The startup trying to augment audio reality in public spaces

Spatial Studio | Spatial A startup called Spatial is unveiling its first suite of products today, focused on creating audio experiences that are immersive, interactive, and automatically generated. The products themselves are a little complicated to ... more - theverge

Pikmin is the next AR game from the makers of Pokémon Go

Image: Niantic Niantic, developer of the smash hit Pokémon Go , has announced a new partnership with Nintendo. The first new game from the collaboration will be a mobile augmented reality game based on Nintendo’s popular Pikmin franchise, and it will ... more - theverge

Gucci designed virtual sneakers for hypebeasts in Roblox and VRChat

Gucci is diving into virtual luxury footwear with a new exclusively digital pair of sneakers called The Gucci Virtual 25 that can be “worn” in augmented reality (AR) or used in partnered apps like Roblox and VRChat. Surprisingly, the shoes are a lot ... more - theverge

Super Nintendo World is sensory overload

Nintendo’s theme park is finally open Continue reading… ... more - theverge

Facebook shows off how you’ll use its neural wristbands with AR glasses

Facebook has offered a glimpse inside its plans for a new augmented reality interface, based on technology from CTRL-Labs, the startup it acquired in 2019. In a video, it shows off wristbands that use electromyography (EMG) to translate subtle neural ... more - theverge

Amazon’s Echo Show 8 smart display is over 40 percent off at several retailers

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon’s Echo Show 8 is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $75 right now. While this is not its lowest price ever (the previous best price was only $5 less), it is still an incredible deal on the normally $130 ... more - theverge

Sony is giving away Horizon Zero Dawn and a bundle of great indie games for free

As part of its “Play at Home” initiative, Sony has announced the next 10 games it is giving away completely for free to PlayStation owners, including Horizon Zero Dawn and indie darlings, such as Enter the Gungeon and The Witness. Incredibly, all of ... more - theverge

Microsoft reiterates ‘VR for console is not a focus for us’ following localization bug

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has once again reiterated that VR support for Xbox was not a focus for the company, following reports earlier today that hinted it was working on a VR headset compatible with the Xbox Series X / S. The ... more - theverge

Almost a fifth of Facebook employees are now working on VR and AR: report

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook has nearly 10,000 employees in its division working on augmented reality and virtual reality devices, according to a report in The Information based on internal organizational data. The number means ... more - theverge

Text Adventures: how Twine remade gaming

In the video game Howling Dogs , released in 2012, players wake up in a prison with few options: a shower, a nutrient dispenser, a garbage chute, and a recreation room with a virtual reality headset. For the first few clicks, all you can do is navigate ... more - theverge

HTC announces Vive Pro lip tracking module and new VR body trackers

Image: HTC HTC has announced a new set of trackers for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including one that captures facial expressions and mouth movements. The $129.99 Vive Facial Tracker attaches to the Vive Pro headset. It uses two cameras and an ... more - theverge

Sonos partners with Audi to bring its audio tech to cars

A Sonos-branded speaker inside Audi’s new TV, the Q4 E-Tron. | Image: Audi Sonos has partnered with Audi to equip the automaker’s Q4 E-Tron with sound, a first for the California-based audio company best known for home speakers. The news was confirmed ... more - theverge

HTC may be teasing the release of a VR lip tracker for Vive headsets

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge HTC may be teasing new modules and attachments for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including a lip tracker, UploadVR reports . HTC’s been building up to some kind of announcement on its Vive Twitter account ... more - theverge

Mark Zuckerberg says realistic avatars are Facebook’s next big VR bet

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook’s future virtual reality headsets should capture users’ facial expressions for more realistic digital avatars, says CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In a podcast interview for The Information , Zuckerberg expounded ... more - theverge

Apple mixed-reality headset likely coming sometime in 2022, analyst predicts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts in a new research note that Apple will release a “helmet-type” mixed reality headset next year, augmented reality glasses in mid-2025, and an AR contact lens product by 2030-2040, ... more - theverge

Gaming ruled this week’s best deals

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge This was another week of gaming dominating our deals coverage. That’s mostly because my colleague Taylor Lyles has been diligently keeping readers in the know about every (fleeting, sadly) restocking of the ... more - theverge

Get a refurbished Oculus Quest with a one-year warranty for under $200 today

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Oculus released its first-generation Quest VR headset in 2019, and it quickly became a sought-after head-mounted display, if you were looking to play virtual reality games without being tethered to a gaming ... more - theverge

Sony announces six PlayStation VR games, including Doom 3 for VR

Sony has announced a new slate of PlayStation VR games for later this year. It includes a virtual reality adaptation of Doom 3 , as well as titles from a few successful VR studios and a couple of relative newcomers to VR. Sony announced a new generation ... more - theverge

Microsoft Mesh feels like the virtual future of Microsoft Teams meetings

Microsoft Mesh enables shared virtual experiences. | Image: Microsoft Last week, Microsoft’s Alex Kipman, the inventor of Kinect and HoloLens, appeared in my living room to hand me jellyfish and sharks. That might sound like I had a weird dream, but ... more - theverge

Google is boosting AR performance on Android phones with dual cameras

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google is updating its augmented reality SDK so that phones with dual cameras can capture better depth information. As noted by Android Police , the most recent update to the Google Play Services for AR app, which is ... more - theverge

Sony winds down Japan Studio to focus on Astro’s Playroom team

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony has confirmed that Japan Studio, its internal video game developer based in Tokyo, will essentially wind down and refocus around a single team. In a statement to IGN, Japan Studio said as of April 1st it would be ... more - theverge

Get an Oculus Quest 2 at Newegg and score a gift card for up to $20

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Oculus Quest 2 standalone VR headset has been tough to find throughout the pandemic. Several retailers now have it back in stock, but only at Newegg can you snag one and get a complimentary gift card with ... more - theverge

The Framework Laptop is an upgradable, customizable 13-inch notebook coming this spring

Framework A San Francisco-based startup called Framework has just launched an ambitious project: a thin, lightweight productivity laptop that it claims can be “upgraded, customized, and repaired in ways that no other notebook can.” Framework founder ... more - theverge

Museum Alive is dioramas but AR, with narration by David Attenborough

Museum Alive includes three exhibits that bring extinct creatures back to life. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Remember dioramas? They were the friggin’ best. I’d jump on any excuse to grab a shoebox, fire up the hot glue gun (okay, Dad handled ... more - theverge

New Oculus Quest feature lets you mark your actual couch in VR

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A new Oculus Quest feature expands the headset’s Guardian mode by letting you mark your real couch as an object that’ll show up in VR. The Guardian is an Oculus safety feature that lets you draw lines around ... more - theverge

Qualcomm’s new AR ‘Smart Viewer’ lets you pin virtual screens to your walls

Qualcomm Chip maker Qualcomm has introduced a new reference design for augmented reality glasses: an AR “smart viewer” you can tether to a phone or PC via USB-C. Called the XR1 Smart Viewer, the system is meant to be lightweight and look (sort of) like ... more - theverge

Make your own speedy USB-C drive for cheap with this $100 SanDisk 1TB NVMe SSD

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales There’s a wide variety of deals happening in the tech space, including TVs, computer components, and more. Starting with a gadget that’ll give you some fast transfer speeds, SanDisk’s Ultra 1TB NVMe SSD is $100 at Best ... more - theverge

Sony announces next-gen VR headset for the PS5

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is working on a next-generation VR headset for the PS5. The headset won’t launch this year, but Sony is announcing early plans to make it available on the PS5 at some point in the future. Sony’s new VR headset will ... more - theverge

Samsung imagines how its first AR glasses might look in these leaked concept videos

Samsung has been toying with AR glasses for years, most recently trotting out an extremely basic set of image-projecting goggles on the CES 2020 stage, but I’ve never seen the company suggest it might like to build an actually ambitious augmented reality ... more - theverge

Facebook’s Oculus begins rolling out multiuser support, starting with the Quest 2

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook is now rolling out multiuser support as an experimental feature for Oculus Quest 2 headsets, the company announced on Thursday. The primary account holder will be able to add up to three additional ... more - theverge