Apple is planning smart glasses with and without AR

Apple has “made progress” on a chip for potential smart glasses that would be competitors to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, according to Bloomberg . The chip is apparently based on the chips Apple uses for the Apple Watch, though the company has removed ... more - theverge

Minecraft’s VR support is now gone

Minecraft’s official support for virtual reality and mixed reality devices is over. Mojang announced last year that Minecraft would stop supporting VR headsets after March 2025, and per today’s Minecraft: Bedrock Edition 1.21.80 Update patch notes, that ... more - theverge

Here are our favorite deals from Amazon’s annual gaming sale

Amazon’s annual Gaming Week celebration kicked off on Monday, April 28th, and will run through Sunday, May 4th. Whether you’re looking for a new headset, an internal SSD, or other gaming essentials, there are plenty of deals to explore. That being said, ... more - theverge

Natasha Lyonne to direct and star in a new sci-fi film created with generative AI

Poker Face ’s Natasha Lyonne has a new project in the works that seemed poised to become a case study in the debate about how and whether Hollywood should be using generative AI. Lyonne is teaming up with technologist and virtual reality pioneer Jaron ... more - theverge

The DJI Phantom is no more

In 2019, DJI insisted to me that it wasn’t killing off the Phantom, its iconic line of oft-imitated drones that turned the Chinese company into the powerhouse it is today. And yet, DJI has just announced the end of life for its final two Phantom drones ... more - theverge

Meta is laying off employees in Reality Labs

Meta has laid off an unspecified number of employees in its Reality Labs division, a company spokesperson confirmed. The cuts affected teams working in Oculus Studios, Meta's in-house games division for Quest headsets, as well as some employees involved ... more - theverge

Verizon’s consumer chief: Net neutrality ‘went literally nowhere’

Today, I’m talking with Verizon consumer CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath, who goes by “Sampath.” As CEO of Verizon’s consumer division, Sampath oversees the biggest part of the business: Verizon Wireless, which has more than 115 million wireless connections, ... more - theverge

Kill your crewmates in 3D when Among Us 3D launches in May

An emergency meeting has been called to announce Among Us 3D will launch on May 6th. The game was originally planned to be a VR-exclusive before the development crew at Innersloth and Schell Games pivoted to making this version of the game accessible ... more - theverge

The Meta Quest 3S just got its first discount

Due to the fluctuating tariff situation, a lot of people are seriously mulling over tech purchases they might otherwise be content to put off for a while. And it makes sense. While I don’t endorse panic buying, your reasons for buying now are more justified ... more - theverge

Sonos appoints software veteran Hugo Barra to its board after app troubles

As Sonos continues a company-wide effort to redeem itself after last year’s app snafu, it’s adding a well-known industry name to its board of directors. This morning, Sonos announced that Hugo Barra is joining the board to replace Mike Volpi, who is ... more - theverge

Nikon’s full-frame Z5 II upgrades autofocus and shooting speeds

The Nikon Z5 II includes an upgraded LCD touchscreen that can now flip out sideways and rotage. | Image: Nikon Five years after Nikon released its entry-level and more affordable alternative to its original Z7 and Z6 full-frame cameras, the company is ... more - theverge

Nintendo goes in-depth on Switch 2 backward compatibility

At numerous points during today’s Nintendo Switch 2 event stream, fine print at the bottom of the screen directed viewers to Nintendo’s website for the full details on which original Switch titles will be supported by the new console. As it turns out, ... more - theverge

Here’s more of what you’ll see through Meta’s $1,000 smart glasses

Meta is reportedly preparing a higher-end version of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses with a built-in screen to launch as early as by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports. The new glasses, codenamed Hypernova, can run apps and display photos, all controlled ... more - theverge

CEO Matt Bromberg on ending Unity’s ‘war’ against its customers

Today, I’m talking with Matt Bromberg, who is the CEO of Unity, one of the leading video game development platforms. He’s been in the job for less than a year, and in many ways, he is the perfect Decoder guest. Unity is one of those companies that we ... more - theverge

Meta Quest might add single window screensharing in VR soon

A yet-to-be-launched “share” feature for Meta Quest VR headsets might have been spotted inside the operating system’s code. The new feature might allow you to share views of single 2D windows on your headset with other Quest users, according to UploadVR ... more - theverge

The Apple Watch may get cameras and Apple Intelligence

The Apple Watch Series 10. Apple is working on adding cameras to the Apple Watch in order to enable AI features like Visual Intelligence within the next two years, according to Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On Newsletter . The cameras will ... more - theverge

Bigscreen’s super light Beyond 2 headset adds optional eye-tracking

The Bigscreen Beyond 2 with a clear cover shell. Bigscreen has just revealed the Beyond 2, a custom-fit virtual-reality headset with a 116-degree field of view it claims is wider than the Meta Quest 3 and Valve Index. The wired headset weighs just 107 ... more - theverge

The EU wants Apple to open these iOS features to other gadgets

The European Union has outlined exactly how Apple needs to improve the interoperability of iOS, and the guidance reveals which features could be available to other smartwatches, headphones, and speakers. The specifications adopted by the European Commission ... more - theverge

Snap’s AR Spectacles now support a virtual keyboard and GPS

Snap’s AR Spectacles can now access location data so they can point you to your destination. | Screenshot: Snap Six months after introducing its fifth-generation Spectacles and the second version featuring AR capabilities, Snap has announced new features ... more - theverge

The Google graveyard: all the products Google has shut down

Google releases a lot of products, but it shuts down a lot of them, too. Some didn’t deserve to be discontinued (we pine for the days of Reader and Inbox), and some probably weren’t long for this world from the start. (What was Google Wave supposed to ... more - theverge

Snapchat is rolling out AI-powered video lenses

Snapchat Platinum subscribers will now be able to use video lenses featuring AI generated animals or flowers, Snap announced today. There will initially be three of the lenses, which Snap calls “AI Video Lenses.” The fox lens, for example, can have a ... more - theverge

All the news about daily puzzle games

There’s a lot of interest in daily puzzle games right now. The New York Times has a great collection of games like its crossword, Wordle , Connections , and Strands . Apple is in the mix with crosswords and more in Apple News Plus. Zach Gage’s puzzle ... more - theverge

Pokémon Go developer Niantic to sell gaming business to Saudi group

Niantic Labs has announced that it’s selling its video game division to Saudi Arabia-owned mobile developer Scopely for $3.5 billion after struggling to replicate the success of Pokémon Go across its other AR games. The newly inked agreement includes ... more - theverge

All the news about Netflix’s gaming efforts

Netflix is making a big push into video games. The company first dabbled in games with interactive titles like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and a Carmen Sandiego game. But starting in 2021, it made gaming a much bigger priority — Netflix hired a former ... more - theverge

One of my favorite pop albums is a video game — and now it’s on the PS5

Of all of my favorite games, Sayonara Wild Hearts might be the hardest to describe. It’s a rhythm game, but also you ride on a motorcycle and a dragon, wield giant swords while dodging fireballs, and teleport to a retrofuturistic VR world. It’s structured ... more - theverge

Sesame is the first voice assistant I’ve ever wanted to talk to more than once

I tell Amazon’s Alexa to shut up on a near daily basis. I have almost zero interest in speaking to Gemini after our first awkward chat. The hitches, misunderstandings, and lag in any given AI “conversation” mean I’m always wasting time speaking when ... more - theverge

Sony drops PlayStation VR 2 price to $399

Sony is cutting the price of its PlayStation VR 2 headset in March. The VR 2 will be discounted to just $399.99, down from the original $549 pricing when it launched in February 2023. The headset will also see a price cut in Europe (€449.99), the UK ... more - theverge

iPhone 16E review: Eh, it’s alright

The cheapest iPhone still feels about $100 too expensive. The iPhone 16E is everything I love and hate about iOS. FaceTime at your fingertips. A reliable camera. Simplicity. Familiarity. They’re the pillars of the iPhone experience, and Apple’s newest ... more - theverge

Apple will fix many Vision Pro pain points in visionOS 2.4

The Vision Pro app for iOS will let you find new content and queue up downloads for the headset. One of the big problems with a VR headset is that anything you want to do, you have to do inside it. Apple is looking to tackle that and other Vision Pro ... more - theverge

Among Us 3D will let you deduce from a first-person perspective

Those little Among Us beans are being transported to a new dimension . Developer Innersloth has announced a new game called Among Us 3D , which is exactly what it sounds like: the hit multiplayer deduction game, but played in a three-dimensional world ... more - theverge