Neowin®

Apple's heavily rumoured Mixed-Reality headset has reportedly been demoed to it's top 100 executives in the Steve Jobs Theater within the past week in a 'key milestone' for the company.

It seems that Avatars for Microsoft Teams will hit general availability in May 2023. Powered by the Microsoft Mesh MR platform, these personalized creations will allow you to take camera breaks.

Microsoft recently emphasized that it is fully committed to the HoloLens 2 and mixed reality (MR) space, despite recent events such as the laying off of the entire MRTK team suggesting otherwise.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that mass shipments of the company's first AR/VR headset could be delayed to the second half of 2023. This is reportedly due to software-related issues.

Microsoft is prepping to ship the next major operating system update to HoloLens 2 devices soon. It has requested IT organizations utilizing its hardware to start testing their apps on Insider builds.

Senior Microsoft executive Alex Kipman has exited the company following allegations of misconduct. Kipman led numerous projects at Microsoft including Kinect and, most recently, HoloLens and Mesh.

Today, Microsoft has announced the release of Windows Holographic version 22H1, the latest feature update to its mixed reality (MR) platform powering Windows hardware such as HoloLens 2.

Along with its mixed-reality announcements, Microsoft has labeled a 15% discount on its HoloLens 2 headsets for a limited time only. It has also revealed new features for Azure VMs and networking.

Microsoft is bringing Mesh to Teams, enabling organizations to create immersive mixed-reality spaces to host meetings between personalized avatars. Over 800 3D emoji are being made available too.

As previously hinted, Microsoft has announced financing plans for HoloLens 2 Development Edition in the United States. The 0% interest options go as low as $97.22/month for a three-year plan.

Vodafone has said it will begin stocking Nreal Light glasses in Germany and Spain from spring 2021 but will expand the product to other markets afterwards. It described the device as affordable.

A year and a half after it announced the HoloLens 2 Development Edition, Microsoft has finally launched the device in the United States, costing $3,500. Other markets will get it in December.

Mozilla has published the first public release of Firefox Reality to the Microsoft Store. It comes several months after the browser was added to the Microsoft Store in an experimental fashion.