• Meta secretly delayed my most anticipated Quest 3 feature, and we

    From TechnologyDaily@1337:1/100 to All on Wed Jun 19 11:15:04 2024
    Meta secretly delayed my most anticipated Quest 3 feature, and we finally
    know why

    Date:
    Wed, 19 Jun 2024 11:05:45 +0000

    Description:
    Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has reveled why we haven't seen Augments on the Meta Quest 3 yet.

    FULL STORY ======================================================================

    When the Meta Quest 3 was unveiled I was impressed by a lot of what it had to offer in both the virtual- and mixed-reality departments, but by far the most interesting feature was Augments persistent MR elements that you can use to decorate your home. As we approach the one-year mark since the headset was unveiled, Metas CTO has finally explained why Augments havent launched yet.

    If you've forgotten about Augments, the concept is theyre a mixture of functional and visual mixed-reality decorations. Some are just meant to look pretty or offer basic functions, like a clock, while others act as portals to your favorite games or quick access to your favorite apps. You can see a version of them in your VR Meta Home as the little pod that launches First Encounters .

    When the Quest 3 was first shown off back in September 2023 at Meta Connect 2023 we saw a little of what Augments would offer, and a promise that theyd launch in the not-too-distant future. Now Andrew Bosworth, Metas CTO, has revealed on Instagram that back in January Meta decided it wasnt good enough, and so the team decided to go back to the drawing board.

    Bosworth explained that Augments felt too much like a toy rather than living up to what Meta felt it had promised and wanted to deliver. However, in order to improve the feature it needed to start from scratch with a completely different technical architecture.

    As a result the feature has been delayed, and Bosworth didnt provide any kind of timeline for when we might eventually see Augments in action.

    With Septembers Meta Connect 2024 fast approaching theres a small chance well see the feature again there, but I hope the next time we see Augments is when Meta is actually ready to it to the public. Mixed reality is good, but Augments could make it better (Image credit: Meta) Over-promise,
    under-deliver

    Meta is developing a worrying habit of teasing updates and hyping up features that it then takes way longer than expected to release, or which dont live up to expectations.

    Augments are the latest example, but weve seen it take a year to roll out virtual legs , and oversell the metaverse way ahead of when it could feasibly work as described, while hardware-wise the Meta Quest Pro wound up being a disappointment compared with more budget-friendly offerings like the Quest 3 that launched not long after with software like Batman: Arkham Shadow being released as a Quest 3 exclusive and skipping the Pro.

    I think Meta is also doing a lot of exciting things in the XR space (a catchall for VR, AR and MR); it recently made Horizon OS available to third-party hardware makers, and I love that it gets frequent software improvements. But its errors stick out and if they persist itll be a
    challenge to trust the announcements Meta makes until the product is actually in peoples hands either physically or virtually.

    Going into Meta Connect 2024 I hope Meta takes on board the lessons it's learned over the past couple of years, and as we go beyond the press conference Id like to see it be more open with its plans, and with obstacles it faces. Setbacks happen, but if a major feature is getting delayed maybe
    let us know when that decision is made, rather than leaving us in the dark
    for months. You might also like I finally tried the Meta AI in my Ray-Ban smart glasses thanks to an accidental UK launch Will Apple go big on AI at WWDC 2024? Almost certainly ChatGPT shows off impressive voice mode in new demo



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    Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/meta-sec retly-delayed-my-most-anticipated-quest-3-feature-and-we-finally-know-why


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