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Pimax’s new VR headset can swap between QLED and OLED displays – but the Vision Pro beats it in one important way
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Pimax has unveiled two new VR headsets with the top of the line Pimax Crystal Super seemingly set to put the best VR headsets to shame – even the Apple Vision Pro – with some phenomenal specs. It also has one of most unique display features we’ve ever seen: you can swap between an OLED and QLED display engine to get the most out of your virtual experience.

Are you playing a frightening horror adventure that has you exploring dark spaces filled with monsters? Then an OLED screen’s excellent dark contrast will be just what you need. If you’re instead kicking back with a vibrant VR social app then you could swap in the QLED screen to be dazzled by the colors it can produce. 

No matter which screen type you choose, the Pimax Crystal Super will deliver 29.5 million pixels across its dual, 3,840 x 3,840 pixels per eye displays, each with 200 nits of brightness. The QLED display system has a max refresh rate of 120Hz and uses glass aspheric lenses, while the OLED one has a 90Hz max refresh rate and uses less bulky pancake lenses.

You’ll also find neat features like eye-tracking, dynamic foveated rendering, and inside-out tracking – so there’s no need for lighthouses.

As you'd expect, this swappable display design doesn’t come cheap. If you want a Pimax Crystal Super with both the OLED and QLED display engines you’ll be paying $ 2,399 (around £1,925 / AU$ 3,700) for the headset. Alternatively if you’d rather get just one type of display the QLED model will set you back $ 1,799 (around £1,450 / AU$ 2,800 ) while the OLED version costs $ 1,999 (around £1,600 / AU$ 3,100). 

No precise release date has been given yet but Pimax estimates the Crystal super will launch in Q4 2024 (so October, November or December).

The Pimax Crystal Light in a purple and blue room, it's lying on the floor, switched off

The Pimax Crystal Light (Image credit: Pimax)

If this is all still too much to pay for a VR headset – especially one that requires you to have a similarly high-end PC gaming rig so you can get the most out of your headset’s capabilities – or you want a headset that’ll arrive sooner, you could instead opt for the Crystal Light.

The crystal light boasts less sharp displays – boasting just 2,880 x 2,880 pixels per eye – though its QLED screen can get up to 120Hz. However, it uses aspheric lenses so will be bulkier than headsets using pancake lenses, and it lacks eye-tracking, and dynamic foveated rendering capabilities.

The upshot is it’s a heck of a lot cheaper starting at just $ 699 (around £550 / AU$ 1,100) and it should launch in May according to Pimax.

As impressive as these news Pimax headsets sound, I'm disappointed that they’re locked into the PCVR ecosystem, and aren’t at least adopting Pimax’s own wireless tech.

Analysis: Several steps forward, several steps back

A big issue with PCVR headsets are the cables that tether you to a PC – or a console in the case of PSVR 2 – that limit your movement, and that you can catch yourself on as your flail about in virtual reality. 

However, as we’ve seen from the displays in Pimax’s headset, the advantage of PCVR is you can enjoy a super high level of graphics and performance that outshines standalone devices – like the Meta Quest 3 and even Apple Vision Pro (provided you have a great PC, that is).

This is where a wireless module can come in like the Pimax Crystal 60G Airlink device as they allow you to enjoy PCVR without being tethered. We’ve known that this device has been coming for a while – it was demoed at CES 2024 already – but we finally know exactly what the Crystal 60G can do with official specs straight from Pimax.

Specifically it boasts wireless PCVR with a 2,880 x 2,880 pixel resolution per eye, 90Hz max refresh rate, and “ultra low latency” – though exactly what this means hasn’t been revealed.

The Pimax Crystal 60G Airlink system including a module for your PC and another for your headset

The Pimax Crystal 60G Airlink module (Image credit: Pimax)

Unfortunately, neither of Pimax’s new headsets – the Crystal Super or Crystal Light – will support the 60G Airlink module.

What’s more, they strip out the batteries and Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset that the base Pimax Crystal headset included, which allowed it to support both wireless PCVR and a standalone VR experience.

To this end, you might find the base Crystal model is the better option for you – or a non-Pimax model like a Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro – thanks to the versatility offered by a standalone headset. Not only are you freer to use the headset wherever you want but also, with the exception of the Vision Pro, you can very easily use these headsets for wireless VR and for wired PCVR – giving you the best of both worlds.

This versatility is one of the reasons why Quest headsets have been topping the Steam VR usage charts for years.

Considering how impressive Pimax’s machines are I’d love for it to have kept pushing into the world of standalone VR. Improving its software catalogue or partnering with a company with a great VR OS to jumpstart its app store – ideally the amazing Quest ecosystem, though are others out there from the likes of HTC – would also have been great.

I’ll have to try the latest Pimax headset out for myself before giving my final verdict, but as it stands I don’t think these are VR gadgets I can see most people using – nor do I think most people should use them. Which is a real shame because otherwise I feel Pimax’s machines could be a slam dunk on pricey competitors like the Vision Pro – for now, though, I feel relative newcomer Apple has Pimax’s Crystal Super beat, on paper.

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Even OpenAI can’t tell the difference between original content and AI-generated content – and that’s worrying
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Open AI, the creator of the incredibly popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has officially shut down the tool it had developed for detecting content created by AI and not humans. ‘AI Classifier’ has been scrapped just six months after its launch – apparently due to a ‘low rate of accuracy’, says OpenAI in a blog post.

ChatGPT has exploded in popularity this year, worming its way into every aspect of our digital lives, with a slew of rival services and copycats. Of course, the flood of AI-generated content does bring up concerns from multiple groups surrounding inaccurate, inhuman content pervading our social media and newsfeeds.

Educators in particular are troubled by the different ways ChatGPT has been used to write essays and assignments that are passed off as original work. OpenAI’s classifier tool was designed to address these fears not just within education but wider spheres like corporate workspaces, medical fields, and coding-intensive careers. The idea behind the tool was that it should be able to determine whether a piece of text was written by a human or an AI chatbot, in order to combat misinformation

Plagiarism detection service Turnitin, often used by universities, recently integrated an ‘AI Detection Tool’ that has demonstrated a very prominent fault of being wrong on either side. Students and faculty have gone to Reddit to protest the inaccurate results, with students stating their own original work is being flagged as AI-generated content, and faculty complaining about AI work passing through these detectors unflagged.

Turnitin’s “AI Detection Tool” strikes (wrong) again from r/ChatGPT

It is an incredibly troubling thought: the idea that the makers of ChatGPT can no longer differentiate between what is a product of their own tool and what is not. If OpenAI can’t tell the difference, then what chance do we have? Is this the beginning of a misinformation flood, in which no one will ever be certain if what they read online is true? I don’t like to doomsay, but it’s certainly worrying.

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The line is blurring between Microsoft Teams and actual phone calls
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Your Microsoft Teams calls are set to see a significant boost thanks to a partnership between the company and some of the world's leading mobile operators.

The software giant has announced the launch of Operator Connect Mobile, a new service that will utilize the network footprint of existing operators to make sure Microsoft Teams Phone calls are more reliable and flexible than ever before.

Among other things, the new launch means that users can have a single business-provided number for mobile, desk, and Microsoft Teams, allowing them to work flexibly and securely from any location, device, or network.

Microsoft Teams Phone boost

Microsoft has signed up the likes of BT, Verizon, Swisscom, Telia and Rogers to support the launch later in 2022, providing what it calls “true fixed-mobile convergence”.

This should mean that mobile calls can be prioritized on the cellular voice network or internet connection for better call continuity and quality of service, with users also able to seamlessly move between devices and Teams endpoints without dropping calls.

An expansion on the company's hugely successful online collaboration platform, Microsoft Teams Phone combines VoIP and video conferencing services to allow users to make and receive phone calls within the software.

The platform styles itself as an all-in-one app that enables rich, reliable, and secure calling, offering services such as conferencing, do not disturb, reverse number lookup, voicemail, and delegation functionality.

The company claims that Microsoft Teams Phone has around 80 million active users across the globe, helping narrow the gap between home and office as more organizations embrace hybrid working.

It now hopes that Operator Connect Mobile will help grow this number, allowing organizations to combine their user's mobile identities with the existing Microsoft Teams and Office 365 cloud tools.

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> You might soon be able to sneak into a Microsoft Teams call silently

> Office and Microsoft Teams are getting even closer

> New Microsoft Teams apps eliminate an obvious advantage for Zoom

“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for true fixed-mobile convergence,” Microsoft noted in a blog post announcing the news. ” Operator Connect mobile is a first-of-its-kind fixed-mobile convergence that’s intuitive, device agnostic, and enterprise compliant.”

“Operator Connect Mobile enables new opportunities for flexibility, efficiency, security, and compliance, which is particularly relevant in the new hybrid workplace. And as we continue to expand the functionality, the lines between voice calls and meetings, mobile and Wi-Fi networks, mobile and desktop devices, and office and field settings will continue to blur. This is the promise of organizational mobility, and it’s made possible with Operator Connect Mobile.”

Microsoft Teams continues to go from strength to strength, with the latest figures from the company showing that the service now boasts over 270 million monthly active users.

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Universal Control blasts open the door between Mac and iPad for an eye-opening experience
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Are macOS and iPadOS becoming one? Not exactly, but the arrival of Universal Control on iPad OS 15.4 Beta and macOS Monterey 12.3 Beta pierces the thinning barrier between the two.

The update, which may take weeks to arrive for general download, connects a Mac and iPad and creates an open road for your cursor to travel from one interface to the other without breaking a sweat.

There are some small hoops to jump through, like signing in to all the devices with the same Apple ID and verifying that you want to connect these systems, but you only do that once. After that, Universal Control gives you a double-wide desktop, albeit one with some significant limitations.

Universal Control

Both systems, the iPad and MacBook appear in the display settings. (Image credit: Future)

Universal Control might remind some of Apple’s Sidecar for macOS, which Apple introduced a few years ago. It’s similar but less of a two-way street than Universal Control. It extended the Mac desktop onto the iPad, which more or less put the iPadOS to sleep in the background. It was a bit more than that, though, in that you could use your finger on the iPad like a mouse and, if you had an Apple Pencil, use it to draw on some macOS apps much in the same way you would on an iPad.

After I installed the latest development betas and set up my iPad Pro 12.9 and MacBook Air M1 with the Universal Control, I found I could instantly move my cursor on the Mac to the left, see a little control bar appear along the edge of my iPad display (it appears only upon the initial connection), and slip right through the ether to the iPad screen. After that, the door is more a less open for dual-platform operations. I can even grab, say, an image and drag it from the Photo app on the Mac into Procreate running on the iPad. I could not, however, drag and drop images from my Mac desktop into a Mail window open on the iPad. They would drag to the screen, but then disappear instead of appearing in the message.

There’s still the ability to extend or mirror your Mac display onto the iPad, though it’s hidden under Advanced settings. This offers the added benefit of being able to drag over complete application windows from one screen to the other. When I use Universal Control to move my mouse between platforms, it puts the iPad to the left of my Mac. Switching to screen extension expands the Mac display on the opposite side.

Universal Control

Some of the settings to control how much dual screen interaction you get through Universal Control. (Image credit: Future)

Screen extension also turned off the iPad’s Magic Keyboard trackpad but, like Sidecar, it still lets me use the Apple Pencil. I can even enable the Pencil’s double tap in the settings.

In Universal Control’s “Linked Keyboard and Mouse Mode” I can also use the keyboard on the Mac to take notes on Note on the iPad, while also using the same keyboard to take notes in another instance of Notes on the Mac. That’s an instant doubling of my productivity power. I can do it in reverse, as well, using the iPad's Magic Keyboard to type on either screen.

Universal Control

Universal Control in action (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The ability to connect the two disparate OSes and use one keyboard and mouse to control all of it is, as some have noted, magical. It’s also still limited. Until I can drag complete windows and Mac or iPad Apps from one screen to the other, this universe will still feel relatively small.

It’s early days, of course. The beta’s not done, and Apple may refine and add some features before it arrives as a fully baked set of updates.

Ever since Apple started positioning the iPad as a productivity tool and not simply a content consumption device, it’s been transforming iPadOS – like adding mouse and trackpad support – to better support that notion.

Universal Control is another exciting, big step in a long-term effort to make the marriage between iPad OS and macOS seamless.

 Will they ever become one platform? I think it’s still too soon to tell.

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MusicMatch makes it easy to share music between streaming services
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If you've ever felt frustrated trying to open a shared link from a music streaming service you don't use, you're not alone. But sharing the next best Holly Humberstone song doesn't have to be difficult. A new app, launching today (December 12), is making it easier than ever to share and play your favorite tracks.

MusicMatch, developed by Patrick Hardy and Arthur Van Siclen, is a free app now available on iPhones running iOS 15. The app allows music lovers to open shared song links in either Spotify or Apple Music within the app. You can also play song links utilizing a Safari extension, without opening the MusicMatch app.

While the app sounds simple enough, we spoke to Hardy and Van Siclen to find out what motivated them to develop MusicMatch. Here's what we know about this new music app.

How to use MusicMatch

MusicMatch is free in the App store and available to download for devices running iOS 15. Copy your song, album, or artist link to your clipboard and then open the MusicMatch app. Select where the link will open, whether Apple Music or Spotify.

A Safari extension will provide the same convenience, but within the Safari web browser. To enable this, go to Settings > Safari > Extensions > MusicMatch > Enable All Websites > Enable MusicMatch.

MusicMatch on iOS 15

(Image credit: MusicMatch)

At this time, only links from Spotify that open in Apple Music will work with the Safari extension, but Hardy and Van Siclen are working on making Apple Music links work in Spotify on the web browser as well.

Where does MusicMatch fit on iOS?

As far as creating the app, Van Siclen handled the design and development of MusicMatch while Hardy focused on the integration of Spotify, Apple Music, and the Safari extension.

We asked them why they created the app in the first place.

“I’ve clicked so many Spotify links, found the song or artist name, then searched on Apple Music so many times. Every day.” Van Siclen explains.” Every time someone sends me a link I have to go through those steps. It’s onerous. I’m almost mad thinking about it now.” 

“Arthur and I have been sharing music with each other for years, but Arthur has always been on Apple Music and I've always preferred Spotify. We would go through the process looking up a track on the other's service then searching for that same content on another platform.” Hardy continues. “When Apple announced that Safari Extensions would be available on iOS 15, we realized that there was a pathway to make this process painless and automatic. We knew the pain first hand and were sure it would be useful to a lot of people who share music with their friends.”

MusicMatch iOS 15

(Image credit: MusicMatch)

While the app is a simple way of opening a music link, the two developers also discovered Safari Extensions on iOS 15 as another use-case for MusicMatch.

“When we heard about Safari Extensions coming to iOS we quickly identified this as an opportunity to solve this problem once and for all.” Van Siclen continues. “We made the Safari Extension, but understanding that extensions are kind of an esoteric, “pro” thing to set up, we decided to make the app fully functional itself. That was a good decision – my mom was able to use the app the first time she needed it.”

To macOS and beyond?

It’s only the first day of the app’s launch, but Hardy and Van Siclen aren’t stopping there. As you will see music links shared to you on other devices such as a Mac, there’s plenty of use cases where MusicMatch can help.

“Yes, we architected the app with cross-platform applications in mind,” Hardy explains. “We would love for MusicMatch to solve this problem no matter where customers are at. Our iOS app is just the start.” 

“MusicMatch will soon come to macOS as both an app and Safari Extension. It is built with SwiftUI and has great access to Apple’s modern cross-platform infrastructure.” Van Siclen adds.

Safari 15 in macOS 12 Monterey

(Image credit: Apple)

But if you only have an iPhone, the two devs have plans for a future update on iOS.

“We’re also excited to add support for Tidal, YouTube Music, Pandora, and the other popular streaming services.” Van Siclen continues. “The key goal we identified is to be reliable, so for the first few updates we are focused on ensuring MusicMatch does its job flawlessly for everyone.”

Finally, we wanted to know if Hardy and Van Siclen were big music users on iOS.

“Yes! I listen to jazz, and when we work together, we put on London Grammar, Javiera Mena, Kamasi Washington, and a lot of cross-genre artists.” Van Siclen explains.

“Music has always played an important role in our lives.” Hardy adds. “Sharing music that's inspiring, songs to practice on the guitar, or artists to learn from has always been at the core of a rich and connected life for us.”

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