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When Oculus gave virtual reality its second chance in the consumer market, it was largely expected that VR would be limited to powerful and expensive gear. Google, however, begged to differ and, thanks to Cardboard and now Daydream, it put VR into the hands, and heads, of anyone with a smartphone. Now a startup has envisioned a similar revolution, but this time on the augmented reality front. The Mira Prism AR headset costs $99 only, and that’s because all the power driving it comes from an iPhone.

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Disney has teased what Star Wars fans have long been demanding: an augmented reality game that allows you to wield your own lightsaber. Previewed at D23, Disney's annual expo, Star Wars: Jedi Challenges combines an AR headset with a smartphone app and a number of games. While details are in short supply right now, there are already several hints at just what the system could do.

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It seems that 3D will be making a big splash on the iPhone 8 in more ways than one. It has already been speculated, by no less than famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo himself, that the 10th anniversary iPhone would have a 3D sensor on the front for advanced facial recognition. Now there is word coming from certain sources that the back camera will also have a 3D laser sensor that will be used not just for autofocus but also for augmented reality. As if Apple didn’t have too much on its plate already.

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This week the folks at Google have created a new system for digital object creation called Blocks. This Google Blocks system allows the user to span the virtual universe with their creations in a way never before possible - at least not with this user interface. And before you ask, no, it's not just a new name for Minecraft - it's a whole different ballgame.

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High-end camera manufacturer RED has announced its latest product, the RED Hydrogen One, its first ever smartphone. Described as "the world's first holographic media machine in your pocket," the Hydrogen phone promises not only to capture high-quality images and video, but offer "holographic multi-view" without the need for special glasses. However, it won't come cheap.

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Next to Super Mario Bros., Minecraft is now perhaps the most "repurposed" game in the market, owing to how easily it can be ported to different platforms and new uses cases. So it isn't exactly surprising to have seen it make its way to virtual reality or, in this case, augmented reality. It is, however, almost ironic that "Minecraft AR", which Microsoft owns, would be available first on Apple's soon to be released ARKit platform. It's unofficial, of course, but it already shows how it has the potential to be more accessible this way.

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Apple's next hand in the future is Augmented Reality, as evidenced this morning by Craig Federighi speaking onstage at WWDC 2017. With Augmented Reality developer kit - ARKit, they call it - developers will be influencing the way the future is seen through the iPhone and iPad. With this kit, simple computations are able to be made, for starters, including allowing the iPhone to detect a flat table surface.

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It's not unusual for smartphones to launch a few months after they've been announced, but a six-month waiting time is next to ridiculous. But that is exactly what ASUS is doing with the ZenFone AR, which has yet to see the light of day in the market. Announced at CES back in January, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen has revealed that it's going to take about a month more before this AR/VR smartphone lands in Verizon's shops in the US.

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Where are you in the bold new world of virtual and augmented reality? I don't mean that metaphorically, either: the question of where a user in a virtual world is physically, and how they're interacting with the real world around them, is arguably the key to making the next generation of headsets. It's something not only big names like Google and Apple are working on, but VR/AR specialists like Occipital.

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Of the three major "synthetic" reality platforms, Microsoft's HoloLens comes closest to the dream of overlaying digital objects on top of real world ones and interact with both of them in the same way. However, it shares the same limitations as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift in terms of the bulk of the headset required for it to function. That is why Microsoft Research teams have been working on a prototype that brings a "true" holographic display to near-eye devices that almost look no different from your regular pair o eyeglasses.

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This morning Google revealed the second major iteration of their VR platform Google Daydream. This second age in the software and hardware platform includes updates in five major categories: Audio, Graphics, Performance, User Interface, and Tracking + Input. This update will be coming for all Daydream hardware - so it's not limited to only the future of the platform, but it is optimized for a couple of new processors, so watch out for that.

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Microsoft has unveiled its take on VR controllers, with the Windows 10 Mixed Reality motion controllers making their debut at BUILD 2017 today. Intended to pair with the Windows Mixed Reality headsets we've already seen announced from a number of companies, the controllers allow for better interaction in virtual 3D space. Meanwhile, there's also news for developers hoping to get their hands on the VR/AR kit.

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