Samsung is reportedly working on a pair of smart glasses that could be more advanced than its forthcoming competitors to Ray-Ban Meta.
Android Authority maintains it’s found evidence of a third pair of smart glasses in the source code of Samsung’s upcoming One UI 9 firmware, revealing a new model number: ‘SM-O500’, code named ‘Haean’.
Notably, two model numbers are already known: ‘SM-O200P’ and ‘SM-O200J’, code named ‘Jinju’, which are likely to be associated with the Android XR-based smart glasses Samsung recently confirmed will release sometime this year.
Those are expected to be similar to Ray-Ban Meta, in that they’ll essentially be ‘audio-only’, including microphones, camera, speakers, but no form of display.
Prototype Android XR smartglasses | Image courtesy Google
As SM-O500 follows the same numbering and lettering scheme as those two known smart glasses models, it could indicate Samsung is already working on ecosystem support for the ostensible next-gen device.
Based off prior rumors, SamMobile further suggests it may even be a display-clad version coming in 2027, similar to Meta Ray-Ban Display ($800) released late last year in the US.
Granted, as Android Authority notes, its source code sweep of One UI 9 isn’t a smoking gun. APK teardowns of the sort can be useful in revealing future releases, but may also not make it to a public release.
What we do know thus far: Google, the creator of Android XR, announced last year it was partnering with Samsung as well as Gentle Monster and US-based eyewear brand Warby Parker to release the company’s first generation of Android XR-based smart glasses.
Google also hopes to release a model with built-in displays for visual output. The company showed off two prototypes last year, including both a monocular and stereoscopic model to demonstrate Android XR’s ability to adapt to multiple hardware configurations.
Still, there’s no release date in sight for any of the Android XR-running smart glasses. The inclusion of ecosystem tie-ins in One UI 9 (based on Android 17) could mean we’ll find out more soon, however. Android 17 is expected to release in June 2026, with One UI 9 expected a month later, which could hold more clues.
Forefront has been in early access for only a few months now, although Breachers (2023) developer Triangle Factory is releasing the game’s 1.0 update on April 23rd, which includes a new map, a few new weapons, class perks, and more. While it’s not a truly massive content drop, Forefront is still one of the best VR takes on Battlefield yet.
Brimming with fellow journos, YouTubers and Triangle Factory staff—most of whom I would say have spent a lot more time aiming down the game’s realistic iron sights—I can say with no hesitation that I had my ass absolutely handed to me last week in the three 20-minute matches I played in preview of the upcoming 1.0 release.
Granted, while it wasn’t my first time playing Forefront, my kill-death ratio certainly made it seem that way in the game’s 16v16 mass battles, which also gave me an opportunity to try out the game’s new map and all of the new gear before it releases tomorrow.
If you’ve played the early access version, here’s what’s coming. If you haven’t, consider this a mini-review of the game, and why Battlefield fans might consider picking it up.
You’ve Played Before (even if you haven’t)
Maybe you haven’t played Forefront before, although if you’ve ever played any of the Battlefield games over the past 20 years, you know the score: four main classes, gads of unlockable progression-based weapons, and plenty of vehicles to jump into, like Apache helicopters, Humvees, self-propelled anti-aircraft armor, and even four-wheelers for quick getaways.
Let’s put the new stuff at the forefront though for those of you who have, and want to know what the 1.0 update is all about.
The first addition you’ll notice when jumping in is ‘Clearwater’, the new expansive map that makes for another smart addition to the game’s lineup of seven maps, most of which can be played in Rush or Conquest mode.
Image captured by Road to VR
At its core is a flooded town, flanked by high vantage points, mountainous terrain, and industrial wreckage from the ongoing battle between the two factions. There are a ton of areas to hide in and around, giving players an opportunity for close-quarters combat and long-distance blasting, with a lot of it converging in the water-logged town center.
Other new things include a pilotable drone for the Engineer class, which is by far my favorite addition, if only because, hey. It’s a dang drone. The drone comes with a single slot for cargo, so you could airlift a medkit or ammo box to your buddies below. It also gives Engineers a minor role as a scout, letting them suss out where enemies are amassing when helicopters are all taken up or respawning. Yes, I tried to put a C4 charge on it. No, it didn’t get it to work. Quest 3 footage below:
There’s also a new combat bow for Recon. It’s stupid powerful. While it probably gives you a more stealthy approach, I think it’s mostly bragging rights that you killed someone with a pointy stick. Just remember to grab an arrow from your chest inventory slot, knock the arrow and aim carefully.
If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Forefront player, I don’t need to tell you there’s definitely fun to be had exploring this admittedly modest content drop. Still, I can’t say I wasn’t expecting a little more in the class-based gadgets department.
While primary and secondary weaponry are all the same (save the bow), the 1.0 drop does include a new training ground so you can get to grips with everything the game has to offer, as well as a quick matchmaking function that wasn’t previously available. It’s something I wish I had before heading into my first match, which left me more wrecked than my hands-on with the 1.0 preview.
Here’s a look at Clearwater from the pilot seat of an Apache on Quest 3 to get a sense of the map’s size and its general perf. New to the game is also manual in-cockpit controls for helicopters, which give you two sticks: a main stick for direction and a elevation stick to raise or lower:
Notably, the Quest version of Clearwater (and the rest of the game) feels detailed enough when you’re playing, as maps seem to be built around the headset’s rendering ability by using clever terrain changes that keep a good amount of the action fairly close.
Trees and texture loading are pretty noticeable though when in a quick vehicle in addition to a slightly less detailed landscape overall. It’s nothing game breaking, although I could see the potential for some unwelcome surprises as Quest users go head-to-head with PC VR users, which have better overall rendering ability. To boot, the 1.0 update also brings dynamic shadows and better visual effects to the PC version.
Now for the SteamVR version on my desktop running—a fairly middling RTX 3060 (12GB) and 16 GB of RAM, which is admittedly in need of an upgrade eventually. For clarity, I’m using Steam Link to my Quest 3.
As a whole, it looks… actually pretty alright, considering it has to play cross-platform with both Quest and Pico standalone headsets. The dynamic lighting does increase immersion, and the overall sharpness of the visuals definitely make it my preferred way to play, although you’ll still see some geometry popping here and there.
If that were it, I’d say this a fairly small update. Maybe not even enough to be called a 1.0 release on its own. One thing I didn’t expect going in though was a healthy chunk of the update centers around four new perks for all classes. More ammo, increased movement speed, increased grenade throwing distance, the ability to reduce repair rate on vehicles—it’s a long list of new things that could measurably change combat moving forward, and give you a chance to better customize your soldier. I’m interested to see this in action tomorrow when everyone gets 1.0 though to see just how much of an effect it has on gameplay in the long-term.
For a deeper dive, Gamertag VR, who was in the same lobby as me, does a great job of explaining each perk in his full 20-minute preview, including his general impressions of the game and 1.0 update. You might even see one of my many deaths (and maybe a kill or two).
Conclusion
When I say you’ve played this before, I think it’s pretty clear I don’t mean Forefront is some sort of glorified VR mod of Battlefield. It’s a real VR native that makes some smart choices when it comes to translating the genre, maps, weapons, everything into something that works in VR.
That said, it doesn’t have a massive player pool by traditional shooter standards (more on that below) even if it’s cross-play between standalone and PC VR. That also means it also doesn’t do ranked matches. The handful of official global servers are it for now.
Still, that’s not such a massive drawback. The most important thing you should know before hitting the buy button though is shooting in VR is a serious skill check, and doubly so (or triply) since Forefront treads the all too familiar line between arcade shooter and military sim.
Image courtesy Triangle Factory
Realistic iron sight shooting, manual reloading, and a body-worn inventory of gadgets all make it the sort of VR shooting experience genre fans will instantly click with, or conversely decide it just isn’t a right fit.
As glowing as my experience with Forefront has been, decidedly less immersive is the audio experience. Spatial audio seems to be fairly binary. You may have three friendlies behind you and three enemies in front, but all of it sounds like piped-in, in-your-ear chatter with no measurable directionality or distance fall off. Which is part of the reason I tend to not only mute my mic, but also all other players. Yeah, I’m that guy.
And while I had fun traversing the new map and playing with the new gear, tactically placed ziplines, and every core vehicle you can think of, I left feeling like the 1.0 update as a whole wasn’t such a massive value add.
Sure, it adds a measure of polish to the PC VR version and its new gadgets are fun, but I think the core of the argument is that Forefront is already a pretty full-featured experience to begin with. I’m not defaulting to my usual proviso with multiplayer VR shooters; there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of players on servers at any time I checked the last few days, so I don’t think low concurrents will be an issue in Forefront’s near-term if they keep pumping out maps and more reasons to come back like we’re seeing with tomorrow’s drop.
Whatever the case, the best matches you’ll ever find will undoubtedly be with a good group of people if you can wrangle them. There aren’t dedicated servers though, so I’ve found the ‘mute all’ option to be my number one defense from staying sane, as kids make up a good portion of the game’s player base. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
In the meantime, you can find Forefront over on the Quest Store, Steam and the Pico Store right now with its early access pricing of $24. Starting tomorrow, April 23rd, that price goes up to $28. There’s still no word on exactly when to expect it on PSVR 2.
Veteran director and writer Jon Favreau revealed he fully integrated Apple Vision Pro into the production pipeline for his upcoming Star Wars film coming out this May, The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Speaking to The Town’s Matt Belloni on stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week, Favreau revealed he regularly used Vision Pro while filming The Mandalorian and Grogu, the upcoming Star Wars film which will be the first to hit cinemas in seven years.
“So I’m making an IMAX movie and I’m looking at a TV screen. No matter how big your TV screen is, it’s not an IMAX screen,” Favreau says, describing directing from traditional on-set monitors.
But Favreau saw the potential to leverage Vision Pro to drive a pre-production mocap and the pre-vis pipeline, he says, which included building a piece of software from scratch to view on-set action in a larger format.
“We built software so that I could pop on my Apple Vision Pro and be sitting in an IMAX movie theater and see the full aspect ratio when we’re lining a shot up and I could watch that take and see what people will see,” Favreau explains.
“There’s so much great consumer-facing tech that could be utilized for film making in just the planning process. Forget about whether you show it in the show it in the movie theaters on the big screen. That’s going to help collapse costs and it’s going to also help you get more precise creatively. And this is what the animation industry has understood from the beginning. Get it right before you ever paint a cell.”
Notably, Favreau’s television production company Golem Creations was behind a host of Star Wars shows filmed for Disney+, including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Besides having the requisite Star Wars chops, Favreau is also no stranger to VR. In his 2016, he produced two 360 promotional videos for The Jungle Book (2016) using Nokia’s OZO 360 camera rig.
That same year, Favreau’s Golem Creations partnered with WEVR to create Gnomes & Goblins (2020), an admittedly not-great fantasy adventure for PC VR that did manage to push the visual envelope at the time.
Concurrent to production on Gnomes & Goblins, Favreau also began using VR directly in the film production pipeline with The Lion King (2019), which used HTC Vive headsets to pre-visualize the scene, characters, and animations—something to make it easier to line up shots, rethink lighting, and make other changes as if the virtual set was entirely real.
You can catch the full interview below, timestamped during his chat on Vision Pro:
Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook is stepping down, and John Ternus, a long-time Apple veteran, is set to take his place. As head of hardware engineering, Ternus oversaw the launch of Vision Pro in addition to a slew of core Apple products over the years, although the new CEO may have some reservations about the company’s premium XR headset moving forward.
Fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in mechanical engineering, the soon-to-be Apple CEO actually did a four-year stint at Virtual Research Systems, a now-defunct hardware company making some of the first commercially available VR headsets.
Virtual Research’s PC VR headsets were decidedly of a different era, although they helped spark the latest generation. Just three years prior to the release of Oculus Rift DK1, in 2010 Oculus founder Palmer Luckey even called an owner of a Virtual Research V8 a “lucky bastard”, noting the device’s 60-degree field-of-view was “pretty fantastic” more than a decade after the headset’s release.
Virtual Reality Systems V8 | Image courtesy ResearchGate
Notably, as Ternus was a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems from 1997-2001, he likely worked on the V8, which came out at the tail end of the VR craze of the ’90s.
Leaving Virtual Research Systems in 2001 for Apple, Ternus worked his way up through a number of the company’s hardware teams, contributing to the development of multiple generations of core products, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
His biggest role came in 2021, when Ternus became Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, taking over from Dan Riccio. As a result, Ternus also inherited the company’s long-term gamble in XR, which spanned more than a decade in the making, as he oversaw Vision Pro’s launch in 2023.
John Ternus | Image courtesy Apple
Still, despite his XR lineage, Ternus seems to be skeptical of Vision Pro’s place in Apple’s lineup.
As mentioned by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman last month, Ternus has shown some trepidation around Apple’s previous moves in the past, including the now-cancelled Apple Car project as well as Vision Pro, which has underperformed relative to other hardware launched under Ternus, including the Apple Watch and AirPods.
“When the company has taken swings at big new product categories in recent years, Ternus has often been in the conservative camp,” Gurman says. “He was circumspect about Apple building a car, fearing it would distract the company, drain profits and pull engineers from core products. He was similarly wary of the mixed-reality headset that became the Vision Pro, drawing on his experience of trying to create a virtual-reality head-worn device at a startup in the 1990s. In both of those cases his skepticism was prescient. Apple eventually killed the car, and the Vision Pro has been a bust.”
Slated to take over as CEO once Cook officially steps down this summer, he’s also inheriting the company’s years-long efforts in developing AR glasses, which Cook reportedly hopes they can release before Meta.
“Tim cares about nothing else,” Bloomberg reported last year. “It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.”
Apple Vision Pro (M5) | Image courtesy Apple
It remains to be seen just how enthusiastic Apple’s new CEO will be on pushing those segment-defining XR devices though. Heading into the second half of the decade, the Cupertino tech giant is ostensibly now balancing ambitions across more segments than ever, including the new consumer-friendly Mac Neo ($600) which is making headway in stripping market share from a host of mid-tier Windows laptops.
Meanwhile, the company’s XR hardware roadmap may be taking a slightly unexpected turn. Last month a separate report from Gurman detailed a move by Apple to more heavily invest in a competitor to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses—a stark departure from Apple’s initial XR strategy, which supposedly include three distinct categories: an iPhone-tethered AR headset with wireless controller, a high-end mixed reality headset, and standalone AR glasses.
Whatever the case, Ternus’s entry as CEO marks a decisive next chapter as the company. And we’ll be watching to see how he ultimately views Vision Pro, be it a dead end or a launchpad to sleeker, more consumer-friendly XR devices in the future. As it is, we’re still waiting to hear more about the reported follow-ups to Vision Pro, which supply chain leaks suggest could include two new headsets.
In a Microsoft Flight Simulator’s monthly Developer Stream, Asobo Studio revealed that it could finally release support for PSVR 2 as early as this week.
The studio announced last month its ‘Sim 5’ update was coming in April, which is set to bring PSVR 2 support to the PS5 version of the game alongside a number of other improvements, although it wasn’t clear exactly when the update was planned to release.
Now, in the studio’s April 2026 Developer Stream, Asobo confirmed the game has now passed Sony certification, and is “down to three must-fix bugs or something” Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann says.
The studio isn’t ready to say just when it plans to launch the update, although Neumann says they’re “super close.”
“It has a little bit to do with trying to get the final career specialization going, and
it’s like one or two more bugs, and that’s it. So, we’re we’re hoping that it’s next week,” Neumann said in last week’s broadcast.
Microsoft and Asobo previously confirmed that the PSVR 2 version of the game will support its 125 different aircraft, which includes Sense controller-supported cockpits for increased immersion.
The studios also spoke a bit about their 2026 roadmap, which includes a number of planned updates throughout 2026, which will focus on avionics, new aircraft, as well as a variety of World and City updates.
Bigscreen has revealed a major redesign to Bigscreen Beyond 2’s long-promised halo headstrap mount, which the company says will begin shipping out starting in June.
After months of waiting, Bigscreen has finally shown off the long-awaited Halo Mount for Beyond 2 and 2e, its thin and light PC VR headset which shipped in March 2025.
According to a company blog post, improvements over the old Halo Mount design include a new clip-on mechanism which requires no adhesives, as well as support for third-party accessories thanks to an M3 brass-threaded screw hole for mods.
It also features an improved flip-up mechanism, extra USB extension for better cable travel, and easier vertical adjustment for better forehead positioning, the company says.
Bigscreen’s newly redesigned Halo Mount | Image courtesy Bigscreen
“After a year of iterating on prototypes, we built the first production versions of the Halo Mount last year,” Bigscreen explains. “The early units (commonly known as “DVTs”) met most but not all of our goals. We shipped these DVTs to customers for testing and received both positive and negative feedback.”
Then, in December, the company says it made the call at “a very significant financial cost” to delay the Halo Mount’s mass production due to negative feedback from testers, which prompted the company to go back to the drawing board. See the previous Halo Mount design below:
Bigscreen’s previous Halo Mount design | Image courtesy Bigscreen
Now, Bigscreen says it’s aiming to ship a “small volume” first batch in June, with a greater run of 10,000 units starting in July. The Halo Mount is currently available for pre-order, priced at $180/€169.
“Due to the large volume of demand for the Halo Mount, it will take a couple of months to complete all Halo Mount preorders,” Bigscreen says. “We expect to achieve this goal by the end of the summer, and will have sufficient inventory for fast shipping thereafter.”
Notably, Bigscreen’s Halo Mount can be used with any Beyond strap, including the supplied Soft Strap, optional Audio Strap, as well as third-party modded straps, such as Apple Vision Pro’s Knit Band.
Bigscreen’s newly redesigned Halo Mount | Image courtesy Bigscreen
Additionally, it can be used with all facial interfaces offered by Bigscreen, including the Custom-Fit Cushion and the Universal-Fit Cushion, as well as without a cushion for greater peripheral vision.
As a part of the update, the company also announced that Beyond 2 and Beyond 2e orders are generally shipping within 1–3 business days, with most Universal-Fit configurations sometimes shipping the same day, following major improvements in production and logistics.
Due to recent supply chain disruptions linked to Middle East conflicts and rising air freight costs, which the company says has caused temporary shortages of the Crystal Clear Beyond 2e and Universal-Fit Cushions, shipping times for those units have been delayed by 2–4 weeks.
Bigscreen says these issues are being resolved and expects normal shipping speeds to resume by late April.
University researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium have shown that monkeys can navigate complex virtual environments using a brain-computer interface (BCI) setup, which remarkably involves relatively little user training.
As reported in New Scientist, three rhesus macaques were implanted with Utah array BCI devices containing 96 electrodes in each of three brain regions: the primary motor cortex and the dorsal and ventral premotor cortices.
While the primary motor cortex is involved in voluntary movement, a region of the brain Elon Musk’s Neuralink taps into through its various animal research models and recent human clinical trials, the premotor cortices are thought to be dedicated to planning, organizing, and initiating those movements.
Image courtesy Peter Janssen et al
The key innovation isn’t the hardware itself though, as Utah arrays are widely used in research when reading neuronal activity, but rather the method the study goes about decoding that information, and making it actionable in 3D environments.
In the study, which was lead by KU Leuven’s Peter Janssen, the rhesus macaques were initially trained once from a short passive observation phase, and then were given a variety of virtual tasks while wearing 3D shutter glasses and monitor with stereoscopic images. Tasks included moving various objects in a virtual space, including a sphere, a monkey avatar, and even themselves via a first-person perspective.
Image courtesy Peter Janssen et al
As noted by New Scientist, many previous human trials involve asking people to actively think of a physical movement, like raising or lowering a finger to move a cursor on a screen, which is then translated to on-screen movement. Janssen believes however the study’s specific placement of the BCI has accessed what could be a more intuitive connection to movement, potentially requiring less training.
“We cannot ask these monkeys, of course, but we just think that it’s a more intuitive way of controlling an a computer, basically,” Janssen tells New Scientist, who notes that current methods can feel as foreign to implant recipients as “trying to move your ears.”
While the study hopes to pave the way for similar results in humans, which could unlock things like controlling electric wheelchairs, Janssen also believes it could allow people with paralysis to intuitively navigate virtual worlds.
“There’s a bit of work necessary to know exactly where to implant a human because a lot of these areas are not very well known in humans, where they are exactly,” Janssen says. “But once we figure that out, it should be possible. It should actually be easier because you can explain to the human what they are supposed to do.”
