Android XR didn’t get a lot of screen time at today’s Android Show — apart from confirmation that it’s going to get Gemini AI support — but Google promises that there’s more to come at the full Google I/O event next week.
Android president Sameer Samat even broke out the company’s prototype XR shades to promise some “really cool Android demos” to come. And as you can see, this is a man who knows what’s cool.
Ahead of next week’s Google I/O conference, we’re expecting to hear a bunch of news at today’s Android Show. That possibly includes the newly launched Android XR — Google’s new platform for mixed reality, smart glasses, and Samsung’s forthcoming Project Moohan. If you’re curious to learn more, you can always check out my hands-on with Moohan and Android XR from a few months ago.
The company is working on two follow-ups to the Vision Pro, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. The goal for one is a cheaper Vision Pro. The other would tether to Macs for use as a wired display or for “high-end enterprise applications.”
That’s different from its canceled transparent-lens AR glasses that would have worked the same way, Gurman writes.
Android XR head Shahram Izadi just gave a TED talk showing off prototype smart glasses with a mini display and Project Moohan. In it, Izadi showed the prototype smart glasses performing live translation and scanning a book. Axios wrote up a small summary, but so far it sounds an awful lot like the hands-on I got with Android XR and Project Moohan back in December (which you can read below).
If The Weeknd wasn’t enough to convince you to pick up Apple’s $3,499 headset (or at least stop by an Apple Store to try one out), now the company will offer a 25-minute virtual trip to the Mexico City finale of Metallica’s M72 World Tour, which will also be available as an EP on Apple Music.
Filmed on 14 cameras in “ultra-high-resolution 180-degree video and Spatial Audio to give viewers unprecedented access to James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo,” it will be available as an extended preview in Apple Store demos beginning Friday.
We gave a brief overview of the components that make up the prototype AR glasses in our Orion hands-on, but Meta just released a series of blogs that go deep. I mean real deep into why they picked silicon carbide, as well as the tech in its custom silicon chips and compute pucks. There’s also some neat photos, especially in the blog on the silicon chips, that give you a good sense of all the tech in those glasses.
Vision Pro owners should see the app if they install the visionOS 2.4 developer beta today. Last month, Apple described Spatial Gallery as containing a curated selection of spatial videos, photos, and panoramas, including things like behind-the-scenes clips from Apple TV Plus shows like Severance and Shrinking.
iOS 18.4’s second developer beta, which is also out now, adds the iOS Apple Vision Pro app, which lets you browse and remotely install Vision Pro apps.
Yes, it does look a lot like Apple’s Vision Pro, but that is actually Project Moohan, the Samsung / Google project we tried out last month and saw again recently at Samsung Unpacked.
In this YouTube video, Marques Brownlee shows some views you may not have seen yet of the hardware and what the Android UI looks like for the wearer.
TikTok’s native visionOS app still works, at least for me, after the company cut off access for millions of US users of its smartphone app.
At CES, the next generation of eyewear was everywhere. It’s just no one seems to agree on why we want it or what the best approach is.
Both @evleaks and @sondesix are saying that’s the date for Samsung’s next Unpacked event, with the former sharing a leaked Italian marketing image as confirmation. In addition to the company’s much leaked Galaxy S25 series of phones we’re expecting to hear more about Samsung’s “Project Moohan“ XR headset we recently previewed.
It’s called Project Moohan — and if you’re wondering what the heck is a moohan, it means infinity in Korean. Because there are “infinite possibilities” in XR.
Naming aside, I demoed the headset earlier this week and got a sneak peek at Android XR, Google’s new OS for mixed-reality devices. It’s for devs only right now, but a consumer launch is planned for 2025.
Google’s prototype smart glasses made me feel like Tony Stark. Can Android XR make it happen outside of a demo?
Meta’s designers promised Fast Company they’re not trying to turn smart glasses into a hellscape of advertising and distraction:
“We’re all haunted by the Hyper Reality video... And I think that we see it as a huge responsibility. Every pixel that we light up should be worth its weight in gold.”
If any company were excitedly planning to build that hellscape, it’d be Meta, so I’ll take the win. And if you haven’t watched Hyper-Reality yet, it’s fabulous. And horrifying.
The company just released the developer beta for visionOS 2.2, which brings with it wide and ultrawide curved virtual display options for the Vision Pro, 9to5Mac reports.
Beta users will also finally be able to output their Mac’s audio on the headset while using the virtual display with this update. (Before, the audio would only come from the Mac’s speakers.)
The strap, which is listed on Apple’s store for $49.95 but not yet available, combines with the Solo Knit Band, giving wearers over-the-head support that looks nicer than fiddling with the Vision Pro’s included Dual Loop Band.
As 9to5Mac notes, it’s similar to an accessory that appeared in materials when Apple announced the headset, but was never something you could buy.
