Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack is down to its lowest price yet

Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack is compatible with all iPhone 12 and 13 models. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Today marks one week since Black Friday (good riddance). The shopping weekend and Thanksgiving holiday may already feel as though they happened ... more - theverge

Why the metaverse is more than Mark Zuckerberg’s dream

Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The company formerly known as Facebook has bet big on the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg hyped the already popular term in October, when he changed the company’s name to Meta and led viewers through its dizzying vision of ... more - theverge

The latest Quest update brings cloud backups and a mixed reality view

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta has delivered a new batch of features for Quest headsets in an update rolling out today. The changes include cloud backups, a mixed reality camera mode, and other settings that round out the Quest’s already ... more - theverge

Apple’s AR headset coming next year with ‘Mac-level’ power: report

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s first AR headset will be released in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a research note from analyst Ming-chi Kuo seen by MacRumors and 9to5Mac . Kuo predicted back in March that the headset would ... more - theverge

Make your Oculus Quest 2 fit — and sound— better with these discounted mods

This is what your headset will look like with these discounted modifications. The Oculus Quest 2 is an all-around solid piece of hardware, and it’s a very popular holiday gift since there are some great deals happening now. But anyone who already owns ... more - theverge

Early Black Friday 2021 gaming deals: games, accessories, and more

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gamers are served up all kinds of great deals throughout the year. It’s not uncommon for recently released games to drop as much as 20 percent off in the first few months of release or to snag the occasional one-off ... more - theverge

Niantic and a crypto debit card company made an AR game where you earn Bitcoin

Have you ever played Pokémon Go and thought, “I wish this game let you earn small amounts of Bitcoin by engaging with internet finance memes and a cryptocurrency debit card system?” If so, I don’t believe you, but I have good news. Fold AR is a new augmented ... more - theverge

Hitman 3 VR is coming to PC in 2022

Photo by IO Interactive Hitman 3 VR will become available on PC next year, according to an announcement by game developer IO Interactive, which outlines the roadmap of content that players can expect in Hitman 3 ’s second year. We're excited to announce ... more - theverge

Walmart is now delivering diapers and food by drone (if you live close to this Arkansas store)

Just last week, Walmart made headlines by launching its first commercial US drone delivery service within a 50-mile radius of Pea Ridge, Arkansas — dropping parachute-laden packages from an autonomous Zipline plane to a “hand-selected group of recipients.” ... more - theverge

Leaked Resident Evil 4 VR video suggests free Mercenaries DLC will arrive in 2022

Capcom A leaked video suggests that Resident Evil 4 VR may be getting a free update that adds The Mercenaries mode in 2022, first spotted by UploadVR . According to the report, a trailer for the highly-requested Mercenaries mode briefly appeared on the ... more - theverge

The Oculus Quest 2 comes with a free $50 gift card starting today

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Oculus Quest 2 standalone VR headset is a great value at its regular $299.99 price. It comes with 128GB of onboard storage, and once you log in with your Facebook account, there’s little else standing in ... more - theverge

Nreal’s $599 mixed reality glasses are launching in the US on Verizon

Nreal Nreal’s augmented reality glasses are coming to the US through a Verizon partnership. The $599 Nreal Light glasses will appear in 20 Verizon stores nationwide on November 30th and be available for purchase online December 2nd. The glasses are compatible ... more - theverge

Mario Kart Live’s 2.0 update makes multiplayer much easier and cheaper

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit , Nintendo’s AR-powered Mario Kart game that lets you race physical toy karts around your home with the Nintendo Switch, just got updated to version 2.0 with a much-requested feature: splitscreen local multiplayer. Previously, ... more - theverge

HaptX says Meta copied its patented design for haptic glove

Meta Reality Labs Haptics company HaptX claims Meta (formerly Facebook) copied its patented designs in a glove that the tech giant revealed yesterday. HaptX — a longtime player in the virtual and augmented reality industry — says parts of the glove appear ... more - theverge

Meta’s sci-fi haptic glove prototype lets you feel VR objects using air pockets

Meta Reality Labs You cannot pet a dog in Meta’s new, high-tech virtual reality gloves. But researchers are getting closer. Meta (formerly Facebook) is known for its high-profile moves into virtual and augmented reality. For seven years, though, it’s ... more - theverge

VR treatment for chronic pain gets FDA authorization

Applied VR The Food and Drug Administration authorized a virtual reality system as a prescription treatment for chronic back pain, the agency announced today. The therapy, called EaseVRx, joins the short list of digital therapeutics cleared by the agency ... more - theverge

Meta CTO thinks bad metaverse moderation could pose an ‘existential threat’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta (formerly Facebook) CTO Andrew Bosworth warned employees that creating safe virtual reality experiences was a vital part of its business plan — but also potentially impossible at a large scale. In an internal ... more - theverge

HTC’s Vive Focus 3 update could free arcades from VR backpacks

Photo by Adi Robertson / The Verge HTC is adding a few big updates to its Vive Focus 3 virtual reality headset, aiming to make it better for big, free-roaming multiplayer VR games. The Vive Focus 3 — a $1,300 non-consumer-focused wireless headset — is ... more - theverge

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces try to make it easier to get apps ready for augmented reality

Image: Qualcomm While a lot of talk about the metaverse has focused on virtual reality experiences that use a VR headset to put people in digital environments, other approaches use augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (XR) to blend digital and physical ... more - theverge

Niantic launches platform to build ‘real-world metaverse’ apps

Niantic Niantic is releasing a platform for building what it calls “real-world metaverse” apps. Called Lightship, the platform is “built around the parts necessary to stitch together the digital and the real world,” CEO John Hanke tells me. According ... more - theverge

Riot swapped a live show for a massive music video at Worlds 2021

Every year, one of the highlights of the League of Legends World Championship is the opening ceremonies. It’s been a regular chance for developer Riot to create a real-world spectacle ahead of the big game. In the past that’s meant everything from holographic ... more - theverge

There will never be another Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go. | Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Creating a follow-up to Pokémon Go is an impossible task. The game was the kind of breakout success that had never been seen before — and might never happen again; it’s hard to overstate how the game was ... more - theverge

The latest Oculus Quest update will help to prevent accidental dog punching

“Watch out, kid. You’re in my guardian.” | Meta Fresh off of Meta’s Connect 2021 keynote, where Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was announced for Quest 2, the company announced the latest set of software feature updates arriving on Quest and Quest 2 headsets ... more - theverge

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is shutting down next year

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Niantic, the developers of the smash hit Pokémon Go , will be shutting down its Harry Potter-themed AR game Harry Potter: Wizard’s Unite on January 31st, 2022. The game will be pulled from the App Store, Google Play, ... more - theverge

Microsoft is planning 3D metaverse apps for Xbox and gaming

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft just announced its Microsoft Teams metaverse for meetings and video calls, but the company also has plans for gaming and entertainment. Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the software ... more - theverge

The next privacy crisis

Imagine a world where you barely notice the barriers between digital and physical space. Instead of looking at a TV or phone, you have a pair of glasses that can project a screen anywhere. You can seamlessly pull up translations for any street sign or ... more - theverge

Fitness app Supernatural is becoming part of Meta after Facebook touts VR fitness

Image: Supernatural Meta has announced that the studio behind VR workout game Supernatural will be joining the company, adding to the roster of studios owned by what used to be known as Facebook’s Oculus division. The company says that Within, the company ... more - theverge

Nilay Patel on Facebook’s reckoning with reality—and the metaverse-size problems yet to come

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge ‘It might well be unsolvable’ Continue reading… ... more - theverge

SteelSeries’ latest headsets have better battery life and USB-C charging

The Arctis 7P Plus is available in white or black. | SteelSeries SteelSeries’ new Arctis 7 Plus and 7P Plus wireless headsets have two key improvements over their predecessors: better battery life, going up to 30 hours per charge from 24 hours with three ... more - theverge

Will the Oculus Quest still require a Facebook account? It’s complicated

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook (which is now called Meta) knows a lot of virtual reality headset owners hate logging in with Facebook. Requiring Facebook logins created bad blood almost immediately and even accidentally locked some ... more - theverge