Lucas Matney
Lucas Matney is a Writer at TechCrunch covering all of the startups and major players in the virtual/augmented reality space. He’s particularly interested in startups tackling input and optics on the VR/AR hardware side as well as UI/UX design and mapping on the software side.
He’s also a big fan of headphones/home audio and random well-designed gadgets.
If you’d like to contact Lucas and tell him about the cool stuff you’re working on or would be interested in having him speak at an event/conference, reach out at: lucas@techcrunch.com
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Latest from Lucas Matney
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Facebook Messenger launches Discover as it takes on chatbots (again)
Facebook isn’t done with chatbots quite yet; today, the company is launching Discover, a hub inside Messenger for discovering new and interesting chatbots to message with. The section is going live for users stateside, and the company is billing it as an opportunity for people to interact with businesses and brands in more useful ways. Read More
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Mysterious stealth gaming startup Wonder announces $14 million in funding
Ah, another day, another stealth mobile gaming startup getting funded by Shakira. LA-based Wonder announced today that it has closed a Series A round of funding. The startup is building what it claims to be a new breed of “VR-ready” gaming hardware in secret, but seems to have been gesturing loudly about just how secret it is. Read More
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Andy Rubin-backed AR hardware startup CastAR reportedly shuts down
An augmented reality headset startup founded by former Valve employees and funded by Android co-creator Andy Rubin’s Playground Global is shutting down after it failed to receive further investment. CastAR was building a headset device that projected holographic images into the field-of-view of a user, similar to products being built by companies like Microsoft and Magic Leap. Read More
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View raises $200M for their electrochromic smart glass
When you hear about companies raising tons of money for “smart glass,” the first thing that hits your mind might be something augmented reality-related like the HoloLens. But View, which just closed a $200 million funding round, is using smart glass to make better windows that adjust to the outdoor environment. Read More
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Facebook improves its AI Messenger assistant ‘M’ with new wits
Facebook M, the company’s AI-powered assistant that lives inside Messenger, was launched widely back in April, giving suggestions to users based on the context of their conversations. Today, M is getting a bit smarter and more socially capable. Read More
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Apple acquires SMI eye-tracking company
In a move that is sure to stoke rumors about Apple’s future work in augmented and virtual reality technologies, Apple has acquired SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI), an eye-tracking firm. The German company has done significant work in eye-tracking research with proprietary eyeglass hardware while also working on consumer-focused applications like eye-tracking for virtual reality. Read More
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Facebook brings new masks, filters and reactions to Messenger video chat
Facebook is bringing a ton of new filters, masks and video reactions to video chats in Messenger, aiming to deliver a more fun experience to younger users on the app and shore up the service against competing video chat apps. Read More
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Samsung’s Galaxy Note8 will reportedly be the company’s most expensive smartphone yet
Samsung is preparing to launch its most expensive smartphone yet this September, VentureBeat reports. Notably, this launch timeline for the Galaxy Note8 places it in the path of when the new iPhones will likely be revealed. The phone will retail for €999 according to the report, a number which will likely translate to around $900 stateside considering past pricing differentials. Read More
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YouTube has 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users watching a ton of mobile video
This year at VidCon, YouTube shared some new metrics that really drive home how much it’s dominating mobile video usage and how quickly its service is gaining viewers on TVs. Read More
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YouTube chops 360 video in half with new VR180 format
YouTube is showing off a brand new file format for creators who want to check out VR but are intimidated by taking the full plunge with all the crazy hardware and production issues. It’s called VR180, and it’s half of a spherical video. It’s a simple evolution, but it makes some notable compromises that give traditional and VR viewers some new gains. Read More
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Facebook announces dates for its Oculus Connect 4 conference
Facebook’s Oculus is returning to San Jose on October 11-12 this year to share some news about the future of VR at the company’s Oculus Connect 4 developers conference. Facebook has slowly been bringing the Oculus name and leadership under its own core brand. With the amount of VR news popping up at F8, some wondered whether Oculus Connect’s days were numbered. Apparently not. Read More
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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigns
Uber’s embattled CEO Travis Kalanick is resigning from the ride-sharing company he helped found in 2009 following a “shareholder revolt” led by some of Uber’s most prominent investors, the New York Times reports. An Uber spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that Kalanick has stepped down. The report states that five of Uber’s most prominent investors… Read More
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Twitch nabs exclusive streaming deal with Blizzard for 20+ major e-sports events
Twitch, the popular game-streaming site owned by Amazon, just inked a deal with one of the most popular game developers to broadcast a host of game tournaments exclusively on the service. The two-year deal between Twitch and Blizzard surrounds some of the biggest titles in e-sports. More than 20 events will be hosted exclusively on Twitch as part of this deal. Read More
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Fetch launches self-service truck rentals to help you move the big stuff
Moving furniture generally sucks. Fetch wants to be there for those moments when you need to transport something that won’t fit in the trunk of an Uber XL. The service, which allows users to easily rent trucks or vans for hours or days at a time, is launching in Atlanta to help people move whatever they need to. Read More
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This startup wants to build VR headsets with ‘human eye-resolution’
Earlier this month, Google virtual reality head Clay Bavor discussed the company’s efforts on a mind-boggling 20 megapixel screen that was currently under development. The screens would be a staggering 17x resolution improvement on displays in current generation VR systems like the Rift and Vive. They would also be totally unusable, because at the frame rates needed for VR, such… Read More
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YouTube shows off VR-centric video analytics
Google may have a few VR projects lined up across hardware, but for now one of its biggest selling points for mobile VR is YouTube. Today, YouTube announced that it’s bringing heat map analytics to the service so that 360-degree video producers can see where their viewers are paying attention at any given time. 360-degree video may not be as hyped as it once was, but YouTube has the… Read More
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Skyrim is coming to the PlayStation VR
Bethesda has been getting its money out of that whole Skyrim thing. Today at Sony’s E3 2017 press conference, the studio announced it would be rereleasing Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim on PlayStation VR this November. The company already announced yesterday that it was bringing the title to Nintendo Switch later this year. With Bethesda bringing titles like Skyrim, Fallout and Doom to VR… Read More
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Nomadic nabs $6M for its modular VR system for retail spaces
Virtual reality might be a bit too expensive for home use to take off right now, but for consumers going to dedicated retail spaces to experience it there has to be an added something to make it worth their while. In its quest to build location-based retail experiences that users can physically feel, Nomadic has had to get its hands on some capital. The company announced today that it has closed… Read More
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Microsoft ignores VR at its Xbox One X launch event
At its E3 Xbox One X reveal event on Sunday, Microsoft shared a relentless stream of boundary-pushing system specs for the new console, but it stayed surprisingly quiet regarding the future of virtual reality on the device. Few expected announcements related to a simultaneous VR headset launch as the company had already sought to temper expectations earlier this year saying that VR content… Read More
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‘Man fighting in the middle of town’ is not Grand Theft Auto for iOS
“Man fighting in the middle of town” may not be the Grand Theft Auto VI we’ve been waiting for, but it’s the one 2017 deserves. The iOS game, which launched its 1.0 version yesterday initially piqued my attention through its perhaps-not-quite fair use of Grand Theft Auto V screenshots as the app icon and description photos. My hopes that someone had snuck a free port of… Read More
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