Next Reality

The buzz around Apple's extended reality ambitions has reached fever pitch. After months of typical Apple secrecy, we're finally getting concrete glimpses into what Apple has been cooking up beyond the Vision Pro—and these leaks suggest something bigger than incremental updates. Let's break down what multiple supply chain reports and patent filings reveal about the company's surprisingly ambitious XR roadmap.

Ray-Ban's partnership with Meta keeps getting smarter — literally. The latest Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses aren't just about looking cool — they're packing upgraded tech, including the Meta glasses v12 update, faster performance, and surprisingly solid battery life. But do these smart Wayfarers live up to the hype, or are they just another overpriced gadget?

When Vivo revealed its new mixed reality headset — simply named Vivo Vision — it didn't just debut a new device. It kicked open the door to a market that, until now, has been heavily dominated by two tech giants: Apple and Meta. The Vision clearly draws inspiration from Apple's Vision Pro (very clear, in fact) — right down to its sleek ski-goggle silhouette and gesture-based interface — but it's more than just a copycat play.As someone who has followed the evolution of AR and VR for years, I...

Virtual reality isn't just a futuristic dream anymore — it's a thriving industry on track for massive expansion. According to recent projections, the global VR market is expected to grow by a staggering $339.29 billion between 2025 and 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 27.3%. That's not just a small bump — it's a sign that VR is cementing itself as a major player in gaming, business, healthcare, and beyond.

Facebook promised that it would release a pair of smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban sometime this year and now it looks like we have our first look at the device.

The competition to secure the top slot in the smart glasses space is now in full swing, with Facebook challenging Snap's Spectacles and Amazon's Echo Frames with its own collaboration with Ray-Ban called Stories.

One of the best recent outings in the Marvel universe is the animated series What If...?, which explores alternate universe takes on various superhero storylines that deliver fascinating scenarios if one single factor had been different in the story.

Away from the hype around Facebook's smart glasses, the high-end fascination with the Microsoft HoloLens, and the unending rumors about Apple's AR wearable is the small but powerful darling of the enterprise AR world — Vuzix.

The emergence of Facebook's collaboration with Ray-Ban to launch Stories smart glasses has finally put an exclamation point on a new category of smart glasses: the pre-augmented reality wearable segment.

The beginning of autumn has delivered a number of new augmented reality developments, and we're on top of it.

Virtual reality (VR) is no longer just for gaming — it's becoming a powerful tool in sports science to evaluate athlete performance. A new study by a group of scientists in Germany has validated a VR-based test battery that can reliably measure key athletic skills, such as reaction time, jumping ability, and complex movement execution.

For decades, Super Bowl ads have been used as a launching platform for new products, devices, and even technologies. In Super Bowl LIX, it took center stage in the exploding AI space.

Today is the 10-year anniversary of the death of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. To commemorate the occasion, Apple has posted a message and a mini-documentary on its website.

The team at NASA is in full mission preparation mode as they prepare to send a new team to the moon for the first time in decades via the Artemis program in 2024.

If you're a normal, non-corporate video conferencing user, you may not have heard of BlueJeans, but in the corporate world, the software has long been a major staple when it comes to remote meetings.

Even with unlimited resources and a serious case of wanderlust, it's unlikely that you or I will be able to see all of the most famous structures in the world in person.

If the importance of augmented reality and VR hardware to Facebook's future wasn't already clear enough, a shake-up in the executive ranks at the company has made it as clear as smartglasses lenses.

We usually focus on augmented reality here, but when something important in VR happens, we highlight it as part of the overall immersive computing story.

This was a busy week in the tech space. After everyone got over the major announcements of Apple's latest, we examined the metaverse through the lens of Hollywood, and then took a closer look at Facebook's first smartglasses.

One of the most iconic architectural landmarks on the planet, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, will become a part of augmented reality history thanks to a new project from Snap.

As if answering Apple's major iPhone event on Tuesday, Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi held its own product launch event the following day.

"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is, you have to see it for yourself." That's the line just before Morpheus gives Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) the red pill, finally opening his eyes to the tapestry of code that has veiled his eyes for his entire life.

When it comes to the ever-shifting sands of the augmented reality space, you never know which week will end up being truly historic. Well, this one was one for the history books.

The art of creating Snapchat Lenses is really only the beginning of the augmented reality experience on the social media platform.

We always know roughly when Apple events are coming, but when their new product events pop up, they're always a pleasant tech refresher from the Cupertino tech giant.

The enterprise-focused category of augmented reality doesn't often get the headlines due to its relatively sedate profile as a mostly factory floor and training-based tool.

The augmented reality passthrough abilities of Facebook's Oculus Quest were only fully opened to independent developers recently.

The year leading into fall is turning out to be packed with a flurry of augmented reality activity. Most notably, TikTok is adding another major weapon to its AR arsenal. Also on deck are the powers of Hollywood horror in the form of an innovative approach to AR marketing that uses sounds.

One of the primary assumptions in the world of VR and augmented reality is that the user has the ability to "see" virtual objects and the real world structures around them. But what if the user doesn't have perfect eyesight, or any eyesight at all?

The initiative known as Project Aria has been the focus of curiosity around Facebook's augmented reality plans ever since Mark Zuckerberg revealed the device around this time last year.

The beauty industry has increasingly relied on the powers of augmented reality to drive sales in recent years, and now that virtual "everything" is on trend due to the pandemic, yet another big player is entering the fray.

The Chinese short-form social media giant known as TikTok is getting into an increasingly crowded and competitive space: augmented reality effects tools.

What if, back in 2013, Google Glass had launched not as a Star Trek Borg-like eyepiece, but as a pair of seemingly normal shades, with the augmented reality lens and camera hidden within the frame?

The battle for augmented reality and social media supremacy starts with the people working behind the scenes, and this week Snap pulled off a telling win that could indicate a shift in the AR space.

The US Department of Treasury isn't generally known for being on the very edge of technology innovations (see the current hubbub around crypto), instead usually waiting until certain tools have been battle-tested in the mainstream or enterprise sector.