Tech News: Zuckerberg Triples Down on VR

tech news for Thursday, October twenty two. And on Tuesday's news episode, I talked about how Meta was holding its Connect conference that day and that we were likely to hear about the Metaverse and also see the unveiling of a high end VR headset which was previously known as Project Cambria, and sure enough, Zuckerberg in company presented the

Meta Quest Pro. Now the company's base VR headsets are called the Meta Quest too, and there are two different models of The base model comes in at three, and then a model that has more memory and storage comes in at four. The Pro leaves both of them in the dust, and we'll have a price tag of one thousand, four hundred dollars. I had said on Tuesday's episode that we were likely to see a much more expensive product,

and that is the case. Now the Pro will be available later this month, and the Quest pro seems a bit like Meta is trying to probe the business world to see what works and what doesn't. Much of the wording around the Quest Pro, as well as the price, suggests that Meta is really hoping that businesses will jump on board and start purchasing headsets for employees so that they can attend virtual conference meetings and that kind of thing. There's also an augmented reality element to the headset. The

Quest Pro has a couple of outward facing cameras. It also has inward facing cameras, but more on that in a moment, and the outward facing cameras can feed video to the headset, so you can get live video of what's in front of you, So you get this kind of passed through view of the real world. And of course the quest Bro can incorporate digital images into that

view of the real world. So it's not exactly as seamless as a pair of a R glasses that have transparent lenses and can display stuff on the lenses, but you know, it's something. So you could have a setup where you throw, say a virtual graphic up on a real wall, so in your view through the screen, it looks like you've thrown a picture up on the wall, and even when you look away and then look back, the graphic will stay where you put it in relation

to your actual physical surroundings. Now, we've seen that kind of stuff before with products like the Microsoft hollow lens. As for those inward facing cameras, those are to track eye and facial movements, and Meta was telling how this could let the system capture facial expressions, which could then transfer to the user's virtual avatar, So that way, you know, when that creepy guy in your office winks in real life,

his avatar will wink at you and VR. Yeah, okay, I'm being a little dismissive, but actually, from what I've read, the facial expression stuff was kind of neat, though obviously restricted to the upper facial area. There's not a camera pointed at your mouth, so if you stick your tongue

out at somebody, it's not going to register. I should also mention eye tracking cameras will likely be used by Meta for analytics, including providing information to advertising partners so that they know which ads are most effective in that kind of thing. So if you were thinking, huh, I don't really like the sound of Meta knowing where my eyes are looking all the time, well, that would mean you're on the same page. That I'm on. The Quest Pro controls are also an update to the ones that

you get with the current basic Quest to models. The Quest Pro control ditches the l E ed s that are on top of the Quest two controls. Instead of L E d s, You've got some cameras. Those cameras are meant to help maintain orientation data more effectively, so that way, as you move the control around, those cameras can help track motion and translate that into the virtual world more accurately. And you know that makes sense to me anyway. There's some other elements to the Quest pros

a little bit heavier than the Quest too. It has an adjustable plastic band to cling to your noggin. I think there's like a little wheel that you twist to tighten or loosen the band. The battery life is reportedly a little puny, has maybe one or two hours of use before you have to recharge, so that in my mind makes it a questionable piece of equipment for business use.

I mean, after one meeting you would need to recharge the headset and it takes like two hours to recharge it, so not really efficient if you've got a lot of meetings in your day unless you've got I don't know five of the darn things next to you. Zuckerberg himself has said the VR headsets won't really reach maturity until we're up to version four or five, and that kind

of tracks for me. So Meta is likely testing out lots of different features to see which ones are going to be popular and which ones largely go unused, and that will direct Meta toward future development. Right, you can ditch the seldomly used features if no one's using them, there's no reason to include them. That in turn can help reduce the cost of production of the hardware, and then you can also refine the stuff that people are actually using make sure that it's the best it can be.

This also tells me that if you are interested in VR, I would recommend skipping the Quest pro unless for some reason it seems to solve a problem you have that the Quest two doesn't, or heck, I recommend getting out of the Meta ecosystem entirely and look for a different VR headset. There are a lot on the market, and many of them already have features similar to what Meta is putting into the Quest Pro, so you know, do

your research shop around. It is obvious that the the QUEST line is the the dominant one in the VR field right now, so you know, you might feel like you need to stick to it, but don't go overboard and by the newest thing just because it's the newest thing. If it turns out that it doesn't have features that really matter to you, then all you're doing is just throwing money away. So you know, just throwing that out there.

Bena had a few other announcements on top of the Quest pro At connect for example, the company talked about seeking partnerships with other companies, as well as securing licensing deals with media conglomerates in an effort to build out the Metaverse, which obviously is still going to be a long term kind of project. Meta and Microsoft announced stay cooperative effort that brings Microsoft products so just Microsoft three

formerly known as Microsoft Office, into the VR landscape. I'm not really sold on bringing productivity software into VR personally. I just have a hard time imagining VR adding value, you know, like improving productivity or effectiveness for those kinds of office applications. I can see it for presentations maybe, but for just general productivity, it just it doesn't click

with me. Also, I have never ever thought, you know, what would make my job better if I had to wear a VR headset in order to do it, because that just sounds awkward and uncomfortable to me. Anyway. Meta also announced that avatars in its Horizon platforms are no longer going to be floating torsos. Nope, Lieutenant Dan will have magic legs, y'all, or rather, the avatars will have legs. Now, I don't really care about virtual legs one way or the other unless I can set my avatar to silly

walk mode, Alam Monty Python. If I can do that so that whenever I move around the virtual space, my legs are going all higgle the big ldy, then I'm on board. One thing that Meta expressly did not talk about at the Connect conference is an ongoing Only Fans bribery scandal with some Meta executives. All right, let me break this down in case you don't know what it is. Only Fans is a site that lets content creators offer

subscriptions to fans so they can subscribe to content. They can also have additional paid content on top of that. Subscription subscriptions can be free, but anyway, it's all meant to allow creators to access fan basis. However, it's primarily known for sex workers and pornography, right, Like, technically it's open to any kind of creator, but that's the kind that have defined the platform, if we really want to

be honest about it. And there of others who do make use of the site as well, so I don't mean to discount that, but just like only fans is often equated to pornography anyway, Recently, lawsuits have alleged that only Fans was bribing certain Facebook executives so that these executives would blacklist other pornography sites and give only fans an edge, essentially saying, don't promote anything that's not only fans. So if you can push aside the competition, you've got

some smooth sail into profit city, my friend. Anyway. The latest news in this ongoing, admittedly salacious story is that someone did a whoopsie daisy and they failed to redact the names of two Facebook executives and a third Facebook employee who had all previously been referred to as John Doe in the lawsuit. The two executives are Nick Klegg, who is VP of Global Policy at Meta, and Nicola Ndelson,

VP of the Global business Team. The third person, Christian Perella, was also named, and Gizmodo has suggested this might refer to a trust and safety director at Facebook. A group of folks in the adult entertainment industry were responsible for

bringing the lawsuit against Meta in the first place. They say that the company was essentially shadow banning anyone who was promoting links out to any adult entertainment sites that were not only fans, and apparently as part of the evidence, the prosecution has submitted records of wire transfers that allegedly anyway show money coming from only fans and going into some accounts in the Philippines connected to Meta executives and the son of one Meta executive. Meta the company has

filed to dismiss charges against the company itself. Essentially, what Meta reps who are not connected directly to this scandal are saying is at the company has not engaged in any sort of wrongdoing, and any wrongdoing that may or may not have happened did so without the company's direction or knowledge, So please just leave us out of it. TikTok, which has often been cited as an existential threat to

meadows future, now is setting its sights on Amazon. Axios reports that TikTok is looking to staff some fulfillment by TikTok shops and that the company plans to build quote international warehousing, customs, clearings, and supply chain systems that support domestic e commerce efforts in the US end quote. Now, to be clear, TikTok already has shops in some other countries, so this really is just new to the United States.

It's not brand new. There's actually a TikTok shop in the UK though, according to Financial Times, that business has had a bit of a rough start. It's been slow going from what Financial Times reports and from what I gather, one of the strategies, perhaps the main strategy, seems to be relying on influencers to mention products that are covered by the TikTok shop and then drop links so that

viewers can go and purchase those products themselves. And so when you're watching a video a TikTok of your favorite uh creator, maybe it's a live stream, they show off some you know, sweet kicks they're wearing, and they drop a link to it, then you can go and purchase them yourself. Uh. This has kind of been a holy

grail idea for a really long time. I remember reading about plans to incorporate something similar in television programs years ago, where you would watch a show and you think, oh, wow, I really love that jacket, and you would actually be able to follow a link that links you to that Jackets product page somewhere and you can purchase it. Except I don't think anyone ever found a way to make

it really practical and effective. This, by the way, it could potentially call them to question the value of inflo answers and just how influential they can be. If influencers can't convince folks to jump on a bandwagon and by the latest sneakers or whatever, that could call into question their value to businesses. If the only brand influencers are really good at promoting is their own personal brand. Yes, this is why I'm glad I'm not an influencer. I

have no illusions about the extent of my influence, y'all. Also, just was that TikTok? Maybe they did figure out the secret sauce to make this all all work, so it's entirely possible. I'll have to eat my words in the future as some kid a fifth my Age makes serious bank as they convinced viewers to go out and buy I don't know, our fidget spinner is still a thing. Hang on, I need to go outside and yell at a passing cloud. While I do that, Let's take a

quick break. Oh okay, that'll show that cloud. Now we're back. Reuters reports that the US Federal Communications Commission, also known as the f c C, is planning a ban on all Huawei and Zte telecommunications equipment, so, in other words, companies will not be allowed to buy any equipment. Companies in the United States will not be allowed to buy any equipment from Huawei or z Te Telecommunications, and this

is out of concern for national security. This surprised me because I thought that had already happened, which just goes to show I haven't been paying enough attention. Essentially, this boils down to the fact that these telecommunications companies are based out of China, and the Chinese government is known to take a very keen interest in businesses operating in

the country. The government is essentially the Chinese Communist Party, and there's this concern that telecommunications equipment that originate from China might have things in it that would allow the Chinese to more easily spy on communications within the United States. UH. This planned ban fits in with this larger strategy to ban exports of high end technology like advanced semiconductors to

China and semiconductor production equipment. So that ban was already in place here in the United States, and now we're looking at imports, not just exports. However, one company is getting a one year exemption to that export ban, and that would be Samsung. The U s government has granted Samsung a year's relief from this ban, which will allow Samsung to send advanced chip making equipment to its manufacturing

facilities that are based in China. That's according to the Wall Street Journal, So I guess it's all on who you know you know. Starting in early Sony and Honda will be selling the electric vehicles that the two companies have been collaborating on. This will bring the new vehicles to the US market before anywhere else, which surprised me.

I thought for sure they would go on sale in Japan first, but no. It seems as though the US market is shifting toward favoring e VS faster than some other markets, and Honda is obviously driving unintended the development of the vehicle stuff, while Sony is focusing on things like sensors, software, and entertainment. The two companies formed a venture called Sony Honda Mobility, and the company plans to

accept pre orders beginning in twenty five. I'm really curious to see these cars once they roll off the assembly line. I think seeing competition in the e V field is great. Competition tends to drive innovation and hopefully lead to a whole range of electric vehicles at different price points, because that's going to be absolutely key if we actually want to migrate toward electric vehicles. Uh, if we don't fix the issue with them being really expensive, that disenfranchises anyone

below a certain income level, and that really is unacceptable. Okay. Earlier on in this episode, I talked about Microsoft partnering with Meta to bring Microsoft products to the Metaverse, or at least a virtual spaces. But that's not all the Microsoft related news I have for y'all. Another is that the company is arguing in the UK that Sony influenced that country's competition regulator regarding microsoft planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The UK regulator said that the acquisition could hurt competition in the video games industry and thus merited a more thorough investigation, which could slow things down for Microsoft and potentially even derail the deal. Microsoft reps say that Sony essentially pulled a worm tongue. They whispered misleading things into the ear of THEATIN. I'm sorry, I mean I'm in

the UK Competition and Markets Authority or CMA. It sounds like the Microsoft team feels Sony is trying to scuttle the acquisition, even though Microsoft has said very nicely that Sony can still totally compete in the market even if the acquisition takes place, and we should just be satisfied with that claim, or the very least that the c m A accepted Sony's complaints without spending the time needed

to evaluate whether those complaints hadn't merit. My favorite bit of Microsoft's complaint is that quote the referral decision incorrectly relies on self serving statements by Sony which significantly exaggerate the importance of call of duty. In the quote, that's a sick burn to call of duty. I am not going to lead to the defense of either Microsoft or Sony here, because I think defending multibillion dollar conglomerates to

be completely unnecessary. I do think that consolidation of the video games industry into you know, fewer and fewer massive entities along with a few dozen smaller players is in general not great. It all comes back to that competition thing. I hate seeing reductions in competition, so I have some issues on that realm. I don't know that it gets to the point of being anti competitive of in that

sense though. Finally, numerous sites are now reporting that soldiers have given Microsoft's augmented Reality hollow lens headsets a big old negative review after testing them in various scenarios. Soldiers have said the headsets impair performance in many ways, arguing that they don't work well enough and can cause issues like nausea and headaches, which obviously you don't want ever let alone when you're in the field. Soldiers are saying that the tech is not helping them complete missions and

so is ultimately a net detriment. Someone so far as to claim that the hollow lens would lead to soldiers getting killed, pointing out that the headsets emit light, which could give up a soldier's position to the enemy. Not great. Now, there were some positive things in there, but overall it seems like Microsoft's got some work to do. That's it for this episode. If you have suggestions that you would like me to cover, reach out to me easiest ways on Twitter with a handle tech Stuff hs W and

I'll talk to you again really soon. Tex Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.