Amazon is opening a hair salon in London to trial new technology

Amazon’s latest bricks-and-mortar experiment is, unexpectedly, a hair salon. The company is opening its Amazon Salon in London’s East End Spitalfields area, where it says it will trial “the latest industry technology.” This includes an augmented reality ... more - theverge

Fitness-focused HTC Vive Air VR headset revealed in new leaks

Images of an upcoming fitness-focused virtual reality headset from HTC, dubbed the Vive Air, have leaked online. Details about the product were published by the World Design Guide (which we spotted via Engadget ) as part of its annual awards. It seems ... more - theverge

Google adds Pac-Man, Hello Kitty, Gundam mechs, and more to AR search

Google has added a bunch of popular Japanese characters to its AR feature in mobile search, which has previously featured animals, historical artifacts, and dinosaurs. The list of characters is taken from Japanese pop culture including anime, TV, and ... more - theverge

The Oculus Quest 2 headset comes with a free accessory at Newegg

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’re hunting for an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, Newegg has an appealing sale happening on bundles that will net you a free accessory. For $350, you can get the 64GB headset (normally $300 by itself) with ... more - theverge

Facebook says no ‘Oculus Quest Pro’ this year

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Andrew Bosworth, VP at Facebook’s Reality Labs, has given some more hints as to what’s in store for future Oculus hardware. In an audio Q&A with John Carmack on Twitter Spaces transcribed by UploadVR , ... more - theverge

A Resident Evil 4 VR remake is launching on Oculus Quest 2

Capcom Resident Evil 4 will be rereleased in virtual reality on the Oculus Quest 2 headset. Resident Evil 4’s VR remake will be a collaboration between series publisher Capcom, Oculus parent company Facebook, and the independent studio Armature. While ... more - theverge

Oculus now allows developers to sell subscriptions to their Quest apps and games

Rec Room is a popular VR app Developers who have apps or games on the Oculus Store can now sell recurring subscriptions to their titles, as opposed to offering them for a one-time fee or choosing to handle the subscription process independently. This ... more - theverge

The next Oculus Quest 2 update brings native wireless PC streaming and a 120Hz mode

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Oculus is announcing that wireless PC streaming, a 120Hz refresh rate, and improvements to Infinite Office will be coming to the Oculus Quest 2 with the v28 software update, which the company says will be rolling ... more - theverge

The best thing to do in VR is work out

Photo illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge | Photo by Brian Ach / Getty Images Entertainment Supernatural founder Chris Milk on the future of fitness Continue reading… ... more - theverge

How Disney’s ‘real’ lightsaber patent actually works

Josh D’Amaro (Instagram) A real lightsaber. How is that possible? It’s probably not, of course. But when Disney Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro ended his April 8th presentation by whipping out a never-before-seen retractable lightsaber — no video evidence, ... more - theverge

Grab a full year of PlayStation Plus for only $27

PlayStation Plus is available for both PS4 and PS5 owners . | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you managed to get your hands on a PS5 — or you own a PS4 — and you want to renew your PlayStation Plus membership, Eneba is offering a great deal, with ... more - theverge

Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag Plus with UWB to track items with AR is out April 16th

Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag Plus, the souped-up version of the company’s Tile-like SmartTag Bluetooth tracker (which was released earlier this year), now has a release date: it’ll be out on April 16th for $39.99. That’s a $10 price increase over the standard ... more - theverge

Google’s new AR toy fulfills the childhood dream of digging a hole to the other side of the Earth

Image: Google If you’ve ever wondered where you’d end up if you were to transport directly to the other side of the Earth, Google now has a browser-based AR toy that lets you find out. It calls the site Floom, and the experience is pretty simple: you ... more - theverge

Humble Bundle’s latest offer packs in $215 worth of VR games for $15

Job Simulator, HTC Vive Humble Bundle has launched its latest bundle of games that collects proceeds and sends them to a charity of your choosing. This one’s full of nothing but VR titles, and the minimum contribution required to get everything in the ... more - theverge

Western Digital’s fast 1TB NVMe SSD is $50 off at B&H Photo

Western Digital’s 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD with PCIe 4.0 support in compatible motherboards is cheaper than ever at B&H Photo and the company’s own site. It originally sold for $230, but you can get one now for $180. There are cheaper SSDs that have 1TB ... more - theverge

Facebook says it’s no longer replenishing Oculus Rift S supplies

Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge Facebook says Oculus Rift S headsets “generally” won’t be replenished as they disappear from store shelves, marking the end of the virtual reality system’s life span. As UploadVR reported yesterday, Facebook has confirmed ... more - theverge

Tim Cook says Apple wants to use AR to make conversations better

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Apple CEO Tim Cook rarely provides details on unannounced products, but he offered some hints about Apple’s thinking on augmented reality and cars in an interview with Kara Swisher for The New York Times this morning. ... more - theverge

Vergecast: WWDC rumors, Clubhouse competition, and the cookiepocalypse

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast , where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. This week, Nilay and Dieter talk with Verge ... more - theverge

Doom 3 for PSVR is a solid showcase for Sony’s Aim Controller

Doom 3 has a long history with VR, so it’s a little surprising that this week’s PlayStation VR release is the first version ever to go on sale. Almost nine years ago, we visited Id Software luminary John Carmack to see his duct-taped prototype “Oculus ... more - theverge

Microsoft is supplying 120,000 HoloLens-based headsets to the US Army

Image: US Army Microsoft has won a contract to supply the US Army with HoloLens-based headsets. The contract could be worth up to $21.88 billion over 10 years, and CNBC reports that it will involve Microsoft supplying 120,000 headsets. The software maker ... more - theverge

This might be your last chance to get a deal on Super Mario 3D All-Stars

As it promised, Nintendo will pull Super Mario 3D All-Stars , the Switch compilation featuring Super Mario 64 , Super Mario Sunshine , and Super Mario Galaxy , from shelves at the end of the day — both digital and physical. This final day in March 2021 ... more - theverge

Snapchat’s Spectacles might become true AR glasses this time — and there’s a drone

The first generation Snap Spectacles. Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is planning to continue its push into hardware devices with a new pair of augmented-reality glasses and a drone, according to a report by The Information . The Spectacles will reportedly ... more - theverge

Apple WWDC 2021 announced as online-only event

Apple just announced that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place on June 7th through June 11th this year, and that like last year it will be an online-only event. The announcement, as is typical for Apple, is opaque when it comes ... more - theverge

Google is making some big upgrades to directions in Google Maps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is announcing a bunch of new features planned for Google Maps, including a new tool to help with indoor navigation and suggestions for eco-friendly driving routes. The features announced today aren’t rolling ... more - theverge

Sony’s next batch of free PS4 and PS5 games is now available

Sony’s “Play at Home” initiative continues with a huge stack of excellent games, including Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Subnautica , that are free to own for a limited time. No PlayStation Plus membership is required, meaning you can keep these games ... more - theverge

Rec Room rides uptick in users during the pandemic to become a VR unicorn

Rec Room Gaming platform Rec Room is now a unicorn, valued at $1.25 billion during a recent funding round of $100 million. It appears to be one of the first, if not the first, virtual reality-focused startup to achieve unicorn status, a notable feat ... more - theverge

Save $150 on the original price of Sony’s 1000XM4 headphones at eBay

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge I usually prefer to highlight the best deals you can get on new tech, but sometimes a refurbished deal is good enough to make the grade. Sony’s 1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones haven’t slipped below $278 new (down from ... more - theverge

Half-Life: Alyx is 40 percent off for the first time

Image: Valve Valve is celebrating the anniversary of its launch of Half-Life: Alyx by offering the best price yet on the VR-exclusive game at Steam. Normally $60 (and worth every penny), you can snag it for $36, totaling a 40 percent discount that lasts ... more - theverge

Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset will reportedly weigh less than an iPhone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset could weigh less than 150 grams, which would make it much lighter than many other headsets on the market, according to a new research note from Apple analyst Ming-Chi ... more - theverge

This Friday is a ‘Monster Hunter Holiday’ at one Japanese game studio

It’s a big cultural moment in Japan when a new Monster Hunter game releases, especially when it’s made for portable consoles. Monster Hunter: Rise is one of those, releasing this Friday, March 26th for the Nintendo Switch, then coming later to PC in ... more - theverge