Quest VR glasses back on sale in Germany – but watchdog has eye on Meta

Germany's Federal Cartel Office is claiming a win after Meta unhooked the VR glasses formerly known as Oculus from a Facebook login. Users can now sign into a separate "Meta" account after the original requirement to connect the VR gear to a Facebook login prompted an official competition complaint against the WhatsApp, …

[Plest]

Why VR goggles?

You see Android and Apple have put lots of ways to help people block poor old Zuck's spying on their phones, especially Apple, so now old Zuck needs to have his own device in order to spy on people and so he's touting the idea that you need to wear a tech gimp mask 17 hours a day for work and play, just 'cos poor old Zuck has been told by everyone to take his spy network cum bullshit factory website and fuck off!

The quicker Zuck and Musk are drinking cut price shots in a bar moaning about losing it all, the better this planet and humanity will be!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Why VR goggles?

I agree. Without the accompanying cock ring and ball gag the goggles are useless.

[wolfetone]

Re: Why VR goggles?

The goggles can be of use to you, depending on where you are when the money shot happens.

[chivo243]

Re: Why VR goggles?

Why VR goggles?

MuthurZucker is taking a page out of Steve Job's Apple's book. Get in on the profits at every stage of the ecosystem. That's where they keep the trillion dollar bills...

[MJI]

Re: Why VR goggles?

More like Why Occulus.

Plenty of alternatives out there.

[Adrian 4]

Separation ?

And they trust Meta to keep things separate ?

Like when Whatsapp was going to be unconnected to Facebook, or Facebook's app was expected not to go wriggling around the phone to see what it could steal ?

[Dan 55]

Re: Separation ?

It was only a competition complaint, not a privacy complaint. There's no chance whatsoever of FB keeping things separate, it's what they do.

That said they're doing this worldwide, so FB must have some research which shows that people are staying away because of the Facebook login.

[Little Mouse]

Re: "the growing VR market"

Is it growing? There was clearly a speculative "boom" in VR a handful of years ago, but what has been the direction of the market since then?

(I'm asking about actual customer numbers and spend here. The corporate wanking of billion$ on a R&D vanity project that will never see the light of day does not count as a "growing market" in my book)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "the growing VR market"

There are practical uses but living in the metaverse is not one of them. Therefore Meta's mega-investment will probably not be returned.

[Anonymous Coward]

Go for it

All Meta will learn from my ghost FB / Meta account that I log in with, is that I've been trying very hard to figure out how to get VR porn working.

[Oglethorpe]

Re: Go for it

Don't forget a detailed look inside your home, how you voluntarily and involuntarily react to advertisements and everything you say. It makes a smart speaker look like a telephone survey.

[Justthefacts]

Re: Go for it

Well, turns out that Alexa loses money, and bucketloads of it. Not as in, Echo is hardware loss leader, but as in “the added value of being able to sell stuff in context in your home”….is financially negative.

I think you are giving too much credit to this BS. In an ironic twist of fate, I rather think it is the privacy campaigners who have *caused* megacorps to bring these devices to market.

Amid all the wailing and gnashing of teeth “we will become consumer zombies forced to buy stuff”, the companies thought “ok, well sounds good to me”. Whereas the practicality is that it’s about as much a threat to consumer integrity as the hula hoop craze, Pogs, cabbage patch kids, digital Casio watches that played Mario, or any other playground shiny.

Facebook would never have invested tens of billions on Metaverse if they had realised it was just Pokémon Go. But it was privacy shroud wavers that convinced Facebooks advertisers to commit to a few % trial spend on it at launch,which is all you need to sign the project approval.

Sorry, if you’re looking for someone to blame, it’s actually *you* for putting about the myth that if it worked both technically and regulatory, it would be wild money-making for advertisers.

But equally, don’t worry, a year after they are bought, the goggles will all be sitting in the cupboard in the downstairs loo. So really nothing to get your skirts in a tizz

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Go for it

Well if there's one place that's crying out for a bit of alternate reality and BTL, it's my downstairs bog. Great server cooling to be had in the cistern too.

[karlkarl]

Ah I got interested then but it seems there is still lifespan limiting DRM present in that hardware?

Damn; do consumers not realize that the servers *will* shut down long before their hardware breaks? All the hype around VR in businesses; how does the business justify that fact?

[anonymous boring coward]

I have Quest 2. Fun for car racing simulation.

Probably useless for anything work related. And socialising? Don't think so.