Virtual Reality

The $250 million deal — announced after Samsung’s extended reality headset made its public debut yesterday — includes parts of HTC’s XR headsets and glasses unit, with some of the VIVE engineering team relocating to Google.

Google had previously purchased most of HTC’s smartphone business for $1.1 billion in 2017. HTC Vice President Lu Chia-te says the XR deal isn’t “a buyout nor an exclusive license.”

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.

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.

Meta and Lightstorm Vision’s partnership will help “scale the creation of world-class 3D entertainment experiences spanning live sports and concerts, feature films, and TV series featuring big-name IP on Meta Quest — which will be Lightstorm Vision’s exclusive MR hardware platform,” according to a Meta blog post. Cameron says it’s a multi-year partnership.

Meta has been working on improving the Windows VR experience with its Quest headsets in recent months, and now Microsoft says the full capabilities of Windows 11 are coming to the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S in December. You’ll be able to have a large multiple-monitor workstation through Quest 3 headsets in public preview next month.

We’re still waiting to hear when Windows Volumetric Apps will be available, though.

...on Apple’s Vision Pro headset. “Open Hearts,” which Apple describes as a “new immersive music experience,” debuts on Thursday. The company is steadily introducing new immersive content for the headset.

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.

Square Enix’s strategy game is out now for Meta’s Quest headsets. Based on a trailer, VR seems like an interesting way to take in the battlefield.

And if you were wondering, the game’s developers know it has a weird name.

Trombone Champ: Unflattened launches on Meta Quest headsets on November 26th. If you pre-order, you’ll get a ridiculous fish-themed trombone you can use in the game.