project cambria

Watch: New Video Shows Mark Zuckerberg Using Project Cambria

May 12, 2022 From uploadvr

A new video posted by Mark Zuckerberg shows the Meta CEO using the company’s new Project Cambria headset.

Well, sort of.

Cambria (which is a codename for the device) was first announced at Connect in late 2021, and is intended for release later this year as a high-end headset for work use. But Meta still hasn’t fully revealed the device’s final design outside of an early, obscured render. To that end, the video below blurs out the actual headset from any camera shots, even when it’s on Zuckerberg’s head. Check it out below.

Mark Zuckerberg Demos Project Cambria

The video isn’t focused on specs or release dates for Cambria — there’s no price or launch date reveal — but it does show the headset’s mixed reality capabilities in close detail. One of Cambria’s big upgrades over the consumer-focused Quest 2 headset is the use of high-resolution color cameras for passthrough. This delivers a much more accurate version of the real world inside VR.

As a showcase, Meta is releasing an app called The World Beyond that will release on Quest 2 next week via App Lab, but you can also see it in this video. It’s designed to make use of a bunch of mixed reality features, as well as hand tracking.

Cambria will also feature improved ergonomics and sensors as well as face and eye tracking, but those details weren’t really touched on in today’s video. No doubt we’ll learn more about them as we move closer to the headset’s release later this year.

Meta To Reveal Project Cambria Mixed Reality Details Tomorrow

May 11, 2022 From uploadvr

Meta will reveal new details about its Project Cambria standalone headset tomorrow.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg just said as much over on his Facebook page. “Project Cambria’s color passthrough technology will enable developers to build a whole new level of mixed reality experiences,” he wrote. “More details coming tomorrow.” Included in the post is a new image of Zuckerberg wearing the device and using hand tracking features, which you can see below.

It’s possible that these details will only concern Cambria’s color passthrough capabilities but, then again, there’s plenty more we’re still yet to learn about the headset. For starters, the Cambria label itself is merely a codename, with the device being introduced at Meta’s 2021 Connect event. It’s billed as a high-end alternative to Meta’s affordable Quest headsets. Alongside the switch to color passthrough, Cambria will add face and eye tracking for more emotive social VR avatars, and features a revised form factor that employs a new type of lens.

We do know the kit’s due to launch this year but we don’t have a final release date, nor a price. Could these details be confirmed tomorrow?

Though the headset will be compatible with Quest, Meta has previously stated that Cambria is not a part of the Quest line, and is more designed for work use than gaming. In fact, Meta says it sees this headset eventually replacing devices like laptops and, at the beginning of the month, it suggested the device will cost “significantly higher” than $800 despite reports to the contrary in an article from The Information. Import logs also suggest the device will have 12GB of RAM.

What are you hoping to see from Project Cambria tomorrow? Let us know in the comments below!

Project Cambria’s Price Will Be “Significantly Higher” Than $800, Meta Reveals

May 2, 2022 From roadtovr

Following a report today which claimed Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria headset would be priced at $800, rather than denying the information as a rumor, the company took the curious step of confirming the headset would be much more expensive.

A report by The Information today, citing an internal roadmap, claimed that Meta is planning to release four new VR headsets by 2024. The first would be Project Cambria, the report says, priced around $800.

Now typically when there’s a leak like this, companies will simply decline to comment on any of it. In this case, Meta took the somewhat odd step of pretty much doing that except for addressing a single point.

A Spokesperson for the company tells Road to VR the $800 price for Project Cambria claimed by the report is not accurate, and further, that the actual price of the headset will be “significantly higher.”

That’s a curious move, but it seems that Meta didn’t want the report to set a false expectation for the price of the headset, which is expected to launch later this year.

We’ve known from the bits Meta has shared previously that Project Cambria wasn’t going to aim for the lowest possible cost like Quest. But it’s a bit surprising that the company says the actual price will “significantly” exceed $800.

If the reported price of $800 was within $100 or even $200 of the actual price, it doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal. But because the company took the odd step of not just saying ‘the price is incorrect’, but also adding that it will be higher, makes us think the real price will certainly exceed $1,000.

That’s definitely expensive for a standalone VR headset, but not unheard of. HTC’s Vive Focus 3—which is aimed at enterprise customers—is priced at $1,300. If Meta sees itself competing for those same customers, they may aim to come close to that price (if not a bit under).

– – — – –

Interestingly, the episode bears resemblance to something that happened in the early Oculus days, before the company was absorbed deeply into Meta. Back in 2015, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said the launch price of the original Oculus Rift headset would be “roughly in [the $350] ballpark.” But when the headset’s price was officially revealed at $600, nearly double the ‘ballpark’ price, people weren’t happy.

This was before the launch of Oculus Touch, the headset’s motion controllers; later when someone asked Luckey what the ‘ballpark’ price would be for Touch he remarked, “no more ballparks for now. I have learned my lesson.”

Whether that’s a long forgotten memory for Meta or not, the company must have felt it was quite important to get ahead of the Project Cambria price discussion before it got out of their hands.

Report: Meta to Release Four New VR Headsets by 2024, Starting with Project Cambria in September

May 2, 2022 From roadtovr

According to a report by The Information, Meta plans to release four new VR headsets by 2024, and that’s purportedly in addition to its AR devices.

The Information reporters Sylvia Varnham O’Regan and Mathew Olson say they’ve seen an internal roadmap that shows an aggressive rollout of new VR headsets by Meta.

“By 2024,” the report says, the company plans to launch four new headsets. The report specifically says these are “virtual reality headsets” (though this could well include mixed reality headsets using passthrough AR) and indicates the four new devices are separate from the AR headsets that Meta is also developing.

The first of Meta’s four new headsets will be Project Cambria, which the report says is expected in September of this year.

We already know a bit about Project Cambria as the company officially teased the headset last year and a handful of leaks have filled in some details. According to The Information‘s report, the headset is likely to be priced at $800.

Update (May 2nd, 2022 – 4:24PM PT): Meta confirmed that the actual price of Project Cambria will be “significantly higher” than the $800 price stated by The Information’s report.

An unofficial rendering of Project Cambria based on leaked info | Image courtesy SadlyItsBradley

And a follow-up to Cambria is already in the works, according to the report; codenamed Funston, which is expected in 2024.

As for the other two headsets, those are the next-gen iterations of Meta’s more affordable Quest 2 headset, reportedly codenamed Stinson and Cardiff, with an expected release in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

But what features the headsets beyond Cambria will be target is still somewhat unclear. It’s too early for headsets built around some of the radical changes in compute architecture that Meta believes is necessary to take XR devices to the next level, or the holographic folded optics it’s been researching, though maybe the varifocal tech Meta has been working on for years is nearly ready for primetime. And what of those two headsets the company teased late last year?

As ever, only time will tell, but it looks like Meta’s increasingly steep investments in XR are ramping up the pace for the company’s headset releases.

Check out the original report by The Information for more details.

Kuo: Meta’s High End Headset Launches H2 With 2K Per Eye Mini LED

April 11, 2022 From uploadvr

Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is reiterating some interesting claims about Meta’s next headset.

Back in January Kuo released a report claiming a headset he called “Oculus Quest 3”:

will launch in the second half of the year
has two 2.48″ 2160×2160 Mini LED panels
has dual-element Pancake lens
should ship 1-2 million units this year

We didn’t cover the claims at the time as we were focused on covering CES 2022, we doubted the “Oculus Quest 3” naming claim given Meta dropped the Oculus brand, and 1-2 million seemed too low for a Quest 2 successor.

Kuo, who recently joined Twitter, is now reiterating his January specs claims while newly claiming this headset will have “facial expression recognition” and launch in the second half of this year.

However, whereas his January report called the headset Oculus Quest 3 he now says “I think the new model’s name would be Oculus Quest 2 Pro”.

So what’s going on here? Is this Quest 3, Quest 2 Pro, or something else?

Oculus Quest was originally called “Project Santa Cruz” before it got a name and price. In October Meta announced a new headset codenamed “Project Cambria”. It was described as “a completely new advanced and high end product” positioned “at the higher end of the price spectrum”.

Meta hasn’t yet revealed the name, specs, or price of Project Cambria, but did say it:

isn’t Quest 3
has color passthrough cameras for mixed reality
has a more compact design thanks to multi element pancake lenses used instead of fresnel lenses
has eye tracking and face tracking
will launch in 2022

Mark Zuckerberg referred to Cambria as the first of “a new product line”, separate from “the Quest product line”. That strongly suggests Cambria won’t be called Quest 2 Pro – though it seemingly was once known as ‘Quest Pro’.

Given Kuo’s naming pivot and his mention of pancake lenses and face tracking, we believe his reports are probably referring to Project Cambria and his product name claims are guesses. We highly doubt Meta would release two headsets in the same year both with expensive pancake lenses and face tracking. What would make these products substantially different? And why would Meta only announce one of them?

As such, if Kuo’s claims are correct – naming aside – Cambria should have dual 2160×2160 Mini LED panels and launch in the second half of this year (between July and December). That’s up from the 1832×1920 per eye resolution provided by Quest 2’s single conventional LCD display.

Mini LED uses many small backlight elements instead of a few large backlights

Mini LED isn’t a completely new display technology like the name might suggest – it’s just an advanced form of LCD backlighting. While traditional small LCD panels use a single backlight behind the entire display, Mini LED instead uses thousands of tiny LED elements to deliver contrast levels close to OLED – though usually with the tradeoff of some blooming. Mini LED is already present in the high end PC headset Varjo Aero, and Pimax plans to use it in its standalone headset too.

Renders by product designer Marcus Kane based on recollection of YouTuber Bradley Lynch

Last week a YouTuber claimed to have seen photos of Project Cambria and collaborated with a product designer to produce detailed renders. The source of those photos apparently claimed the field of view feels “very similar” to Quest 2, and cautioned when using it in VR mode “don’t expect Cambria to be something that different. It’s different, but not that much.”

Detailed Renders Purportedly Show Meta’s Project Cambria Headset

April 8, 2022 From uploadvr

YouTuber Bradley Lynch claims to have seen Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria headset, and collaborated with a product designer to produce detailed renders.

Cambria was announced in late October at Connect 2021. Cambria isn’t Quest 3 – CEO Mark Zuckerberg described it as “a completely new advanced and high end product” positioned “at the higher end of the price spectrum”. Cambria will be sold alongside Quest 2 as a higher end alternative.

Cambria appears to have a much more balanced design than Quest 2, with a significantly smaller frontbox and a strap resembling Quest 2’s elite strap accessory, potentially housing the battery. Meta says this is achieved through the use of multi-element pancake lenses used instead of fresnel lenses. Whereas Quest 2 has grainy black & white cameras, Cambria will have high resolution color passthrough for mixed reality experiences. It will also include eye tracking and face tracking to drive avatars in social VR.

At the time of the announcement, Meta confirmed it had sent development kits out.

Past ‘Quest Pro’ Leaks

Cambria was seemingly once known as “Quest Pro”.

In February 2021 now-CTO Andrew Bosworth was asked about the prospect of ‘Quest Pro’. He replied “Quest Pro, huh… Interesting…” and winked at the camera. By April 2021 Bosworth’s stance on “Quest Pro” became more solid. In a public conversation with “Consulting CTO” John Carmack, he remarked “I did hint at an AMA earlier this year about Quest Pro because we do have a lot of things in development where we want to introduce new functionality to the headset”.

In September references to ‘Quest Pro’ were found in the Quest firmware, as well as eye and face tracking calibration steps. Just two weeks later, the leaks significantly intensified.

Screenshots of a video call leaked showing Touch controllers with onboard cameras instead of an LED tracking ring. But days before this, a redditor going by the username Samulia had posted low resolution renders of these same controllers, alongside detailed apparent specs of the headset.

In that reddit post Samulia claimed:

The headset’s codename is “Seacliff” and the controllers codename is “Starlet”.
The display is a Dual-Cell LCD with the same resolution as Quest 2 but an advanced backlight with pixel-level control, enabling OLED-like black levels without OLED’s black smear or manufacturability issues.
Three sensors are on the exterior of the headset: a 4K 120FPS RGB camera for color passthrough & mixed reality and two side-facing 1K near-infrared 120FPS cameras.
Some form of laser pattern projection guides controller tracking and potentially aids hand tracking.
Internally there are 480p 120FPS eye tracking cameras and two 400p 120FPS face tracking cameras.

Days after this YouTuber Basti564 – known for finding upcoming features in Quest firmware on multiple occasions – posted a new video backing up Samulia with firmware findings revealing the same sensor configuration as claimed and the same “Seacliff” codename. That suggested either Samulia had insider knowledge, or was using the same firmware decompiling methodology as Basti. Basti also found references to Seacliff having two cooling fans, up from one in Quest 2. The primary CPU cores in Quest 2 are actually underclocked. Better cooling could allow for significant improvement in CPU clock speed, and perhaps even GPU overclocking too.

In October, just days before Cambria was teased by Meta, Basti discovered tutorial videos in the firmware giving us the first look at the headset’s design.

By November, just weeks after the dark teaser video, Basti had found textures of Cambria and its controllers, and formed them into a 3D model.

Bradley’s Spec Claims & Renders

Last week YouTuber Bradley Lynch posted a video to his channel SadlyItsBradley claiming a “friend” gave him impressions of the headset:

“Don’t expect Cambria to be something that different. It’s different, but not that much.”

The source apparently claimed Cambria has a resolution of 2160×2160 per eye, up from Quest 2’s 1832×1920 per eye, and that the field of view feels “very similar” to Quest 2.

Yesterday Lynch posted a new video in which he claims his source showed him real images of the Cambria headset via an app which prevents screenshots. Lynch worked with product designer Marcus Kane in the VR app Gravity Sketch to produce a detailed 3D model of what he saw for renders, seen above.

The renders look essentially identical to Meta’s teaser video and the leaked tutorial video, with one notable exception. Underneath the front of the headset is two cameras near the bottom (in a similar position to Quest 2’s) as well as an apparent sensor suite directly in the middle. It’s unclear whether these sensors are a recent addition to Cambria, were simply not included in the 3D models and dark renders we’ve seen to date, or whether the reconstruction reflects the actual sensor layout of the upcoming device. Lynch speculates these may be time-of-flight sensors for hand tracking, though it may also be the laser pattern projectors Samulia claims.

Meta hasn’t given a specific release window for Project Cambria, but as recently as December confirmed it’s still on track to launch in 2022.

Unofficial Render Purports to Show Production Model of Meta’s Next-gen Headset, Project Cambria

April 7, 2022 From roadtovr

YouTuber SadlyItsBradley claims to have seen actual photos of the production model of Meta’s next-gen mixed reality headset, Project Cambria. Though they aren’t sharing the source photos, they worked with a 3D modeler to create a detailed rendering of what the photos showed.

SadlyItsBradley is an XR hardware analyst who has spent considerable time digging deep to track down rumors and info relating to upcoming VR hardware. Recently they claimed that Meta’s upcoming mixed reality headset, currently known as Project Cambria, reached its ‘DVT’ phase which means that it’s nearly ready for production.

SadlyItsBradley also claims to have seen actual photos of the production-ready Project Cambria, and while they couldn’t share the photos themselves, they worked with a 3D modeler Marcus Kane to recreate what was seen in detail. Below are the renders that resulted.

Project Cambria Unofficial Renders

In the video accompanying the renders, Bradley talked about the array of cameras on the headset, including a pod of four sensors hidden underneath the front cover. According to them, the pod contains two cameras and two non-camera sensors which are theorized to be some kind of depth-sensor:

What’s especially notable about the renders is how compact the optics and display housing is compared to current VR headsets. If the renders are fairly accurate, this affirms that Project Cambria is likely moving to a new optics system compared to past headsets (likely a ‘pancake’-style optic).

Some of this info and speculation—and even much of the look of the device—was teased by Meta itself last year. At the time the company said Project Cambria would include “high-res color mixed reality passthrough,” new optics, eye & face tracking, and controllers which do away with the tracking rings (likely moving to on-board inside-out tracking). The company also confirmed that Project Cambria would launch in 2022, though no further details on a release date or price have been announced.

Meta’s Wireless High-End Headset Project Cambria Still on for 2022

February 3, 2022 From vrfocus

While Meta’s quarterly earnings calls are a number fest, occasionally CEO Mark Zuckerberg gives some interesting insight or update as to its hardware plans. That was certainly the case this week when in amongst all the Oculus Store figures he mentioned that Meta’s high-end virtual reality (VR) headset (Project Cambria) is still on track for a 2022 launch.

New Oculus Facebook headset leak — Leaked image prior to Project Cambria announcement.

Project Cambria was officially announced during the Connect 2021 keynote – although a leak had surfaced – widely expected because had continually talked about an Oculus Quest Pro model. This was going to be more powerful, have more sensors packed into it to track your eyes and facial features. It’s assumed these are the same device, with Meta looking to corner the prosumer and enterprise market as well.

The Connect 2021 address mentioned a 2022 launch window and Zuckerberg has reiterated that fact, saying: “We’re working towards a release of a high-end virtual reality headset later this year.” It’s likely the official launch will take place during Connect which should make for quite an exciting finale to 2022 for VR fans as PlayStation VR2 has been rumoured to arrive by year-end.

Whilst there are still plenty of unknown’s regarding Project Cambria, Meta has dropped several details highlighting its desire to create a much more refined VR experience for those who don’t mind paying for it.

It’ll still be a wireless, standalone headset for ultimate freedom in VR that’ll be compatible with Quest – but it won’t be the next Quest – so it’ll likely still include AirLink or some other PC connectivity. Plus as a high-end product, it’ll cost more, probably north of £500 to differentiate it from the Quest 2’s £299/£399 consumer price point.

Project Cambria optics — Project Cambria’s Pancake Optics. Image credit: Meta

As for the in-built tech, those eye and face tracking features will play a major part, thus allowing your metaverse avatar to express your actual emotions. Meta’s VR avatars actually got an upgrade earlier this week to aid with this process. Eye-tracking also allows for foveated rendering, focusing processing power on where you’re looking whilst your peripheral vision can be rendered at a lower quality.

Project Cambria won’t purely offer VR experiences either, it’s going to be a mixed reality (MR) headset with full-colour passthrough thanks to an array of cameras. This will be different to MR devices like Magic Leap because you won’t have a transparent display to look through. Instead, the real world will be displayed in the internal screens with advanced algorithms helping to add a sense of depth.

None of this will be any good if the optics aren’t amazing. So to make the visuals pop whilst ensuring a slim, light headset Meta will be employing pancake optics. These fold light several times over to maintain a thinner form factor, the lens being one of the main reasons for the bulk of a VR headset.

This pro headset might be readying for launch in 2022 but don’t forget Meta isn’t dropping the Quest product lineup. The CEO said last year that its Reality Labs division was working on follow-up devices: “We have product teams spun up now, working on the next few generations of virtual reality and what Quest 3 and 4 are gonna look like.” So consumer Quest’s aren’t going anywhere.

For further updates on Project Cambria, keep reading gmw3.

Apple vs. Meta: Who Will Offer the Better Metaverse Experience?

January 21, 2022 From vrfocus

As we edge closer towards Web 3, it seems like every company wants a piece of the pie. After rebranding to Meta and laying out its plans to dominate the metaverse, Facebook has made significant waves within the last few months. Other Big Tech giants such as Microsoft, Samsung and Sony have also sunk their teeth into the metaverse space, with offerings such as collaborative software, better connectivity and more immersive user experiences.

Mark Zuckerberg @ F8 2018 - Virtual Reality

The spotlight has also long since been on Apple, with many analysts and experts waiting for one of tech’s biggest trailblazers to introduce their own ‘mixed reality’ headset. However, recent reports have confirmed that Apple has no short-term plans to enter the metaverse with their much-awaited device, which is set to be announced later this year. Instead, the company is allegedly focusing only on providing access to gaming, communications and entertainment content for the time being.

With the metaverse being an inevitable prospect, will Apple eventually enter the market with a Web 3-compatible device? First, let’s take a look at what’s in store for both Apple and Meta’s next headset releases in 2022. We’ll then review what both Facebook and Apple are best at doing — and why we think that Apple won’t necessarily stay behind the curve.

Facebook’s first high-end headset under the Meta moniker is due for release sometime later in 2022 — though an exact timeframe has yet to be confirmed.

Dubbed ‘Project Cambria’, Meta’s latest device was initially referenced last year at the company’s virtual Connect conference. This headset has been promised to be the successor to the popular Oculus Quest 2, packed with immersive features that were previously unseen in previous headset releases.

Notable features include lifelike facial communication capabilities, the ability to track users’ facial expressions, reconstruction of mixed reality objects, a special avatar personalisation engine and other advancements that are in line with bringing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s promise of an ‘embodied’ metaverse experience to life.

In terms of its design, several defining assets were also revealed in Meta’s Connect 2021 demo. Some of the most notable ones include:

A more ergonomic design: In its current prototype form, Project Cambria will come in a sleek, all-black structure that is lighter, more compact and equipped with a much slimmer strap than its Oculus predecessors.

Tracked controllers: Project Cambria is also expected to feature full-body tracking capabilities, giving users a better sense and level of control over their virtual surroundings.
More advanced sensors and reconstruction algorithms: Project Cambria is also set to feature more superior sensors and reconstruction algorithms, with the ability to represent physical objects in the real world with impeccable perspective and depth. The sensors will also accommodate various different skin tones and facial features, making users’ experiences more immersive and lifelike.

According to Meta analyst Noelle Martin, the company: “aims to be able to simulate you down to every skin pore, every strand of hair, every micromovement […] the objective is to create 3D replicas of people, places and things, so hyper-realistic and tactile that they’re indistinguishable from what’s real.”

So far, Meta’s project appears to be off to a smooth start. Since its rebranding, the company’s share price has risen by about 5%. Meta’s plans involve hiring at least 10,000 new staff members to build out their metaverse space. And while this news hasn’t exactly been hailed across the board, Meta has even started poaching staff members from both Microsoft and Apple and recruting them to join their mission.

What do we know about Apple’s upcoming ‘mixed reality’ headset?

While multiple sources initially claimed that Apple’s upcoming headset would be set to launch in 2022, Bloomberg now suggests that we will more likely see the announcement of the new headset closer to the end of this year.

Some features that are projected to be featured in Apple’s first XR offering include:

Turbo-fast processing: Apple’s headset release is expected to wield the same level of power as the M1 processor currently found in its latest MacBook Pro lineup, with a 96W USB-C power adapter at its helm. It’s also reported to feature a lower-end processor, which will power up any sensor-related computing.
Tracking cameras: Apple’s headset will apparently feature two tracking cameras, with the ability to relay information to two 8K displays located in front of the user’s eyes.
LiDAR sensors: These sensors have been cited as a possibility for Apple’s first headset — with lasers to measure distance, allowing for the fast and accurate gathering of a space’s area. This would allow for better placing of objects in AR.

Despite ample predictions that Apple would join the likes of Meta, Microsoft and other tech leaders in creating a metaverse-compatible device, it appears that they won’t be in the ranks just yet. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, known to be a reliable Apple analyst: “The idea of a completely virtual world where users can escape to — like they can in Meta Platforms/Facebook’s vision of the future — is off-limits from Apple.” Instead, he has said that the upcoming mixed-reality headset will allow users to perform shorter activity sessions — such as gaming, communications and entertainment consumption.

With Web 3 clearly on the horizon, Apple’s refusal to enter the metaverse space has prompted reactions of shock and disappointment from spectators. This news also places both Meta and Apple in very different areas of the playing field, with Apple’s upcoming vision feeling like a sharp contrast to that of Meta’s — a brand that has completely centralised its new positioning around creating a metaverse space in Web 3.

If we shift our focus back to Meta, we’re left with an important question — what kind of advantage do they have in this race? Has Facebook’s success and business model laid down the right foundation for Meta to rightfully take off?

What Facebook has done best: connecting people

From its earliest days, Facebook was created with one primary mission: to bring people closer together.

A then-sophomore at Harvard, a young Mark Zuckerberg launched The Facebook — a social media website built to forge better connections between Harvard students. This force of connectivity was then used to help students across different institutions connect with each other. Eventually, the Facebook universe would completely revolutionise how the rest of the world would connect, communicate and share personal information across a centralised database.

Now as Meta, the company’s goal is to enhance the user experience and make these virtual connections more immersive. According to Mark Zuckerberg: “the defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place.” Moreover, he describes the objective of allowing users to feel truly present with one another as: “the ultimate dream of social technology.”

Today, it can be argued that Meta is the only Big Tech corporation with the scale and capital to create a metaverse space — with a user base of 3.5 billion people and a total of $86 billion in generated profits from within the last year. With an unparalleled number of users at its fingertips, Meta already houses the largest web of interconnected people in all of social media history.

However, will the expansiveness of Meta’s ecosystem continue to foster a safe and equitable space for users to freely connect and share information? Despite Facebook’s long history of controversies, Zuckerberg seems to have a pretty egalitarian version of the metaverse — promising a need for greater interoperability and lower fees for developers. But with the advent of virtual land on decentralised platforms such as Decentraland and Somnium Space, questions have now arisen about how Meta will govern its new internet medium, or about where communities may find ways to connect more freely in Web 3.

With this taken into account, it’s also easy to wonder: should Meta be forced to share the metaverse with these newer, blockchain-powered platforms, will the Project Cambria headset offer fair access? Or will this one day be offered by another, potentially more mainstream and user-friendly device?

What Apple has done best: innovation

Apple is often credited for revolutionising some of our most widely-used product innovations. Well-known examples include the iPod, the iPhone and, of course, the Apple Macintosh — one of the very first machines that helped make personal computing ubiquitous. To illustrate an example, let’s jump into a time machine and backtrack to the very early days of computing.

Steve Jobs, a then-aspiring tech mogul, paid a visit to Xerox’s PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) laboratory back in 1979. During this time, Xerox was the first company to have produced an operating system based on a graphical user interface (GUI) — a remarkable device called the Xerox Alto.

However, the Alto would never see a commercial release. With a price tag of $32,000 USD (the equivalent to $114,105 USD in today’s market), Xerox’s managers saw nothing but an overly complicated workstation that was far too expensive to mass-produce. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, saw much more than that. He was amazed by the GUI and believed that the Alto was the ideal blueprint for how all computers should operate.

Most analysts agree that the Xerox Alto was far ahead of its time. Before any other machine in computing history, it featured the same type of keyboard and mouse interface we still use today. It also, incredibly enough, featured now-universal concepts such as email, event reminders and word processing.

Wanting a piece of the innovation for himself, Jobs sold shares of Apple to Xerox in exchange for access to the Alto’s technology. Apple would then use their data to create a more refined, user-friendly and affordable home computing device.

The same logic can be applied to the creation of the iPhone. While Apple wasn’t the pioneer of the mobile smartphone, they were able to reinvent the handset concept and turn it into the closest thing we then had to a pocket-sized computer. To date, the iPhone’s build has served as a de facto blueprint for how future touch-screen devices would be constructed and integrated into our everyday lives.

Throughout the course of tech history, Apple has mastered the art of taking existing technology and making it better. And while Steve Jobs may no longer be at the forefront of Apple’s empire, their continued efforts (such as the M1 processor in today’s lightweight, industry-standard MacBooks, or the highly expansive App Store library) have proven that the tech giant hasn’t lost its innovation edge.

So, how does this all relate to our current technological paradigm, which is Web 3?

Well, it’s a prime example of what Apple does best: innovation. And while it might be too soon to tell, decades of Apple’s design-first trends suggest that we could very well see history repeat itself once the tech giant decides to create an innovative, metaverse-ready device. Like the iPhone or the Macintosh, it just might be the one that finds its way into the households of the masses.

So, what’s next?

With neither tech giant having released their dedicated XR headset yet, it’s still far too early to tell which path either will take. Recent reports have revealed that Meta plans to enter the NFT marketplace, though no evidence yet suggests that the company has any plans to embrace a more decentralised business model.

When we look back at the history of computing, however, one thing is clear: computers — or in this case, headsets — have never been the end goal. They’re not the thing, per se — they’re the thing that gets us to the next thing. And when it comes to getting closer to Web 3, the company that brings us towards the better, more ubiquitous user experience will win.

To keep learning more about Apple, Meta and other industry trends related to the metaverse and Web 3, stay tuned for more updates on gmw3.

Editorial: With Apple Approaching, Meta Needs A More Intuitive VR User Experience

January 15, 2022 From uploadvr

As we head into 2022, the virtual and augmented reality industry is starting to look a little more competitive than it has in the last few years. But with Apple approaching the market, Meta needs to change its approach to user interface and experience in VR headsets.

Since its launch in 2019, Meta’s Quest platform has dominated the VR market. But with PSVR2 specs announced and Apple’s VR/AR headset potentially arriving as soon as this year, competition is on the rise.

Recent reports indicate that Apple and Meta are in competition over talent, both enticing their existing employees to stay while also trying to lure the competition away.

Meta is building up its AR efforts after showcasing its prototype AR project, Nazare, while also moving towards release of its Project Cambria headset later this year. Cambria is expected to feature high-resolution color passthough, eye and face tracking and much more.

A reported rough depiction of Apple’s unannounced mixed reality headset, drawn by The Information.

Apple’s VR/AR headset is expected to focus on mixed reality using high resolution color cameras, along with a 300-400 gram weight range, dual 4K OLED microdisplays and “M1 MacBook level performance.”

While Meta has seen the most success with the Quest platform, the expected specs for Cambria and Apple’s headset would position them more in competition with each other than with the Quest.

Both companies are essentially building towards the next big leap in personal computing. As they take these next steps, it becomes increasingly important for both Meta and Apple to pair cutting-edge hardware with a seamless and intuitive user interface and experience.

Guiding the User

For Apple, this is an area of expertise. Apple is known for providing an unparalleled, seamless experience within its own ecosystem. This intuitive ‘walled garden’ approach is both chided and praised from a wider technological standpoint, but the benefit to the Apple user experience is undeniable.

Apple pairs smartly-designed, intuitive user interfaces with a notorious “it just works” attitude to new software and features, capped off by unmatched integration across its own ecosystem of devices. For most users, Apple’s software is the easiest to instantly understand — the complicated technology gets out of the way. Apple’s interfaces are designed to be used with little instruction, from either the device or other people.

*Steve Jobs coining Apple’s now-infamous “it just works” mentality, on stage announcing iCloud at WWDC 2011.*

On the other side of the coin, Meta offers a very different approach to user interface and experience. Despite being one of the largest social media platforms in history, Facebook is a cluttered and confusing mess of an interface. This is partly because the site’s design is constantly changed, re-designed and evolved to improve engagement. It’s a live experiment in progress, always.

From a sales point of view, Quest 2 has been a phenomenal success and it’s now a fantastic content platform for some of VR’s biggest releases. However, the base user experience mimics the Facebook design principles of confusion, evolution and convolution.

Quest 2 runs a custom VR operating system, built around a modified version of Android. Meta has made significant improvements (both in terms of design and available features) to the OS since the original Quest launch in 2019. For dedicated users and those accustomed to advanced technology, the Quest UI does its job.

For a casual audience however, Quest 2’s interface and user experience is often clunky, unintuitive and confusing to navigate. Simple actions and features are frequently hard to find or hidden away.

*The latest iteration of the Quest 2 UI.*

This became apparent to me personally over the holiday period, while trying to help my Dad launch an app on his Quest 2. He only uses the headset once every few months, but is otherwise adept when it comes to phones, computers and other technology platforms.

What followed was a series of endless troubleshooting questions for very basic actions. “Have you found the app menu? It’s the icon with a grid of squares. It’s on the dashboard, at the bottom, can you see the dashboard? You bring it up by pressing the Oculus button. No, not that one. It’s the one that has no indentation, it’s flat, at the bottom of the face on the right controller. Can you see the dash now? Okay, can you find the app? It’s in the app menu…”

For a device that can fabricate an entire world around you, with limitless design options, it feels less natural and more confusing to navigate than almost any other platform. Meta’s UI on Quest obfuscates simple actions, over-complicates the basics and seemingly fails at guiding the user around the headset.

A Tale of Two Operating Systems

The reasons for this are somewhat clear – Meta does not have Apple’s breadth of experience in the computer platform realm. Apple have been doing this for decades, Meta just over one.

Perhaps some of the answers to these UI design problems will be solved with Meta’s proprietary VR/AR operating system, which is being developed internally and was, until recently, led by Mark Lucovsky (formerly of Microsoft, now developing an AR OS for Google).

*Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria headset.*

But with Cambria releasing this year, it seems unlikely it would run Meta’s proprietary OS — a continuation of the modified Android build pioneered for Quest seems like the safer bet.

Apple’s headset will probably feature much of the same design language, features and experience that has propelled Apple to become one of the most esteemed technology companies on the planet. So if Apple’s headset releases later this year, will Cambria’s competing user experience hold up to Apple’s standard?

Apple has spent more than a decade perfecting, streaming-lining and synergizing the design of its three big operating systems: iOS, MacOS and iPad OS. The upcoming headset is rumored to run its own operating system, rOS, and job openings describe engineers working on VR/AR problems alongside Apple’s existing UI frameworks and system software teams.

Meta may have a lead in the VR/AR content war and now seems laser-focused on building its own metaverse, but Apple could easily outplay them on a system software level. How? Let’s speculate on the hypothetical user experience offered by Apple’s upcoming headset, based off the company’s existing products and ecosystem-spanning features.

The (Hypothetical) Apple Headset Experience

Like most Apple devices, the headset will probably pair automatically with your account when placed in proximity to another Apple device you own, eliminating the need for almost any user setup. This would automatically connect the headset to your existing Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth and Apple devices, and your iCloud account.

In terms of user interface, the headset will likely borrow a lot of visual and interface cues from iOS/iPad OS, adapted for mixed reality. With an Apple chip inside, native support for existing 2D iOS and MacOS apps might be possible, if not expected. If so, automatic pairing would likely sync your existing app data and files across instantly using iCloud, syncing everything inside and outside of VR perfectly.

Apple Export — *Apple’s heavily-integrated product ecosystem.*

Likewise, the headset would instantly connect to your accessories, like AirPods, right out of the box. Screenshots or video recordings taken in VR or mixed reality will probably upload automatically to iCloud, ensuring easy access from other non-VR devices. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see other Apple services, like AirDrop or AirPlay, to be integrated at launch as well.

While all of the above is hypothetical, it’s not necessarily unlikely — new Apple devices tend to fit into the ecosystem perfectly. Ecosystem features like AirDrop and automatic pairing are standard fare on every new Apple device.

Many of these features are already available on Quest, some in a different or much less convenient manner. However, the way that Apple melds intuitive design with convenient features is what counts. The average consumer doesn’t have to search very far to AirDrop a photo from one device to another — it’s just a button press or two away at all times. On Quest 2, moving a screenshot from the headset to a phone or computer is unclear and cumbersome every step of the way. For ease of use and intuitive design, it’s still apples and oranges — even when counting recent improvements on Meta’s end.

If Cambria launches with such a low standard of user experience, then Apple’s headset shipping with AirDrop and other ecosystem staples would set it up to outclass Meta in several areas almost overnight.

A Fruitful Opportunity

Meta has arguably bought and developed its way to an impressive content library and feature set, but it lacks the experience to leverage that as part of an effective, integrated platform. At launch, the opposite might be true for Apple’s headset.

Both headsets are aiming higher than a gaming market — they are the next generation of personal computing. If Meta wants to compete with Apple on that level, then it will need to adapt and make some serious changes — and soon.

Clear and intuitive user experience is becoming increasingly crucial as VR reaches a wider audience. Apple joining the fray should present the industry with some well-needed competition in this department – let’s hope Meta bites back.