Were you aware there's a launch event from HTC Vive later today, followed by Varjo next week ahead of Facebook Connect at the end of the month?
Facebook obviously remembered and decided to remind the world that it's working on unseen hardware, sharing new pictures of prototype hardware.
Anything you can do...
With more leaks than carrying water in a colander, pictures of HTC's new goggle-style hardware were everywhere yesterday, ahead of the event from 16:00 UK Time this afternoon. Curious timing then, for Facebook's Vice President of AR/VR, Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth to share a picture in which he wears a prototype at Facebook Reality Labs that are, well... goggle-style.
The Tweet reads, "Proud of the research Michael Abrash's team is working on at FRL-R Redmond—excited to get an early look at some of the technologies that will underpin the metaverse (we work on several prototype headsets to prove out concepts, this is one of them. Kind of. It's a long story.)"
'Prototype'? 'Kind of'? That seems unnecessarily vague - is Boz hinting that the headset is little more than a proof of concept, or that it's more than a prototype and could be nearing production?
Proud of the research Michael Abrash's team is working on at FRL-R Redmond—excited to get an early look at some of the technologies that will underpin the metaverse (we work on several prototype headsets to prove out concepts, this is one of them. Kind of. It's a long story.) pic.twitter.com/Yi9xjy5HmG
— Boz (@boztank) October 13, 2021
Either way, none other than HTC China President Alvin Wang Grayling was first to reply and turn attention back to his own product saying, "Hey Boz, Nice looking research project. Want to trade for a production quality device hot out of our factory?"
Boz's response? "No deal". And then it all turns a bit Squid Games...
...We can do better?
And to make sure that Varjo didn't feel left out, CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture on Facebook of a prototype that he states is 'retina resolution'. Finnish firm Varjo - whose event is happening next Thursday - is famed for its 'human-eye resolution' hardware for business.
Zuckerberg wrote, "I spent the day with the Facebook Reality Labs research team in Redmond to demo our next-generation virtual reality, augmented reality and artifical [sic] intelligence tech. This one is an early retina resolution prototype. The future is going to be awesome."
Okay, Facebook - we hear you! We'll be at Connect on the 28th.