The Ghost Howls

APRIL 5, 2021

Today in Italy it should be the day when we go pic-nicking… but given the fact that we are in lockdown, I’ll just eat a lot at home While I send you a lot of good vibes, let’s see together what have been the best pieces of AR/VR news of this week, that has been incredibly interesting! (My The rumors on the Apple Glasses are intensifying.

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Apple AR Microsoft Magic Leap 262

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. They are Apple AR glasses!” I have this impression for a few reasons.

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Apple Samsung Eye Tracking Google 406

The Ghost Howls

JULY 4, 2022

Inflation here in Italy is ramping up, and the impression I have is that we are entering into a recession phase. Of course for some ad-based tech companies, the current economic situation is not the only problem, but there is another big one which is Apple and its new privacy features embedded into iOS. Image by Unity Technologies).

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Machine Learning Eye Tracking Unity Hardware 377

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 23, 2023

After this update, Cix Liv and other VR people (like the usual Brad) said that the rumor in town is actually not that Bytedance is closing Pico, but that Pico will focus mostly on MR to chase Apple with its Vision Pro and will shut down its VR business. Everyone was looking at him like a weird guy, it was very funny.

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Trends Ukraine Unity San Francisco 259

The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 28, 2023

After a few days where we thought we were all living in a big oven, here in Italy we’re having the first taste of Autumn, with the temperatures going down and a lot of rain falling from the sky. That’s fantastic news for all Unity XR developers! More info Is Apple working on the Vision Pro since 2007?

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Samsung Google Magic Leap Microsoft 315

The Ghost Howls

APRIL 10, 2022

As a Unity developer, I am a bit envious of all of this. Image by Apple). Apple WWDC is back in June. Apple has announced that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held in an online format from June 6 through 10 , free for all developers to attend. News worth a mention. Join the On|Metaverse summit.

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Unreal Spain Ukraine Apple 458

The Ghost Howls

JULY 6, 2022

The hype for the Apple visor is very high, and everyone is waiting for it as a kid waits for Christmas. I was thinking about this topic this morning, and I want to share with you my stream of thoughts about Apple making VR mainstream, especially highlighting my doubts about it. Is now everyone already using an XR headset?

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Apple Italy Unity San Francisco 514

The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 24, 2020

Apple threatens future support in Unreal Engine. According to an evidence presented by Epic Games, Apple has not only removed Fortnite from the Apple Store, but it has also revoked the status of developer to Epic Games. All Apple software, SDKs, APIs, and developer tools ?—?Pre-release Other relevant news.

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Unreal Apple Government Data 426

The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 15, 2021

August, 15th is a special day in Italy: it is called “Ferragosto”, and people go out with their friends and families and grill some BBQ in the parks, have picnics, or just chill together. Almost no one works, and people are focused on enjoying good food and good company.

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China Unity Technology Italy 385

The Ghost Howls

APRIL 27, 2020

Another busy week has passed by, and here in Italy we just got the news that lockdown measures will start to loosen from next week, but the road to go out as we wish is still long. We’re looking for a Unity dev for a freelance gig lasting 1–2 months, ideally from Italy or a nearby country (for easier management).

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Course Magic Leap AR Oculus 266

The Ghost Howls

JUNE 1, 2020

Developers can develop AR experiences with Zappar using the tool they like the most : Unity, native Javascript, A-frame, C++. Unity launches MARS tools. After many months of teasing them, Unity has finally launched the MARS tools, a suite of tools to build easily Augmented Reality experiences in Unity without knowing how to code.

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Magic Leap AR China Unity 235

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

When a journalist of IGN Italy was trying to install the new Xbox Wireless Headset on the platform, he was greeted with an Italian message saying “The VR goggle must be updated”. Learn more (XR Collaboration) Learn more (Unity College). (Image by Microsoft). Xbox VR support has been leaked, or maybe not. Some XR fun.

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Sony Controllers AR Haptic 427

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Coronavirus is back in Italy and from yesterday we’re having new restrictions like a night curfew, some kind of shops closed, etc… I hope that you and the people you love are safe. Simple WebXR” aims at bringing WebXR to Unity. It looks very interesting, and as a Unity developer, I want to experiment with it. Learn more.

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HTC Oculus Conference China 403

The Ghost Howls

JUNE 27, 2022

It’s hot and the drought is creating some issues here in northern Italy. We have lots of non-news about Apple’s XR efforts. The hype around Apple glasses is huge , and everything that gets shared about Apple and XR gets many views. This is the story of my life for half of the posts I read about Apple. Useless news.

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Apple Ukraine Eye Tracking Groups 319

The Ghost Howls

JULY 19, 2021

It’s a nice summer day here in Italy, and I hope things for all of you are going well. This is confirmed also by a previous prediction by the CEO of Unity, which foresees that in 2030 VR headsets will be as popular as gaming console: that is mainstream, but still not as TV, for instance. Top news of the week.

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AR Technology Data Gaming 508

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 13, 2021

It was too early for Unity, but they taught me about C++, C#, Java, OpenCV, OpenGL and other fancy development stuff. For who wasn’t doing AR at that time: Metaio had an amazing SDK for phone-based AR, but then it got acquired by Apple and it disappeared from the market. Since I loved gaming (who doesn’t love gaming?),

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Virtual Reality Unity Course AR 432

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 22, 2021

As a long-time AR enthusiast, and one of the first to have tried Google Glass in Italy, I have to admit that I will consider AR mainstream only when it will be on glasses that we will wear all day , when we’ll live in a completely shared mixed reality world (the AR Cloud). Facebook and Apple will jumpstart the smartglasses ecosystem.

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Augmented Reality Magic Leap AR Apple 478

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Italy won the Tennis Davis Cup, and that was pretty cool to see (the match between Sinner and Djokovic was just incredible). More info Discover Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro cost estimations A Chinese firm has tried to estimate the cost of the components of both the Quest 3 and the Apple Vision Pro. Will we meet there?

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Augmented Reality Apple Samsung Ukraine 351

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

The damn coronavirus continues to impact all our lives: the fact that many countries are applying restrictions on flights to and from Italy is, for example, creating various nuisances to my job. Is this really what Apple wants? (Thanks Robert Scoble for this news!). This is one of the weirdest rag-doll experiments in Unity.

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Hand tracking AR Oculus HTC 234

The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I think I’ll miss the joys of summer (and all the trophies that Italy has won), but at least I’ll be able to enjoy again some delicious hot chocolate Before leaving you to the news of the week, I’m happy to announce to you that I’ve been selected as a speaker for AWE US 2021 ! Apple VR headset may feature a 3000PPI microOLED display.

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AR Nigeria Apple Oculus 496

The Ghost Howls

JUNE 4, 2023

I need to rush out this newsletter episode because otherwise tomorrow Apple launches its headset and no one will read my articles: everyone will be too busy reading “The top 5 features of the Apple headset” or “The 7 reasons why the Apple headset can revolutionize peeling potatoes”. How is Apple going to sell this headset?

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Apple Gaming Hand tracking Leap Motion 334

The Ghost Howls

MAY 4, 2020

While in Italy we get ready for the “Phase 2” of the lockdown, I write the best AR/VR news of the week just for you! At the same time, Apple having always mediocre graphics cards on its laptops and its closed ecosystem have not helped much either in keeping this VR support alive. Top news of the week. Image by Road To VR).

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Virtual Reality Machine Learning Augmented Reality Oculus 224

The Ghost Howls

MAY 17, 2021

Kudos to Shachar Weis for discovering this: he told me about this news, and I have verified that it has disappeared completely from Amazon Italy and Amazon France, while some Redditors confirmed that the same holds for Amazon UK. This could be The Unity Cube 2.0. Apple is working on a whole spatial ecosystem.

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Eye Tracking HTC China Amazon 361

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

If you will be in Italy, please come visiting me! Is Apple partnering with Valve on AR? A report by DigiTimes claims that Apple is partnering with Valve for the production of its AR glasses. More info (Apple and Valve partnering) More info (Road To VR’s skeptical editorial on the news). Image by Eurogamer).

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Augmented Reality Google Machine Learning AR 164

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2021

From time to time, I like to look at the adoption graph of XR shown by John Riccitiello (the CEO of Unity) in 2017 , where you can see that the real acceleration of immersive technologies should start around 2022-2023. 2021 will be the year that in Italy we’ll have the first most serious rollout of 5G in the biggest cities.

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Virtual Reality Trends China HTC 520

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2022

I work with VRrOOm on VR events, and this let me even be featured on the Unity blog , but how these events will evolve in the long run when the pandemic will (hopefully) end is a mystery. We only lack the Zombie apocalypse… and for this reason, I have played Resident Evil 4 VR … you know, to train for it, just in case).

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Apple Virtual Reality Italy Course 518

The Ghost Howls

JULY 3, 2023

It was our hope for Google entering the AR race together with Meta and Apple. More info (Meta Quest+ gaming service) More info (Cross-buy available for Meta Quest+ games) Unity announces AI tools when Valve stops AI games This week has been an emotional rollercoaster for games (VR and not) made with the support of artificial intelligence.

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Google Gaming Unity Machine Learning 268

The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Today is a special day in Italy when families prepare the Christmas Tree, so I decided to publish a very special post that is a big gift to the whole XR community. Even the big players like Sony, Apple, and Microsoft have substantially reduced their production estimates for 2022, whilst processor manufacturers talk of delays into 2024.

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Controllers Haptic Hardware Simulation 495

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 23, 2020

Jokes apart, before starting, let me send a big hug to all of you that are in quarantine because of the coronavirus and thank all the people that in these days have cared about me after having heard the sad news about Italy (Simon, David, Daniel, Suzie, Mark… John that has been so kind… Sebastian, and many others!). Top news of the week.

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Oculus Magic Leap AR Augmented Reality 204

The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 20, 2020

I’ve preordered my basic $299 one (€349 in Italy) and it will arrive on October, 15th. For sure the announcement at FC and the release date in 2021 have been studied to put some pressure on Apple , which seems to be the only rival to Facebook for what concerns the AR future. Maybe who invented the name was a fan of this song.

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Oculus AR Data Gaming 544