The newly renamed Meta (previously Facebook) has big plans for fitness and the metaverse. Meta just acquired one of the Oculus Quest’s more notable subscription-based fitness companies, Within, which makes an Oculus app called Supernatural. The app connects with Apple Watches to track real-time heart rate, working similarly to Apple Fitness Plus and Amazon’s upcoming Halo …
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Oculus CTO skeptical about Facebook’s metaverse undertaking
Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to rebrand Facebook to Meta dominated headlines Thursday, and Zuckerberg spoke at length about his vision for the metaverse, a virtual world where people might someday work and socialize. Less noticed were skeptical remarks by John Carmack, consulting CTO at Facebook’s Oculus unit, which focuses on virtual reality. The occasion was the Facebook Connect conference on VR and …
Read More »Facebook says it’s developing true AR glasses
Facebook is working on a pair of true augmented reality glasses under an effort that it’s calling Project Nazaré. The social network announced the project during its Facebook Connect keynote on Thursday. The company says that while there’s still a lot of work to be done, people will eventually be able to use the glasses to do things like host an AR …
Read More »Facebook, pivoting to Meta, wants to pivot the Oculus Quest and AR too
The Oculus Quest (soon to be Meta Quest) started as a head-mounted game console, but now its parent company Facebook (renamed Meta) is trying to push the platform further by connecting with you across VR headsets, AR headsets, metaverse avatars and in other ways. The timing for the annual VR- and AR-focused Facebook Connect conference couldn’t be worse, with the …
Read More »Facebook, now Meta, shows off new neural interface tech during Connect conference
In Facebook’s original presentation of its Project Aria augmented reality camera experiment, the company showed off a thumb clicker for driving the prototype specs. On Thursday, Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, revealed a wrist-based neural interface to free your hands from this task. Neural interfaces are one of many ways Meta wants to approach how people control augmented reality headsets. …
Read More »Facebook renames itself Meta amid controversy
Facebook said Thursday it’s rebranding itself as Meta to reflect the company’s focus on building the metaverse, a virtual world where people work, play, learn and connect with their friends and family. Meta will be a new corporate brand that will preside over Facebook and its services including photo app Instagram, messaging app WhatsApp and its virtual and augmented reality …
Read More »Meta: Facebook’s new name focuses on metaverse
Facebook wants to look toward the future, and it’s taking on a new name to emphasize that. Facebook is renaming itself Meta. After weeks of intense scrutiny brought on after a whistleblower leaked thousands of internal research documents and memos to regulators, lawmakers and the press, Facebook tried to turn a page by focusing on its futuristic technology. To Mark …
Read More »Facebook parent company Meta’s next VR headset, Cambria, coming next year
Facebook (now rebranded as Meta) has a new VR headset in the works, but it’s not designed as a replacement to the Quest 2. Think of it more as a more expensive, future-forward pro model. At the company’s developer-focused Connect conference, amid broad news of the company’s plans for a cross-device metaverse and next-generation smart glasses (and a name change as …
Read More »Oculus Quest 2 is a great game console. Can it be more?
The year has gone by in a blink and, throughout it, Facebook’s VR headset remains one of my favorite pieces of tech. As Facebook pushes to reinvent itself, perhaps even rename itself amid recent turmoil, and makes a new wave of AR/VR communication the backbone of a metaverse, the Oculus Quest 2 seems like the little $300 device at the center …
Read More »Frances Haugen: Key moments from Facebook whistleblower’s UK parliamentary testimony
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was in London on Monday to provide evidence to a UK parliamentary committee analyzing the country’s incoming Online Safety Bill. The appearance came nearly a month after the former product engineer revealed herself as the person behind a leak of internal research that has brought new scrutiny upon the company — in particular regarding its safety systems. …
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