A reality check for the metaverse is coming

Tue, 03 Jan 2023

By Tim Cross, Technology and society editor, The Economist.After desktop computing, the consumer internet and the smartphone boom, the consumer-computing industry is past due its Next Big Thing. The coming year will see big tech firms doubling down on two related, much-hyped possibilities. One is virtual- (VR) and augmented-reality (AR) headsets; the idea that, having shrunk computers into our pockets, the next step is to strap them to our faces. The other is the metaverse, which holds that an internet which is still largely flat &nda...

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