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Magic Leap signs content deal with comics giant Grant Morrison
Magic Leap has teamed up with Scotland-based Square Slice Studios, which was co-founded by comic book industry veteran Grant Morrison, to create content for its mixed reality headset. You might know the prolific writer for his work with Batman and All-Star Superman, as well as for creating the boundary-pushing sci-fi comics The Invisibles, among many other things. The studio will conjure up interactive experiences for the headset, though it has yet to reveal their exact nature. While we can probably expect some interactive comics, it's worth noting that Morrison co-founded the company with a number of other creatives, including Grand Theft Auto artist Stewart Waterson.
Magic Leap’s lackluster AR demo proves hardware is still hard
Magic Leap announced last week that its mixed reality glasses -- which have been shrouded in mystery and hype for almost four years -- will be available later this summer. What should've been exciting news unfortunately fell flat. In a developer chat on Twitch that same day, the company showed off a less-than-impressive prerecorded demo of a small rock golem throwing some rubble around. Compared to earlier videos of a crashing whale in the middle of a gym and a floating solar system, this just came off as disappointing. Was this all there was?
Magic Leap's mixed reality headset arrives this summer
Magic Leap is finally providing more tangible details about the launch of its mixed reality headset. During a developer chat on Twitch, the company revealed that the Creator Edition of its One headset should be available sometime later this summer. It also hinted that the device will have a fair amount of power under the hood. The wearable will use NVIDIA's Tegra X2 system-on-a-chip, which is relatively powerful for a mobile device but still power-efficient enough that it won't need an ungainly pack.
Magic Leap headsets will run exclusively on AT&T's network
Whenever Magic Leap's augmented reality goggles hit the market, they'll run on AT&T's network. Today the telco announced that it'd made a "strategic, exclusive" relationship with Magic Leap, with the carrier boasting its "vast customer ecosystem" as one of its strengths, along with its research into 5G networks. If any of this sounds familiar, it's because AT&T did similar way back in 2007, signing a five-year exclusivity deal with Apple for the iPhone.
Leap Motion crafts a reference design for cheap AR headsets
Leap Motion is a company most famous for building a gesture-recognition doodad for PCs that wound up integrated into keyboards. Since then, however, it has built ever-smarter sensors that can bring hand gestures to VR without the use of dedicated controllers. Now, the outfit is taking its biggest ever, er, jump by announcing Project North Star, a proposed augmented reality headset it plans to open-source next week.
Magic Leap developer units must be kept in locked safes
Magic Leap is known for its secrecy. The company kept its One headset under wraps for years, teasing out details with ambiguous conference speeches and restrictive press opportunities. It should come as no surprise, then, to hear that developer units are being shipped out with an unusual caveat: while not in use, they have to be kept in locked safes. The detail comes from Bloomberg alongside confirmation of a "limited" developer roll out (a larger batch of units will be sent out later this year.) It's safe to assume that the company wants to avoid the fabled iPhone 4 incident.
Magic Leap releases its first set of AR developer tools
We've been anticipating Magic Leap's as-yet unreleased mixed reality gear for quite some time now. We know that the AR headset will be dubbed the Magic Leap One, will cost around $1,000 and will have applications for music as well as gaming. Still, the number of things we don't know about the gear is pretty significant. Now, however, the company appears to be lifting the veil a little bit with a new Creator Portal, which seems to contain more information for developers interested in the device as a platform, with a simulator, developer community, learning resources and an SDK to get started making apps for the unreleased device.
After Math: Market fluctuations
It's been a volatile week for us all, what with the stock market's unpredictable undulations, the US Senate's DACA drama, the Olympics hacking and whatever other craziness that's sure to happen between the time I file this post and Sunday morning. It was pretty wild for the tech industry as well. Turns out that Apple's HomePod seemingly secretes wood-marking oils, Sony announced it'll cut the price of its VR headset by a third, and Netflix continued its spending spree, blowing $300 million on the guy who brought us "Glee." Numbers, because how else are you going to count stuff?
Magic Leap's AR headsets will start at around $1,000
Magic Leap is spilling more and more of its secrets as it gets nearer to releasing its first mixed reality headset this year. At Recode's annual Code Media conference, Magic Leap chief Rony Abovitz has revealed the company's plans to release not one, but multiple versions of the headset. He also announced its deal with the NBA to show basketball games in mixed reality.
After Math: Merry Christmas, you filthy animals
It's been a wondrous week working up to Christmas Eve and not just for the guys with the Tommy Guns. Alamo Drafthouse announced it is starting a rental store and loaning out rare VHS, Protera is going to wake up tomorrow with an order for 25 of its electric buses under the tree, and Google is practically giving away its digital movie rentals. Numbers, because how else will you know how many gold rings you've got coming?
Magic Leap One: All the things we still don’t know
It's that time of year again: the special season when everybody's favorite mythical creature makes its annual appearance. That's right, it's Magic Leap hardware teaser season! Seemingly once a year, the secretive startup reveals what it's been up to, and on Wednesday it revealed renderings of its latest AR headset prototype. The company even deigned to allow a Rolling Stone reporter to take the system for a spin. But for everything that Magic Leap showed off, the demonstrations and teaser materials still raise as many questions as they answer. There's a whole lot about the Magic Leap system that we don't know, so maybe let's hold off on losing our minds about the perceived imminent AR revolution until we do.
This is Magic Leap’s mixed reality headset
We've been following the development and rumors surrounding Magic Leap's glasses for awhile. Now, we finally have something official: The company revealed the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition headset on Twitter this morning. The mixed-reality glasses will ship in 2018, and while preorders aren't yet open (and there's no price point), you can sign up to be the first to know when it's available.
Magic Leap tips its mixed-reality hand with a Sigur Rós app
We really don't know a lot about Magic Leap, the secretive mixed reality company that made waves back in 2015 with a huge investment from Google. Magic Leap has been experimenting with light-bending nanomaterials, and has promised Madefire mixed reality comics for an undefined launch day and may or may not have leaked a backpack-style prototype. The thing is, no one knows what Magic Leap's technology consists of.
Researchers found a way to tuck AR objects behind real ones
Current AR technology does a pretty decent job of placing a virtual image in front of an actual one, but blocking a virtual image with a real object is actually quite difficult and something that available head-mounted augmented reality displays can't do yet. But MIT Technology Review reports that University of Arizona researchers have developed a prototype system that can do just that.
Magic Leap will get Madefire mixed reality comics on launch day
Magic Leap is getting Madefire's mixed reality comics from day one. Reps from both companies announced their partnership at the New York Comic Con, revealing that they've actually been working together for the past five years. They promise you'll be able to view comic panels like they're 3D illustrations floating mid-air and that you'll be able to pin them around your room like digital wallpaper. Madefire plans to bring all its graphic novels to Magic Leap, including comics from Marvel, DC and Blizzard, along with original titles made just for the device.
Magic Leap is experimenting with light-bending nanomaterials
Mixed reality company Magic Leap is cagey with its tech, to say the least. However, it has released a research paper in conjunction with Berkeley Lab that hints on what it's doing. The team developed new materials that can take in light from more angles than before and redirect it with minimal losses. That could aid not only its mixed reality (MR) headset, which reportedly uses wave-guiding tech similar to the Hololens, but spark breakthroughs in holograms, invisibility cloaks and more.
Magic Leap’s rumored AR glasses may have been revealed in patent
Magic Leap's much-hyped augmented reality system has been an object of skepticism ever since the company was funded at a high level back in 2014. The tech world seems fairly obsessed with the possibilities, as is the company's founders, but no one is quite sure what the ultimate product will entail. We're a bit closer today with a newly granted patent (originally filed in 2015) for a smallish set of eyewear that could be the delivery system for Magic Leap's AR system.
Magic Leap is still figuring out what 'mixed reality' is
Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz recently said at an investor conference that the company's 'mixed reality' headset (?) "is not far away" from launch, whatever that really means. While the mysterious startup might be closing in on consumer-ready hardware, it's still in the process of discovering exactly what 'mixed reality' is. Delivering the opening keynote at gaming conference Develop:Brighton today, Magic Leap's Graeme Devine said, "There's huge expectations that mixed reality will come of the gate and, oh boy! It'll be here and it'll be just like Minority Report right away... And no, we've never seen that with any platform. So that ask is impossible."
Magic Leap settles sex discrimination lawsuit with former employee
Magic Leap created some serious buzz back in 2014 when Google, Qualcomm and other tech giants lined up to heavily invest in its mysterious mixed reality headset. Unfortunately, the tech may not live up to its own hype. Making things even worse, the company was sued for sex discrimination this past February by former employee Tannen Campbell, who, ironically, was hired to help create a more female-friendly product. While no specific terms have been revealed, the company filed a notice of settlement May 8th; the suit should be officially dismissed by June 2nd.
Former employee sues Magic Leap for sex discrimination
Augmented reality startup Magic Leap is being accused of sex discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. Ironically, the company is being sued by Tannen Campbell, who was hired to make the startup's product more female friendly.
