Wagner James Au / New World Notes
Author, strategist, virtual world reporter
recent posts
- Welcome to New World Notes’ 2006-2025 Archive!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
- Top Five Posts Including: Huge Rec Room Layoff & Meta Boots Neal Stephenson Off Facebook (Briefly)
- Four Glorious Second Life Sims to Explore — After Watching Sabina Valeska’s Machinima Tributes to Them!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
about
Category: Virtual Reality
-
In the infamous Milgram’s Experiment from the 1960s, test subjects willingly followed an instructor’s orders to apply increasingly lethal shocks on a screaming victim in another room — despite their concern for the person’s welfare, and their own stress over having to do such a horrible thing. (Both the “instructor” and “victim” were only actors,…
-
News on the future VR from Germany to keep an eye on, albeit poorly translated via Google: Oculus glasses: Facebook stops sales in Germany The VR data from Oculus would add a new data dimension to the aforementioned super profiles – further problems with the cartel office and European data protection would be inevitable. In…
-
Released last week in invite-only, I should be covering Facebook Horizons, because it's the kind of world that New World Notes was launched to cover — a would-be metaverse with a heavy emphasis on user-generated content and virtual community, user-friendly avatars/UI, and games that should help it attract a crossover audience. Just look at the…
-
I’ve been thinking a lot about Robert Scoble’s guest post last week, in which he argues that Facebook and Apple are the only companies that can take VR mass market — and therefore, that Oculus’ upcoming requirement of Facebook ID for log-in is a necessary evil to make it mainstream. (Or to soften the blow…
-
Another recent move by Apple in its steadily emerging XR strategy: Spaces, a VR startup that got its start as a DreamWorks Animation project, has been acquired by Apple, Protocol has learned. Apple confirmed the acquisition after this story was first published. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do…
-
Pictured: Half-Life Alyx, bundled with Vale's Index HMD Robert Scoble made a good case for Oculus requiring Facebook log-ins as a "strategy tax" to compete with Apple, but in Comments, reader "Seph" argues that Valve has the better, more sustainable approach to VR, both through its HMD partnership HTC, and its SteamVR distribution platform: If…
-
Robert Scoble has co-authored four books on technology, the latest of which, “The Infinite Retina” lays out why Spatial Computing will reshape seven industries. He grew up in Silicon Valley and has had a front-row seat on the technology industry since he toured Apple Computer back in 1977. Here he takes some time away from…
-
The VR community is reeling from today's news that Facebook will soon no longer allow non-Facebook accounts to access Facebook owned VR devices: From October 2020, Facebook will require anyone using an Oculus device for the first time to log in via a Facebook account. It will no longer be possible to sign-up with a…
-
Thanks to all my friends who joined me, hope you had fun. I had a great time playing my Mixtape in #VR at #StereoWaveFest in #Sansar. Here is a highlights vid from the Stream where you can see me turning up late for my own show 🤣 #SocialVR pic.twitter.com/11zrJOaygT — LokiEliot (@Demonkid) August 16, 2020…
-
Rosie Summers recently wandered into a neighborhood park, and casually dropped this black hole into the grass. "Soon as I saw its colossal size in an area of familiarity," she wryly notes, "the fear set in." This rip of existence was made possible through several pieces of technology, and her own artistry:
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 