Oh man, did you hear about that Italian tennis player who just snagged a Wimbledon win? First time ever! Kinda inspiring, right? And I’m sitting here thinking, maybe I should dive into history-making myself. Any wacky ideas? Hit me up in the comments. But let’s cut to the chase, I need to spill the XR tea of the week!
What’s Buzzing This Week
Ever hear of XPANCEO? Yeah, they’re cooking up smart contact lenses in Dubai and just raked in a cool $250M, upping their value to a mind-blowing $1.35 billion. Unicorn status unlocked! Opportunity Venture led the cash drop, hoping these guys can get their prototypes closer to my face—I mean, the market. Though some say we might see products in 2026, I’m not sold on that timeline. Anyhow, I’ve peeked at their lab (like, virtually) and fiddled with a few prototypes myself. It’s wild stuff – like wearing a sci-fi movie. Fingers crossed they pull this off soon. Maybe a niche launch? Imagine lenses that track glucose for diabetes? Hats off to Roman and Valentyn from XPANCEO – hope to drop by Dubai one day!
Now onto Upload VR’s Summer Showcase 2025. Honestly, indie XR games all around. Nothing earth-shattering, but ya know, gives smaller devs a shout-out. Big studios tend to save the glitz for events like Gamescom. Not that I’m complaining! Indie magic is its own thing. Check out Elsewhere Electric – coming July 23. Try solving puzzles in VR with a buddy on a phone. Also, Reach looks tantalizing, bound for PS VR2, SteamVR, and Quest. I mean, more games are surfacing like daisies, but hey, I’ll drop a link for a full breakdown.
Samsung Unpacked
Ohhh, here’s a plot twist: Samsung hinted at flaunting their Project Moohan MR headset but… crickets. Nada at the Unpacked event this week. Rumor mill went kaput. Maybe later? Guess companies love playing ‘Keep ‘em Guessing’. Strange how they had one boxed up at AWE but nobody got to try it. Odd move? Or PR genius? Eh, who knows?
And In Other News…
Meta just invested $3.5B in Luxottica – like saying “Hey, let’s buddy up over glasses, no one else gets to!” Canon’s jumping in, tinkering with a mixed reality headset for consumers. Finally? Fingers crossed for less bank-busting price tags. SINGRAY G2 by HMS maybe not up to HoloLens 2 snuff, but hey, it’s in the game.
Viture’s releasing new glasses. Think 152-inch virtual screens. Sounds monstrous, but cool. And hey, Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses scoop just leaked online. If true, they might show up sooner than later – or just add to Meta’s lineup puzzle.
Rumor alert! Apple Vision Pro refresh might drop with an M4 chip – although murmurs swing both ways, nothing’s set in stone.
Startups & Revelations
CREAL grabbed nearly $9M to shrink those lightfield displays. One day, AR glasses may not feel like helmets. Also, RealSense spun out from Intel with $50M just to jazz up AI vision. Anyone else want vibrant camera tech back?
Biggest shocker? A VR LAN thing led by a chopstick maker named Jeff Baz. 130 headsets in one room. Madness! Or genius? Depends who you ask.
Finally, kudos to Mentra’s smartglasses hackathon. Loads of chatter on X – techies were all over it. Creativity at play!
Side Tidbits
Games like Table Troopers and Grit and Valor – 1949 are weaving VR into the mix. And BuildPort Xumia lets you build spaceships in VR – it’s like LEGO in space but virtual.
Anyway, creatures of habit that we are, we circle right back. Another week of XR chaos, sign off with shoutouts to my Patreon folks. You guys are the real MVPs. Oh, and don’t forget those in Ukraine. Red Cross could use our help. Stay curious, folks!
(Header pic by XPANCEO)
And, if you got this far… wow, you rock. Now let’s change the world or at least make some cool smartglasses.
