Next Reality

For the first time in more than 50 years, humans are circling the Moon. The Artemis II Fortnite moon experience question has a precise answer: there is no official NASA Artemis II event in the game, but Lunar Horizons is the closest tie-in players can actually explore right now, and its timing has become unexpectedly relevant. While Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen fly their lunar flyby today, the south-pole terrain their mission is working toward is already playable in Fortnite, built from...

Smart glasses have crossed a threshold. They look normal, sell in volume, and the market has a clear trajectory. What the category lacks is a settled answer to a deceptively simple question: who controls what runs on them? The debate over open platform smart glasses is no longer theoretical. Three competing models are already shipping, or nearly so, and the architecture decisions being made right now will determine which platforms developers build for and which devices people actually use.

Researchers from Apple and Hong Kong University published a paper on April 2, 2026 introducing LGTM, short for Less Gaussians, Texture More, a framework designed to make high-resolution 3D scene rendering substantially cheaper to compute. The core problem it targets: existing feed-forward 3D Gaussian Splatting Apple research has shown hit a compute wall as resolution climbs, making 4K-class scenes effectively impractical on current hardware, 9to5Mac reported. LGTM proposes an architectural fix,...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City the franchise's first dedicated VR game is targeting a Spring 2026 launch on Meta Quest, SteamVR, and Pico at $24.99. No exact release date has been officially confirmed as of this writing; a specific date circulating online has not been verified by a primary source, and The Munich Eye explicitly noted in early March that no official date had been set. Two independent outlets have played early builds and came away positive. Neither saw more than 15...

Meta built the most capable AR glasses ever demonstrated, then decided not to sell them. The reason: roughly $10,000 per unit to manufacture, two hours of battery life, and a wrist controller plus a separate compute puck required just to function. That single product decision is the cleanest summary of where waveguide smart glasses stand right now.

AR headsets still lack a comfortable, precise way to accept input. That single problem, more than display resolution or processing power, is what IDC has consistently flagged as the ceiling on AR's move into sustained daily use. A newly demonstrated research system may have found a path around it, at least for enterprise settings.

Reports have been circulating that NASA's Artemis II launch will be filmed as immersive spatial video for the Apple Vision Pro. With liftoff targeted for tomorrow evening, neither NASA nor Apple has issued any public statement confirming this. No stereoscopic capture hardware appears in Artemis II documentation, no production partner has been named, and nothing in NASA's official coverage plan connects to Apple's content ecosystem. The Artemis II Apple Vision Pro immersive video claim is...

The Samsung Galaxy XR promised to bridge the gap between mobile VR and desktop gaming, but out of the box, it felt more like a polished tech demo than the gaming powerhouse many of us hoped for. That changed completely when users discovered a surprisingly simple path to transform this sleek headset into a "Steam Frame"—essentially turning Samsung's latest XR device into a wireless portal for your entire Steam library.

Rec Room is shutting down on June 1, 2026, ending a ten-year run that attracted more than 150 million registered players and creators, set records for user-generated content spending as recently as last summer, and still never turned a sustainable profit, according to the company's shutdown announcement published yesterday.

Smart glasses are becoming increasingly common in public spaces, and with that rise comes a new wave of privacy concerns. Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses look almost identical to regular eyewear, yet they can record video, snap photos, and potentially identify faces with AI-powered features.

The Apple Vision Pro BBC Proms immersive video is finally available. Debut at the BBC Proms, confirmed for release today, March 27, by Arigato, marks the first classical concert captured in Apple Immersive Video format. The film is genuinely impressive. The delay that got it here is more instructive.

ByteDance's ambitious push into the VR market is finally crossing the Pacific, potentially bringing its next headset to more markets through a global launch targeted for late 2026 after years of international success. This expansion represents more than just another headset launch—The arrival of Pico in the United States fundamentally alters the competitive landscape. The timing coincides with a comprehensive platform overhaul and new hardware that could reshape how we think about VR ecosystems...

Apple sued former senior Vision Pro engineer Di Liu last July, accusing him of downloading thousands of proprietary documents in his final days at the company before joining Snap. The Apple Vision Pro trade secrets lawsuit, filed June 24, 2025 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, centers not just on what Liu allegedly took, but on a specific procedural gap: by concealing his destination employer, he allegedly bypassed the stricter access controls Apple applies to competitor-bound departures.

This guide walks through how to use XR Blocks Gem with Gemini for XR prototyping, from configuring the Gem to sharing a finished prototype as a web link. By the end, you'll know how to set up the toolchain, build an interactive 3D scene through plain-language prompts, understand exactly what the output is, and make a clear-eyed call on whether this workflow fits your current project stage.

To be direct upfront: this is not a Beam Pro nebulaOS 2.0 update. The source documentation is a 2023 Nebula V3.7.0 beta release note for XREAL Air devices, and it mentions neither the Beam Pro nor nebulaOS 2.0. Anyone searching for Xreal Beam Pro nebulaOS 2.0 patch notes should check Xreal's official channels directly. What the 2023 V3.7.0 release notes do document is worth covering on its own terms: a fix for an AR Space blackout bug that broke the experience every time a user touched their...

Meta is reportedly planning to cut at least one in five of its employees not because the business is struggling, but because the company believes AI has changed how much work each employee needs to do. That distinction matters more than the headline number.

As of March 2026, no new Payday VR game exists. No store page, no trailer, no developer statement. The only official Payday experience ever built for virtual reality is Payday 2 VR, a free mode that exited Steam beta on March 15, 2018, per VR Today Magazine's tenth-anniversary retrospective (November 2023). The VR mode was largely unchanged through that 2023 review. Payday 3 launched that same year with no VR support, and as of this week, no follow-up has been announced for either title.

Google began rolling out photorealistic avatars for Android XR last December, and the current version works on Zoom right now without an XR headset on the other end. The feature, called Likeness, creates a scan-based replica of a user's face and routes it through video call apps as a standard virtual webcam. Readers searching for a Google Gemini 3D avatar are mostly looking for this: Likeness is Google's photorealistic avatar system for Android XR, and the current beta is 2D-only. That gap...

When you think about the future of military training, you'd probably expect cutting-edge technology to play a major role. But what might surprise you is just how thoroughly the U.S. Navy has embraced gaming technology, virtual reality, and augmented reality systems that were once confined to consumer entertainment. This shift represents more than just adopting new gadgets—it's a fundamental reimagining of military training that prioritizes safety, cost-effectiveness, and operational readiness.

The racing simulation landscape is about to experience its biggest leap forward in years, and it's happening through an unlikely collaboration between three tech powerhouses. Let me tell you why this matters more than just another VR announcement.

Virtual reality is revolutionizing how healthcare providers communicate complex medical procedures to patients, and a groundbreaking study from Southampton General Hospital demonstrates just how transformative this technology can be. Recent research presented at the European Association of Urology Congress reveals that VR significantly enhances patient understanding and reduces anxiety when explaining shock wave lithotripsy procedures (EMJ Reviews). The study, led by Solomon Bracey and...

Nvidia's premium GeForce Now Ultimate tier now delivers enhanced frame rates at 90fps for Vision Pro users, according to 9to5Mac. This upgrade represents more than incremental progress—it's positioning Apple's headset alongside other XR devices receiving the same performance boost, while leveraging Vision Pro's advanced eye-tracking to deliver exclusive 4K streaming capabilities that genuinely differentiate it from the competition.

The Federal Trade Commission's aggressive stance under Lina Khan's leadership has drawn criticism from tech giants and praise from consumer advocates, but nowhere has her prescient understanding of platform economics been more evident than in the metaverse space. While Meta poured billions into building virtual worlds that users largely ignored, Khan's FTC was already mapping the anticompetitive landscape that would emerge once those worlds gained traction. Her early focus on Meta's VR...

If you're keeping track of therapeutic VR developments, here's something that should grab your attention: we're witnessing the emergence of truly intelligent exposure therapy systems that adapt in real-time to patient responses. After spending the last three years evaluating VR/AR therapeutic applications across multiple clinical settings, I can tell you that what started as basic virtual environments for spider phobia treatment has evolved into sophisticated neuroadaptive platforms that...

Nvidia and Apple have just unveiled what could be the future of enterprise XR workflows, and the implications stretch far beyond a simple product announcement. The collaboration brings Nvidia's CloudXR 6.0 technology to visionOS 26.4, creating a direct bridge between high-powered RTX graphics cards and Apple's spatial computing platform. What makes this particularly compelling is how it solves one of mixed reality's most persistent challenges: the computational power bottleneck that has limited...

Meta's Horizon Worlds Mobile Pivot: Why VR Exclusivity Is Dead

The Little Nightmares franchise has been building nightmares in third-person for years, but now it's about to get uncomfortably close and personal. Bandai Namco just announced they're partnering with VR specialist Ikonic to bring us Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes, and frankly, I'm both excited and terrified about what that means for my sleep schedule.

You've probably heard the buzz about VR being the "next big thing" for years now, but here's what's actually happening behind the scenes: Meta is making a fascinating bet on today's teenagers that could determine whether virtual reality finally breaks into the mainstream or remains forever niche.

When you think about the future of AI infrastructure, most people focus on the processors, the GPUs, the memory—all the headline-grabbing components. But here's the thing that's often overlooked: how do you actually connect all these pieces together efficiently? That's where the real bottleneck emerges, and it's exactly why the partnership between Marvell Technology and Mojo Vision deserves your attention.

The operating room of tomorrow is already taking shape today. As surgeons worldwide grapple with the complex challenges of bone cancer treatment, a revolutionary wave of technology is reshaping how we approach some of medicine's most demanding procedures. Mixed reality and 3D visualization aren't just futuristic concepts—they're becoming essential tools that could fundamentally transform patient outcomes in oncological surgery.

The Meta Quest 3 has genuinely surprised me with how well it handles sailing simulations. I'll be honest—when I first heard about virtual sailing in VR, I was skeptical. How could you possibly capture the nuanced feel of wind, water, and sail trim through a headset? But after spending considerable time with the Quest 3's sailing applications, I've discovered that this platform offers something pretty remarkable for both sailing enthusiasts and curious newcomers.

The future of language barriers might be ending sooner than we think, and it's happening right through a pair of smart glasses. While translation apps have been around for years, the concept of real-time visual translation through wearable technology represents a fundamental shift in how we might navigate our increasingly connected world. These AI-powered smart glasses promise to overlay translated text directly onto your field of vision, potentially transforming everything from international...

Remember those clunky 3D glasses that made gaming feel more like a medical procedure than entertainment? Samsung apparently got tired of that nonsense too. Their latest push into glasses-free 3D gaming monitors is turning heads in the industry, and frankly, it's about time someone figured this out.

Looking Glass has unveiled the Musubi, a compact holographic photo frame that brings glasses-free 3D viewing to everyday consumers at an unprecedented price point. This device represents a significant departure from the company's previous enterprise-focused displays, packaging their multi-view holographic light field display (HLD) technology into a consumer-friendly form factor. The timing couldn't be more strategic—as spatial computing gains momentum and AR/VR technologies mature, holographic...

Virtual reality gaming is emerging as an unexpected ally in addressing motor skill challenges for young people with dyspraxia, a condition affecting coordination and movement that impacts roughly 5-6% of children worldwide. While VR has long been celebrated for its entertainment value, emerging research reveals its potential as a therapeutic tool that could transform how we approach motor skill development in neurodivergent youth. This intersection of gaming technology and occupational therapy...

Flight simulation just took a massive leap forward, and honestly, it's about time. Apple's upcoming visionOS 26.4 update is bringing X-Plane 12 to Vision Pro, and this isn't your typical "let's port another app" situation. We're talking about the world's most advanced flight simulator finally getting the spatial computing treatment it deserves—complete with cloud streaming technology that eliminates the need for expensive local hardware and ARKit integration that blends physical controls with...

The smart glasses market just hit an inflection point most analysts didn't see coming. While tech giants spent years pouring resources into bulky VR headsets and futuristic AR prototypes, Meta quietly cracked the code with something decidedly less flashy: a pair of sunglasses that look normal. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have now sold over 2 million units, a figure that represents genuine mainstream traction in a category littered with expensive failures. Even more telling, Meta's Reality...

Apple's latest visionOS 26.4 update has quietly introduced a game-changing capability that's about to transform how we think about high-performance applications on the Vision Pro. While most platform updates focus on incremental improvements, this release brings something fundamentally different: the technical foundation for truly demanding immersive experiences that were previously impossible on standalone VR hardware.

The future of translation just got a voice—literally. At MWC 2026, Google showcased something that could redefine how we think about language barriers: Android XR glasses with real-time voice translation that preserves the speaker's original voice. This isn't just another translation feature—Google is adapting technology from the Pixel 10 series to create conversational experiences that feel remarkably human, even through AI mediation.

The Vision Pro's MultiView feature just hit a snag that Apple clearly couldn't afford to ignore. Users have been dealing with flickering issues when trying to watch multiple sports streams simultaneously—and that's exactly the kind of problem that undermines one of the headset's most compelling selling points.