Meta is terrified by the presence dominant of TikTok in the social media market, and now it looks like the company behind the app, ByteDance, is coming for Meta’s involvement in the Metaverse with a headset that’s the closest thing we’ve seen in price to the Quest 2.
Bytedance’s virtual reality subsidiary, Pico, presented Peak 4 in an English live stream on Thursday that was both terrifying and surprising, mainly because of how much it seems to be chasing Meta. The device will retail for $425 (€429) for the 128GB version and $492 (€499) for the 256GB version.
What’s important here, though, is that the device will only launch outside of its home country in Japan, Korea, and 13 countries in Europe, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. The Chinese market will get its own announcement on September 27, with full pre-orders starting on October 18. The Verge noted that the headphones might appear in the US, depending on the FCC files.
The Pico 4 runs on a 2.84 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor, according to the website. product specifications. Considering the Meta already has a contract with Qualcomm for custom chipsets, it will be interesting to see how powerful this device will be compared to future Quests. Otherwise, Pico 4 boasts a fairly robust 4320 x 2160 resolution (of course, that’s 2160 pixels per eye). The two 2.56-inch LCD screens have a refresh rate of between 72 Hz and 90 Hz.
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La banda para la cabeza es solo una correa, pero Pico promueve que el peso del dispositivo esté equilibrado debido a la batería de 5300 mAh que se encuentra detrás de la cabeza. Los controladores del dispositivo también son bastante interesantes. Los bucles, utilizados por los auriculares para rastrear el posicionamiento, están en ángulo frente a las palmas de las manos en lugar de alrededor o frente a las manos. Los cuatro botones que se usan en la mayoría de los juegos modernos se comparten entre ambos controladores.
Pero Pico también anuncia que no tendrá que usar controladores para todo, ya que el dispositivo tiene capacidades de seguimiento manual. Por supuesto, la compañía no mostró esta característica en acción. El Quest 2 también tiene seguimiento manual.
El año pasado, ByteDance compró Peak for an undisclosed amount. Pico was ranked as one of the biggest VR headset manufacturers. It was a deal that mirrored Facebook when it bought Oculus back in 2014. Even back then, we speculate that the owner of TikTok may have been preparing for a showdown once morest its rival in the social media space, and it seems that with its announced specs and price, the company is ready to make a statement. .
Meta recently increased the price of its 128GB and 256GB Quest 2 models at $100, so the Pico 4 now fits the $399 Quest headset comfortably.
But what can make a difference here is the software available for the device. Pico makes little mention of what games its system will support, instead proprietary sports shows and video content. Pico showed off some upcoming games including The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Retribution y Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom along with other virtual reality classics like Hornand the company promised that more VR games would come to the Pico store over time.
Pico seems to be going following Meta and her metaverse directly with his “Avatar System”. Leland Hedges, Pico’s general manager, showed off his own rather gaunt and plastic-looking avatar, but apparently this avatar will be used in multiple apps, including “Pico Worlds,” the company’s own answer to Meta’s Horizon Worlds. The company also boasts the ability of its device to track facial muscles to be played on player avatars.
“He really does look like me, doesn’t he?” Hedges said during the live stream in a very stiff and awkward manner. Horizon Worlds recently became the butt of a lot of jokes. because of how bad it looksto the point that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to come out and tell everyone that his own avatar won’t look like a dead doll forever following enough graphic updates.
Pico is also criticizing Meta before the company can announce its next Meta Quest Proque Zuckerberg said recently to be revealed in October at the annual Connect conference. We still don’t know what kind of pricing model for the device, once dubbed Project Cambria, though some leaks have hinted that it might cost upwards of $800, likely putting it among other mid-to-high-end headphones. Supposedly, the Pico will also work on a Pro model that includes eye tracking, though we don’t know much regarding that at the moment.
But what should also not go unsaid is that ByteDance is not the best company out there when it comes to people’s private data. He has been surrounded by scandals in recent months following leaked internal audio mentioned that user data might be viewed by Chinese government officials. All this proprietary focus on their in-house store makes it somewhat concerning.
At the same time, patents Featured by Meta and revealed by The Financial Times have already shown the US company’s own potential plans to sell facial expressions and more to advertisers. It is a shame that two large companies with a long history of pawn user data They are also trying to be the main players in devices that have the ability to track everything else regarding our lives, including our movements.
