If Apple wants its headset to win, it needs to reinvent the app

Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge If Apple’s mixed reality headset is going to succeed, it’s going to be because of the apps. On Monday, Apple will take the stage at its 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference to talk about FaceTime and Apple Books ... more - theverge

Don’t judge Apple’s VR headset too soon

Illustration: The Verge Just when the metaverse had mostly faded from the headlines, a heavily rumored new product launch appears poised to bring it roaring back. Today let’s talk about what’s happened in the world of virtual and mixed reality since ... more - theverge

Quest 3 won’t replace Quest 2 for ‘quite a while,’ confirms Meta

Quest 2 vs. Quest 3. | Image: Meta Is it really a good idea to buy a Meta Quest 2 for $299 now that the $499 Quest 3 is on the way? Won’t Meta stop supporting the old headset with games? You shouldn’t be worried about that anytime soon, according to ... more - theverge

The biggest announcements from Meta’s Quest Gaming Showcase

Image: Meta Meta has just wrapped its latest Quest Gaming Showcase, where it previewed a bunch of virtual reality games coming to its Quest headsets. This year could prove to be an important one for Meta in gaming: it just announced the Quest 3, and ... more - theverge

Meta announces its Quest 3 VR headset, which will cost $499.99

The Meta Quest 3 and its Touch Plus controllers | Image: Meta Meta has officially announced its Quest 3 VR headset in a post on Mark Zuckerberg’s Instagram. The headset is coming this fall with a 128GB version available for $499.99 plus “an additional ... more - theverge

No Man’s Sky just launched on Mac with cross-play support

Image: Hello Games No Man’s Sky is touching down on Macs starting today. Hello Games announced that the space adventure is available for Mac users on Steam now (it’ll be free if you already own the PC version), while the game will be coming to the Mac ... more - theverge

Leap Motion's gesture control quest continues with the Leap Motion Controller 2

Leap Motion controller Ten years after debuting with a $79.99 Kinect-like control unit, the company now called Ultraleap is back with a sequel. Continue reading… ... more - theverge

The iPhone is dead — long live the iPhone

Many have predicted the death of the iPhone. We’ve been at Peak iPhone a bunch of different times. We’ve seen “stagnant growth,” “looming trouble,” and prognostications that other companies would steal Apple’s market share or that wearables or hearables ... more - theverge

Apple’s rumored VR headset could have ridiculously high-end screens

Illustration: The Verge Apple’s rumored mixed reality headset might have extremely pixel-dense and bright displays, according to a tweet from Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, who has shared accurate information about Apple products ... more - theverge

WWDC 2023: all the news from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Virtual reality, a bigger MacBook Air, updated OSes, and more are on the docket. Continue reading… ... more - theverge

Niantic has a new experience for Quest headsets that features an ‘AI-enabled’ owl

Image: Niantic Niantic, known for augmented reality mobile games like Pokémon Go and Peridot , revealed a new mixed reality experience on Tuesday. Titled “Wol,” it can be played on Quest headsets and features an “AI-enabled” talking owl discussing the ... more - theverge

Quest 3 hands-on confirms Meta’s building a ‘far thinner and lighter’ headset

The Quest 3 will improve on the Quest 2 (pictured above) in many important ways. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge A hands-on look at the Meta Quest 3 reveals a massive set of improvements to the Meta mixed reality headset, as detailed in Mark Gurman’s ... more - theverge

Snapchat’s AR filter can now paint your nails

The Verge / Mia Sato Snapchat’s newest AR filter will paint your nails for you — or at least give you an idea of what they might look like. The new AR lens applies color and other 2D designs to a Snapchat user’s fingernails, allowing them to virtually ... more - theverge

Beat Saber will be available Wednesday for PlayStation VR2

Image: Beat Games At its PlayStation Showcase event, Sony revealed that Beat Saber , the hit music VR game, would be launching on Wednesday for the PlayStation VR2. We already knew that Beat Saber was in the works for Sony’s new VR headset, but the sudden ... more - theverge

PlayStation Showcase 2023: all the news from Sony’s big gaming event

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Expect some surprises. Continue reading… ... more - theverge

How to watch Sony’s 2023 PlayStation Showcase

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge With E3 out of the picture once again, it’s time to gear up for a very busy few months of gaming news as publishers host their own livestreamed events. Kicking things off a little early is Sony with its PlayStation Showcase. ... more - theverge

Lego’s Mars Rover Perseverance has 360-degree steering and a swinging arm

Image: Lego Lego’s last Mars Rover was a little simplistic (pdf) — so I’m glad to see that the new Lego Technic NASA Mars Rover Perseverance, just announced today for $100, puts more of the real rover’s engineering front and center. With the flick of ... more - theverge

WWDC 2023: what to expect at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference

Image: Apple Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is expected to be one of its biggest yet. After years of rumors and leaks, Apple could finally take the wraps off of its mixed reality headset, entering the company into a new product ... more - theverge

Meta Quest will now let you customize your home virtual world

The new Custom Skybox View includes a few environments for your home to get you started. | Image: Meta Meta’s got a new update for its Meta Quest VR headset, and it includes new features like the ability to change up your home environment’s Skybox with ... more - theverge

I used the world’s first augmented reality laptop

Don’t mind me. I’m just in space. This laptop doesn’t have anything to do with outer space. That’s the first thing I need to establish here. I know — I was also a tad disappointed when I sat down with a company called Sightful to demo its new product, ... more - theverge

Why are video games always falling?

A screenshot of Lords of the Fallen , I think. Unless it’s Ashfall . | Image: Hexworks Yesterday, gaming website IGN posted a trailer for Ashfall , described as a “post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online shooter/RPG.” Today, the same YouTube account ... more - theverge

Sony is holding an hour-long PlayStation Showcase next week

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The summer of gaming events is starting a little early this year. Sony announced that it will be holding a PlayStation Showcase event on May 24th at 1PM PT. And it sounds like a big one: the stream will be more than an ... more - theverge

Mark Zuckerberg seems to think people can’t wait for in-car VR

A research demo from Meta and BMW of in-car mixed VR and mixed reality, where the avatars are still legless. | Image: Meta If you’ve listened to The Vergecast lately, then you know Nilay is sold on the mix of cars and VR when it comes to Gran Turismo ... more - theverge

Valve just got sued by Immersion over Steam Deck and Index rumble

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Consider it a rite of passage: Valve has finally become successful enough at building gaming hardware that it’s getting sued by Immersion Corporation. Immersion — the haptic feedback company that’s purchased, developed, ... more - theverge

Humanity is a brilliant puzzle game that never runs out of ideas

Image: Enhance For some people, the basic premise of Humanity will be enough to sell them on the game. You, in the role of an ethereal Shiba Inu, guide humans through a world of puzzles in a game designed in part by the minds behind games like Rez and ... more - theverge

TikTok will pay creators of viral filters and effects

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge For the first time, TikTok is introducing a fund for creators making viral effects and filters — but based on the proposed payout structure, creators won’t be getting rich anytime soon. TikTok’s Effect Creator ... more - theverge

The PlayStation VR2 is now available at more retailers

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The PlayStation VR2 may be leashed by a USB cable, but Sony is finally untethering its sales exclusivity hold on the virtual reality headset. After a low-key Twitter announcement that the PSVR 2 is coming to ... more - theverge

Google and Taito are teaming up on an AR Space Invaders game

Image: Google Google and Taito are partnering on a new augmented reality version of the arcade classic Space Invaders. The new game, Space Invaders: World Defense , will use Google tools like ARCore and newly-announced Geospatial Creator to let AR Space ... more - theverge

Meta is making life even harder for its metaverse creators

Image: Meta Meta will no longer let creators using its Horizon Worlds social VR playscape make dedicated events, the company announced as part of the platform’s v109 update notes on Tuesday. It’s a surprising shutdown of a feature that some creators ... more - theverge

Researchers hope this tiny wearable could become Smell-o-Vision for VR

These odor generators can either be stuck into a wearable mask or on a pill-shaped holder that adheres underneath the nose. | Image: Nature Communications Smells have always been hard to recreate in virtual reality, but researchers may have figured out ... more - theverge