It’s 2021, and the iPad still isn’t entirely a Mac replacement for me. But it’s so, so close. The totally wild Kensington StudioDock pushes the iPad Pro far outside its normal tablet window, and that just makes me want Apple to close the gap and turn this thing into the Swiss Army computer it nearly …

Microsoft recently invited me to join mixed reality pioneer Alex Kipman, the company’s technical fellow for Windows mixed reality, in a one-on-one chat. The difference was it wasn’t on Zoom, or Teams: It was gathered around a virtual table that sprouted up in my home office. A holographic cartoon version of Kipman hovered in my space, and I walked around …

Virtual reality can track your body, your head and even your eyes. The rest of your face is next. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently discussed an interest in eye and face-tracking in VR to create more realistic avatars. Oculus headsets don’t have eye- or face-tracking technology yet (although the VR chip on the Quest 2 could handle it). But there’s a …

Facebook’s first pair of smart glasses is arriving this year. But for the next pair down the road, they may be connecting via your wrist. A new blog post by Facebook Reality Labs discusses the company’s next frontier of neural input technology. The company imagines that AR glasses will work alongside a soft wristband that will measure hand and finger gestures, …

The Oculus Quest 2 just got one of its best games in a while, and I’m embarrassed to say it exhausted me. Maybe I need to get out more, but the rock-climbing game The Climb 2, a sequel to a classic VR game that’s been out for years, is stunning and beautiful and surprisingly stressful. Crytek’s Quest 2 game feels …

The PlayStation 5 is getting a new VR headset, though not this year. In the meantime, Sony’s unveiled a batch of new PSVR games on Wednesday. The theme of most of them: shoot stuff fast. Shooters aren’t my favorite VR genre (I prefer puzzles, mysteries, strange worlds). But several of the games announced also promise multiplayer and cross-play functions, as well …

I entertained a guest at home last week, but he wasn’t really there.  I had a Microsoft HoloLens 2 on my head, visor down, in my dusty upstairs office. Hovering in the room was a holographic table. And then, a cartoon avatar of Alex Kipman, Microsoft’s technical fellow in charge of mixed reality. I met him in the real world …

Someday, maybe, you’ll be playing Pokemon Go in a park, and a friend will find you and ask to join. Except they’ll be somewhere else, and they’ll join you as a hologram. You’ll play side by side. Will they be in your space, or will you be in their space? How exactly will that work? Pokemon Go defined the idea …

Back in 2016, VR was suddenly a Big Thing. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive promised immersive trips to other worlds on PCs. That same year, Sony released the PlayStation VR for the PS4, bringing reasonably priced virtual reality to a living room game console. Five years is a long time, but Sony has announced a follow-up to its VR …

If you’re a Nintendo Switch owner in 2021, you might be waiting for the next big game. But Nintendo’s slate of titles, at least the ones we know about, feels a little thin. The second big Nintendo Switch game this year (after Super Mario 3D World) is here, and it’s Bravely Default 2. You, the casual Switch game-player, might be saying, …