This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. The future of VR might be glasses-sized. Shiftall, a division of Panasonic, revealed a pair of compact goggles that use MicroOLED displays and seem a lot closer to smart glasses than the Oculus Quest 2. Oh, …

This story is part of The Year Ahead, CNET’s look at how the world will continue to evolve starting in 2022 and beyond. At the end of August, I was strapped into a complicated headset that showed me a wild test-drive of the future. A $5,000 lidar-equipped headset was on my head, wired with a tangle of cables to a …

This story is part of The Year Ahead, CNET’s look at how the world will continue to evolve starting in 2022 and beyond. I had every intention of wearing Meta’s (Facebook) Ray-Ban Stories glasses, equipped with cameras, microphones and speakers, as my everyday glasses. Then something funny happened on the way to the optical shop.  At Lenscrafters, they wouldn’t install …

I was invited to connect with the creators of Spatial, a social metaverse meeting space app I’ve used many times. But this time, we weren’t using VR headsets. We were just connecting on my laptop, looking at NFT virtual homes. Is this where metaverse strategies are heading next year? Spatial was one of the early explorers of workplace meeting areas …

It’s been two years since Facebook — now Meta — first showed off its VR metaverse app, Horizon Worlds. The app, which was in private beta until now, is at last open to the public starting Thursday. The virtual meeting space and gaming hub is a familiar mix of existing VR social apps such as Rec Room, AltSpace VR and VRChat, but its …

Apple’s support for NFC keys with iOS 15 suggests a world where keys will start living on your iPhone more often, but support for the feature has been gradual. Certain BMW cars already allow iPhones to double as car keys. Now some Hyatt hotels are adding the feature, too, using a slightly different process. Six Hyatt locations are adding support …

I finally got to try Snap’s AR glasses in my own backyard, testing a handful of its augmented-reality Lenses in bright outdoor light. The hour or so I spent with them was like a quick sprint through the possible future of how developers will play with AR beyond the current phone-powered experiences. I was able to try out a handful …

The Apple Watch Series 7 has some new features, a bigger screen and upped durability. It charges a bit faster, apps load quickly and is fitted with WatchOS 8. But as I flick through it and its watch faces, I have to ask myself: Has anything really changed?  Of course things have changed, a bit. But the newest Apple Watch …

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas. The metaverse is happening now! Or it’s already happened. The metaverse is gaming. It’s virtual reality. It’s a marketing term. It’s Web 3.0. It’s Facebook’s quick-change identity shift to Meta. Or, of course, it’s still a decade away. I’ve been covering VR and AR for years, …

VR visuals can only look so good, given current display technology, and we may already be approaching their limit. But what about our other senses? Facebook parent Meta’s dream of an immersive metaverse makes big promises, but current VR interactivity is limited. The Oculus Quest’s controllers, for example, still feel more appropriate for gaming than work. After immersive video, mixed …