The Morning After: Meta’s next-gen $1,500 VR headset revealed
The Quest Pro is here to make the metaverse happen.
Meta’s next-gen VR headset is here. With the Quest Pro, Meta is trying to combine the best things about both PC and standalone headsets to create a powerful, comfortable self-contained unit. With a per-eye resolution of 1,800 x 1,920, the Quest Pro has a higher pixel density than the Valve Index (1,440 x 1,600 per eye) and Meta’s own Quest 2. Meta has almost completely eliminated the usual visual artifacts of standalone VR displays. Engadget’s Sam Rutherford has tested it out, and he’s impressed. You can pre-order the Quest Pro now.
The price might give you pause, though. At $1,500, it’s five times the price of a Quest 2. If you currently own a Quest 2, Meta has announced you'll be able to play Xbox Cloud Gaming on your VR headset, displayed on a huge virtual screen. You won’t need to use the Quest controllers – your Xbox controller will work just fine.
– Mat Smith
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The best October Prime Day deals on headphones, earbuds and audio gadgets
The best October Prime Day deals we could find
Everything from headphones to smart home devices.
Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale is on. This Prime Day "part two" is the second members-only sale of the year, and Prime subscribers will find thousands of items at record-low prices. Sure, there’s the usual barrage of Amazon hardware, but some of our top-rated tech is also heavily discounted. For example, Sony’s incredible noise-canceling headphones, the WH-1000XM5, are currently $348, the cheapest we’ve seen them so far. Click through for our curated highlights.
NVIDIA RTX 4090 review
You probably don’t need all this power, but you will covet it.
The RTX 4090 is a beast of a GPU, delivering the fastest performance we’ve ever seen in a consumer graphics card. In fact, it’s kind of hard to push it to its limits in 2022. But you’ll pay dearly for the privilege of owning one. If you’re looking for a good deal, it may be worth waiting to see the rest of NVIDIA’s 40-series lineup.
NASA's DART spacecraft successfully altered the orbit of an asteroid
‘NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet.’
NASA announced its experimental Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully altered the orbit of Dimorphos, a distant asteroid. The agency said DART's impact shortened the asteroid's orbit by 32 minutes. Before the September 26th collision, NASA estimated DART needed to change the orbital period of Dimorphos by 73 seconds or more to call the test a success. The spacecraft beat that benchmark by more than 25 times.
GM is using its Ultium battery tech for a lot more than EVs
GM Energy will encompass home and office battery systems.
GM announced yesterday it’s expanding its battery portfolio into energy management services — think big stationary batteries to store rooftop-generated solar power on a home or business. The new venture will comprise three smaller ones: Ultium Home, Ultium Commercial and Ultium Charge 360. GM will work with companies like SunPower to develop and market an integrated home energy storage system that incorporates EVs with solar panels and battery banks to enable easy Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) power transfers.
Blizzard is giving away freebies to 'Overwatch 2' players to apologize for its rocky launch
It's holding Double Match XP weekends, as well.
Overwatch 2's launch was riddled with bugs, DDoS attacks and other issues. While the company has made progress to make the game playable — a lot of players couldn't even log in at first — its work is far from done. It will hold several Double Match XP weekends to give players the chance to rack up points and rank up to unlock skins and other gear. It will also give players who log in from October 25th until season one ends a Reaper Legendary skin and a Health Pack Weapon Charm. Both items will automatically be added to people's collections when they log in.