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Meta is selling certified refurbished Quest 3S headsets for $255.99 through its eBay storefront using the code SAVE20TECH, valid through November 8th. The units come inspected and cleaned, include original or new accessories, and carry a two-year Allstate warranty, undercutting the headset's $349.99 retail price and its recent $300 new-condition Prime Day price.
A Cruise Planners executive argues that travelers are increasingly using conversational AI tools, rather than keyword searches, to find travel advisors suited to their specific trip needs. The piece advises travel businesses to clearly define their identity, specialty and target clientele so AI systems can accurately match them with relevant searches, while using technologies like virtual reality and predictive analytics to support, not replace, human advisors.
A developer has released VBoy Color, an open-source emulator that adds limited color to Nintendo Virtual Boy games, which originally displayed only in red monochrome. The tool assigns colors from a four-color palette to 8x8-pixel tiles, using hand-painted color packs for most of the original library, and runs on Meta Quest VR, desktop, and Android, with stereoscopic 3D preserved only on Quest.
A firsthand account from a former Autodesk Research Lab engineer recounts how Autodesk sought to register the trademark 'cyberspace' in 1989 for its early virtual reality work, prompting objections from author William Gibson, who coined the term in Neuromancer. The author recalls writing Gibson a letter, receiving a reply from Gibson's lawyers that Autodesk apparently ignored, and Timothy Leary allegedly spreading a related rumor about the dispute.
MIT mechanical engineering researchers developed a flexible, wearable sheet embedded with bendable optical fibers that tracks its own 3D shape and detects external pressure, achieving error rates below half a centimeter in lab tests. The design uses rubber-cored fibers with roughened, dyed cladding to detect bending direction, and an LED-and-sensor setup paired with an algorithm reconstructs the sheet's shape in real time. The work was published in Advanced Intelligent Systems.
Researchers at the University of Limerick had 189 participants interact with male and female-presenting AI assistants in a virtual reality office, dividing real money as payment for completed tasks. The female-presenting agent, "Johanna," received 10.25 percent less pay than the identical male-presenting agent, "Johan," and was also rated as less human-like, according to the study published in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.
A University of Limerick study tested how people compensated AI agents in a virtual office setting, varying only whether the agents presented as male or female. Despite identical underlying technology — same LLM, agent design, guardrails and harness — agents presented as male received about 10% higher pay per task and were rated as more human-like than those presented as female. The study involved 189 participants.
Reddit user Fantastic-Author2736 built a virtual reality version of Diablo II using tools called FlatVR and BodyWalk, relocating the map and inventory to the player's hand and belt for a first-person view. The mod, currently at version 0.141, is downloadable on GitHub and includes recent fixes to sky rendering in several zones and a barbarian animation glitch.
A modder known as CircuitLord has built a free virtual-reality mod for Respawn's 2016 shooter Titanfall 2, letting players wall-run, pilot Titans, and handle weapons with full head and hand tracking. The mod was made in about a month and is being praised by a Verge editor as among the best VR experiences he has tried, including comfort during fast movement.
Several companies are developing immersive technologies that enhance product design, museum exhibits, and remote medical treatments. These innovations aim to expand the practical uses of spatial computing and virtual reality beyond entertainment. Despite the decline in metaverse hype, interest in these fields continues to grow for professional and healthcare purposes.
Meta has introduced a new VR device shaped like glasses rather than a strapped-on headset, weighing about 100g compared to the Quest 3's 515g. The glasses rely on a separate wired 'puck' that houses the Snapdragon Reality Elite processor, 128GB storage, 12GB RAM, and battery, offering up to three hours of media playback. The device uses a 5K MicroOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate for watching video, gaming, and multitasking across virtual screens.
VR headset shipments have been declining industry-wide, but Valve's upcoming Steam Frame offers a distinct advantage over competitors: deep integration with Steam's massive PC gaming library. Analysts suggest this access to existing games and Valve's established platform could set the device apart in a market struggling to attract new hardware buyers.