Meta Quest 2
Meta Quest 2, originally released in October 2020, is getting a price increase of $100. The new prices are $399.99 USD and $499.99 for the 128GB and 256GB versions respectively. For a limited time, new purchases can include the popular VR rhythm game Beat Saber for free. It’s rare to see old tech get higher prices over time. Meta stated the reason was due to the rise in shipping and production costs (inflation is still an issue).
VIVERSE’s new avatars
VIVERSE, HTC’s metaverse platform, announced it partnered with pixiv Inc., a Japanese online artist community platform. The partnership is to deliver Japanese anime-style avatars to VIVERSE by integrating pixiv’s 3D character modeling software ‘VRoid Studio’ with the VIVERSE platform so users have more options to express themselves in the metaverse.
XRAI Glass
Startup XRAI Glass, a provider of augmented reality (AR) software solutions, launched a free public preview of its new software for those who are deaf or with a hearing loss to read speech in real-time by converting audio in an environment into closed captioning that appears on the AR smart glasses, also named XRAI Glass. The software also has voice recognition that can tell who’s speaking. XRAI glasses is partnering with the company Nreal to provide the software on their Nreal glasses.
