Roblox launches its own podcast

This week Roblox launched a podcast titled “Roblox Tech Talks” with its first episode, “Step Into The Metaverse,” a chat between CEO Dave Baszucki and Roblox CTO Dan Sturman. New podcast episodes will be released every Wednesday and according to the company, the podcast will cover topics that will take an in-depth look at the technological advances that are building the metaverse. The next episode will be released on August 4th.

Epic Games Buy SketchFab 3D Content Site

Epic Games has purchased one of the world’s largest 3D content platforms, Sketchfab. Sketchfab and Epic Games are joining forces to make 3D, augmented reality and virtual reality content more accessible to grow the ecosystem of creators. Sketchfab will continue to operate an independent branded service while working with the Unreal Engine team.

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will be a metaverse business

This week’s special episode of The Vergecast podcast featured an interview between Platformer’s Casey Newton and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. During the interview, Zuckerberg explained that over the next 5-10 years, Facebook will essentially shift from being a social media company to being a metaverse company. Zuckerberg is betting on the Metaverse as the successor to today’s mobile Internet and says he’s been considering the Metaverse since he was young.

HaptX raises $ 12 million for haptic gloves

HaptX, a Seattle-based company that makes haptic gloves for virtual reality and robotics, has raised an additional $ 12 million. The company’s customers use haptic gloves to train their workforce, design and test new vehicles, and control robots remotely, among other uses. HaptX will use this funding to manufacture a second set of HaptX Gloves DK2, which is currently out of print.

Fox to launch Avatar singing contest this fall

This autumn, Fox is launching a new reality singing contest called Alter Ego, but there’s a catch. Participants will perform in the alter egos of their avatar. Grimes, Will.i.am, Alanis Morrissette and Nick Lachey will be the judges, and Rocsi Diaz will host the show. Competitors will appear as an avatar using motion capture and visual effects, while judges will meet in real life to rate each performance.

Snap buys Vertebrae and continues to bet on AR purchases

Snap has acquired Vertebrae and continues to bet on the future of augmented reality shopping. Using Vertebrae, brands will be able to upload visuals and other information about an item in Vertebrae and have a 3D version designed for shoppers to access and potentially purchase directly in Snapchat. This feature will benefit brands, but it can also potentially create an augmented reality shopping-based marketplace for any user without leaving the app.

Alibaba launches real estate NFTs

A few years ago, Alibaba created the Chinese Taobao Maker Festival for young Chinese entrepreneurs to showcase their products. This year, Alibaba has included real estate NFTs in its lineup. Chinese artist Heshan Huang worked with Web3 Games and NEAR Protocol to create virtual building NFTs, including ten luxury single-family villas, 300 high-end units and 1,000 umbrellas within the Bu Tu Garden virtual community. Bu Tu Garden Community is part of the NFT “Toorich City Series” collection by Huang. Because China is against digital currencies, interested buyers will not pay in cryptocurrency; thus, customers will have to buy from Taobao website and pay in yuan.

Polygon Studios to Push Blockchain Games and NFTs

Polygon launched Polygon Studios. The goal of Polygon Studios is to attract brands and franchises into the launch of games and NFT. Polygon Studios will be divided into two sections: Polygon Gaming Studios, which will help developers create blockchain-compatible games, and Polygon NFT Studio to support the development of custom NFT models and marketplaces.

Tom Brady’s NFT Platform Partners With Lionsgate and DraftKings

Tom bradyThe NFT platform, Autograph, has signed partnerships with entertainment company Lionsgate and sports betting company DraftKings. Tom Brady also announced that he has signed exclusive NFT deals with iconic sports stars such as Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter, Naomi Osaka and Tony Hawk. The DraftKings Digital Marketplace will sell Autograph NFT content. Lionsgate’s collectible digital content will be released on Autograph, with NFTs linked to film franchises such as “John Wick”, the “Twilight” saga, “Dirty Dancing” and also the “Mad Men” television series.

Apple receives official patent for XR headset with dynamic focus 3D display

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for a mixed reality (XR) headset with a Dynamic Focus 3D display that projects images directly into the retina. This new system will digitize the images, pixel by pixel, in the user’s retina, instead of conventional virtual reality systems. Apple’s new project will allow objects and surfaces to appear at different distances in a scene to be projected onto the subject’s eyes at the correct depth. Apple’s invention is to overcome the problem of hosting convergence in augmented reality and virtual reality systems.

The country of Georgia publishes wines in the form of NFT

Eastern European country Georgia has partnered with Norway-based blockchain platform WiV Technology to release Georgian wine as an NFT to reach a wider audience. The country’s objective with this partnership is to make its wine known to a wider audience and to enhance its notoriety. WiV Technology will create the NFT of Wine and also help the Georgia National Wine Agency to develop a quality assurance system.

Steve Jobs’ handwritten job application is now an NFT

Steve Jobs’ 1973 handwritten job application is being auctioned in both print and NFT versions. Jobs wrote the job application after dropping out of Reed College and three years before finding Apple. The auction website sells a genuine copy and the NFT version to see which sells the most. London entrepreneur Olly Joshi has organized the auction which is scheduled to end on July 28.

Dolce & Gabbana unveils the Alta Moda NFT collection

Dolce & Gabbana joins the NFT world by unveiling DGGenesi, an exclusive Alta Moda or NFT haute couture collection in partnership with the luxury market UNXD. The D&G NFT collection was presented in preview at the Alta Sartoria and Alta Gioëlleria shows on August 28 in Italy.

Wolf3D announces a new avatar hub

The studio behind Ready Player Me, Wolf 3D has added a Hub to bring your avatar to 260 XR games and apps. Now gamers can create their personalized avatars with hairstyles, skin tones, facial features and clothing that they can travel between video games, virtual reality experiences and other applications using a single identity. Virtual. Wolf3D eliminates the need to create a new avatar for each new application or video game. Users can now log in with Ready Player Me and participate in many platforms with the same 3D avatar around the metaverse. Ready Player Me is currently working with the online social platform VRChat, the LIV.tv streaming app, the SideQuest virtual reality game store, and the Koji social platform.

British start-up seeks to ‘invade’ other metavers through the use of tokens

UK-based startup vEmpire DDAO went stealth this week and only became the fourth out of 450 protocols to be included on Unicrypts Incubated ILO Launchpad. According to vEmpire, they aim to be the first platform to offer “DeFi esque” staking for Metaverse tokens, such as MANA and SAND. According to Dominic Ryder, CEO of vEmpire, the company plans to use the metaverse tokens staked on its platform to “invade” Decentraland and other protocols by continuously buying and reinvesting LAND & NFT profits while paying a return. annual (APY) to token owners in VEMP. They plan to launch their vEmpire Gamer Token (VEMP) in late August.

Animoca Brands inaugurates the NFT accelerator

Animoca Brands and global venture capital accelerator Brinc inaugurated Luna launch pad, a new acceleration program to identify, mentor and invest in promising blockchain and NFT startups that are dragged into digitalization. Launchpad Luna will also accept high potential startups looking to adopt blockchain and NFTs in their core business. Admission to the program will prioritize climate-conscious projects that emphasize proof of stake protocols and secondary chains instead of proof of work and that have a smaller overall physical footprint. These startups will benefit from funding of up to $ 500,000 and end-to-end support. The new accelerator is supported by various mentors and partner companies, such as AppWorks, Blockparty, Dapper Labs, Binance, Mindfund, the co-founder of The Sandbox Sebastien borget, and Virtually Human Studio.

Decentraland hosted the “To The Moon” music and art festival

As part of the official Decentraland Art Week, NFT KnownOrigin Market partnered with curator NFT Illumino, and creative agency Metaverse BEAR NFT collaborated to produce the music and art festival “To The Moon ”at KnownOrigin’s headquarters in Decentraland on July 11, 2021. The event featured musical performances and an NFT collection created by Confidential Creative, the sister company of BEAR NFT. Over 700 fans attended the festival and received a proof of attendance protocol that attendees can post in their Decentraland profile. Additionally, a selection of four exclusive apparel designed for the festival was available for attendees to purchase and use to accessorize their avatars.

Genvid Holdings raised $ 113 million for massive live interactive events

Genvid Holdings, the parent company of Genvid Technologies, has raised $ 113 million in Series C funding to fuel Massive Interactive Live Events (MILE). Massive interactive live events are a new kind of interactive experience. Genvid produced Rival Peak, an online presentation on Facebook where viewers could determine the fates of 12 artificial intelligence characters who clashed. The success of Rival Peak has inspired a new venture where Genvid will in the future become a publisher of massive live interactive events. Then, the Raven project, which features young adults trapped in a wooden cabin, and zombies chasing them. In this horror, partial show and game, the audience can decide the fate of humans and zombies. The official Project Raven trailer is available on the Genvid Technologies YouTube channel.

This edition of Metaverse Weekly was created with the help of Rob Crasco.