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Meta Reportedly Cutting About 1,500 VR and AR Jobs Amid Renewed Push to Become an AI Juggernaut (gizmodo.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.zip
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AI infrastructure will provides Meta with a "strategic advantage," Zuckerberg said. He once said almost the exact same thing about the metaverse.

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[–] 8 points 10 months ago

Popping one bubble in order to pump another.

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    26 comments in c/technology@lemmy.world view that post
    [+] 102 points 10 months ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (12 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (11 children)

    idk vr never felt like a pit, just early, comfort and fov was an issue, literally my main issue was not being able to see my phone without taking it off. Once that is solved I could use it indefinitely, taking it off and putting it back on was annoying and it always felt wrong after

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    I mean I'm a big fan of VR but it's clearly been a money pit for meta, their massive investment in it is never going to pay back, they were betting on selling "metaverse" real estate rather than making money on the hardware

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    That whole thing was weird. Like, even if it was a perfect simulation, it still wouldn't keep me dry and warm like real real estate, nor could I keep my stuff there.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    They tried to jump right into the "popular thing drives high demand for popular spaces in popular thing" and skip the whole "make thing popular" step, banking on their name and people thinking it'll make them a ton of money.

    Though tbh I can't say that was necessarily the wrong move (at least not if their entire goal is maximizing gains), since it wasn't going to get popular like they wanted in the first place, so skipping that step and going straight to fleecing those dumb enough to throw money at it might have made the most sense.

    That said, I think they put more money into it than they got out of it, so I doubt that it was deliberate. Zuck probably just thought if he paid people to make it, users would just flock to it and it would be as popular as fictional VR worlds are, despite missing the tactile VR system they tend to use or the whole "VR world is popular (or the focus of everyone's life)" being a plot point rather than the consequence of someone building the world and people choosing to spend their time and money there.

    Also, I'm in the demographic that probably would have been the most interested (like as a user of VR, not someone looking to just make money from it), but their offering didn't even raise enough curiosity for me to check out what they made. There is an anti-meta bias in play, but even if it had been offered by a separate entity, I still wouldn't have been interested because it sounded enshitified from the moment of concept.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    A friend had me try his quest 3 (I think?) and for the 15 minutes I used it, it was amazing (except I could see the pixels, he said it was impossible and that it must have been a focus issue, but, well...).

    Of course I would never buy anything made by Meta, so I'm waiting for the Steam Frame, but it's definitely and interesting technology!

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    • [–] 47 points 10 months ago* (6 children)

    I'm hoping the new steam frame will allow me to finally ditch my quest 2 and meta account

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  • [+] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    I'm ok with paying more. I'll never use a headset where I have to be tethered to a machine so anything like valve index is a no. I had some success with steam vr and quest 2 over wireless a few years ago, but it was never stable. I just want to put on my headset and start exercising without doing tech support.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    A used index will probably cost a 3rd of the price of the Steam Frame ATM, just saying. All you have to do is buy a replacement face gasket (which valve sells for like 10 USD, or you can use a more padded aftermarket one).

    No need to wait if you're trying to get a non-meta headset at meta headset prices (since the steam frame bundle will probably have to be at least 700 USD)

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    The index is also not as good as the quest 2. Although if a valve index full kit were selling for 233.3 dollars (1/3 of 700) that is honestly worth it solely for the basestations to use with full body tracking. Basestations tend to sell for 300 usd a pair.

    I'm not seeing any index full kits selling for that cheap though, at a minimum 550 for the full kit.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    The index controllers come with integrated finger tracking, the headset displays are higher resolution with better FOV and maximum refresh rates.

    Also they're not meta, which counts for a lot.

    The only way I see a Q2 being superior to the index is wireless functionality (which I've heard is a situational blessing and curse), and standalone play, which is useless once you need a dedicated PC for any steamVR software (as the games are ran on the PC).

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    The valve index has lower ppd though (quest 2 has 17 ppd, index has 14 ppd). The index controllers aren't as precise at gripping things and they don't work with sweat on them.

    Standalone headsets have better support on linux also than the index.

    I myself bought an index headset to switch from quest 2 and its not a better headset. At most its a side grade that costs way more, and wouldn't have been worth it other than getting base stations for the base station ecosystem.

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    • [–] 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Meta cutting previous failed ventures to pay for next failed venture.

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    • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Metaverse? What meta verse? AI man, AI!

    Until the next shiny jingly turd comes by, that is

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    [–] 6 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Now wait for the rename ! What is it gonna be this time ? I'm betting just "Intelligence" like they cut down "Metaverse" to just "Meta"

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    • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Zuckerberg finally got tired of the METAverse being useless and going nowhere.
    But he still thinks he is some sort of visionary tech genius. And he wants to capture the next big thing before anybody else.
    If he were smart he would have realized the metaverse was a stupid idea years ago. But unfortunately for him he is not very smart, he was just lucky and ruthless with facebook, and now he has become a megalomaniac drunk with the power of his billions.
    It is only months ago he thought he could create strong AI by building a massive LLM thinking strong AI would be an emerging property of massively concentrated stupidity. I think he at least has realized that is not the case.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/30/zuckerberg-superintelligence-meta-ai

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    6 comments in c/virtualreality@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I have to wonder what all those metaverse employees were doing.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    I certainly have no idea either, but that's mainly because I've never wanted anything to do with meta's "verse".

    I got their headset because it's good hardware and cheap. And for the next one, I'll be ready to pay more so I can get out of their shitty ecosystem and constant nagging for me to engage with it. Lesson learned I guess.

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    • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Can't wait to buy a steam frame. I really like the idea of those Facebook headsets but i would never buy something from Facebook.

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    [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Meta is fad chasing again

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