This Week In XR: Mojo Adds $21 Million To Series A, Hot Take On Quest 3, The Techno Optimist Manifesto
Great performance from the new Quest 3. I was also impressed by the other improvements, such as casting and room scanning. The interface is also very nice. The first thing you see when you start is that the room you are in is powered by a color correcting camera. Your spawn point is anywhere in the physical world, no matter where you are. The digital screen sits above reality, just as it sits above the animated environments that were the aim of the Quest 2. Color reproduction through the camera is so good that I can read email on my iPhone with headphones on. It looks more natural.
This YouTube video is meant to explain the improved graphics in Quest 3, but it's confusing. While it's true that the graphics are slightly better with headphones, the environments look more fake, so take your pick. Now the bad news. While smoother than the Quest 2, the new Quest 3 is heavier and warmer. I miss the open sides of the Quest Pro to dissipate heat. As a result, Quest 3 may not be suitable for fitness programs. XR needs Game of Thrones. Maybe getting an MRI will finally make that possible.
Mojo Vision Rebuilds Mojo After $43 Million Series A Contact Lens Failure. Mojo Vision, which abandoned its ambitious contact lens venture to focus on smaller displays, announced a new $22.4 million Series A expansion, doubling the previous round and bringing the total raised to $43.5 Millions of dollars. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Khosla Ventures. The company's displays are noticeably thicker (14,000 pixels per inch) than Apple's Vision Pro micro-OLED display (3,400 pixels per inch).
Universal music is so anthropological. The complaint alleges that Cloud 2 may be tempted to share lyrics that are nearly identical to songs like Katy Perry's "Roar," Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Our guest this week
Qualcomm is laying off more than 1,258 people in Santa Clara and San Diego. The company has 51,000 employees in the Golden State. “Given continued uncertainty in the macroeconomic and demand environment, we expect to take further restructuring measures to ensure continued investment in key growth and diversification opportunities,” the company said in a statement. The truth is that most of those who get caught work in sales, marketing, accounting and human resources.
Marc Andreessen's new optimistic techno-manifesto. Writing a statement declaring your faith is difficult, but the tech world tends toward messages from billionaires. It's hard not to appreciate what he has achieved since inventing the browser in 1992. Andreessen then founded Netscape and became one of the most successful technology venture capital firms in history. “We believe that the technology capital market and innovation machine are never ending, but are instead always moving upward,” he wrote. “Technology is the exaltation of human ambition and achievement, as well as the vanguard of progress and the realization of our potential.” I like it, but I'm not entirely sure I get the sense that Andreessen is saying things like "our enemies are corruption, regulatory capture, monopolies and cartels." But it's interesting. If you're reading this, you should.
Even Roblox had telecommuting. In a letter to employees, CEO David Basucci told the company it was time to leave Portuguese Fresh Air BnB and return to San Mateo. Ironically, this company may be the closest thing to our metaverse. They recently presented their role in a video chat. It turns out that being virtual is great when we have to be apart, but not so great when we have to be together.
Mythic Realms Quest App Labs turns your home into a mixed reality fantasy role-playing game . Speaking of mixed reality games, Penticore Games ' Mystic Realms arrives today on Meta Quest via App Labs. The full game is scheduled for 2024.
Wonderland and Robot Invader team up in a new way to immerse players in virtual reality gaming The companies have converted the first few levels of the upcoming Meta Quest VR game Dead Secret Circle so that all three levels can be played using the browser on the viewer. It's now free at wonderlandengine.com.
The 10th annual Augmented Enterprise Summit kicks off October 24-26 in Houston. The Augmented Enterprise Summit focuses on commercial and industrial applications of AR/VR/MR (XR) and other emerging technologies related to the metaverse. Augmented Enterprise is your best opportunity to discover how the world's largest companies are implementing significant digital transformations with XR and ready-to-deploy solutions in today's business environment.
This week, our guest is Jack Zim, SVP of Virtual Reality at Sony Pictures Entertainment, behind Ghostbusters; Ghostlord Rises releases next week. You can find us on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.
what we read
The metaverse is dead because Silicon Valley isn't fun (fast company)
Elon Musk's Neuralink aims to fuse humans with artificial intelligence. How many minds will be lost along the way? (Samuel Segal/Fox)