The Immersive Wire - 28 April 2021 (News edition)

NEWS DIGEST EDITIONCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday 

// 28 April 2021

Shadow and Bone is an excellent show, and makes me think that we all need a gunslinging hero who guards baby goats.

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Facebook Reality Labs was interviewed by XRSI about

 and privacy. 

• Lots of nuggets from the conversation, including how parental controls are coming, how they will NOT use facial recognition data with Project Aria, and the specs will have hard on/off buttons if people want to disconnect.

• It's a lot to digest, but it's clear that FRL is at least aware that they need to integrate elements of privacy as part of their offering. It's a value proposition that is worth a lot in the market, which is why Apple has been doubling down on it as part of its messaging for some time. 

 UNIT9 worked with EE to make an AR 5G foosball (otherwise known as table football) tournament

• What I find really interesting is that AR is consistently being used for 5G use-cases - particularly by telcos - as a way to showcase their services. It's been consistent for the last few years, and it looks like it won't let up anytime soon.

• If you remember, Vodafone also used 5G for VR headsets, where virtual 5G sledging was shown off by the company. 

• It borders on gimmicky, but for marketing purposes, it shows off EE's services appropriately. I just wonder where the marketing trends will develop and evolve.

Watch out, there's going to be a European Super League for AR foosball soon. Maybe. Photo credit: EE. 

In this day and age, who would have thought of producing a company brochure? At Igloo Vision, we hadn't. But, more and more potential clients and partners have been asking us for one - and forever eager to please, we've put one together. 

Check it out here

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• Apple now lets users add AR elements to their Clips creations. 

• Argil, a VR sculpting game that lets you 3D-print your creations, is now out on Steam.

  • Disclaimer: I helped the company with its launch outreach. 

• Campfire, who makes holographic hardware and software, popped out of stealth mode with $8m in seed funding. 

• Fast Travel Games released Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife, a horror VR game. 

• HTC partnered with iFixit to speed up headset repairs. 

• Immersive Promotion Design is a new marketing consultancy specialised in XR.

• Logitech G launched their first-ever VR-ready headphones in the UK.

• Magic Leap 2 is coming in Q1 2022. 

• PhotonLens partnered with Ant Middleton to create a VR Everest climb.

• Snap acquired Pixel8earth, a world 3D map builder, for $7.6m

• REACT Neuro, a VR company that uses AI and digital exams to measure brain health, selected Pico as its headset partner. 

• Rendever launched a web-based version of its popular RendeverLive.

• REWIND will embrace hybrid and remote working from now onwards. 

• XRSI contributed to a Future of Privacy Forum report on AR/VR. 

• Virtuleap launched Slinger, designed to test and train your speed and accuracy skills. In addition, Enhance VR is also now available on App Lab.

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That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Either reply to this email, or contact tom (at) virtualperceptions (dot) com. Have an excellent day!