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HTC ‘Looking Into’ Iphone And Laptop Support For Vive Flow

From uploadvr

HTC is “looking into” iPhone and laptop support for its upcoming VR headset, the Vive Flow, but they won’t be included at launch.

Currently, you need to connect an Android smartphone to the Flow via a native app. This allows you not only to control experiences by using your handset as a motion controller similar to those for the Gear VR or Oculus Go but also to use Miracast to bring your phone’s screen and features into VR. From there you can watch media apps like YouTube and Netflix.

HTC Vive Flow iPhone Support Under Investigation

But HTC explained to UploadVR that iPhone doesn’t support Miracast, and thus a crucial feature of the device would be missing. Finding a way around this issue would be tough.

That said, even without Miracast and simply using the iPhone as a controller, you could still access the library of native apps HTC is preparing for the Vive Flow. That includes meditative experiences like Nature Treks VR and some simpler gaming content too. Hopefully we might see at least that basic functionality come to the iPhone in the future.

The company also told us it was also exploring potential connections to a PC or laptop though, again, it isn’t a focus for launch.

We tried Vive Flow for ourselves this week and came away optimistic. The device weighs just 189g and is comfortable to wear for long periods of time. Pre-orders launched yesterday and the kit is set to start shipping in early November.

Are you an iPhone user hoping to pick up the HTC Vive Flow? Let us know in the comments below!

HTC Vive Flow Announced: Compact $499 6DOF VR Headset

From uploadvr

After two weeks of teases, the HTC Vive Flow has been officially announced.

As was previously speculated, Vive Flow is based on HTC’s super-slim concept for a VR headset, Project Proton. The device resembles a pair of glasses with very thick lenses and weighs just 189g. The frames feature two hinges, one to help shift the device to fit a range of head sizes and the other so they can be folded up like a normal pair of glasses. It’s technically not a standalone headset, as the kit must be tethered to an external power source like a battery pack for long-term use. The device has a small onboard battery but HTC stresses this is only intended to power it so you have time to plug it back in to another source. Two cameras on the front provide 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF) positional tracking.

HTC Vive Flow Announced

HTC envisions Vive Flow as less of a gaming device and more a headset for media consumption and experiential content. To that end, you connect the device to an Android smartphone to use as a 3DOF controller and also mirror content to view inside VR. There are also native apps, and the company highlighted meditative experiences like TRIPP and Nature Treks VR. HTC also plans to bring hand-tracking support to the device in the future, though this won’t be available at launch. iPhones aren’t supported.

Specs-wise, Flow features 1.6K per-eye resolution, a 100-degree field of view and a 75Hz refresh rate. HTC declined to reveal exactly what processor the device was using, although you definitely shouldn’t expect the same performance as the Oculus Quest 2. The lenses employ diopter dials so you can twist them to find the best visual clarity. The frames feature a built-in audio solution and dual microphones, plus there’s active cooling at the front of the device.

Pre-orders for the Vive Flow go live today on the official site and the device costs $499/€549. Units will start shipping in early November and those that pre-order will also get the protective carry case HTC has been teasing thrown in for free along with seven pieces of content, though exactly what those are hasn’t been revealed.

What do you make of the HTC Vive Flow? Let us know in the comments below.

Report: HTC Working On ‘Viveport Verse’ Metaverse Platform

From uploadvr

HTC is working on a customized version of Mozilla Hubs with a persistent social layer, Protocol reports.

HTC already has a business-focused social VR platform called Vive Sync, but the report says it’s now working on a consumer platform called Viveport Verse.

Protocol also claims to have a source backing up recent speculation that HTC will soon announce Vive Flow, a “lightweight consumer VR headset” that will be “primarily positioned as a media consumption device”. That same source claims Flow will have positional tracking but won’t ship with controllers, and will use a chip less powerful than Quest 2’s.

Rather than starting its metaverse ambitions from scratch, HTC is apparently building on Mozilla’s open source Hubs platform. Hubs runs on WebXR, so users can access it on any platform and don’t need to install or update an app.

A now-deleted unlisted HTC webpage pitched Viveport Verse as letting users “meet people around the world” and “explore a variety of events, from virtual tourism and exhibitions to sports events and festivals”. It also listed potential future features including NFT integration and user generated content.

The report says HTC is working with open-source distributed social network Mastodon to experiment with adding “a persistent social layer” to Verse, but notes it’s unclear how exactly that would work.

It sounds like Viveport Verse is still early in development, but it could be designed to take on Facebook’s Horizon Worlds. Horizon was first slated for a 2020 launch but still today remains an invite-only beta, with Facebook recently announcing a $10 million fund for creators to build content in it.

HTC Likely Announcing a New Standalone Vive Headset Next Week

From roadtovr

HTC recently said that it will host an online Vive event next week, but has only teased minimal hints about what it plans to announce. Regulatory filings spotted by Road to VR suggest a new standalone HTC Vive headset will be revealed.

It’s been less than five months since HTC launched its most recent VR headsets—the Vive Pro 2 and Vive Focus 3—but it looks like they’ve got another up their sleeve.

Just ahead of next week’s HTC Vive event, a new “HTC Vive headset” has appeared in regulatory filings submitted by the company to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The FCC is tasked with certifying products with electromagnetic emissions to be safe and compatible with regulations. Products utilizing radio, WiFi, infrared, etc. need certification before they can be distributed for sale. Certification by the FCC marks one step closer to the launch of consumer electronics product.

The new headset is identified by the model number 2Q7Y100, which doesn’t match any known Vive headsets thus released. Although the company has requested confidentiality of key filings which would clearly identify the headset, there’s some clues in the available information which point toward a standalone headset.

For one, the device’s FCC label—which all consumer electronics devices are required to have—is an ‘e-label’, which means instead of being printed on the device it’s accessible through the device’s software. Specifically, the user can access the FCC label by going to Settings → About → Regulatory Information. In fact, this is the same labeling approach that HTC’s Vive Focus 3 uses.

Further supporting the likelihood of this new Vive headset being standalone is documentation detailing Wi-Fi test reports which measure to ensure that the device’s Wi-Fi broadcasts are within the legal ranges. It appears the device uses a Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) radio. Most dedicated PC VR headsets use some form of Bluetooth for controller connectivity, but none of them use Wi-Fi.

HTC has kept its teasing for next week’s event pretty minimal thus far. The company has been using the phrase, “Go with the Flow,” (notable emphasis on “Flow” as a proper noun), in its promotions which have included photos with a cylindrical case of some sort. Ostensibly the headset will be small enough to fit inside the case, which would suggest a headset much more compact than most of what’s on the market today (if the scale of the photoshopped images can be trusted, anyway).

That certainly falls in line with the Vive Proton headsets that the company initially teased way back in early 2020; though they haven’t talked about them much since. If this new standalone is based on Proton, the headset seems likely to have been rebranded to Vive Flow, which the company trademarked in late August.

There’s also the possibility that Vive Flow won’t be a VR headset at all, but will actually be the company’s first AR headset based on Qualcomm’s ‘Smart Viewer’ reference design.

All will be revealed soon enough; HTC’s event will be held next week on October 14th.

HTC Bundles Vive Wireless Adapter With Cosmos Elite In UK Ahead Of Vive Flow Reveal

From uploadvr

A pretty attractive new HTC deal bundles the Vive Wireless Adapter in the Cosmos Elite headset in the UK just ahead of the company’s Vive Flow announcement.

The deal, live from today on the Vive website until October 14, applies to the full Cosmos Elite package only, and not the headset-only option. We also don’t see the deal listed in the US yet but will update this article if that happens. The overall package gets you the headset, two Vive wands and 2 SteamVR base stations as well as the Wireless Adapter for £899. Usually the adapter is a hefty £359 itself, so you’re saving quite a lot there even if the headset itself is pretty expensive.

The Elite version of the Cosmos swaps out the base version’s inside-out tracking for the more reliable Lighthouse system from Valve. It’s essentially an upgraded version of the original Vive, though it’s also a step behind the recently-released (and even more expensive) Vive Pro 2 on the specs front.

Still, if you’ve been looking for a wireless PC VR setup and don’t want Facebook’s Oculus Quest — which has a built-in PC VR streaming option — then this could be a good choice. We reviewed the setup back in 2018 with a Vive Pro, which we thought offered a great but expensive experience. The Elite version of the Cosmos, meanwhile, was a solid upgrade, if not enough to make a real dent in the PC market.

It’s possible HTC is trying to sell off adapters and Cosmos units before its announcement later this month. The company’s teased an event for October 14 — the same day this deal ends — and we uncovered trademark filings for something called Vive Flow. Could Flow perhaps represent a new wireless solution? Or does HTC have other plans?

HTC is Holding a Vive Product Event Just Ahead of Facebook Connect

From roadtovr

HTC is gearing up to hold what seems to be a new product unveiling on October 14th, or just ahead of Facebook Connect on the 28th of that month. The company says we’ll be hearing about some “big news in a small package.”

HTC announced the event on Twitter, saying it will take place on October 14th at 11 AM ET (local time here) in the company’s online event space, which is hosted by social VR platform Engage.

There’s still little indication what it might be, although we have some ideas. In February 2020, the company showed off a concept XR headset called Vive Proton, which was touted as a small form-factor device in the making, albeit in its early stages.

Image courtesy HTC

Presented in two flavors—a standalone model and a tethered model—it was suggested at the time that Vive Proton achieved its small form-factor via ‘pancake’-style optics, or the type we saw in the compact Pico VR Glasses prototype at CES 2020 right before in-person events were cancelled. Maybe a more refined version of the goggles fits into that thermos-looking thing as a protective charging case?

The company’s RSVP form for the event and tweet above also features a graphic with what appears to be the outside faceplate of Proton, although that may just be wishful thinking.

Image courtesy HTC

The graphic’s headline ‘Go with the Flow’ may hold a more concrete clue, as a new HTC trademark for a product called ‘VIVE FLOW’ was filed on August 26th, 2021, which refers to a “[h]ead mounted display for computer simulated reality, namely virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.”

In any case, it’s a pretty safe bet that whatever HTC unveils it will be squarely targeted at prosumers and businesses, although we’re always happy to be wrong. There’s really only one way to find out though, and that’s to tune in on October 14th and see what HTC has in store.

HTC Vive Is Teasing ‘Big News In A Small Package’ Next Month

From uploadvr

HTC Vive is back at it with the announcement teases. The company is now hinting at a reveal next month in predictably cryptic ways.

The announcement takes place inside the Engage platform at 8am PT on October 14 and anyone can attend on VR platforms or flatscreen devices. HTC accompanied the news with an image (below) of… well we can’t quite tell what. It looks like a flask or Bluetooth speaker. Some have speculated it could be a case for some kind of foldable headset. There’s a little more to the story, though.

New HTC Vive Teases

The sign-up page includes the message ‘Go with the Flow’. We’d take bets that the reveal is for something called ‘Vive Flow’, then. Vive China President Alvin Wang Graylin also teased the event will have “big news in a small package“.

Now, fair warning, this next one is a big bit of speculation on our part. Taking a look at the event key art, there are two shapes at the bottom that do look just a little like lenses, or perhaps even the front of the Project Proton concepts HTC revealed at the beginning of last year.

HTC Proton

Proton was designed to be a lightweight headset powered either by a phone or onboard compute. Could that fit the message of something big in a small package? Or perhaps the company has something on the AR side to show?

But that’s just speculation. Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves just yet. HTC has already launched two VR headsets this year – the upgraded Vive Pro 2 for PC and the enterprise-focused Vive Focus 3 standalone headset. Though Pro 2 can be picked up by anyone, it’s still an expensive high-end device. Whatever the company announces next month — two weeks before the Facebook Connect conference — it’s likely to follow that high-end trend.

We’ll of course bring you the latest on the Vive announcement as soon as we can.