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Meta Showcases Latest VR Developments at Connect 2022, Including New Quest Pro Headset

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Meta Showcases Latest VR Developments at Connect 2022, Including New Quest Pro Headset

Meta is holding its Connect conference for 2022 today, where it’s announced a range of new, cutting-edge VR features, including a new Quest headset, new professional integrations to facilitate workplace collaboration, updated interaction tools, control devices, and this…

Yes, soon, your VR avatar will actually have legs, so you won’t look like the genie from Aladdin floating around Meta’s VR spaces.

Here’s a look at the key updates from the event:

First off, Meta’s releasing a new, upgraded version of its standalone Quest VR headset, with the Quest Pro, the next evolution in VR interaction.

As explained by Meta:

Meta Quest Pro is the first entry in our new high-end line of devices, and it’s packed with innovative features like high-res sensors for robust mixed reality experiences, crisp LCD displays for sharp visuals, a completely new and sleeker design, plus eye tracking and Natural Facial Expressions to help your avatar reflect you more naturally in VR.”

The Quest Pro, which as originally titled ‘Project Cambria’, is also able to display 37% more pixels per inch, which will make the VR experience more immersive, and more realistic – which could be a good and bad thing (some of them VR rollercoasters genuinely make me feel sick).

The advanced device will also facilitate a range of new professional features, including multi-screen display, workrooms for collaboration in VR, ‘Magic Rooms’, which will combine VR and video participants, and more.

Even more than this, Meta also announced a new partnership with Microsoft that will see the two tech giants working together on a range of professional integrations, including Microsoft Teams immersive meeting experiences, and the integration of Microsoft’s top apps, including Word, Excel, etc.

It all seems potentially valuable, and another step towards the future of VR interaction.

But it’ll cost ya’.

Meta’s Quest Pro is now available for pre-sale at a whopping $US1,499. For comparison, the current best-selling standalone VR headset, Meta’s Quest 2, sells for $US399.

Meta’s been dealing with various challenges in getting the components and processes in place for its VR supply chain, which already forced it to increase the price of the Quest unit by $US100 back in August. But even with that in mind, an almost 4x increase in price is a huge leap, which will likely leave the Pro version as a theoretical concept for most regular consumers.

But then again, as the name suggests, the real focus here is on professional use, and integrating VR in all new ways. Meta also notes that it’s working with Accenture, Autodesk and Adobe, among others, in helping them build VR into their processes, and guide their staff, and clients, into the next phase of professional collaboration.

The Quest Pro will start shipping from October 25th – more info here.

Meta also announced that it’s developing Horizon Worlds on the web ‘so you can eventually pick up your phone or laptop and visit friends who are hanging out in VR, and vice versa’.

Meta’s been looking for more ways to integrate additional access points and interaction options for VR, which would essentially enable you to use your VR avatars in various online spaces, not just in the VR realm. That’s part of the broader view of the fully integrated metaverse, that people on various devices, and in various apps, will be able to tap into the metaverse experience, even without a VR headset.

Interestingly, Meta also noted that it’s working with the YouTube VR team to build more engaging entertainment experiences in VR spaces, like hosting YouTube watch parties in Horizon Home.

And again, avatars with legs:

Meta Connect 2022

Meta says that its new full-body VR avatars will roll out to Horizon Worlds shortly, while users will also soon be able to use these new avatars in video chat, on Messenger and WhatsApp too.

Meta also previews its latest advances in electromyography, which will eventually enable more control over AR and VR experiences by detecting actions in your wrist, Project Aria, its AR glasses project, which it’s now developing to assist people with visual impairments, and new process to build 3D objects in VR spaces.

And after Zuckerberg got lambasted for his now infamous metaverse photo back in August, he also shared the latest developments in its photorealistic Codec Avatars, which are far from being an accessible option for regular users, but do show where we could be headed, in terms of digital representation.

Meta’s been working on these for some time, but a key impediment to widespread adoption and usage is that it requires a lot of specialized scanning equipment, and computer power, to build these more realistic depictions.

Eventually, Meta could look to install VR scanning units in accessible places to facilitate such (potentially even Meta stores if it expands its retail operations), and you could soon have some pretty amazing options for display and engagement within the virtual space.

Overall, it’s an interesting showcase of where Meta is headed with its VR developments, and its broader metaverse push. But then again, there’s nothing truly mind-blowing, as such, here – there’s nothing that’s going to help shift perceptions of Zuck’s metaverse investment as a huge potential waste of money, because there’s nothing that regular people can take away and apply to their lives every day, or nothing that transforms the VR or metaverse experience right now.

Instead, Meta’s looking to merge its VR tools into professional applications instead, in the hopes that this will broader VR adoption, through advanced system usage at work to begin with.

That makes some sense. Business users are more likely to pay more for these advanced experiences, and if more people are using VR at work, that could expedite the broader shift towards metaverse interaction in your social life too.

But it’ll be interesting to see the market reactions to Zuck’s latest VR showcase, and whether it’ll be enough to shake off the negative perceptions of the metaverse, which seem to be gaining more momentum every day.



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TikTok spends $1.5B on Tokopedia JV to get around Jakarta social e-commerce ban

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TikTok spends $1.5B on Tokopedia JV to get around Jakarta social e-commerce ban

Just two months ago, ByteDance-owned TikTok abruptly closed its shopping platform in Indonesia to comply with surprise regulations from the Southeast Asian country’s government. Jakarta ordered social media companies like TikTok and Facebook to stop selling goods on their platforms, demanding a separation of social media and e-commerce services.

TikTok now seems to have found a way to revive its e-commerce dreams in Indonesia by spending billions to start a joint venture with Indonesian tech giant GoTo. On Monday, the two companies announced that TikTok Shop will now be available on GoTo’s Tokopedia platform.

“Tokopedia and TikTok Shop Indonesia’s businesses will be combined under the existing PT Tokopedia entity in which TikTok will take a controlling stake. The shopping features within the TikTok app in Indonesia will be operated and maintained by the enlarged entity,” TikTok said in a statement Monday.

TikTok will invest over $1.5 billion into Tokopedia, taking a 75% stake in the platform. GoTo will remain an ecosystem partner to Tokopedia and receive an “ongoing revenue stream from Tokopedia commensurate with its scale and growth,” but will not be required to continue funding the platform. Further funding from TikTok also won’t reduce GoTo’s remaining 25% stake.

Getting back into the Indonesian ecommerce market will be a win for TikTok. Indonesia, which is the platform’s largest market outside of the U.S., is key to Tiktok’s online shopping aspirations. In June, CEO Shou Zi Chew pledged to “invest billions in Indonesia and Southeast Asia over the next few years.”

ByteDance wants to replicate its Chinese e-commerce successaround the globe. Last year, consumers spent in China 1.41 trillion yuan ($196 billion) on products sold on Douyin, the version of TikTok for the Chinese market, The Information reported in January. ByteDance, through TikTok, is expanding its online shopping services in both Southeast Asia and the U.S. Yet the company is struggling to win over American consumers: The Information reported in August that U.S. shoppers are spending just $4 million a day, equivalent to $1.4 billion over a whole year, on goods sold on the social media platform. (TikTok officially launched TikTok Shop in the U.S. in September, though sellers have complained about a flood of low-quality products on the platform).

Before Indonesia imposed its ban in September, the country’s president, Joko Widodo, complained that social media platforms were threatening local micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. Government officials also accused TikTok of engaging in predatory pricing.

GoTo’s deal with TikTok means the Indonesian tech giant is giving up its majority ownership of Tokopedia . Tokopedia started in 2008 and grew to be one of Indonesia’s largest e-commerce platforms. The company merged with ride-hailing startup GoJek in 2021, becoming GoTo Group. The company debuted on Jakarta’s stock exchange in April last year.

Yet the company has struggled to wow investors since then. GoTo has yet to make a profit since becoming a public company. The tech firm reported 2.4 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($147 million) in net losses last quarter, significantly less than the 6.7 trillion rupiah ($428 million) it lost this time last year.

Investors do not appear to be thrilled by the news of GoTo’s TikTok partnership. Shares fell by over 19% by 2:30pm Indonesia time on Monday, erasing gains made late last week as rumors began to build of the new partnership.

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How to Train ChatGPT to Write in Your Brand’s Tone of Voice [Infographic]

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How to Train ChatGPT to Write in Your Brand’s Tone of Voice [Infographic]

Are you looking for ways to improve your ChatGPT output? Want to train it to write in a more unique tone of voice, in order to better suit your branding?

The Creative Marketer shares his ChatGPT prompt tips in this infographic. To enact these, add “Write like [INSERT CHARACTER]” at the start of your ChatGPT instructions.

TCM breaks things down into the following categories:

  • Innocent
  • Sage
  • Explorer
  • Ruler
  • Creator
  • Caregiver
  • Lover
  • Hero
  • Everyman
  • Magician
  • Jester
  • Outlaw

Check out the infographic for more information.

A version of this post was first published on the Red Website Design blog.

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Elon Musk reinstates far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on X

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Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been reinstated on X, formerly known as Twitter, by company owner Elon Musk

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been reinstated on X, formerly known as Twitter, by company owner Elon Musk – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Joe Buglewicz

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, on Sunday reinstated far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the social media platform, a year after vowing never to let him return.

Jones, who claimed that a December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that killed 20 children and six educators was a hoax, was banned from the platform — then still known as Twitter — in 2018 for violating its “abusive behavior policy.”

He was also sued by families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting and ordered by a judge in the case to pay up more than a billion dollars in damages last year.

Musk had himself promised never to let the Infowars host back on the social media platform, which he bought last year for $44 billion.

But following a poll Musk conducted on X asking whether Jones should be reinstated, to which some two million users responded, he flipped that decision.

“I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?” the SpaceX founder said on X.

But Shannon Watts, founder of the group Moms Demand Action group which pushes for tighter gun laws, said that “defamation is not free speech.”

Musk’s decision comes the same week that the Sandy Hook families commemorate the 11th anniversary of the December 14 shooting, which Jones alleged was staged to allow the government to crack down on gun rights.

Jones’ followers harassed the bereaved families for years, accusing parents of murdered children of being “crisis actors” whose children had never existed.

It also came a week after Musk had responded to advertisers pulling out of X because of far-right posts and hate speech, including an apparent endorsement by Musk himself of an anti-Semitic tweet.

Asked whether he would respond to the advertising exodus, Musk said in an interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin that the advertisers could “go f*** yourself.”

Jones, who has a million followers on X, returned to the site with his first post re-tweeting Andrew Tate, the controversial former kickboxer facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania, in which he hailed Jones’ “triumphant return”

US media reported that as of Sunday, the account of Jones’ controversial show Infowars was still banned.

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