Tag Archives: HTC

Here’s a complete look at the latest HTC Vive XR Elite glasses that debuted at CES 2023

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The company cryptically leaked an image to The Verge in December, but now we have more details as HTC finally revealed the Vive XR Elite, their $1099 standalone headset designed to offer mixed reality experiences with full-color passthrough video.

The new images offer a clearer view of what the headset looks like, and HTC does point out that at 625 grams, the Vive XR Elite is lighter than Meta’s Quest Pro. It comes with a wraparound design that includes a battery pack at the back, but can also be used in ‘glasses mode’ (shown below) with the battery module removed, bringing down the weight of the device ‘significantly’, according to HTC. The headset offers a screen resolution of around 2K pixels per eye, a 110-degree diagonal field of view, a 90Hz refresh rate, 12GB of memory, and 128GB of storage. Notably, it also features color cameras and a depth sensor for additional situational awareness, something Meta left out of the Quest Pro.

Designer: HTC Vive

The Vive XR Elite is a standalone headset that can also be used while tethered to a PC for more immersive movies or games with better graphics, or for productivity tools and immersive 3D modeling and viewing. It can be used along with controllers but also supports hand tracking that lets you interact with virtual elements naturally. The headset is designed to even be worn by people who usually wear prescription eyewear. Lens diopter adjusting within the headset lets you set the power for each eyepiece, so people can wear the XR Elite without specs, and the eyepieces can be moved closer or further apart so as to provide a precise fit without causing blurry images or headaches. The headset charges over USB-C, and its controllers are also rechargeable, offering a battery life of closer to 10 hours.

The $1099 device ships with the battery module and two controllers. It’s a bit of a tough sell, considering it’s almost thrice as expensive as the Quest 2, which pretty much offers the same experience while being cheaper and lighter. The only perceivable difference in features seems to be the availability of ‘passthrough AR’, which is still experimental at best. Moreover, HTC claims the Vive XR Elite will offer much better data privacy than any of Meta’s devices, although paying nearly thrice as much for this benefit may not really sit well with everyone.

The post Here’s a complete look at the latest HTC Vive XR Elite glasses that debuted at CES 2023 first appeared on Yanko Design.

HTC plans on launching Vive AR/VR goggles to compete directly with the Meta Quest Pro

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“Go small or go home”, the company revealed in a cryptic Twitter post back in October.

HTC’s latest AR/VR headset seems to be shaping up rather well, as per a render revealed to the folks at the Verge. Slated for a 5th January launch, just as CES kicks off for the year, the erstwhile unnamed headset will feature passthrough reality, quite like Meta’s recently announced Quest Pro goggles. However, the new HTC device promises much more than its competitor, namely a lighter design, a depth sensor for better spatial mapping, and a stronger focus on privacy. “We’re in an era when consumer VR headsets have been massively subsidized by companies that are trying to vacuum up and take personal data to provide to advertisers,” said Shen Ye, HTC’s global head of product.

The unnamed goggles concept from the HTC Vive team features a design more similar in aesthetics to the Magic Leap headset than the Quest Pro. It comes with two separate eyepieces unlike the Quest Pro’s skiing goggle-style single-glass design and is capable of both virtual as well as augmented reality. The nose bridge has a front-facing camera, as well as cameras in each of the eyepieces, while the rim of the goggles features cameras facing the side. There’s even a depth sensor on these goggles – something the Quest Pro decided to exclude – giving HTC’s hardware better tracking and spatial gauging. The Verge reports that this headset will get up to 2 hours of battery life while being able to support controllers as well as track hands and movement in 6 degrees of freedom. HTC mentions that the headset can be utilized for a wide range of purposes, including gaming, entertainment, exercise, and even more advanced applications such as productivity and enterprise tools.

Designer: HTC

The post HTC plans on launching Vive AR/VR goggles to compete directly with the Meta Quest Pro first appeared on Yanko Design.

HTC Viverse wants to make the Metaverse work seamlessly on any device

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The Metaverse is probably best enjoyed using a dedicated headset, but HTC’s idea is to make it available everywhere, including inside a car.

The term “Metaverse” has been thrown around before, but it was really Facebook, now rebranded as Meta, that really started hyping it up. Considering it also owns VR company Oculus, it’s really no surprise that it is focusing on that aspect of the experience. A true Metaverse, however, might actually require more than just one class of device to be truly immersive. That’s the spiel that HTC is making for its equally amorphous “Viverse,” but it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that it also revolves around the company’s VR headsets.

Designer: HTC Vive

Vive and Oculus have long been rivals in the VR space and are the two biggest names when it comes to VR hardware. Some, however, might argue that, just like with its smartphone business, HTC has already silently left the race. Its presence at MWC 2022 tries to send a strong message that it is far from being down for the count, but, as expected, its message about the Metaverse still borders on being ambiguous.

At its simplest, the Metaverse is an amalgamation of physical reality and the digital realm, and it is best experienced with VR glasses. HTC’s spin on this concept, which it dubs “Viverse,” sounds and looks pretty familiar to what we’ve seen so far. It basically involves being dumped into a virtual world and interacting with avatars of other people, most of whom are represented in stylized or unrealistic characters.

What makes HTC’s vision slightly different from most Metaverse implementations is that it doesn’t want to be confined to just VR headsets. At the moment, it does work primarily on the Vive Flow, the company’s current flagship hardware, because that is the primary gateway into a virtual realm. Compared to typical VR headsets, the HTC Vive Flow is designed to be lightweight and even resemble sunglasses, just gigantic ones in comparison. The goal, however, is to make Viverse work on tablets, smartphones, and PCs, or basically anywhere that has a web browser that can run XR or eXtended Reality experiences, allowing anyone to jump into the virtual world at any time from any place.

Vive already has some of the scaffolding in place, thanks to its years in the VR market. It takes no effort, for example, for Viverse users to hold virtual meetings and parties thanks to Vive Sync and Engage. The Metaverse, however, also opens the door for more experiences, some of them naturally involving cryptocurrencies and NFTs. You can meet with a friend or loved one at a museum, presumably represented by how they really look in the real world, and buy an expensive piece of NFT art.

HTC also collaborated with a new partner to bring this Metaverse experience to transportation. More than just enjoying games and movies in cars, holoride can associate the vehicle’s movement and direction with what happens in the virtual world. There could be a new experience at every turn, literally. This experience could be available as early as the second half of 2022.

Vive’s MWC 2022 booth showcases the seeds of the Viveverse, which HTC admits is still in the conceptualization stage. Some features, like Sync and Engage, have already been in use for years, while others still need some time to become a reality. Whether HTC will last long enough to see the vision’s fulfillment is a different question entirely.

For all the hype and criticism it gets, the Metaverse does have the potential to change the way we live, how products are designed, and how we experience the world. Many implementations, including HTC Viverse, try to focus on the social aspects of the platform, allowing people to get closer despite being apart. Ironically, as the MWC 2022 showroom floor also demonstrates, the VR headsets we don to experience this Metaverse can actually be isolating, at least from the people already within your vicinity. Opening up the Metaverse to more devices will help free people from those restraints and make this mashed-up reality a bit more realistic.

The post HTC Viverse wants to make the Metaverse work seamlessly on any device first appeared on Yanko Design.

HTC’s leaked Vive VR headset are honeyed goggles that give you a bug-eyed minion-like look!

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Remember the HTC Project Proton concept VR headset shown off in early 2020 that looked like a mix of glasses and ski goggles? The Vive Flow VR headset is the evolution of that very concept and it is coming soon – in fact just a day away from official release at the “Go with the Flow” event set to happen on October 14.

Interestingly the internet is going crazy with the freshly leaked images of the insect eyes like HTC headset that gives off the futuristic vibe. The person in question is trusted leaker Evan Blass who has posted convincing images of HTC’s next-gen VR headset. The big question arises – will this HTC VR headset be able to compete with Oculus Quest 2? Evan has been posting a constant stream of tweets with photos of the said headset, building anticipation for the tech community. For neutral viewers, these images give a much better idea of how the Vive Flow VR headset will look like. It is not much different than the Project Proton concept headset in terms of the alienating presence.

From the images so far, it seems the headset will have a tethered connection to a tube-shaped device to power up the advanced processing of the gadget. There are no straps apparent in these leaked images which suggests HTC has finally found a way to ditch the strap design. How they have managed to balance the weight out will only be clear once the headset is out there for real. Also, the images are highly suggestive of a snap-on face cushion for comfort, adjustable lenses, immersive spatial audio and an active cooling system.

Talking of the possible use case scenarios, the headset will mostly be used for multimedia content consumption and gaming. According to rumors the VR headset will have a microchip less powerful than the Oculus Quest 2, but will come with six degrees of freedom tracking. There are no controllers in view so it is presumed the headset will not ship with one. This will be a major limitation if it wants to go head-butting against the Quest 2.

One of the images suggests the HTC Vive Flow VR headset will be up for pre-order starting October 15th, and shipments are promised in early November. Interestingly it will cost almost $200 more than the Quest 2, at a debut price tag of $499, so it better be good. For all that money you’ll also get seven free virtual reality content and carrying case.

Designer: HTC

 

HTC’s Vive XR Suite is now available for VR collaboration

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Following the official announcement of Vive XR Suite back in June, today HTC is finally making its VR collaboration tool available to all, giving users full access to all five apps on their desired platform or type of device — be it a VR headset, com...