Latest news with #QuestVR
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Meta to reportedly revive smartwatch plans with built-in camera
Facebook-parent Meta is reportedly reviving a project it shelved in 2022. As reported by DigiTimes, Meta has once again started working on its ambitious smartwatch project. The report adds that the company's smartwatch may feature at one built-in camera, continuing Meta's unconventional approach to wrist-based tech. Unlike traditional smartwatches that prioritize health tracking and notifications, Meta's device is designed to complement its smart glasses and Quest VR headsets, offering users a way to capture and interact with the world around them. The camera-centric design suggests a focus on augmented reality (AR) and AI-powered experiences, rather than fitness or productivity. As per the report, the upcoming Meta smartwatch is rumoured to feature a 12MP camera which will be placed underside for off-wrist photography. Along with this, the wearable is also said to house a 5MP front shooter wrist-based video calls. While Meta hasn't confirmed specs, the new version is expected to retain similar functionality, possibly enhanced by the company's recent advances in large language models and AI wearables. The device is reportedly part of Meta's broader strategy to enhance the metaverse experience, integrating real-world visuals with virtual environments. Insiders suggest the smartwatch may be unveiled at Meta Connect, the company's annual developer conference, scheduled for September 17, 2025.
Time of India
14-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
After ScaleAI, Facebook-parent Meta acquires voice tech startup PlayAI
Facebook-parent Meta has acquired PlayAI, a voice technology startup in a move which further underscores its aggressive push for into artificial intelligence. This latest acquisition made by Meta follows its early purchase of AI startup — ScaleAI. Meta acquired ScaleAI for $14.3 billion. With the ScaleAI acquisition Meta aims to build advanced AI systems with human-like capabilities. As per an internal memo seen by Bloomberg, after this acquisition, the 'entire PlayAI team' will join Meta's operations. The memo also reveals that the PlayAI team will directly report to Johan Schalkwyk, who joined Meta recently from another voice AI startup called Sesame AI Inc. PlayAI specialises in multilingual voice cloning, real-time speech synthesis and programable voice agents. It is expected that Meta may use PlayAI's technology to improve voice features across Meta platforms including the Quest VR headsets and the Ray-Ban smart glasses. Developers may also gain access to PlayAI's APIs, enabling custom voice agents and characters. Meta has made AI its top priority this year as the company is heavily investing in building proper infrastructure and Mark Zuckerberg is also aggressively recruiting top talent from other AI firms. Meta CEO recently announced the Meta Superintelligence Labs which will be led by ScaleAI CEO Alexandr Wang. This AI venture of Meta aims to achieve superintelligent AI before any competitor. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Redefine Your Future with a Top Online MBA SRM Online Enquire Now Undo Meta has not yet disclosed the financial details of the deal. Mark Zuckerberg paid $14 billion to acquire ScaleAI Zuckerberg has declared AI the company's paramount priority for the year, as Meta vies with rivals like Google and OpenAI to develop AI features. The report about the potential acquisition comes soon after Meta acquired data-labeling startup Scale AI, also recruiting Scale AI's CEO to join a newly formed 'superintelligence' team spearheaded by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Bloomberg also says that Zuckerberg has been poaching AI researchers from leading firms, including Google and OpenAI, to staff this new team. Recently, Meta reportedly hired three OpenAI researchers from the ChatGPT maker's Zurich office, a departure confirmed by OpenAI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even claimed that Meta is offering $100 million signing bonus for researchers. It was previously reported that Meta held acquisition talks with Perplexity AI before finalising its Scale AI investment. Meta also reportedly discussed a potential takeover of AI video startup Runway AI, though those discussions did not lead to a formal offer, the report added. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Egypt Independent
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Egypt Independent
Tech promised virtual reality would revolutionize entertainment. That moment might finally be closer than we think.
CNN — Virtual reality was supposed to transform entertainment. At least, that was the expectation roughly a decade ago with the arrival of the Oculus Rift, the first virtual reality (VR) headset that many believed would push VR into the mainstream. In 2025, the industry has failed to deliver on that promise. But tech and entertainment giants alike believe that moment could be closer than ever. The evidence is there. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Meta is in talks with Disney, A24 and other entertainment companies to produce immersive content for its Quest VR headsets. Apple announced an update to its Vision Pro headset in June, enabling users to share content with other headsets — ideal for watching movies together in 3-D. Earlier this year, Apple also launched an immersive Metallica concert for the Vision Pro and announced in July it's readying its first upgrade to boost the Vision Pro's performance. Taken together, this signals that tech and media behemoths are still betting that consumers will be willing to spend hundreds, if not thousands, to experience concerts, movies and sporting events beyond the confines of a traditional screen. A chicken-and-the-egg paradox In the 10-plus years since Oculus debuted the Rift, headset manufacturers have produced lighter, more powerful devices. Meanwhile, companies are finally warming to the idea of another medium for storytelling. Tech companies have a history of flirting with VR projects aimed at mainstream users. In June, Meta offered live virtual rinkside tickets to Stanley Cup games, echoing previous NBA and WNBA offerings. Headset owners have attended virtual concerts for years, including Apple's immersive Alicia Keys session and Meta's Blackpink show. Disney even launched a Disney+ app for Apple's Vision Pro on Day 1 in 2024. But these have been pilots to gauge interest, not long-term investments. Historically, headsets have been trapped in a chicken-and-egg paradox: to woo entertainment content, they need mass adoption; but to reach that scale, headsets need premium content. The technology must also be comfortable, powerful and popular enough to gain mass appeal. For Sarah Malkin, director of entertainment content for Meta's VR division Reality Labs, that cycle is already being broken. 'I think the 'it moment' is when you are regularly engaging in experiences in mixed reality that are super complementary and part of your integrated life,' Malkin told CNN. 'To me, that's already happening.' Global shipments of augmented reality (AR) and VR headsets increased by around 10% in 2024 to 7.5 million and nearly 30.8% to 3.4 million in the US, according to IDC, a global market intelligence and data company. Although IDC predicts shipments around the world will tumble this year due to delayed product launches, it expects a massive rebound in 2026 with worldwide shipments surging 98.5% to 11.3 million. However, the results haven't always lived up to the hype. Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse has cost Meta $46 billion over three years. Reality Labs, the company's VR division, posted $4.2 billion in operating loss and just $412 million in sales in Q1, down from the previous quarter. But tech giants continue to experiment with the technology. Meta invested $3.5 billion in eyewear manufacturer EssilorLuxottica SA to bolster its AI spectacle gambit, according to Bloomberg. (A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the report.) Snap recently said it plans to launch new augmented reality spectacles next year, and Google continues to work with partners like Xreal and Samsung on upcoming headsets and glasses that run on its new Android XR software. Samsung will be among the first to launch such a device with its upcoming Project Moohan headset. Attendees photograph Samsung's Project Moohan mixed-reality headsets with Google at the Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose, California, on January 22, 2025. Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg/Getty Images A young boy plays with Meta Quest 2 all-in-one VR headset during a festival of video games and other digital entertainment in Zaragoza, Spain, on October 15, 2023. Nano Calvo/VW Pics/UniversalWith more sophisticated hardware and a budding content portfolio, Bertrand Nepveu, a former Vision Pro contributor and partner at Triptyq Capital, said wider adoption is crucial. 'It's still early, but there's no technical limitation right now, it's more (that) we need people to invest because you need a critical mass,' Nepveu told CNN. A paradigm shift in content Although big names like James Cameron and Sabrina Carpenter are already beginning to explore VR, immersive storytelling has yet to gain that crucial widespread popularity. Slow growth can be partially attributed to incorrect assumptions by studios. 'You can't just take the flat version of what you put on Disney+ or Netflix or Amazon, and just throw that up,' Jenna Seiden, an industry consultant and adviser who has worked with Skydance Media, Niantic, CAA, and Xbox, told CNN. 'You need to build natively so the audience is going to have a different experience per platform.' While creating media for virtual and mixed reality may seem like a departure from developing content for 2-D screens, Seiden says the secret to success is a tactic media companies are already familiar with: exclusivity. 'You look at the creation of HBO (Max), you look at the creation of Apple TV+, they grew their audiences based on exclusives, that's why you went to them,' Seiden said. 'I think that model is very familiar to entertainment companies, and they can go to their board saying, 'Hey, this is how platforms grow, with exclusive content.'' That's what makes live virtual sports an easy way to break down extended reality (XR) barriers for audiences. Paul Raphaël, co-founder of Felix & Paul, said sports can be easily adapted for immersive platforms using 180-degree cameras. Audiences experience VR e-sports games at the 2025 Jingxi E-sports Festival in Beijing, China on June 28, 2025. CFOTO/'You already have quite a few events and sports being broadcast, whether it's live or asynchronous,' Raphaël said. 'As the audience grows, it's a really straightforward path to create the content or to broadcast the content.' For Hollywood, the possibility of a new major distribution platform couldn't come at a better time. In today's fracturing media environment — shaken by streaming, the collapse of the cable bundle, and post-Covid box office woes — a new medium could be a crucial selling point, especially for entertainment boards looking for a new revenue vein. Jack Davis, co-founder of CryptTV, said headsets might provide a much-needed pipeline for premium content. 'As gigantic structural changes happen in TV and film, the industry is going to need to replace those things in the aggregate,' Davis said. 'This could be one of the only formats that premium entertainment actually seems like it makes sense (for) the user base.' Budgetary and content hurdles Over the past decade, investment in VR has been eclipsed by more pressing innovations, including self-driving cars and AI. Although it's difficult to determine how that has directly impacted XR investment, funding data from Crunchbase, a predictive company intelligence solution, shows that backing for AI and self-driving has steadily increased, rising from $39.96 billion in 2019 to $105.36 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, XR funding has experienced more erratic behavior — reaching a peak of $4.087 billion in 2021 but dropping to $347.69 million by 2025. Things were much the same in the venture capital world, where the number of global VR deals has also dropped in recent years. PitchBook, which examines private equity and VC deals, notes that 2019 was the largest year for VC deals in VR in the last decade, recording $6.43 billion in deals worldwide. That was significantly smaller than the $57.084 billion from AI-focused venture capitalists that year. In 2025, VR VCs have fallen to only $3.61 billion in global deals while AI VCs have grown to $130.89 billion. But Nepveu said that's changing. 'Now that AI is more understood, you know what it's good for, what it's not capable of, the budgets now are going back into XR,' Nepveu claimed. People stand in line to purchase the Apple Vision Pro headset at the Fifth Avenue Apple store on February 02, 2024 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Still, tech giants investing in the development of mixed reality headsets face a daunting challenge that extends beyond the entertainment available. They need to convince consumers that the devices are both worth paying for and putting on their faces. That's partially why Apple emphasized the Vision Pro as a spatial computing tool, focusing on work and productivity rather than just 2-D and 3-D entertainment capabilities. Still, even a decade later, experts can't seem to agree on exactly when VR will have its breakout moment. Nepveu said it could happen any day. Raphaël expected one or two years. Davis suggested three to seven. Seiden said five to 10. Raphaël, however, believes 2-D content may soon feel as dated as pre-Technicolor entertainment. 'Content, the way it is consumed today, is going to be much like we think of black and white movies, where, if a film isn't immersive, it doesn't lose its value, but it becomes something of another era,' Raphaël said.
Egypt Independent
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Egypt Independent
Tech promised virtual reality would revolutionize entertainment. That moment might finally be closer than we think.
CNN — Virtual reality was supposed to transform entertainment. At least, that was the expectation roughly a decade ago with the arrival of the Oculus Rift, the first virtual reality (VR) headset that many believed would push VR into the mainstream. In 2025, the industry has failed to deliver on that promise. But tech and entertainment giants alike believe that moment could be closer than ever. The evidence is there. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Meta is in talks with Disney, A24 and other entertainment companies to produce immersive content for its Quest VR headsets. Apple announced an update to its Vision Pro headset in June, enabling users to share content with other headsets — ideal for watching movies together in 3-D. Earlier this year, Apple also launched an immersive Metallica concert for the Vision Pro and announced in July it's readying its first upgrade to boost the Vision Pro's performance. Taken together, this signals that tech and media behemoths are still betting that consumers will be willing to spend hundreds, if not thousands, to experience concerts, movies and sporting events beyond the confines of a traditional screen. A chicken-and-the-egg paradox In the 10-plus years since Oculus debuted the Rift, headset manufacturers have produced lighter, more powerful devices. Meanwhile, companies are finally warming to the idea of another medium for storytelling. Tech companies have a history of flirting with VR projects aimed at mainstream users. In June, Meta offered live virtual rinkside tickets to Stanley Cup games, echoing previous NBA and WNBA offerings. Headset owners have attended virtual concerts for years, including Apple's immersive Alicia Keys session and Meta's Blackpink show. Disney even launched a Disney+ app for Apple's Vision Pro on Day 1 in 2024. But these have been pilots to gauge interest, not long-term investments. Historically, headsets have been trapped in a chicken-and-egg paradox: to woo entertainment content, they need mass adoption; but to reach that scale, headsets need premium content. The technology must also be comfortable, powerful and popular enough to gain mass appeal. For Sarah Malkin, director of entertainment content for Meta's VR division Reality Labs, that cycle is already being broken. 'I think the 'it moment' is when you are regularly engaging in experiences in mixed reality that are super complementary and part of your integrated life,' Malkin told CNN. 'To me, that's already happening.' Global shipments of augmented reality (AR) and VR headsets increased by around 10% in 2024 to 7.5 million and nearly 30.8% to 3.4 million in the US, according to IDC, a global market intelligence and data company. Although IDC predicts shipments around the world will tumble this year due to delayed product launches, it expects a massive rebound in 2026 with worldwide shipments surging 98.5% to 11.3 million. However, the results haven't always lived up to the hype. Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse has cost Meta $46 billion over three years. Reality Labs, the company's VR division, posted $4.2 billion in operating loss and just $412 million in sales in Q1, down from the previous quarter. But tech giants continue to experiment with the technology. Meta invested $3.5 billion in eyewear manufacturer EssilorLuxottica SA to bolster its AI spectacle gambit, according to Bloomberg. (A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the report.) Snap recently said it plans to launch new augmented reality spectacles next year, and Google continues to work with partners like Xreal and Samsung on upcoming headsets and glasses that run on its new Android XR software. Samsung will be among the first to launch such a device with its upcoming Project Moohan headset. Attendees photograph Samsung's Project Moohan mixed-reality headsets with Google at the Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose, California, on January 22, 2025. Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg/Getty Images A young boy plays with Meta Quest 2 all-in-one VR headset during a festival of video games and other digital entertainment in Zaragoza, Spain, on October 15, 2023. Nano Calvo/VW Pics/UniversalWith more sophisticated hardware and a budding content portfolio, Bertrand Nepveu, a former Vision Pro contributor and partner at Triptyq Capital, said wider adoption is crucial. 'It's still early, but there's no technical limitation right now, it's more (that) we need people to invest because you need a critical mass,' Nepveu told CNN. A paradigm shift in content Although big names like James Cameron and Sabrina Carpenter are already beginning to explore VR, immersive storytelling has yet to gain that crucial widespread popularity. Slow growth can be partially attributed to incorrect assumptions by studios. 'You can't just take the flat version of what you put on Disney+ or Netflix or Amazon, and just throw that up,' Jenna Seiden, an industry consultant and adviser who has worked with Skydance Media, Niantic, CAA, and Xbox, told CNN. 'You need to build natively so the audience is going to have a different experience per platform.' While creating media for virtual and mixed reality may seem like a departure from developing content for 2-D screens, Seiden says the secret to success is a tactic media companies are already familiar with: exclusivity. 'You look at the creation of HBO (Max), you look at the creation of Apple TV+, they grew their audiences based on exclusives, that's why you went to them,' Seiden said. 'I think that model is very familiar to entertainment companies, and they can go to their board saying, 'Hey, this is how platforms grow, with exclusive content.'' That's what makes live virtual sports an easy way to break down extended reality (XR) barriers for audiences. Paul Raphaël, co-founder of Felix & Paul, said sports can be easily adapted for immersive platforms using 180-degree cameras. Audiences experience VR e-sports games at the 2025 Jingxi E-sports Festival in Beijing, China on June 28, 2025. CFOTO/'You already have quite a few events and sports being broadcast, whether it's live or asynchronous,' Raphaël said. 'As the audience grows, it's a really straightforward path to create the content or to broadcast the content.' For Hollywood, the possibility of a new major distribution platform couldn't come at a better time. In today's fracturing media environment — shaken by streaming, the collapse of the cable bundle, and post-Covid box office woes — a new medium could be a crucial selling point, especially for entertainment boards looking for a new revenue vein. Jack Davis, co-founder of CryptTV, said headsets might provide a much-needed pipeline for premium content. 'As gigantic structural changes happen in TV and film, the industry is going to need to replace those things in the aggregate,' Davis said. 'This could be one of the only formats that premium entertainment actually seems like it makes sense (for) the user base.' Budgetary and content hurdles Over the past decade, investment in VR has been eclipsed by more pressing innovations, including self-driving cars and AI. Although it's difficult to determine how that has directly impacted XR investment, funding data from Crunchbase, a predictive company intelligence solution, shows that backing for AI and self-driving has steadily increased, rising from $39.96 billion in 2019 to $105.36 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, XR funding has experienced more erratic behavior — reaching a peak of $4.087 billion in 2021 but dropping to $347.69 million by 2025. Things were much the same in the venture capital world, where the number of global VR deals has also dropped in recent years. PitchBook, which examines private equity and VC deals, notes that 2019 was the largest year for VC deals in VR in the last decade, recording $6.43 billion in deals worldwide. That was significantly smaller than the $57.084 billion from AI-focused venture capitalists that year. In 2025, VR VCs have fallen to only $3.61 billion in global deals while AI VCs have grown to $130.89 billion. But Nepveu said that's changing. 'Now that AI is more understood, you know what it's good for, what it's not capable of, the budgets now are going back into XR,' Nepveu claimed. People stand in line to purchase the Apple Vision Pro headset at the Fifth Avenue Apple store on February 02, 2024 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Still, tech giants investing in the development of mixed reality headsets face a daunting challenge that extends beyond the entertainment available. They need to convince consumers that the devices are both worth paying for and putting on their faces. That's partially why Apple emphasized the Vision Pro as a spatial computing tool, focusing on work and productivity rather than just 2-D and 3-D entertainment capabilities. Still, even a decade later, experts can't seem to agree on exactly when VR will have its breakout moment. Nepveu said it could happen any day. Raphaël expected one or two years. Davis suggested three to seven. Seiden said five to 10. Raphaël, however, believes 2-D content may soon feel as dated as pre-Technicolor entertainment. 'Content, the way it is consumed today, is going to be much like we think of black and white movies, where, if a film isn't immersive, it doesn't lose its value, but it becomes something of another era,' Raphaël said.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta is offering multi-million pay for AI researchers, but not $100M ‘signing bonuses'
Meta is definitely offering hefty multi-million-dollar pay packages to AI researchers when wooing them to its new Superintelligence Lab. But no one is really getting a $100 million 'signing bonus,' according to a poached researcher and comments from a leaked internal meeting. During a company-wide all-hands meeting on Thursday leaked to The Verge, some of Meta's top executives were asked about the bonuses that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta had offered to top researchers. Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth implied that only a few people for very senior leadership roles may have been offered that kind of money, but clarified 'the actual terms of the offer' wasn't a 'sign-on bonus. It's all these different things.' In other words, not an instant chunk of cash. Tech companies typically offer the biggest chunks of their pay to senior leaders in restricted stock unit grants (RSUs), dependent on either tenure or performance metrics. A four-year total pay package worth about $100 million for a very senior leader is not inconceivable for Meta. Most of Meta's named officers, including Boswell himself, have earned total compensation of between $20 million and nearly $24 million per year for years. Altman was 'suggesting that we're doing this for every single person,' Bosworth reportedly said at the meeting. 'Look, you guys, the market's hot. It's not that hot.' (Meta did not immediately respond to our request for comment.) On Thursday, researcher Lucas Beyer confirmed he was leaving OpenAI to join Meta along with the two others who led OpenAI's Zurich office. He tweeted: '1) yes, we will be joining Meta. 2) no, we did not get 100M sign-on, that's fake news.' (Beyer politely declined to comment further on his new role to TechCrunch.) Beyer's expertise is in computer vision AI. That aligns with what Meta is pursuing: entertainment AI, rather than productivity AI, Bosworth reportedly said in that meeting. Meta already has a stake in the ground in that area with its Quest VR headsets and its Ray-Ban and Oakley AI glasses. Still, some of the people Meta is trying to nab are indeed worthy of big pay packages in this tight AI talent marketplace. As TechCrunch was first to report, Meta has hired OpenAI's Trapit Bansal, known for his groundbreaking work on AI reasoning models. He had worked at OpenAI since 2022. Certainly, Scale co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang is getting a healthy chunk of cash, likely more than $100 million, as part of Meta's deal to buy 49% ownership of his company. As we previously reported, the $14 billion Meta is paying is being distributed to shareholders as a cash dividend. Wang is almost certainly a major shareholder in Scale entitled to those dividends. Still, while Meta isn't handing out $100 million willy-nilly, it is still spending big to hire in AI. One investor told TechCrunch that he saw an AI researcher get — and turn down — an $18 million job offer from Meta. That person took a smaller, but still healthy offer, from a buzzier AI startup: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab.
