Meta

Netflix Discontinues Quest App Following Browser Streaming Quality Bump

July 17, 2024 From roadtovr

Netflix has pulled its video streaming app from the Quest content store.

As first reported by UploadVR, the long-neglected Netflix app for Quest is now gone from the store. If you already downloaded the app before then, you’ll find it no longer works.

That doesn’t mean you can’t watch Netflix on Quest though. The streaming giant recently bumped streaming quality in the Quest Browser to 1080p, which comes in stark contrast to the app’s 480p capped resolution, which notably didn’t support mixed reality passthrough or downloads.

Originally released in 2015 for Samsung Gear VR and developed by former Meta CTO John Carmack, the app experienced very few updates over the years, with the latest arriving in 2019 alongside the launch of the original Quest.

Why not simply develop a new official app? Netflix requires devices to be certified in order to push streaming beyond that 480p cap, which requires meeting technical requirements, submitting the device for testing, and even possibly negotiating a licensing agreement, which are all things Meta would have to initiate.

Notably, Quest has native apps for Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV, MLB, in addition to its own Meta TV app. It lacks Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, and HBO Max.

LG Shakes Up XR Division, Reportedly Putting Meta Headset Partnership on Ice

June 12, 2024 From roadtovr

Korean media last month alleged that the Meta/LG partnership to create a high-end XR headset wasn’t going so well, suggesting either outright cancellation or a delay pushing release of a prospective Apple Vision Pro competitor to 2027. While this hasn’t been substantiated by either company, it’s clear there’s something big going on under the surface, as LG is now shuffling employees from its XR division to other parts of the company.

As confirmed by Korean outlet ETNews (Korean), LG is reassigning employees in charge of the XR division to research and development and other business divisions within the company.

Here’s the official statement from LG obtained by ETNews, machine translated from Korean to English:

“We have recently confirmed the relocation policy for personnel in charge of the XR business. Taking into account the department and work location desired by the personnel and the demand for additional personnel in other departments, the relocation will take place for about a month.”

ETNews reports that the nature of the shakeup is “unusual” in LG, as such cases of forming a product division after research and development comes as a rare occurrence.

The report further stipulates LG has delayed its own XR tech indefinitely, and terminated its joint commercialization of a product with Meta. The report however maintains the two companies will continue in research and development of XR technologies.

When LG announced its collaboration with Meta in May, it was said the partnership would be focused on strengthening “the fusion of Meta’s diverse core technological elements with LG’s cutting-edge product and quality capabilities [promising] significant synergies in next-gen XR device development.”

While not explicitly stated by either LG or Meta, it was rumored the two has been working to create a competitor to Apple Vision Pro for launch in 2025.

One possible reason for the XR shakeup could be Meta is getting ready to release its XR operating system to third-party OEMs for the first time, which will include new Quest-style headsets coming from ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox. Growing the number of competing devices that will use Meta’s HorizonOS (ex-QuestOS) and Horizon Store (ex-Quest Store) so rapidly may have spoiled the deal for LG—although without confirmation from either company, that remains conjecture at this time.

Meta and LG Partnership Reportedly in Question as Korean Tech Giant Now “controlling its pace”

May 20, 2024 From roadtovr

Meta announced in February it was partnering with South Korean tech giant LG to create an XR headset that was reportedly set to compete with Apple Vision Pro. Recent reports from Korean media however maintain that partnership is in danger.

A report from the Korean Economic Daily alleges the Meta/LG partnership has been completely terminated, further stating that LG is “now seeking a new partner to provide an operating system and software for XR devices LG plans to unveil next year.” A candidate could be Amazon, the report maintains.

“There were some differences between LG and Meta while discussing XR devices. I understand LG requested an end to collaboration because it believed there was not much synergy from their XR partnership,” an industry source familiar with the matter told the Korean Economic Daily.

Still, it’s not clear whether it’s a done deal, or the companies are simply pumping the brakes. In a statement to Korea JoongAng Daily, LG says it “continues the XR partnership with Meta forged in February but is controlling its pace.”

Indeed, news of the partnership itself was the subject of a leak from earlier this year. While that doesn’t lend credence to this particular report, it does suggest there are reliable sources, either within or around LG, leaking credible information.

At the time, the partnership was said to ‘fuse’ Meta’s diverse core technological elements with LG’s cutting-edge product and quality capabilities, which hoped to create “significant synergies in next-gen XR device development.” Additionally, it was rumored the two would work to create a competitor to Apple Vision Pro, which was rumored to launch sometime in 2025.

This comes after Meta announced it’s pledged to release its XR operating system to third-party OEMs for the first time, including ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox, all of which are tapped to release their own headsets in the near future.

Meta’s Former Head of VR: Oculus Go Was His “biggest product failure” & Why it Matters for Vision Pro

May 2, 2024 From roadtovr

Hugo Barra, Meta’s former Head of VR, offered some unique insight into the XR industry recently with an extensive blogpost that centers around Apple Vision Pro. Barra warns that, like the company’s first standalone headset Oculus Go, the novelty around casual content consumption will probably fade fairly quickly.

Looking back at his time at Meta (then Facebook), Barra notes that Oculus Go was “the biggest product failure” he’d ever been attached to, stating that although casual content consumption was the headset’s raison d’être, the hype wore off pretty quickly.

Here’s Barra’s appraisal of the situation:

Watching TV/movies in virtual reality seemed like such an incredibly compelling idea that we (the Oculus team at Meta/Facebook) built an entire product around that idea — Oculus Go.

Launched in 2018, Oculus Go was the biggest product failure I’ve ever been associated with for the simple reason that it had extremely low retention despite strong partnerships with Netflix and YouTube.

Most users who bought Oculus Go completely abandoned the headset after a few weeks. The full story is much more nuanced (including the fact that the Oculus Go failure got us on the path to Oculus Quest very quickly), but it taught us an important lesson.

Barra notes that poor retention for Oculus Go had to do with a few common factors, including user comfort, friction in starting a session when not already wearing the headset, and the social isolation of watching content alone—all of which is true for Vision Pro as well.

Barra concludes that, at least as far as Oculus Go went, traditional media consumption was “not a core ‘daily driver’ pillar but more an ancillary use case that adds some value to other core pillars (such as productivity or gaming).”

Granted Barra says Vision Pro brings more to the table thanks to its better displays than previous VR headsets, which can create “magical movie experiences on occasion,” but those same challenges that Oculus Go contended with basically remain.

Barra initially moved to Meta (then Facebook) in 2017 from his role as Global VP at the China-based tech giant Xiaomi, becoming head of Oculus and VP of Reality Labs partnerships. Leveraging his experience at Xiaomi, Meta even tapped the Chinese tech giant to manufacture Oculus Go for both the international market and the Chinese domestic market, also branding it under the name ‘Mi VR Standalone’, belying just how big the company expected Go to resonate.

Only a short year after the release of Oculus Go though, the company shifted gears to launch its first room-scale-capable standalone Oculus Quest, nearly abandoning Oculus Go entirely, which in addition to largely relying on Samsung Gear VR apps, omitted motion controllers due to only being tracked in three degrees of freedom.

Then again, that’s where the comparions stop, as Vision Pro has great hand-tracking, millions of apps, and compelling mixed reality passthrough—all of the things Barra says Apple is hoping to use to make Vision Pro “the future of work.”