The Ghost Howls

MARCH 18, 2024

This morning I was browsing the web to do research for one of my next articles, and I found a picture of that Japanese headset that people could use only by lying on a bed. But all of them left a spark of joy inside me because I totally love it when people try to push the boundaries of what is possible and think about the unthinkable.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 20, 2023

Another reason is that the metaverse hype has slowed down , so there is less enthusiasm for what Meta is working on. So he’s not abandoning it… it’s been his dream since when he was a child, and we all know it’s the inevitable future… but he’s putting it a bit in the background, waiting for more favorable conditions to happen.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

It’s a weird period, with ups and downs, but I try to focus on the up things. It was of course a meme, my favorite form of expression. Top news of the week (Image by Bigscreen) Bigscreen unveils its Beyond headset I was not expecting this. I’m also quite puzzled about why Bigscreen wanted to create a headset.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 13, 2023

I’ve very limited time, but luckily this week has not been very relevant for the ecosystem, so I’m managing to write this newsletter anyway Top news of the week (Image by Microsoft) AltspaceVR shuts down In one of the saddest moments of the latest years in VR, AltspaceVR has closed its doors.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 7, 2023

A few days ago, I was reading some suggested posts on Twitter, and I found a comment from a guy to a post from someone in our VR community saying something like “Admit it, VR is the 3D TV of our times” and getting lots of likes. I hoped that that comparison was dead in 2018, but it seems that it still has lots of fans.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 16, 2021

It has all been because of these three pieces of news: My blog is now 5 years old ! I still can’t believe that I did it for so long… and this is also been possible thanks to your support Our game HitMotion: Reloaded has been approved on App Lab and even Upload VR reported the news ! Facebook, please do something about it.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 30, 2022

Mojo Vision , one of the most interesting startups in the XR market, has just announced that its smart contact lens prototype is now “feature complete” , reaching a new milestone in its product development timeline. Mojo already has internal prototypes of its technology, and a few of its executives have already worn them.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 28, 2021

Resolution Games steps back from implementing ads inside Blaston. After the big backlash of the community against the ads that Facebook is going to implement in VR, the first partner studio that should have implemented it is taking a little step back. Blaston, a paid game, won’t feature VR ads inside it.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Yesterday Facebook has finally announced its new side content distribution system for the Oculus Quest, dubbed App Lab. With it, it is finally possible to publish for the Oculus Quest your VR apps that have not been approved by Facebook. How to create a Unity App for the Quest and share it on App Lab. What is the App Lab?

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Welcome to this new edition of the XR Week Peek, which this week will be a bit special because I will summarize here what happened during the Meta Connect, the event during which Mark Zuckerberg launched the Quest 3, the Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses, and new techniques for data harvest… cough cough I mean, new AI services. XR2 Gen2 has 2.6x

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 31, 2022

According to the tradition, it should be a year that will be important for me, either in a good or a bad way , so it should be pretty exciting. Meta announces its new supercomputer. Meta has just announced that it’s building a new supercomputer for performing training of AI and ML algorithms. Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

I got a review copy of Virtual Virtual Reality 2 by Tender Claws and since I’ve played some time with it, l et me tell you my first impressions on this game! If you have never played it, this is its official description so that you understand what we are talking about. Virtual Virtual Reality 2.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 3, 2023

I’m pretty busy lately, so I’m writing very slowly my articles from AWE … but even if slowly, I’m keeping going forward. The startup had to shut down because of a lack of funding, so its patents have been sold. It also reminded me a bit of the original Meta Glasses. Which ones?

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 24, 2022

A new concert starts every hour… have fun with it! It is expected to ship in December. It is interesting that Pico decided to sell the device only to companies. It wants to have a clear separation: Pico 4 is only for consumers and Pico 4 Enterprise is just for companies. Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

I’ll try to summarize all of that, especially for what concerns the announcements related to our XR space. But since Friday the company has started auto-destroying itself, with a series of events that have been more interesting to follow than most Netflix series (and I bet that someone soon will make a movie/series about it).

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

Let’s see what have been the most interesting things happening in immersive reality…. The biggest news of the week took place in the Hawaii islands, where Qualcomm had its Snapdragon Summit event. At it, it announced the Snapdragon AR2, a new chip optimized for augmented reality glasses. It consumes less than 1W of power.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 11, 2022

Today I finally review for you the Pico Neo 3 Link! I had a lot of delays in writing this article (sorry Pico, sorry VR community), but I promise you that it will be deep and detailed… as you like the posts on my website. Pico Neo 3 Link Video Review. A note on this article. Pico Neo 3 Link. Specifications.

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ARPost

APRIL 12, 2021

As VIVE CEO and Chairwoman Cher Wang explained it in a release shared with ARPost : “Through their online presence, these influencers are inspiring, informing, and educating others. The multimedia production team publishes articles, hardware and software reviews, and a podcast. Ben Lang (Road to VR) #10. Cathy Hackl.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 3, 2022

This is the first newsletter of this new year, and I hope it will be a great year for every one of us. Go reading it, if you missed it. Please support me on Patreon to help me in making this happen This week has been a bit boring for what concerns XR news, but maybe next week with the CES will be more interesting.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 18, 2021

I have just tried the hands tracking solution offered on the Vive Focus Plus by the Vive Hands Tracking SDK and I want to tell you what has been my experience with it and how it does compare with other hands tracking technologies, like the ones offered by Facebook or UltraLeap. Vive Hand Tracking SDK video review.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 5, 2024

But today’s article is not about me, but about the best tech news, so let me tell you what pieces of XR news I’ve selected this week! Before we start, in case you missed my post with my predictions for XR in 2024, you can still read it at this link !) But will it be enough now to beat Apple?

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

I hope that you all American friends have celebrated it with your families and have eaten a lot of turkeys (or whatever vegan alternative), enjoying good times with your peers. If you were wondering, we in Italy do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but I would love one year to participate in its celebration hosted by an American family.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 20, 2024

I was using the Vive Focus Plus, and I hacked one of its SDK samples to transform it into a mixed-reality device. Quest and privacy Those times we hoped for have arrived : the Quest 3 is a machine much more powerful than the Vive Focus, it has a color passthrough with a quite good definition, and AI is now flourishing.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 26, 2023

It was not a perfect day because I also had some work-related issues to cope with, but it’s part of life when you are working with cutting-edge technologies I’m curious to know how the holidays are going for you, so answer this post letting me know how life is going for you! (PS Microsoft in the end has decided to deprecate it.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

At Facebook Connect , Facebook/Meta announced that Oculus Quest was getting a new runtime update, the v34, bringing with it very interesting features to the Quest 2. I have just received this update and tested this feature to see how it works, and here in this post, you can find everything about it! What is Space Sense.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 15, 2024

It’s exactly one year since we launched t he Alpha of the VRROOM platform , the social XR space dedicated to concerts and life shows. This project has been the biggest one I’ve ever worked on , and since my role is the CTO, I have been to follow its evolution from the driver’s seat.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 25, 2021

That said, let’s see what have been the most interesting pieces of AR and VR news of the week…. Since all the rumors seem confirmed, it is legit to expect that it also supports full-RGB passthrough vision , as the leakers pointed out some weeks ago. Top news of the week. Image leaked from Oculus runtime).

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 2, 2021

The metaverse is the buzzword of the moment, so last week I made a stupid meme about it ( you can see it on Twitter ), and then yesterday I realized it had gone viral. If I had known people could like it, I would have not made it in 5 minutes with Microsoft Word, lol. Other relevant news. Image by Luxottica).

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 3, 2021

And I tried it for you. The tour used to run in-person for the first 24 people to show up at the lab at 4 pm each Friday, and let people explore and discover what is virtual reality, and some key experiments that the Virtual Human Interaction Lab was doing. The Stanford VR Tour. Personal impression. The bad.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 20, 2021

An amazing pre-review that has been possible only thanks to the collaboration with Nikk Mitchell , the fantastic CEO of FXG , a Chinese VR company that has a partnership with Huawei. I strongly advise you to watch it here below. It is pretty long, so we added some timestamps to help you in watching only the parts you care about.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 22, 2022

Are you ready to discover what has happened this week in immersive realities? It all started because Horizon Worlds has finally landed in Europe, launching in France and Spain. It all started because Horizon Worlds has finally landed in Europe, launching in France and Spain. Top news of the week. Image by Mark Zuckerberg).

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 10, 2022

So I’m sorry but this newsletter is coming late and will also have less text commentary inside it (this means the wall of text will be much shorter :P). If this is confirmed, it means that Quest 3 may provide graphics that are at least 2x better than the ones of Quest 3. If you are close to here, please come. Image by HTC Vive).

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 9, 2021

I am still working on my full review of the Pico Neo 3 Pro , and while doing my tests on it, I have tried what is probably its most surprising feature, that is tethering to the DisplayPort port of a PC to offer a PCVR experience. Here below you have my impression while using it. DisplayPort connection.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 2, 2021

After I have written my super in-depth review on the Vive Focus 3 , HTC has finally enabled hands tracking on its device , so I decided to talk about it to you. There is a lot to talk about, so keep reading, and I’m sure you will find this article interesting! Otherwise, keep reading for the textual version.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 1, 2024

Top news of the week (Image by Meta) Meta Quest had a great Christmas All the indicators point to the fact that Meta Quest had a great Christmas like it has happened all the past years. more concurrent players than it had before Christmas. I’ve always been fascinated by Soli, and it would be great to see it used inside an XR device.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 14, 2023

Last week, Google delivered its most important event of the year, the Google I/O. During its keynote, the CEO Sundar Pichai announced many new products of the company. During the last years, XR has never been relevant at Google I/O, but this year it has been relevant inside the keynote, again.

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The Ghost Howls

JUNE 7, 2021

This week I’ve published a very interesting article inspired by the work of Basti465, who has analyzed the runtime of the Quest v29 finding hints about future features that are going to be released. It seems that so the Quest 2 Pro will be at least unveiled during the next Facebook Connect , for a potential launch in 2022.

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