I’m currently in Shenzhen, and today I’m going to have quite a few interesting meetings! You’ll discover everything on my blog and social media channels very soon. Now let’s focus on the most important XR news of the week!
Top news of the week
Google I/O provided interesting updates about Android XR smartglasses and Project Aura
Google I/O did not disappoint us, and provided us with new demos and new updates about Android XR glasses and smartglasses.
We had some updates about XREAL’s Project Aura, the birdbath AR glasses powered by Android XR. These glasses are connected to a computational puck and can provide a field of view up to 70°, which is pretty big for today’s AR glasses. At Google I/O, it was confirmed that these glasses are coming this year. Google has also announced the “Android XR Developer Catalyst Program”, a developer program that will distribute 1000 Project Aura kits to developers who want to build for this device. Some funding may also be provided to selected projects, so if you have an AR application in mind, make sure to register for this initiative.
People who went hands-on with Project Aura came out positively impressed by it. It seems that the device is lighter and provides better performance than the previous demos of a few months ago. GPS has also been added as a feature. Using Google Gemini, it will also be possible to vibe-code applications for it. This promises to be a very interesting device for the upcoming times… I bet other companies will copy XREAL’s form factor pretty soon after its launch.
Talking about smart glasses, we had some interesting updates, too. First of all, the glasses made by Google and Samsung are going to be released in the fall this year. They will just be audio glasses, like the Ray-Ban Meta. The pictures of two glasses, one made in collaboration with Warby Parker, and the other with Gentle Monster, have been shared. The glasses seem to feature a nice design, and I’m intrigued by the one made with Gentle Monster because it has a completely different look than the other smartglasses, and it also seems targeted to a female audience.
On stage, Google showcased the perfect integration of these glasses with the whole Android ecosystem. The glasses can invoke Gemini in every moment, and so, for instance, you can take a picture with the glasses and then make Nano Banana modify it. You can take a picture and preview it on your Android smartwatch. Or you can ask the glasses to look for a coffee place and order some coffee, and the glasses will trigger an AI agent on your phone that will do this operation for you.
A few analysts identified this as the big strength of both Project Aura and Google smartglasses. They are perfectly integrated with the Android ecosystem: they can see your calendar, provide navigation with Google Maps; you can ask Gemini about everything; they integrate with phones and smartwatches. This is how glasses can truly be useful, and I bet that Apple (which is notorious for its fully-integrated ecosystem) will implement something similar in its glasses that may come next year. This is a big problem for Meta, though: since Meta has not full control of the operating system, it can not provide the same features, and risks offering glasses that are less useful than those of the competition. This sounds pretty ironic: Meta rushed into XR because it wanted to free itself from the operating systems provided by Google and Apple, and now it may still be trapped inside other companies’ runtimes even with its glasses.
On the AI side, Google announced Google Omni, the AI model that can generate anything from anything. The idea is to have a model that has an understanding of the world, so it can generate more realistic photos and videos. Most probably, this will be very useful also to generate 3D worlds for AR and VR.
In general, it seems that this was a pretty good Google I/O for XR and glasses!
More info (Project Aura is coming this year)
More info (Android XR Developer Program)
More info (Anshel Sag’s hands-on impressions on Aura)
More info (XREAL Project Aura’s official website)
More info (The design for Google and Samsung’s glasses has been unveiled)
More info (On-stage smartglasses demo / 1)
More info (On-stage smartglasses demo / 2)
More info (On-stage smartglasses demo / 3)
More info (Considerations about the integrated ecosystem)
More info (Scott Stein’s hands-on with Android XR glasses)
More info (Google announces Google Omni / 1)
More info (Google announces Google Omni / 2)
More info (Google announces Google Omni / 3)
Other relevant news
Snap Specs may cost $2500
According to a report from the very famous journalist Alex Heath, Snap spectacles may come relatively soon, but they will be quite expensive.
In April, he stated that the glasses would have been previewed in “a few months” and then released in the Fall of this year. Notice that the “a few months” estimate perfectly fits with AWE in June in Long Beach (California), where Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snap, will hold the main keynote. I bet he is going to announce the glasses during this keynote, and hopefully make some demos of them to selected journalists during the event. The launch could come a few months later, during the Fall.
We don’t know much about these new glasses, except that they have “a much smaller form factor, at a fraction of the weight, with a ton more capability” than the current model. They should be the first consumer-oriented AR glasses. But Mr. Heath estimates that the price could be around $2500, which would kinda contradict that narrative.
If the $2500 price tag is true, we may have a Magic-Leap-like problem. Magic Leap targeted its first glasses towards creative people, and they also featured some games and other consumer-oriented experiences. But no consumer was interested in spending $2300 on some glasses: that is a price for prosumers and enterprises. And in fact, Magic Leap then pivoted to those audiences. The big risk for Snap is repeating the same story again: it could be another piece of hardware that starts targeting consumers, then realizes that it is not selling enough, and suddenly goes B2B. Snap then would have a couple of big problems with B2B: first of all, it is a social media company that relies on data collection, and companies don’t like that; then, its glasses don’t support Unity or Unreal Engine, but just the simplified “Lens Studio”, which is not exactly what a professional would like to use to build a B2B app.
Talking about the price, you may say that the Vision Pro is even more expensive, but Apple’s fanboys are used to spending a lot of money on its hardware. And even in this case, not even Apple managed to succeed with its device. Considering that the usual Snapchat user is not willing to spend as much as the typical Apple user, you don’t obtain good sales estimates.
Anyway, even if Alex Heath is a reliable journalist, these are just speculations. Maybe the price is not truly $2500, but much less than that. I really hope so, otherwise I bet this device (while pretty interesting) would have limited sales, and we could start reading the “AR is dead” articles in mainstream tech magazines pretty soon…
Ruff Talk VR Gaming Showcase hosted some interesting VR games announcements
Ruff Talk VR is a VR-focused podcast hosted by father-and-son team Damien and Bryan Ruffy. Lately, they also started to host a gaming showcase, the Ruff Talk VR Gaming Showcase, which, like all gaming showcases, is an event where many pieces of news about VR games are shared.
During this VR Gaming Showcase, some new games were announced, and for others, some updates about them were shared (e.g. the release of a new trailer). You can read all the news pieces using the links below. I just selected the two I liked the most for you:
- Survive The Night is the new game from The Binary Mill. This is its description: “Survive the Night is a free-to-play co-op action roguelite set within the galaxy’s most popular gameshow. Players work together to survive a series of challenges featuring physics-based melee combat, dynamic mini-games, and roguelite progression systems.”
- Just Hoops Nano takes the basketball game Just Hoops and transforms it into a tabletop game in mixed reality. It looks cute and fun: you tap your fingers to aim the ball and then release to take a shot. I advise you to watch the trailer because it is really nice.
Read all the announcements and do not forget to support indie game developers!
More info (All the news from the Ruff Talk VR Gaming Showcase — Road To VR)
More info (All the news from the Ruff Talk VR Gaming Showcase — Upload VR)
More info (Survive The Night)
More info (Just Hoops Nano)
News worth a mention
Pimax starts shipping Dream Air SE
Pimax has finally started shipping the Dream Air SE, the lower-spec version of its small Dream Air headset. Things are moving a bit slowly, though: people today still can’t buy the headset, but they can only preorder it; and the people who have received the e-mail about their order being in production may still have to wait a few weeks before seeing their headset.
Steam Frame, YouTubers, and other stories
As usual, every week there are some small pieces of news about the upcoming Valve hardware that show how the launch is getting closer and closer.
One important piece of news is that the Steam Machine has recently been added to the official Vulkan 1.4 conformant products list from the Khronos Group. This is another sign that shipping is imminent.
Talking about the Steam Frame, we had two stories related to YouTubers. The first is that GamertagVR received an email from a PR agency talking about the Steam Frame launch for “next month”. In the beginning, I thought “whoa”, then I realized that the next month is in 6 days, and that anyway Valve already said it wanted to launch its headset before June. So this feels like non-news to me.
The other piece of news is that someone receiving a Steam Frame devkit let the YouTuber Voodoo try its piece of hardware under NDA, and Voodoo published a review video about it. Valve then requested to take the video down, and he complied. But the whole story is very weird: devs shouldn’t let YouTubers try hardware under NDA, and even if they did, the YouTuber shouldn’t make a video where he shows the piece of hardware, because devkits have on them identification numbers that can make the company understand who violated the NDA. This is basic knowledge! Anyway, even if the video is down, Voodoo shared publicly on X that he likes the comfort of the headset, and he thinks the FOV of the Steam Frame is better than Quest 3.
More info (Steam Machine being Vulkan-conformant)
More info (Steam Frame releases next month)
More info (Voodoo reviewing the Steam Frame and taking the video down)
Apple keeps working on improving its avatars
Apple has just performed two moves to make its avatars better. Talking about its realistic Persona avatars, it just released a paper about a new method of making avatars using Gaussian splatting. The associated video is pretty impressive and shows a photorealistic avatar making many facial expressions. Maybe this will be the foundation of new avatars announced at the next WWDC.
Talking about digital avatars, instead, Apple has just acqui-hired Animato, a startup working on AI avatars. It’s not clear what the purpose of this technology for digital avatars is for Apple. Maybe it’s not related to XR, or maybe they think about adding AI features to Persona avatars. I think we’ll see in the upcoming years…
More info (New Gaussian Splatting method for avatars)
More info (Apple acqui-hires Animato)
Anduril shows a glimpse of the night-view of its headset
Anduril, the defense company founded by Palmer Luckey, shared a video of the night vision view that is achievable inside its EagleEye headset. The visuals are much crisper and have a wider field of view than on standard military night goggles. This shows the big innovation this company is bringing to the military sector.
More info (Apple acqui-hires Animato)
Some news about content
- WorldLens VR has introduced a new AI-powered feature on Quest that adds subtle 3D depth to Google Street View environments. This makes the view much more immersive
- Myst and Riven remakes are out now on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2
- Gamitronics and Evolution Publishing plan to start official Darts VR2: Bullseye tournaments this summer with cash prizes and exclusive in-game items as rewards
- The latest 3D movies headed to Vision Pro include The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Avatar: Fire and Ash. The second one surprised us a bit: we expected it to launch on Quest, given the partnership between Meta and James Cameron
- The fast-paced shoot ’em up Outblast is coming to Meta Quest and SteamVR on June 4
- Sugar Madness, a new VR shooter from JOLLYCO Inc, will launch on Meta Quest on June 4.
More info (Wordlens VR)
More info (Myst & Riven)
More info (Darts VR2: Bullseye)
More info (The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Avatar: Fire and Ash)
More info (Outblast)
More info (Sugar Madness)
Some reviews about content
- Wingsuit: Romsdalen does provide a thrilling sense of gliding through the air, but it requires a bit of learning, and can cause motion sickness
- Excurio’s location-based experiences are definitely good, and that’s why they are getting pretty popular in Asia
- A Long Survive is currently a repetitive wave shoother. Co-op makes it a bit better, but this game should be improved a lot in its Early-Access period
- The documentary about Real Madrid on Vision Pro is definitely a great experience, both for fans of the football team and the general audience
More info (Wingsuit: Romsdalen)
More info (Excurio)
More info (A Long Survive)
More info (Real Madrid)
Other news
Upload VR tells us more about the new drones supporting 360 cameras
Vision Pro gets an accessibility feature to control your wheelchair with your eyes
News from partners (and friends)
Pocket Putt: Mini Golf is coming soon!
Pocket Putt is a nice, chill game that lets you play Mini Golf by just using your hands. You pinch, you aim, you release, and hope the ball goes in the hole! I love its simplicity. It is being launched on June 4 on the Meta Store, and you can wishlist it now.
Learn more
Nodulus VR makes lessons more innovative
My friends at VictoryXR sent me this interesting piece of news about Nodulus VR, a tool that should help in making education in VR more innovative. Let me share the update with you all:
Introducing Nodulus — a new node-based programming language built from the ground up for VXRLabs. It’s not just a content editor. It’s a full visual programming system designed to help students and educators create interactive VR experiences using real coding fundamentals.
Inside a VXRLabs Creator Space, users connect Data Nodes and Flow Nodes using the new Wiring Tool to build fully interactive environments, simulations, and learning experiences.
Students learn to code using an easy-to-understand 3D programming system where Wiring Nodes are placed and connected directly in space, making logical flows visible and intuitive.
Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered.
A full video tutorial series walks you through everything you need to know, and every Wiring Node includes a built-in Help button that explains exactly what it does in plain English. No separate documentation required.
With Nodulus, you can build things like:
• Interactive video triggers when students enter a space
• Quizzes that unlock doors at 80% or higher
• Working calculators and logic systems
• Curriculum-based escape rooms
• Obstacle courses with moving platforms and timed traps
• Distance measurement between 3D objects
• Animated simulations using vectors and trigonometry
• State machines and variable-driven systems inside VR
Watch The Trailer
Sponsored Area
Promote your company here!
This sponsored section of the newsletter is free again, after a long collaboration with the amazing people at FXG! So if you want to promote yourself, your company, your product, or whatever you want, just reach out to me and let’s see how I can help you get visibility in front of the XR community!
Contact me and let’s talk about advertisement
Some XR fun
This is probably how the Steam Frame should be
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Carol Dalrymple
- Keith Bradner
- Fabrizio Carimati
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Don Williams
- Giuseppe Pippi
- Mark Frederiksen
- Ken Lin
- Sebastien Poivre
- Ixn91
- Chris Madsen
- Sb
- Boule Petanque
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Michael Gaebler
- Tiago Silva
- Matt Cool
- Mark G
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Paul Shay
- Paul Hadley
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by Google, from LifeHacker)