I Expect You To Die 3 is coming to the Meta Quest 2 (and Pro) headsets on August 17th for $25, and Windows (via Steam) on September 28th.
I loved the original, and Adi called the sequel “the most fun I’ve had solving puzzles this year.” It’s a hit combination of zany ‘60s spy movie and VR escape room that you can comfortably play sitting down.
We’ve known the date for Meta’s next developer event since the company revealed the details of its Quest 3 headset, and now there’s more information available.
The two full days of programming will include a Keynote hosted by Mark Zuckerberg, the Developer State of the Union, and breakout sessions covering a range of topics related to AI and virtual, mixed, and augmented reality. Those who attend in person will also have access to demo experiences, networking events, and more.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared some screenshots of the form developers are having to fill out for the headset’s developer kits. I’m guessing the official ordering process for customers will be much more Apple-y when you can actually buy the device yourself next year.
Apple leaker @aaronp613 said the company pushed firmware that references two additional model numbers for the headset’s battery. I’m not aware of Apple publicly discussing other potential batteries for its headset, so I wouldn’t read too much into this just yet. But it is interesting to consider the possibility of additional batteries, even if they don’t actually come to market.
The firmware updates could be one of Apple’s steps to prep for forthcoming the Vision Pro dev kits.
The transparent PS VR2 has been shown, and here’s a special edition clear Quest Pro unit from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, posted during the launch of Threads. Since Meta’s shutting down production of these, we don’t expect to see it released, but at least it exists.
Check ‘em out on the PlayStation blog. My favorite is easily this transparent PSVR 2. Sony, please release this for real!
Developers who want to try the beta can sign up at www.unity.com/spatial. Apple has already released the visionOS SDK and it could start shipping the dev kits soon.
The other day, Vjeran discovered we still have the original Oculus Rift dev kit I brought back from Oculus HQ ten years ago. It made me nostalgic, so I decided to spruce up my story about touring their early offices to fix a little linkrot.
Then, an old photo suddenly caught my eye.
No idea how long this was on display, but it had a seat of honor at the front desk. Oculus sold to Facebook one year later.
During the Fortune Brainstorm Tech event on Tuesday, Meta exec Vishal Shah said the metaverse’s “hype cycle” has come and gone — but he doesn’t believe that’s a bad thing:
We didn’t invest for the hype, we have been investing in the space for years... I’m actually pretty happy that there was both a hype and a trough of disillusionment last year, it was tough to live through that, of course, ourselves. But now we have our heads down and built, because that’s what it takes to build something difficult to iterate and do it.
[Fortune]
Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth was asked that question in an AMA he held over Instagram Stories on his profile on Thursday evening. His response:
The metaverse term is fine. There’s nothing wrong with the term. It does lack definition because we haven’t given it full definition yet.
He also argued that it’s similar to how people were trying to define the internet in the 90s (and said that the internet is still hard to define).
I don’t completely agree with that characterization — the metaverse feels much more nebulous to me than the internet ever did — but I am curious if the concept of the metaverse eventually goes on to be something more widely understood.
And Boz doesn’t seem worried, saying that “I think new technology is always like this.”
As spotted by MacRumors, Apple’s TestFlight app has been updated to support visionOS. That’s a sign Apple could start shipping out dev kits soon, allowing developers to test out their apps for the $3,499 mixed-reality system.
Testut, who created the Delta emulator and alternative iOS app store Alt Store, posted a tantalizing toot showing what looks like an emulator museum running on the Vision Pro SDK.
“You won’t be able to install emulators on the Vision Pro without jailbreaking the $3,500 headset,” you say.
Yes, I know. Look, just let me have this.
Daring Fireball has a small roundup of app developers like Simon B. Støvring who have already seen... the light.
It’s one of the built-in apps with visionOS. Looking at this image, apparently you’ll be able to print things from the Vision Pro, too! Perfect gadget!
Developers can now start making apps for the Apple Vision Pro. Next month, Apple is going to open “developer labs” in a handful of cities so developers can go hands-on with the headset. Developers will be able to apply for developer kits, too, though I have to imagine those will be under a mountain of NDAs.
In a pair of tweets, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple would “aggressively” upgrade hardware specs with an eye to the ecosystem around its $3,499 headset.
That includes bumping the iPhone 15’s ultra-wideband (UWB) chip to a new 7nm process and a likely update to Wi-Fi 7 on the iPhone 16. Wi-Fi 7 devices should support faster mesh networking features and lower in-home latency. Qualcomm has said it will enable “peak speeds up to 5.8 Gbps” to a single device.
Slowly, everyone is agreeing that the Vision Pro is a TV, but I’m struggling to believe that it will actually replace the TV sets in your home.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman is again highlighting Apple Vision Pro successors. That includes a 2nd-gen Vision Pro with a faster processor, as well as a cheaper one that could arrive by late 2025, with a two-product split mirroring Apple’s phones, laptops, and tablets.
Gurman offered a theory on why Tim Cook never donned the headset WWDC — Apple execs don’t want to be turned into memes by unflattering pictures.
