Samsung Unveils More Smart Glasses Designs from Gentle Monster & Warby Parker Ahead of Fall Release

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Samsung today teased a new slate of smart glasses designs, which includes two new frames from eyewear partners Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

The News

When Samsung and Google finally unveiled their jointly-developed smart glasses at Google I/O in May, US-based Warby Parker and South Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster showed off their initial designs, seen below.

Gentle Monster (left), Warby Parker (right) | Courtesy Google & Samsung

At the time, Gentle Monster’s initial ‘cat eye’ design seemed to fill a gap in the current smart glasses milieu, which was notably before Meta revealed it had collaborated with Kylie Jenner on a strikingly similar design.

Now, at Samsung Unpacked in London, the brands have shown off two new designs, which funnily enough still don’t have names. Here’s Gentle Monster’s next design:

Courtesy Samsung, Google, Gentle Monster

And here’s Warby Parker’s next design, which is very similar to the first, albeit with a slightly less-pronounced nose bridge:

Courtesy Samsung, Google, Warby Parker

All four are ostensibly set to launch sometime this fall, making them essentially the first smart glasses to run Google’s Android XR operating system.

Much like Meta’s fleet of audio-only smart glasses, the Gentle Monster and Warby Parker frames pack in a single camera sensor for things like photo, video, and to give AI access to what you’re seeing, so it can do things like answer questions, real-time translation, and more.

That said, there’s still a lot to learn about them too, as we still don’t know specific release dates or prices for any of the pairs revealed thus far. For now, Samsung says all of the smart glasses are built on the Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 platform, and are set to offer up to nine hours on a single charge with up to seven additional full charges from the charging case.

My Take

If Samsung, Google and Co. want to beat Meta at smart glasses supremacy, the cheapest of these need to not only match (or beat) Meta at its own game, but also come in somewhere around $300 – $400. That specific range just happens to be the price of Meta’s own in-house styled Meta Glasses last month, which now lack any flashy EssilorLuxottica sub-brands.

As an aside: jettisoning Ray-Ban and Oakley for a cheaper frame feels as much a tactic by Meta to redefine what the price should be in the minds of potential buyers as it does a way of lowering costs and gathering more users before competition sets in, at whatever price.

Aside … aside, an important thing to remember is all of these smart glasses are effectively AI end points. Google/Samsung runs Gemini and Meta runs Meta AI, which leaves the former in a surprisingly advantageous position. Gemini can hook into the entire Google ecosystem, and possibly have a wider set of app integrations as a result, which could give it the edge if Google can communicate it effectively.

Personally, I’m more excited for the display-clad smart glasses models promised by Google and/or Samsung, which sound cool, but may actually be a device generation away. Whatever the case, Meta’s own $800 display glasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display, are only available in the US for the foreseeable future—which isn’t where I live—so I’m looking forward to the mounting competition so I can finally read my emails while staring deeply into a friend’s face while feigning a reassuring nod.

The post Samsung Unveils More Smart Glasses Designs from Gentle Monster & Warby Parker Ahead of Fall Release appeared first on Road to VR.

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Xbox Game Pass Now Included with Quest’s Horizon+, Gamepad Emulation Coming Soon

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Meta announced it’s partnering with Microsoft to bring a “starter edition” of its cloud-based XBOX Game Pass to Horizon+, Meta’s own VR game subscription service. In the coming weeks, Meta also says it’s pushing out Xbox gamepad emulation for Quest’s Touch controllers too.

The News

The new Xbox Game Pass addition brings a library of 50+ non-VR games to Horizon+, allowing users to play titles such as Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Overcooked 2, Grounded, DayZ, Deep Rock Galactic and more. That essentially adds 50 percent more games to the service’s current library of 100+ VR titles.

There is a caveat. The new “starter” version bundled with Horizon+ only brings 10 hours of cloud gaming each month, albeit still priced at the regular $60 annual, or $8 per-month subscription fee.

Notably, like the Xbox Game Pass integration first released on Quest in 2023, these cloud-based Xbox games aren’t in any way ‘VR-fied’, as they play on a flat virtual screen, which can be sized from theater-size up to 26 feet.

What’s more, Meta says it’s also finally bringing Xbox gamepad emulation to Quest Touch controllers, as before users would need to pair a newer Xbox gamepad to Quest via Bluetooth. Meta says it’s rolling out the update “in the coming weeks.”

In the meantime, you can learn more about Xbox Game Pass availability and pricing for your area here, and about Horizon+ availability and pricing here.

My Take

Valve is set to release Steam Frame, which puts a heavy focus on playing both traditional games locally and streamed from a capable PC, so it’s pretty clear what Meta’s game is with the new Xbox cloud streaming add-on to Horizon+.

And even though Meta isn’t funding VR games nearly at the same rate since announcing it was pivoting Reality Labs to focus more on smart glasses and AI, adding in “free” cloud gaming each month is a pretty cheap way for the company to maintain some feature parity with Steam Frame while slowing whatever market share it may lose in the process.

Still, the biggest differentiator is that Meta and Microsoft are only offering a taster of Xbox cloud games on Quest, as it’s limited to 10 hours per month unless you buy the full Xbox Game Pass, which at the $10 tier (separate from Horizon+) allows for standard unlimited cloud streaming.

If you’re looking to casually dip into traditional games, it’s a clear value add any way you slice it, although it’s pretty clear the funnel is to get you outright purchase an additional Xbox Game Pass once those short 10 hours are up. That, to me, is where the value add stops making so much sense.

Unlike Steam Frame, which will admittedly cost way more than a Quest 3 or 3S, you can’t download those flatscreen games on Quest and play them offline. And once you stop paying for either service, provided you want to exclusively cloud game on Quest, you’ll lose access to some portion of your subscription game catalogue in the process. Whatever the case, Horizon+ subscribers should be pretty happy they can play something new, that’s for sure.

The post Xbox Game Pass Now Included with Quest’s Horizon+, Gamepad Emulation Coming Soon appeared first on Road to VR.

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Reader Feedback Wanted: Thoughts on Our New Article Format

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We at Road to VR have been asking ourselves: how do we offer the most value to our readers? That question led to an experiment over the last few months that changed the way we structured each article, with the goal of making them more useful to you. Now, we’d like to hear your thoughts.

From the very beginning of Road to VR, our goal has always been to give the audience enough context in any given article that they would walk away understanding both the what and the why it matters of each piece of news we cover. Between my colleague Scott and I—who produce the vast majority of content on Road to VR—there’s nearly 26 years of collective expertise in the XR. That’s why, for most of our publication’s existence, our usual news articles generally wove critical context directly inline with each and every paragraph of the news subject of the article. Usually that resulted in several pretty dense paragraphs.

In recent months we decided to experiment with another idea: to more clearly separate the what (ie: the basic facts of the news that you could find from the official source) from the why (ie: why does this news matter… through the lens of authors that deeply understand the subject matter and historical context of the XR industry).

So you may have noticed recent articles organized with two recurring headers: ‘The News’ and ‘My Take’.

In ‘The News’, we aim to give you the facts quickly and without fluff. In ‘My Take’, we aim to zoom out and help readers understand why this particular news item matters in a broader context. This section also allows Scott and I to speak from a personal “I” perspective—and lean into our individual expertise, opinions, and personality—rather than speak with a collective voice, as we have done historically.

Here are two examples of an examples of articles using this new format:

• Apple Design Lead Heads to Meta, Hopefully to Fix Longstanding Quest UX Issues
• Valve Releases Steam Link Beta for Vision Pro, But VR Games Aren’t Supported Yet

So, we’d really like to hear your thoughts on this format. A couple of questions to think about: did you notice it? Do you like or dislike it? Is there some way it could be better?

Please feel free to leave a comment below, or if you’d like to offer your feedback privately, please reach us at feedback [at] roadtovr [dot] com.

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Gentle Monster Plans Massive North America & Europe Retail Expansion Amid Smart Glasses Rollout

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South Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster is set to launch its first pair of smart glasses this fall, and it’s hoping to make waves with a rash of new physical retail locations across North America and Europe.

The News

As reported by Maeil Business Newspaper, Gentle Monster is set to dramatically increase its overseas stores within the next five years. While Gentle Monster currently operates a total of 86 stores globally, 36 of which are in Korea, the Seoul-based company aims to open 10 more non-Korean locations by the end of this year, with plans to expand that number to a total of 200 within three to five years.

Gentle Monster’s rapid expansion outside of its Korean home turf comes at a critical moment, as the company hopes to drive global brand growth off the back of its upcoming smart glasses, the result of a partnership between Google and Samsung.

Gentle Monster Smart Glasses | Courtesy Google & Samsung

Much like Meta Ray-Ban, Gentle Monster’s smart glasses include a built-in camera for video and photo capture, audio input and output, and a a big focus on AI integration, although it will be one of the first smart glasses to run Google’s Android XR operating system and its Gemini AI.

“We plan to increase the number of North American stores from the current eight to more than 10 by the end of this year,” a Gentle Monster spokesperson told Maeil Business Newspaper. “We will actively market AI glasses to become a new growth engine in addition to existing eyewear.”

While North America and Europe are undoubtedly set to be a big focus for Gentle Monster, the company also aims to expand retail across Asia, including Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan.

This follows a $100 million investment by Google in Gentle Monster’s parent company IICOMBINED, giving Google a 4% stake in the company.

My Take

I was wondering how Gentle Monster would appeal to the North American and European market ever since Google announced it was working with it and US-based Warby Parker. I’ve never physically seen a pair of Gentle Monster glasses outside of Asia, so I basically assumed Samsung would take the lead, physically selling both the smart glasses from Gentle Monster and Warby Parker via its comparatively larger retail presence, leaving the two smaller brands to essentially sell primarily online and at its less numerous physical locations.

It seems though the recent Google investment has given the rapidly growing K-brand reason enough to take a lead, which maybe shouldn’t be so surprising given just how well K-anything is doing nowadays.

What’s especially interesting though is that Gentle Monster appears to not only want a leadership position in the global eyewear market in general, but sees to its smart glasses as the impetus. It’s a sort of confidence I didn’t expect from the company with only one pair of smart glasses on the roster thus far, although I imagine we can expect that to change in short order if it wants to take on a growing pack of rivals.

Ray-Ban Meta glasses | Courtesy EssilorLuxottica, Meta

Speaking of rivals: as the result of a long-term partnership with EssilorLuxottica, Meta has released multiple generations of Ray-Ban and now Oakley-branded smart glasses. That tight partnership may be changing though, as Meta even released its own cheaper ‘Meta Glasses’ frames, starting at $300.

Meanwhile, EssilorLuxottica seems to be making inroads to develop its own XR hardware, as the Franco-Italian eyewear giant recently partnered with Applied Materials in a long-term joint development agreement that will accelerate the commercialization of next-gen optical systems for AR and AI-powered smart glasses. EssilorLuxottica also recently acquired mixed reality headset creator Lynx, which was creating a competitor to Meta Quest.

A host of other brands have also seen the obvious growth potential for the audio-only smart glasses segment, which seems fairly logical since it’s very clearly a cheaper-to-produce accessory and not a hardware platform as such at this point; no costly displays, relatively small compute footprint, and no need for any sort of app store at this point, since it’s all about interactions with AI, taking photo/video, and using the few approved integrations, like listening to Spotify.

That said, there are also a growing number of startups eschewing cameras altogether by offering display-only glasses, such as MemoMind and Even Realities, although they admittedly feel like a niche that the biggest brands on planet Earth may skip over, as the training data alone from their camera-first, AI-flavored smart glasses is just too rich to pass up.

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Magic Leap Cuts Nearly 200 Jobs as AR Pioneer Pivots Into Waveguide Supplier

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AR unicorn Magic Leap is again pivoting its core business, this time to serve as a waveguide supplier to other companies making AR glasses, something that we’ve learned comes amid a mass lay off nearly 200 of its core engineering and product development staff.

According to a formal WARN Act notification letter to US government officials last week, the company is set to lay off 193 employees at the company’s Plantation, Florida headquarters.

A wide range of product development and engineering roles are set to be affected come October 1st, the letter reveals, including software, hardware, UX/design, product management, manufacturing engineering, quality, technical program management, and several senior engineering and executive leadership positions.

Although it’s uncertain how many will remain at Magic Leap—estimates point to a few hundred at this point—the mass layoff comes amid a broader shift at Magic Leap, as the company announced earlier this month its was undergoing a “strategic pivot to accelerate the development of AI display glasses.”

The company says it’s now shifting from building first-party AR headsets to taking on the role of “essential AR ecosystems partner, waveguide supplier, and device integration expert for the technology industry.”

“Magic Leap is seizing the moment where our AR innovation and manufacturing expertise create the greatest market impact,” said Scott Carden, SVP of display engineering and manufacturing at Magic Leap. “We’re solving the toughest challenges of scaling waveguide production, from industry-leading waveguide performance to manufacturing and full-device integration. Now, we’re using our unmatched expertise to help partners bring AI display glasses to millions of consumers in the fastest way possible through our waveguide technology.”

Founded in 2010 by Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap is arguably the most well-funded AR startups to date, having massed well over $4 billion in funding from investors including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, a majority holder at over $1 billion invested, as well as Google, Alibaba, and Qualcomm.

Despite an enviable runway, the company’s first AR headset didn’t exactly live up to the hype. Released in 2018, Magic Leap 1 awkwardly straddled the consumer and enterprise segment at the (then unthinkable) price of $2,300, essentially forcing the company to pivot and drop its consumer ambitions a short two years later. That first pivot away from consumer also marked the departure of CEO and co-founder Rony Abovitz, with its follow-up device Magic Leap 2 released in late 2020 solely targeted at enterprise.

And while Magic Leap has only just announced its waveguide optics pivot, in reality the company was making moves away from first-party devices as early as July 2024, according to a Bloomberg report, which characterized the action as a last ditch effort to make use of the company’s AR optics tech.

Meanwhile, we’ve heard substantially nothing about development of first-party devices, as over the past two years the company has only announced a hardware partnership with Google and manufacturing partnership with Taiwan’s Pegatron, both of which center around licensing and manufacturing waveguides.

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Valve Drops Big SteamVR Update Ahead of Steam Frame Launch

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Valve has dropped a sizeable update to SteamVR, paving the way for what appears to be imminent launch of its long-awaited standalone VR headset, Steam Frame.

Valve’s latest update brings a good slate of standard Steam features to SteamVR. And with it, the VR runtime is ostensibly shaping up to offer a more VR-native user experience, in part thanks to its new UI for SteamVR’s Dashboard.

According to the update’s patch notes, users who opt-in to the Steam Client Beta will essentially have a more useful Dashboard, as it brings Steam Deck-style Quick Access controls, as well as easier access to things like achievements, guides, and notes.

Valve says the update also improves usability with easier overlay management, better battery information, and brightness controls.

Courtesy Valve

For those of us waiting for years, the latest SteamVR update suggests we really are finally rounding the bend, as Valve has not only obviously imported tons of Steam Frame headsets into the US in preparation for release, but is now tightening SteamVR’s long-neglected UI for something seemingly ready for prime time.

What’s more, Valve recently released a ‘Great on Frame’ page that highlights a growing list of optimized VR and non-VR games that are guaranteed to work on Steam Frame.

Still, the top two bits of information are missing: price and exact release date. Provided Steam Machine is any indication, which launched at a much higher-than-expected $1,050 last month, it’s likely Steam Frame will be similarly inflated—all of it due to the global RAM and storage crisis going on currently.

Looking for more Steam Frame news?

Valve Unveils Steam Frame VR headset to Make Your Entire Steam Library Portable: Valve shows off Steam Frame, the standalone headset that can stream and natively play your entire Steam library—with only a few caveats right now.

Hands-on: Steam Frame Reveals Valve’s Modern Vision for VR and Growing Hardware Ambitions: We go hands-on with Valve’s latest and greatest VR headset yet.

Valve Says No New First-party VR Game is in Development: Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx (2020) a few months after releasing Index, but no such luck for first-party content on Steam Frame.

Valve is Open to Bringing SteamOS to Third-party VR Headsets: Steam Frame is the first VR headset to run SteamOS, but it may not be the last.

Valve Plans to Offer Steam Frame Dev Kits to VR Developers: Steam Frame isn’t here yet; Valve says it needs more time with developers first so they can optimize their PC VR games.

Valve Announces SteamOS Console and New Steam Controller, Designed with Steam Frame Headset in Mind: Find out why Valve’s new SteamOS-running Console and controller will work seamlessly with Steam Frame.

Steam Frame vs. Quest 3 Specs: Better Streaming, Power & Hackability: Quest 3 can do a lot, but can it go toe-to-toe with Steam Frame?

Steam Frame vs. Valve Index Specs: Wireless VR Gameplay That’s Generations Ahead : Valve Index used to be the go-to PC VR headset, but the times have changed.

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EssilorLuxottica Acquires French XR Startup Lynx, Putting R2 Headset Release in Doubt

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Lynx, the France-based XR hardware startup, has been acquired by global eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica.

In a public email to backers, Lynx founder and CEO Stan Larroque confirmed the acquisition, which was rumored to have taken place two weeks ago.

This includes “[a]ll the IP, assets and most of the team is now transitioning from a startup to this big company,” Larroque says in the email, adding that “it might take a few months for the operations to be smooth again, pending all legal approvals.”

Larroque isn’t making the move to EssilorLuxottica alongside other staff however, concluding his eight years building the startup, as he reveals he’s moving to Paris-based drone company Parrot to take on “a key leadership role” alongside Parrot founder and CEO Henri Seydoux.

Lynx-R2 | Courtesy Lynx

Larroque further confirmed with Road to VR that the deal is “a formal acquisition, meaning they get everything, the name, the domain, the databases, code, 3D files, manufacturing know-how, etc. And most of the team is already employed now at EssilorLuxottica.”

There’s no word on what will actually happen to Lynx-R2 though, the company’s still-unreleased mixed reality standalone announced earlier this year. Given EssilorLuxottica’s close partnership with Meta vis-à-vis Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta smart glasses, the company’s Quest competitor may have little future under its new owner.

While financial details of the acquisition are still under wraps, it seemingly couldn’t have come at a better time. In March, Lynx parent company SL Process entered judicial liquidation proceedings following a ruling by the Economic Activities Court of Nanterre, France, which essentially meant restructuring efforts had failed and survival was no longer viable, as assets and IP are typically sold off to cover debts.

Founded in 2019 after raising an initial $2 million seed round, the Paris-based startup made a splash with a 2021 Kickstarter campaign for its first-gen R1 standalone headset, raising more than $800,000 from backers. In 2022, Lynx garnered a $4 million Series A round led by social VR platform developer Somnium Space.

Still, for a hardware company, a little over $6 million is nothing more than a shoestring budget, something Larroque often lamented about online, calling the fundraising environment in Europe “excruciating.”

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