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Quest Adds Another Vision Pro Feature to the List with More Flexible 2D Content Placement

From roadtovr

Quest users have long wanted a better way to manage windowed content to make web browsing and using 2D apps easier. It seems the next Horizon OS update (ex-Quest OS) will include a way to do just that.

As discovered by XR enthusiast and serial data miner Luna, the public test channel (PTC) has allowed some users early access to the headset’s v67 update, which includes a new experimental feature that allows a more flexible way of placing windowed content—feeling more than a little inspired by Vision Pro.

Check it out in action below:

Meta first unveiled multitasking support in early 2020, which allowed users to place multiple windows in three docks. Luna notes that, at least in its early access release, windowed content appears to be limited to three docked panels and three freely placeable panels, making for a lot more flexibility when it comes to setting up your virtual home office.

There’s also set to be a new virtual keyboard feature that lets you to place the keyboard both vertically or at an angle for easier typing.

To access these features before stable release, you’ll need to enroll in the PTC. If you haven’t already, follow this quick guide, courtesy of Meta.

To sign up for eligibility for Quest PTC from the mobile app:

  1. Open the mobile app, tap Menu in the bottom-right corner, then tap Devices.
  2. Tap Headset settings, then tap Advanced settings.
  3. Tap the toggle next to Public Test Channel to try to join Quest PTC.
    • If the toggle doesn’t work, Quest PTC is currently full and not available.

From there, as Luna mentions, simply head to Settings > Experimental Features > New Window Layout, and toggle the feature to activate.

If you’re on PTC and don’t have those features yet, make sure to check back regularly, as Meta tends to do soft rollouts of both its early access and stable OS updates.

2D to 3D Photo Conversion in visionOS 2 is the Real Deal

From roadtovr

The 2D to 3D photo conversion feature coming to Vision Pro in VisionOS 2.0 makes a novel capability meaningful for the first time.

Cue “Apple didn’t even do it first!” in the comments.

You’re not wrong. There’s been seemingly a hundred different startups over the years that have promised to turn 2D photos into 3D.

Even Meta had a go at it when it added 2D to 3D photo conversion to Facebook several years ago. But they never really caught on… probably because seeing 3D photos on a smartphone isn’t that exciting, even if Facebook added a little ‘wiggle’ animation to show the depth on 2D displays.

When it comes to features that people actually want to use—it doesn’t matter who does it first. It matter who does it well.

This headline says “the real deal,” because Apple has, in fact, actually done it well with Vision Pro. The 2D to 3D conversion doesn’t just look good, the feature is actually implemented in a way that takes it beyond the novelty of previous attempts.

The feature is part of visionOS 2.0, which is currently available in a developer beta. Apple says the feature creates “spatial photos” from your existing 2D images (which of course just means stereoscopic ‘3D’).

Granted, even though it’s “just stereoscopic,” seeing your own photos in 3D really adds a layer of depth to them (figuratively and literally). While a 2D photo can remind us of memories, a 3D photo feels much closer to actually visiting the memory… or at least seeing it through a window.

In VisionOS 2.0, just go to the usual Photos app, then open any photo and spot the little cube icon at the top left. Click it and the headset analyzes and converts it to 3D in just two or three seconds. With a click you can also return to the original.

The results aren’t perfect but they’re very impressive. It’s unfortunate I can’t actually show them to you here—since I have no way to embed a 3D photo in this page, and 99.9% of you are probably reading this on a 2D display anyway—but it’s the best automatic 2D to 3D photo conversion that I’ve personally seen.

The speed and accuracy is doubly impressive because the conversion is happening 100% on-device. Apple isn’t sending your photos off to a server to crank out a 3D version with cloud processing resources and then sending it back to your headset. That makes the feature secure by default (and available offline), which is especially important when it comes to a dataset that’s as personal as someone’s photo library.

Across the photos you’d find in the average person’s library—pictures of people, pets, places, and occasionally things—the conversion algorithm seems to handle a wide range of these very well.

While the feature works best on real-life photography, you can also use it on synthetic imagery, like digital artwork, AI-generated photos, 3D renderings, and the like. Results vary, but I overall I was impressed with the feature’s ability to create plausible 3D depth even from synthetic imagery which itself never actually had any 3D depth in the first place.

The thing the algorithm seems to struggle with the most is highly reflective and translucent surfaces. It often ends up ‘painting’ the reflections right onto the reflecting object, rather than projecting them ‘into’ the object with correct depth.

The only major limitation at the moment is that 2D to 3D photo conversion doesn’t seem to want to work on panoramic images. On Vision Pro panoramas can already be blown up and wrapped around you in a way that feels life-sized, but they would still get another layer of emotional impact from being 3D-ified.

It’s unclear why this limitation exists at present, but it’s likely either because panoramas tend to be very high resolution (and would take longer than a few seconds to convert), or Apple’s 2D to 3D algorithm needs more training on wide field-of-view imagery.

Beyond that limitation, the thing that really makes this feature… a feature (not just a ‘technical possibility’), is that it’s built right in and works in the places and ways you’d expect.

Not only can you send spatial photos to other users who can view them in 3D on their own headset, you can also start a SharePlay session and view them together—an incredible way to share moments and memories with the people that matter to you.

And its easy to actually get the photos you want onto your headset for viewing.

Many people will have their iCloud photos library synced with their headset, so they’ll already have all their favorite photos ready to view in 3D. I personally don’t use iCloud photos, but I was easily able to select some of my favorite photos from my iPhone and AirDrop them, which automatically opened the Photos app so they were right in front of me in the headset.

Further, you can just save any old photo to your headset—be it from Facebook, a website, or another app—and use the 2D to 3D conversion feature to view them with a new layer of intrigue.

And this is what makes this visionOS 2.0 feature different than 2D to 3D conversion software that has come before it. It’s not that Apple has any groundbreaking quality advantage in the conversion… it’s the fact that they made the experience good enough and easy enough that people will actually want to use it.

Oculus Founder’s New XR Headset Built Around “military requirements” but Also “used for non-military stuff”

From roadtovr

This week at AWE 2024, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey spoke briefly about a new XR headset he’s developing. Though the headset would see Luckey returning to the XR space, this one is being built with military, rather than consumer, uses in mind.

Luckey confirmed earlier this month that he intends to build a new XR headset, but revealed almost no details about the project.

During a panel discussion today at AWE 2024, he offered just a bit more, saying the headset’s design is “being driven by military requirements, but also going to be used for non-military stuff. It’s really cool, it’s really something.”

Though Luckey was on stage with Bigscreen Beyond creator Darshan Shankar, the two didn’t indicate any joint work together.

Luckey said he’s announcing the project now because trying to keep it secret means fewer opportunities to find key collaborators and suppliers.

His mention of the upcoming headset’s military requirements suggests the project originates from within his current company, Anduril, a tech-focused military contractor.

Although “military requirements” can often be seen as synonymous with “incredibly expensive,” Luckey has grown Anduril into a multi-billion dollar company on the premise that major military contractors charge too much and deliver more slowly than they ought too.

Considering the headset’s angle, it seems unlikely that a military-focused headset would plug into any consumer XR ecosystems like Horizon OS or SteamVR. That leaves it up in the air whether the headset will be built on a proprietary platform—and how it will support the “non-military stuff” that Luckey mentioned. Likely that “stuff” refers to enterprise-focused use-cases like training, education, and design.

Luckey founded Oculus in 2012, the company whose Rift headset was the spark that rebooted the modern era of VR. As a rapidly growing startup, Oculus attracted the attention of Meta (at the time Facebook), which acquired the company in 2014 for more than $2 billion. Luckey continued in VR under Meta’s roof for several years but was eventually pushed out of the company due to backlash to his politics. After leaving Meta, Luckey went on to found Anduril, a tech-defense startup which itself went on to achieve a multi-billion valuation. Though Luckey hasn’t been active in XR since leaving Meta, he’s continued to be looked to as a thought leader in the space.

Meta Restructures Reality Labs to Better Focus on Ray-Ban Smartglasses and Other Wearables

From roadtovr

Reality Labs, Meta’s XR division formed in 2020, is now being reorganized into two distinct groups, ‘Wearables’ and ‘Metaverse’, which reportedly comes along a “relatively small” number of layoffs.

As reported by The Verge’s Alex Heath, Meta CTO and head of Reality Labs Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth announced the reorg in an internal memo to employees, stating that all teams in Reality Labs are being merged into either a central ‘Metaverse’ organization, responsible for Quest, and a new ‘Wearables’ organization to dedicated to other hardware, including its Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses.

In the memo, which is available via Heath’s Command Line newsletter, Bosworth says the company’s smartglasses were “a much bigger success than we expected,” spurring the XR division to put more focus on the product.

Image courtesy Meta, Ray-Ban

“We have the leading AI device on the market right now, and we are doubling down on finding a strong product market fit for wearable Meta AI, building a business around it, and expanding the audience,” Bosworth’s memo reads. “Our north star to overlay digital content seamlessly onto the physical world remains the same, but the steps on that path just got a lot more exciting.”

Notably, Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses don’t include displays of any type, AR or otherwise, instead offering input through voice assistant and touch on the glasses’ struts for things like taking pictures, videos, and listening to music. In late 2023, Meta also added AI-powered object recognition.

As for its Quest-related efforts, Bosworth says the company is still “deeply committed to investing in Horizon as the core foundation of our social, spatial Horizon OS, and high-quality experiences for both mixed reality and mobile.”

Meta announced in April it will soon license its Horizon OS (ex-Quest OS) to third parties for the first time, including ASUS, Lenovo and Xbox. This comes part and parcel with it Horizon Store (ex-Quest Store) content library—seen as a bid to become a more prolific alternative to Apple’s Vision Pro.

“The org chart doesn’t primarily determine whether we succeed or fail, our execution does,” Bosworth said in the memo. “But by setting it up this way I hope we reduce overhead and allow people across teams to come together and execute with a more unified view of who our customers are and how we can best serve them.”

Meta declined to comment on the exact number of Reality Labs layoffs, however Heath maintains “it’s a relatively small number and focused on teams in Reality Labs where leadership roles are now redundant thanks to this new structure.”

Quest ‘Augments’ Feature for Concurrent AR Apps Needs More Time to Cook, Says Meta CTO

From roadtovr

Last year Meta announced the so-called Augments feature, planned for Quest 3, which would allow persistent mini AR apps to live in the world around you. Now, eight months after the headset hit store shelves, Meta’s CTO explains why the feature has yet to ship.

Augments was announced as a framework for developers to build mini AR apps that could not just live persistently in the space around you, but also run concurrently alongside each other—similar to how most apps work on Vision Pro today.

Image courtesy Meta

And though Meta had shown a glimpse of Augments in action when it was announced last year, it seems the company’s vision (and desire to market that vision) got ahead of its execution.

This week Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth responded to a question during an Instagram Q&A about when the Augments feature would ship. He indicated the feature as initially shown wasn’t meeting the company’s expectation.

We were playing with [Augments] in January and we decided it wasn’t good enough. It was too held back by some system architecture limitations we had; it ended up feeling more like a toy and it didn’t really have the power that we think it needed to deliver on the promise of what it was.

So we made a tough decision there to go back to the drawing board, and basically [it needed] a completely different technical architecture. Starting from scratch basically. Including actually a much deeper set of changes to the system to enable what we wanted to build there. I think we made the right call—we’re not going to ship something we’re not excited about.

But it did restart the clock, and so [Augments is] going to take longer than we had hoped to deliver. I think it’s worth while, I think it’s the right call. But that’s what happened.

We’re only two-and-a-half months out from Meta Connect 2024, which would be the one-year anniversary of the Augments announcement. That’s where we likely to hear more about the feature, but at this point it’s unclear if it could ship by then.

Report: Apple Focuses on More Affordable Vision Headset Over High-end Follow-up

From roadtovr

At $3,500, Vision Pro is undoubtedly expensive, which many are rightfully hoping will be remedied in a prospective follow-up. Now, according to a report from The Information, Apple may be ditching the ‘Pro’ aspect of its next-gen Vision headsets altogether, instead aiming to release a single “more affordable” device in late 2025.

It’s rumored that Apple was slated to release two headsets: an expensive Pro-style device and a cheaper version targeted more squarely at consumers, much like how the company positions iPhone in its lineup today.

Now, citing an employee at a manufacturer that makes key components for the Vision Pro, The Information reports Apple has suspended work on that high-end follow-up due to slowing sales of the $3,500 Vision Pro.

Image courtesy Apple

There may be hope though, at least for anyone without the budget to shell out what amounts to a good used Honda Civic. According sources both involved in the supply chain and in the manufacturing of the headset, the company is “still working on releasing a more affordable Vision product with fewer features before the end of 2025.”

Granted, it’s important to note that Apple often leaks incorrect information in a bid to nail prospective leakers, so this (and any Apple report for that matter) should be taken with a heaping handful of salt.

This follows Apple’s announcement it was getting set to release Vision Pro outside of the US for the first time, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK.

– – — – –

Whether it’s “more affordable” or not, there’s a lot Apple can do to appeal to the masses without drastically sacrificing quality. Check out our article on the 6 Things Vision Pro Needs Before It Can Go Mainstream to see how.

Somnium VR1 PC VR Headset Slated to Go on Sale June 20th with Broader Launch in July

From roadtovr

Somnium Space, the Czechia-based company behind the upcoming Somnium VR1 headset, announced that orders for its long-awaited PC VR headset will be opening on June 20th, coming first to reservation holders.

It’s been a long time coming for Somnium VR1, which we last saw at CES 2023 when the company showed off a dev kit version of the headset. If you’re memory is fuzzy, at the time Somnium, which also runs its own social VR platform Somnium Space, was also hoping to release a standalone version of the headset at some point. Due to supply chain constraints though, the company decided to sideline the standalone version to focus on the soon-to-release Lighthouse-tracked PC VR headset.

We’re getting very close to that now; in addition to the order date announcement, the company detailed its full line-up, which includes eight variants available for order starting on June 20th:

  • Classic Edition
  • Visionary Edition (Eye-tracking)
  • Striker Edition (Hand-tracking)
  • Titan Edition (Eye/Hand-tracking)
  • Specter Edition (Mixed Reality + Hand-tracking)
  • Ultimate Edition (Mixed Reality + Eye/Hand-tracking)
  • Translucent Limited Edition (Mixed Reality + Eye/Hand-tracking)
  • Military Edition – TAA Compliant (Mixed Reality + Eye/Hand-tracking)

That’s a pretty hefty launch lineup, however VR1 is built with modularity in mind, allowing users to choose what factory-installed modules they want, with the Classic Edition starting at €1,900 (~$2,060 USD).

Somnium VR1 | Image courtesy Somnium Space

Check out the specs below, noting that optional add-ons to the base version are highlighted in red:

Display
Type

QLED Mini-LED Fast LCD
Resolution

2 x 2800 x 2880 pixels
Brightness 210 nit
Local Dimming 20000:1 (HDR)
Color Gamut 100% NTSC
Refresh Rate

72 Hz / 90 Hz / 120 Hz / 144 Hz (Experimental)

Optics
Lens Type

Dual-lens aspheric modules (two lenses per eye-box)
Peak Fidelity 35 PPD
Coating

Anti-reflection & Anti-scratch coating
Field of View (FOV)

Horizontal: 130°, Vertical: 105°
Diopter Lenses (Optional)

Magnetically attachable by VR Optician
Pass-through Cameras (Optional)

2 X 12 Mpx 4,056 x 3,040 (foveated transport), FOV 125° x 100°
Eye Tracking (Optional)

120Hz single-point calibration, VR & XR foveated rendering, Gaze analysis, heat-map visualization
Hand Tracking (Optional)

Ultraleap 170° x 170° FOV, 120Hz refrsh rate
Interpupillary Distance (IPD) Adjustment

Manual 58 mm – 76 mm

Dimensions & Weight
Dimensions (excl. headstrap)

191 mm x 124 mm x 94 mm (W x L x H)
Weight (incl. headstrap)

700g – 850g (depending on variant)
Material

IR-transmissive matte polymer with anti-fingerprint surface texture

Connectivity
Cable

Single all-in-one USB Type-C, 6 meter (20 ft) hybrid ADC cable, DisplayPort (32 Gbps), USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power functionality
Modes

Native wired PC Mode (Lossless), Native SteamVR & OpenXR support
Audio

3.5 mm Headphone jack, High-quality stereo
Ports

3 x USB-C (3.2 Gen 2) 10 Gbps for external accessories, 3.5 mm Headphone jack
Anchor Points

4 modular customizable and 30 printable anchor points, M2.5 imbus flat head screws
LEDs

2 x Programmable RGB status LEDs
Headstrap

Double-knob memory foam adjustable headstrap
Positional Tracking

Lighthouse Based tracking

The company says it will begin sending out a limited number of emails each day to reservation holders, following the chronological order based on their reservation date.

Notably, each reservation holder is eligible for one purchase, which can include multiple VR1 units, essentially allowing the user’s unique ordering code to be used once to limit queue jumpers.

There isn’t a time limitation when you must make your purchase, the company says, which was designed to give customers time to complete purchases later, however units are on a first-come, first-serve basis.

If you haven’t reserved already, new reservations are being accepted up until July 10th. The company will be opening orders to everyone on July 12th alongside its full-day Somnium Connect event in Prague, Czechia. There, the company will be holding presentations, demos of Somnium VR1, and a keynote speech by Artur Sychov, Founder & CEO of Somnium Space.

Hands-on: Logitech’s MX Ink for Quest Could Legitimize VR Styluses as a Whole

From roadtovr

Over the last decade I’ve reported on and tested many different VR styluses, but none of them have actually caught on. But the new MX Ink stylus for Quest stands a real chance at legitimizing the VR stylus as a whole, thanks to its thoughtful design, strong lineup of launch apps, and tight integration with Quest’s software.

This week Logitech announced MX Ink, an officially endorsed ‘Made for Meta’ stylus supporting Quest 2 and Quest 3 (see the full announcement details here). It’s the first time Meta has allowed any other company to harness its tracking technology in a third-party product. That alone makes MX Ink unique, but there’s more that makes this the device that could legitimize VR styluses as a whole.

The first styluses are thought to have been invented five millennia ago. And there’s a reason they’ve stuck with humanity ever since: a stylus amplifies the precision with which we can point. While that seems rather simple, it makes information tasks like writing, drawing, calculating, and designing significantly more practical and useful than using our fingers alone.

So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen many attempts to bring a VR stylus to life.

Just to name a few: in 2017 an enterprising developer hacked together a chunky prototype using a Vive Tracker and a pressure-sensitive stylus tip; in 2018 a company called Massless designed its own prototype VR stylus that it hoped to bring to market; even Wacom has been toying with the idea. Hell, Logitech already made a VR stylus back in 2019… but at $750, it’s no wonder it never made it to general availability.

So what could be different about Logitech’s new MX Ink? Well for one, the price is significantly more palatable than what’s come before. The $130 price point is a pretty easy sell for professionals for whom the added precision of a stylus could actually improve their workflow.

Logitech is also smartly launching some ‘nice to have’ extras for those who are really serious about making the MX Ink part of their workflow.

There’s the Inkwell dock which, for only another $40, gives you an easy place to store and charge the stylus so it’s ready for your next use. And there’s the MX Mat, for $50, which Logitech pitches as the ideal surface to make it feel like you’re drawing on a paper-like material when using the stylus.

Photo by Road to VR

But more importantly than price or accessories is the first-party integration with Meta and the strong lineup of supported software out of the gate.

Logitech worked directly with Meta, not only to adopt Quest’s tracking technology, but also to build the stylus’ software experience right into Horizon OS. Pairing the MX Ink is just like pairing one of the headset’s own controllers, without any extra hardware or software needed. Even the stylus’ settings—which let you control things like hand selection, button bindings, and pressure curves—are baked right into the system’s own Settings menu.

It’s even got a proper ‘Meta’ button on the end (where the eraser would be), making it easy to pull up the headset’s menu.

And then there’s the strong lineup of software that will work right out of the gate. Logitech has locked in a solid swath of VR design apps for MX Ink support:

  • Adobe Substance Modeler
  • Gravity Sketch
  • PaintingVR
  • Arkio
  • Engage
  • OpenBrush
  • GestureVR
  • ShapesXR
  • Elucis by RealizeMedical

If Logitech plays its cards right, MX Ink could be the first VR stylus that really sticks the landing. So needless to say, I was intrigued to try it.

Hands-on With Logitech MX Ink for Quest

Photo by Road to VR

Last week I swung by Logitech’s San Jose, CA office to check out an early version of the stylus for myself. Compared to the company’s last VR stylus, the MX Ink is significantly more compact. Even so, I was impressed with the tracking.

Photo by Road to VR

Even with my hand covering a significant area of the stylus, there were seemingly enough hidden IR LEDs hiding under the stylus’ shell to provide continuous tracking no matter how I held or twisted the stylus. The company said it even put IR LEDs toward the tip of the MX Ink so it could be held like a wand or a pallet knife.

Logitech says the stylus is ‘as accurate as the Quest controllers’—but that doesn’t mean it can’t be more precise. Using a stylus as a pointing device means you can use your dexterous fingers to manipulate the input position in a very fine way; far more so than twisting your wrist alone (which is what primarily drives fine controller motion).

That was obvious while I was using the MX Ink to draw and sketch directly onto a real table in front of me. The pressure sensitive tip also made it feel natural to vary line width as needed.

Photo by Road to VR

I also tried using the MX Ink stylus against a whiteboard while using Quest 3’s mixed reality view. The tight latency and accuracy of the stylus really made it feel like I was leaving marks on the whiteboard. It was a whole layer of immersion that I wasn’t expecting to feel while trying the stylus.

This sense of actually leaving real marks on the whiteboard only made the next part even more mind-bending… I could lift the stylus from the surface while holding the button on the barrel and extend my drawing into the third dimension. Watching my strokes literally leap off the page like this was just plain fun.

While pressing the MX Ink against a real surface, the tip communicates the amount of pressure to the headset and thus changes the thickness of the line you draw. But when you’re using the stylus to draw in 3D, suddenly there’s no way for the system to know how much pressure you’re using, right? Actually, no; Logitech smartly made the button on the barrel of the stylus pressure sensitive itself, so you can squeeze softer or harder to define the width of brush strokes, even when you’re drawing in the air.

The MX Ink even includes a haptic engine for feedback. So even if you’re using it against a virtual surface, the stylus can let you know when you’re touching the canvas.

– – — – –

I’m impressed with the level of thoughtfulness in the design of MX Ink. It’s clear the company has carried over some important lessons learned from its previous experiments with VR styluses.

MX Ink has a reasonable price point, direct integration with the most popular headsets on the market, and a strong lineup of supporting apps. Logitech is giving the VR stylus—as a category—its best chance yet at really catching on.

The essential pieces are in place. The thing that will make or break this product is now likely down to how well integrated it is into the workflow of key applications. My understanding is that developers have a huge range of control over exactly how their applications will handle MX Ink. Half-hearted implementations could kill what otherwise looks like a strong product.

With MX Ink not due to launch until September, there’s time still for applications to tighten up their implementations, so we’ll have to wait to see how it all comes together.

Quest Gets Its First Third-party Input Device Thanks to Logitech

From roadtovr

Logitech today unveiled an XR stylus that comes as Meta Quest’s first third-party motion peripheral, targeting creatives working in both 2D and 3D media.

Called Logitech MX Ink, the spatially-tracked stylus supports Quest 2 and Quest 3, as well as “future headsets,” Logitech says. The company additionally confirmed it won’t support Quest Pro.

Logitech MX Ink is said to have a “natural pen-like feel and pressure-sensitive tip,” which allows users to create, annotate, and navigate in XR environments. The device allows the user to pair with Quest and use it interchangeably with Quest controllers too, making it effectively the first time Meta’s headset can support more than two paired controllers at a time.

Image courtesy Logitech

When it ships in September, MX Ink will come with a dedicated stylus customization page in the updated Meta Settings UI, allowing users to adjust pressure curves for the nib and the primary buttons, initial activation force, and double tap timing.

To boot, MX Link includes haptic feedback, and is spatially tracked in 6DOF, boasting “low latency and high accuracy,” said to have similar tracking performance to the Quest controllers themselves.

In the box is a charging base designed to keep MX Ink charged and ready, however it also features a dedicated USB-C port so you can simply take the stylus when on the go. It also includes a pair of replaceable nibs, which allow the user to choose between a very fine nib as well as one larger nib.

Image courtesy Logitech

The company has listed a number of compatible Quest apps, which include Adobe Substance Modeler, Gravity Sketch, PaintingVR, Arkio, Engage, OpenBrush, GestureVR, ShapesXR, and Elucis by RealizeMedical.

Logitech MX Ink is slated to launch in late September, and be priced at $130. A product page isn’t up yet, but it should be available closer to Meta Connect 2024, which is taking place September 25th-26th.

VisionOS 2 Enables WebXR by Default, Unlocking a Cross-platform Path to Vision Pro

From roadtovr

We’ve know that Apple planned to support WebXR for quite some time, but with VisionOS 2, the company is enabling the feature for all users. WebXR allows developers to deliver cross-platform XR experiences directly from the web, with no gatekeepers to approve or reject content.

WebXR is the widely supported web standard that allows developers to deliver AR and VR content from the web.

Just like anyone can host a webpage online without any explicit approval from another party, WebXR allows the same for AR and VR content. And because it’s delivered through the browser, accessing and sharing WebXR experiences is as easy as clicking or sending a link—like this one.

Vision Pro has supported initial WebXR support since its launch, but it required users to manually enable the feature by digging into Safari’s settings.

With VisionOS 2—available today as a developer preview, and coming to all this Fall—WebXR will be enabled by default, making it easy for anyone to access WebXR through the headset. Vision Pro thus joins headsets like Quest, HoloLens 2, and Magic Leap 2 in supporting WebXR content.

Though WebXR is “supported” on VisionOS 2, our understanding is that it only support VR (or ‘fully immersive’) experiences. WebXR is also capable of delivering AR experiences (where virtual content is merged with a view of the real world), but VisionOS 2 doesn’t yet support that portion of the standard.

There’s many reasons why developers might want to use WebXR to build experiences over native apps that are distributed through a headset’s proprietary store.

For one, any headset with WebXR support can run any compatible WebXR experience, meaning developers can build one experience that works across many headsets, rather than needing to make multiple builds for multiple headsets, then uploading and managing those builds across multiple platform stores.

Like a webpage, WebXR content can also be updated at any time, allowing developers to tweak and enhance the experience on the fly, without needing to upload new builds to multiple stores, or for users to download a new version.

WebXR also has no gatekeepers. So content that wouldn’t be allowed on, say, Apple or Meta’s app stores—either for technical or content-related reasons—can still reach users on those headsets. That could include adult content that’s explicitly forbidden on most platform app stores.