New Meta Accelerator Aims to Fund Quest Developers Building ‘Lifestyle Apps’ Using MR, AI, & Hand-tracking

New Meta Accelerator Aims to Fund Quest Developers Building ‘Lifestyle Apps’ Using MR, AI, & Hand-tracking

Meta announced a new developer accelerator aimed at kickstarting ‘Lifestyle’ apps for Quest which make use of mixed reality, AI and hand-tracking. Meta says in the announcement selected participants of its new ‘Meta Quest Lifestyle App Accelerator’ can apply for seed-stage grant funding, as well as product resources and mentoring from Meta and participating VC partners

Former Head of Qualcomm’s XR Division Joins Google to Guide XR Strategy

Former Head of Qualcomm’s XR Division Joins Google to Guide XR Strategy

Hugo Swart, previous head of Qualcomm’s XR division, announced he’s joined Google where he’ll lead the company’s XR Ecosystem Strategy and Technology efforts. Swart shared the news in a  LinkedIn update, noting the move happened a few months ago: Happy to share that I joined Google couple months ago and am responsible for XR Ecosystem Strategy

Meta Restructures Reality Labs to Better Focus on Ray-Ban Smartglasses and Other Wearables

Meta Restructures Reality Labs to Better Focus on Ray-Ban Smartglasses and Other Wearables

Reality Labs, Meta’s XR division formed in 2020, is now being reorganized into two distinct groups, ‘Wearables’ and ‘Metaverse’, which reportedly comes along a “relatively small” number of layoffs. As reported by The Verge’s Alex Heath, Meta CTO and head of Reality Labs Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth announced the reorg in an internal memo to employees, stating

New Tool From Niantic Aims to Make Web-based XR Easier to Build

New Tool From Niantic Aims to Make Web-based XR Easier to Build

Pokémon GO developer Niantic announced it’s releasing a new visual editor and “powerful web gaming engine” called Niantic Studio, which aims to let creatives build immersive XR, 3D experiences, and casual web games. Niantic Studio is essentially the company’s evolution of its subscription-based AR content development platform 8th Wall, which it acquired in 2022. Today, 8th Wall