Samsung’s leaked XR headset looks like a very budget Apple Vision Pro

At Galaxy Unpacked back in February 2023 Samsung announced that it was partnering with Google and Qualcomm to develop a XR headset – and if these leaks are correct we might have got our first look at its efforts so far. Well, kinda.

Very little is know about Samsung’s latest XR efforts, though it’s expected to be a standalone device rather than something powered by smartphones like its old Gear VR headsets. This new leaked prototype (assuming it’s real) gives us an insight into Samsung’s design philosophy, though according to the leaks it’s not an in-development prototype. Instead, this is what Samsung was working on until it saw the Apple Vision Pro and decided to start over.

The leak was first posted by the Chinese publication Vrtuoluo, but the article has been deleted (via Android Authority). The only way to view the original is using the Way Back Machine which has archived the original. The images it posted look a lot like a typical VR headset – such as the Oculus Quest 2 – with it apparently featuring four tracking cameras, dual RGB cameras, and a depth sensor for full-color passthrough. No controllers are included with the images so it appears that much like the Vision Pro the Samsung XR device would use hand and eye-tracking controls by default.

A VR headset cla in black plastic with a simple strap and six visible cameras on its faces

(Image credit: Vrtuoluo / Samsung)

The prototype apparently also uses dual micro OLED displays, and (surprisingly) a Samsung Exynos 2200 rather than a Qualcomm XR chip such as the Snapdragon XR 2 found in many VR headsets like the Pico 4, or a XR 2 Plus like the one in the Meta Quest Pro

It’s worth remembering this is just a leak however, and not one that we may ever be able to easily verify – as this is a prototype for a headset that we should never see publicly. As such we should take the information and images with a pinch of salt. That said, if this is indeed a canceled Samsung XR headset, we can see why the project is no longer in development.

Not an Apple Vision Pro rival yet

This leaked Samsung prototype isn’t close to being a Vision Pro competitor. The specs are fine, but not in the same league as the Apple headset, and the design is significantly more bulky. After seeing the Vision Pro announcement we can see why Samsung might want to go back to the drawing board.

Not being a Vision Pro rival isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however. Sure, borrowing some of its cues could be smart, but mimic it too heavily and you’ll end up copying its biggest flaw – the sky-high price of $ 3,499 (around £2,800 / AU$ 5,300).

If a Samsung headset can offer many of the Vision Pro’s features at a fraction of its cost – with rumors teasing it might cost closer to $ 1,000 / £1,000 / AU$ 1,500 – then it could be onto a winner. It’ll likely be a while before we see anything from Samsung though. With it abandoning this nearly complete project for a new one it’s possible we won’t know anything concrete until 2024 or even later – we’ll just have to wait and see what it announces. 

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DoorDash is about to make cash-strapped students very happy

Cash-strapped students might start thinking about delivery that still fits within their limited food budget after DoorDash launched a new low-cost subscription plan for its DashPass service.

The aptly named DashPass for Students will run you back $ 5 per month, half of the cost of a normal subscription and it’s a more budget-friendly alternative for students to get food delivery, groceries, and more from partnered retailers. There’s also the Annual Student Plan, which is $ 48 annually.

DashPass Perks

With the subscription service, you won’t have to pay any delivery fees so long as you hit the minimum subtotal, though that only applies to certain orders. The minimum isn’t a very high threshold; it’s $ 12 for restaurant orders and $ 25 for groceries. You will also get 10 percent off orders in the form of reduced service fees.

Students will also get five percent credit back on Pickup orders, but only for certain restaurants. There will also be members-only promotions and exclusive menu items like the blindingly red Flamin’ Hot Nacho Wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. These wings are meant to promote the new subscription tier.

All undergraduate and graduate students at an accredited college or university in the United States are eligible to become members. There’s also a 30-day free trial of DashPass for Students so people can try it out before committing.

Brand new market

It appears that DoorDash is capitalizing on a new market as the announcement cited a recent survey conducted by Wakefield Research, which found that 70 percent of college students order food on a delivery app an average of four times a week. DoorDash goes on to note that, according to the survey, 27 percent of students spend more than $ 100 a week on delivery alone.

Other services have done the same thing or, at least, something similar. Grubhub has its own paid subscription service for students called Grubhub+ Student in conjunction with Amazon.

That service launched back in 2021 and students don’t have to pay extra to use the service or pay for delivery. All you have to do is tie an Amazon Prime Student account to your Grubhub+ account to become eligible.

Grubhub+ Student is still available and shares the same $ 12 minimum on orders, but there’s nothing for groceries and no standalone service.

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It is a very exciting time to be in high-performace computing market: AMD chief

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su said that it is a "very exciting time" to be in the high-performance computing market.

Speaking at the "Masters of Leadership Series” webcast, organised by Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) and Consumer Technology Association, she said that Covid19 has seen difficult times across the world but what has helped is the power of computing for remote working and remote learning.

“I am very excited about where high-performance computing (HPC) is going in the future compared to where we are today. HPCs could do amazing things in solving difficult problems and making our daily lives different,” she said.

Computing is really important in certain large markets, she said and added that the PC market is worth more than $ 30b while the data centres market is valued at more than $ 30b and the gaming market is worth about $ 12b.

“There are really large opportunities out there and they all require more computing horsepower. We were able to do some good things during Covid19 such as providing capacity to data centres and have seen a large interest in laptops,” Su said.

Moreover, she said that households which had one PC have changed completely and people have realised that it has become one of the fundamentals of communication and connectivity.

“I am excited about how computing can do to accelerate solutions to some of the problems and we have been participating with the White House computing taskforce for pandemic research,” she said.

Pushing the envelopes of technology

AMD has donated seven petaflops of supercomputing clusters to New York University (NYU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Rice University and these clusters utilise AMD technologies such as Epyc CPUs and Radeon Instinct GPUs to help accelerate the development of potential therapeutics and vaccines. 

“Once the Covid-19 crisis is over, the HPC systems will support future medical research. I am lucky right now that I am running an important company in technology but at the end of the day, I love building things and pushing the envelopes of technology,” Su said.

Su was born in Taiwan and her family migrated to New York when she was two years old.

“I am a New Yorker at heart,” she said and added that the thought process was there are a few companies in the US that are doing high-performance microprocessor design.

After spending eight years at Boston at MIT and a large portion of her career at IBM in building semiconductor and microelectronics, Su joined the 51-year-old AMD in 2014.

“I started in that area and wanted to be a semiconductor CEO and AMD was my dream job. My interest in semiconductors is how we can use the technology to do a lot of good things,” she said.

However, she said that what AMD is really good at is building high-performance computing with an incredible amount of horsepower in people’s hands but it takes time to build the foundation and “we took time to build the foundation and reach where we are today”.

Highest paid CEO in 2019

When asked about being the highest-paid CEO in S&P 500 companies and the first woman to top the list, she said: “It is all about opportunities and there are a lot of smart people in this world but the fact is that you not only need to be smart but you also have to be in the right place at the right time and the right circumstance”.

According to a study conducted by Associated Press and Equilar Fee Analysis Executive Company, since it began in 2011, Su earned a total of $ 58.5m in 2019, nearly $ 13m more than Discovery Inc David Zaslav, who earned $ 45.m, the next highest-paid male CEO.

The study found that the average compensation for female executives was $ 13.9m compared to $ 12.3m for males, although there were far fewer women than men on the list.

 “I was very lucky because I had mentors and gave me good opportunities and I was able to capitalise on these opportunities but when we look at the diversity aspect of it, we haven’t done enough as much progress there has been and still there are not enough women in the leadership positions.

“I believe that it is because opportunities are not necessarily being presented in such a way,” Su said.   

When asked about the working norms after Covid-19, she said that working norms will change and “we all talk about what the new norms might be. Some of the changes are clearer than others. One thing is clear is that we are not going to travel and we have learned that we can do a lot by using communications tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx even though it is not quite the same as face-to-face meetings”. 

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