This story is part of Making the Metaverse, CNET’s exploration of the next stage in the internet’s evolution. To get a sense of the promise of the metaverse, take a look at 3D Charades. The video game has a simple premise. Players gather in a cafe-like room and divide into teams. One player sketches an …
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After giving up on its virtual reality ambitions back in March of last year, it seems that Google is ready to enter the augmented reality space with its acquisition of Raxium, a startup dedicated to making MicroLED displays. Raxium is a five-year-old startup that’s made impressive strides in the field of augmented reality displays. The terms of the deal are …
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As VR and AR keep accelerating, companies making creative virtual world apps like Horizon Worlds and VRChat are finding a wild and sometimes hard-to-govern mix of user-made spaces that are sprouting up fast. In the world of AR, we might start seeing shared virtual experiences, too, overlaid with places in the physical world. Snap’s AR Landmarkers, which can layer AR …
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Quick show of hands: Who wants to spend $1,000 or more on a new phone? Not everyone, that’s for sure. That’s where devices like the iPhone SE come in, and this week Apple introduced the newest SE, priced at $429. As part of our coverage of the “Peek Performance” Apple event, CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco stacks up the iPhone SE against …
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A new wave of VR headsets is expected this year: the PlayStation VR 2, Meta’s pro-level VR headset called Project Cambria and maybe Apple’s long-rumored device. There’s one thing all of them will likely have in common: eye tracking. The kind of consumer VR headsets you could buy for everyday use haven’t had eye tracking before. Yes, there are headsets that …
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Apple is bullish on lidar, a technology that’s in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro, and Apple’s iPad Pro models since 2020. Look closely at the rear camera arrays on these devices and you’ll see a little black dot near the camera lenses, about the same size as the flash. That’s the lidar sensor, and it delivers a …
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Apparently, Meta (formerly Facebook) has renamed its VR product line, now also called Meta (formerly Oculus). This news, which was actually announced last fall, finally kicked up another notch now that more of the Oculus social accounts have flipped to Meta. It doesn’t matter to me, because I call it the Oculus Quest. I’m not alone. Plenty of my friends …
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Picking a new piece of furniture for your home can feel like solving a puzzle. Is that couch too big? Will a cow print bar stool clash with a granite countertop? Retailers and tech companies are boosting their use of augmented reality to help customers decide what products to buy. AR lets people superimpose a virtual image onto a view …
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What seemed likely months ago now seems even more so: Google is reportedly entering the AR headset race. What’s weird is that Google has already been here before. Years and years before. I wore Google Glass in 2013 on my train commute. It was my first pair of smart eyewear. I also used Google Daydream, Google’s VR goggles that worked …
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It’s only January, but 2022 is already shaping up to be a big year for augmented and virtual reality. It was one of the most prevalent themes at CES, which featured AR and VR announcements from Sony, Microsoft and Qualcomm (among others). Apple is also rumored to finally make its anticipated move into the smart headset space this or next …
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