Jay Peters
Meta is launching new avatars on October 1st.
And later in 2025, users will be able to generate a new avatar with an AI prompt.
Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge
Virtual Reality
Jay Peters
Meta is touting increased Horizon Worlds usage.
5X usage growth in 2024, and the app is a top five Quest 3 app in terms of weekly users, the company says.
Correction: Horizon Worlds is not a Quest 5 app.
Jay Peters
Meta is releasing a camera passthrough API for Quest developers early next year.
Could be a really big deal for developers — the announcement got huge cheers in the Connect keynote room.
Alex Heath
Meta’s CTO gives developers an apology.
We’re in the developer-focused section of Meta’s Connect keynote. CTO Andrew Bosworth is onstage and starts with an apology: “We have not made it easy to develop for our platforms. I want you to know that we know that, and we’re sorry.”
He goes on to say that the “ground has constantly been shifting under your feet for years now.” Meta just recently killed Spark, its AR effects platform, without warning and has made more changes than I can count to the Quest’s software.
Jay Peters
Mark’s done.
Zuckerberg has wrapped up announcements. We just watched a video made by director Matthew Vaughn filmed on Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
Now Andrew Bosworth is here for the developer keynote.
Wes Davis
Meta says it’s making it easier to beam your Windows desktop to your Quest headset.
At Meta Connect, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Quest VR headset users will be able to connect to Windows 11 PCs just by looking at their keyboard — much the same way Apple’s Vision Pro can do that when you look at a MacBook.
Here’s a gallery of pics from the presentation.
1/4Screenshot: Meta Connect
Jay Peters
YouTube co-watching in Horizon Worlds is rolling out in beta next week.
That could be kind of useful, actually.
Jay Peters
Huge cheers for Horizon Worlds.
I still think it’s pretty bad, but people in the crowd seem to love it.
Jay Peters
A live Quest 3S demo just crashed.
A person in the audience was wearing the Quest 3S to show off the passthrough, but the demo failed pretty quickly.
Jay Peters
Adam Mosseri is here.
He’s on crutches but seems happy!
Jay Peters
Almost time to Connect.
Alex Heath, Kylie Robison, and I are all at Meta’s Connect conference to cover the show.
Ahead of the 1PM ET keynote, you can catch up on what to expect.
Image: Jay Peters / The Verge
Wes Davis
Are Meta Avatars about to get their glow-up?
The Meta app has started teasing improvements to Horizons avatars when users try to edit them, according to an X post spotted by UploadVR.
The slides promise “more expressive, authentic stickers, profile pics, and more,” along with updated editing controls and ways to quickly change your avatar’s look. I’d imagine we’ll learn what that all means this week during Meta Connect.
Umar Shakir
Umar Shakir
Is this really an ad for Meta’s Quest 3S — and will it really cost $299.99?
A Reddit user posted an off-screen video of a certainly real-looking ad for Meta’s leaky Quest 3S VR headset, as reported by UploadVR.
The ad puts a $299.99 price tag on the 128GB model, which seems affordable compared to the Quest 3 that launched at $500.
Sean Hollister
Is Valve cooking up an Arm-powered VR headset?
Or, is it quietly bringing Windows-native VR games to the leaked Meta Quest 3S? Or Windows-native games to Arm, period? Or is this just another experiment?
Either way, this datamining leak from Valve watcher Brad Lynch is an incredibly intriguing hint. (Lynch has been sniffing around Valve’s “Deckard” standalone VR headset project for years.)
Emma Roth
The iPhone 15 Pro will let you take 3D photos soon.
The device already supports spatial video, but the latest iOS 18.1 developer beta brings spatial photos to the iPhone 15 Pro too. This allows for a more immersive experience when viewing photos on Apple’s Vision Pro headset.
The iPhone 16 will also come with support for spatial photos and videos when it launches later this week.
Sean Hollister
TP-Link has a new Bluetooth driver that maybe fixes PSVR2 PC tracking performance.
My biggest problem with Sony’s PSVR2 PC adapter was controllers that kept misbehaving — even though I was using Sony’s first-recommended TP-Link UB500 Bluetooth adapter to pair them.
But TP-Link has now shipped a driver for you to experimentally test — and Sony says it’s fixed some distortion and AMD refresh rate options in the app, too.
UB500 partial incompatibility with PSVR2 controllers - Home Network Community
[community.tp-link.com]
Wes Davis
The Quest 3S may lack a headphone jack.
Or if it does, then it’s very well hidden. There’s no 3.5mm audio port apparent in any of the images shared in a South Korean forum post that UploadVR spotted yesterday.
Click through the gallery below to see more, including pictures of the buttons (might one of those be that rumored Action Button?)
1/8Is this the Meta Quest 3S? Image: dpxl / Arca.live
Jay Peters
Meta’s Quest 3S might have an action button.
The button, which was mentioned on official support pages, according to UploadVR, will let you toggle between passthrough and full immersion on the unannounced headset.
Big month for Action Buttons.
Jay Peters
“GAZEploit.”
With the “GAZEploit” attack, researchers found they could predict what somebody was typing on the Vision Pro’s virtual keyboard by analyzing the eye movements of their Persona, according to Wired.
Apple fixed the issue with visionOS 1.3 by suspending a Persona when the person is using the virtual keyboard.
Wes Davis
Meta is planning to show its new budget VR headset next month.
The “Quest 3S,” which Meta could sell without controllers, is slated to debut at Meta Connect on September 25th and 26th and could be priced at $300 or $400, writes Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter.
The company is also expected to show its advanced Orion AR glasses concept at the event.
Ash Parrish
It’s the freakin’ bat!
Batman: Arkham Shadow is the next entry in the Batman: Arkham series but with a twist...it’s in VR. Camouflaj, the studio known for another superhero VR experience, Iron Man VR, debuted the first gameplay trailer during Opening Night Live 2024. Arkham Shadow will be a full-length, VR game launching exclusively on the Meta Quest 3 sometime in October.
Andrew Liszewski