Top story: I reviewed the XREAL 1 Pro+ glasses and thought they were very good, especially as a private third screen (more below).

Other stories: XREAL has launched the Aura, the first Android XR optical see-through glasses, at $1,279, or $1,099 for a limited time until December (more below).

Bluesky: I am back on Bluesky; follow me if you wish!

What did I think? I thought this was a really interesting set of specs, and it was very cool to record while I was using them. For cooking videos, I thought they were quite excellent.

Would it do everything? I thought the actual hand interaction was weaker, and I preferred using my phone as a touchscreen.

Who is it for? People who genuinely want two hands free to do their work. I had a go while working, using it as a third screen alongside the two in front of me. It was useful having a third, which was completely private and only I could see, so I could do more confidential things if I wanted to, which is a great use case. I also had a lot of fun out and about, just recording and showing off my life.

Is it for everyone? I do not think so. If you work sat down or in an office, I can see the benefit of a third screen if you want one. Otherwise, I don't see these as the type of specs you would wear every day, keep in your pocket or position as a fashion item.

CoSTAR National Lab and the Southbank Centre have opened applications for the Creative Intelligence Award, a £50,000 co-commission backed by UKRI for UK creative companies using AI, immersive or virtual production tools, with entries closing 17 December.

Even Realities has updated its G2 smart glasses with a Conversate "Pro Mode" and a personal knowledge base feature.

Exoshock, the Halo-inspired co-op shooter, has launched in early access on Quest and PC VR.

Mojo Vision has received $24.4mn in US government funding, $20mn through the IBAS programme and $4.4mn from the US Army's C5ISR, to develop full-colour micro-LED microdisplays for near-eye AR.

PatchXR has released its creative music world PatchWorld on SteamVR headsets, including the Steam Frame, on 29 October.

Raven Resonance has opened pre-orders for Raven Prism, a standalone Linux computer in a glasses frame with eye-gaze control and hot-swappable batteries, taking a refundable $49 deposit ahead of first shipments in January 2027.

Resolution Games has launched Holochess, a free mixed reality strategy game with simultaneous 3v3 battles, alongside Demeo for the XREAL Aura glasses.

Resonite has added Steam Frame eye tracking and dedicated controller bindings, though the social platform still needs a PC to run.

Rokid has launched Rokid Glasses 2 at 3,699 yuan and its first full-colour model, the 55-gram Rokid Color, at 4,999 yuan, alongside a 1,699 yuan Rokid Ring for gesture control.

saas.group has acquired 3D AI Studio, a browser-based platform that turns text prompts or images into 3D models for 1.9 million registered creators, in its 27th acquisition.

Samsung told investors on its earnings call that its holiday plans include the release of smart glasses, with its Android XR glasses expected before the end of the year.

Schell Games has laid off a significant number of employees, citing a challenging time in the games industry, and is helping those affected find new roles across engineering, art, design and production.

Sega Amusements has published specs for House of the Dead Reawakened, a 630kg arcade cabinet that uses DPVR's E4C headset and debuts at IAAPA in Orlando on 17 November.

Tripo AI has open-sourced EdenLive, a real-time generative renderer whose 5B model runs at 720p and over 24 FPS on a single RTX 5090, under an Apache 2.0 licence.