apple WWDC conference! He’s most probably talking about the Oculus Quest 2 Pro. I hope for some juicy news… and you?

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 7, 2021

BUT today is the day of the WWDC, and who knows if Apple will tease something about AR glasses. Tablet mode may be a reference to how to launch 2D Android apps because a Facebook employee has inadvertently revealed that employees can already use some 2D apps like GDoc inside the Quest. It looks like a refreshed Vive Focus Plus.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Facebook – NASDAQ: FB – Oculus VR, VR headset, VR Camera, VR content, VR platform. Sony – NYSE: SNE – VR Console, VR Games & VR Headset. Samsung – KRX: 005930 – GearVR (partnership with Oculus VR) and 360 Camera. Apple – NASDAQ: AAPL – AR/VR headset. How to invest in these companies. Unconfirmed.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 16, 2022

I truly hope this can be useful for all of you in the XR community… How to read this post. Notice how the pose of the index, including the exact position of the finger tip, is detected by Quest Pro controllers (Image by Upload VR). Unless Apple kills it, of course… Productivity ecosystem.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JANUARY 9, 2017

2016 provided hints of where Facebook, HTC, Sony, Google, and more will take their headsets in the near future, but where does the industry’s best and brightest think we’ll end up this time next year? We’re still figuring out what we can do with VR and how to design for it. So we have a ways to go still.

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