Technologies

Samsung and Google Combine Forces in New Mixed Reality Partnership

Here’s what we think this new tech will bring.

This story is part of Samsung Event, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Samsung’s most popular products.

Samsung made a lot of impressive announcements during its Galaxy S23 launch event last week. But an out-of-the-blue partnership with Qualcomm and Google on an upcoming mixed-reality platform certainly caught fans off guard. The new “XR” technology is an umbrella term for the intersection of AR, VR and mixed reality, or MR.

In a year that’ll see a new PlayStation VR headset, a new HTC Vive VR headset, a new Meta VR headset and likely a first-ever Apple VR headset, how will this Samsung product (or products) end up changing the game, and when could it arrive?

Samsung’s on-stage announcement was incredibly vague, with Google’s Hiroshi Lockheimer, head of Android, and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon promising new hardware and software that’ll bring new experiences. But Samsung’s and Google’s histories in VR (and AR), along with Qualcomm’s major presence in the field, can point to some answers. So, too, can the last major Google and Samsung partnership two years ago, on smartwatches.

In 2021, Google’s partnership with Samsung began a rethinking of its smartwatch lineup, which also led to a Pixel Watch last fall. It’s likely that this new Samsung-Google-Qualcomm partnership could play out in a similar way in AR and VR. In this instance, though, both Google and Samsung will be making long-overdue returns to the VR/AR spaces they’ve both stepped away from for several years.

Here’s why Samsung and Google entering the field makes sense, and is even sorely needed.

VR and AR needs to work with phones again

VR goggles used to work with phones, half a decade ago. Back in the days of the Samsung Gear VR and Google’s Daydream View, you’d drop a phone into a cheap set of goggles that would use the device as a VR screen. It was a fun novelty back then, and greatly expanded access, but also had its limits. In 2023, oddly, VR headsets barely work with phones at all.

It’s annoying because most of us live our lives on our phones. VR, meanwhile, tends to stand alone. The Meta Quest 2 has slowly developed hooks into phones via its pairing app, but doesn’t have nearly enough cross-device intelligence.

Qualcomm has been trying to solve this idea already on its own. Via an early wave of AR glasses and certain Android phones, the company has been developing tools to bridge apps and experiences, and also have glasses directly connected to phones.

That’s a lot easier to do with official Android support. Google would enable that, and this Samsung-Qualcomm-Google partnership seems like a key to exploring how that would work with new VR headsets, or AR glasses, or both.

Right now, VR is the future. Then, AR

No one’s perfected AR glasses yet, although the hardware pieces are slowly coming together. In the meantime, standalone VR headsets using built-in cameras to show “passthrough” video of the real world, with virtual reality experiences overlaid, is the fastest solution to AR. It’s also called “mixed reality,” and it’s what the Meta Quest Pro does in some apps. Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset should work the same way. HTC’s Vive XR Elite coming this February? Same thing.

I’d expect Samsung and Google to start with developing a similar lightweight VR headset with mixed reality features first, using similar Qualcomm chips as other hardware (or a next-gen chipset). After that, AR glasses.

Qualcomm has already promised a new generation of low-power wireless AR glasses that will work with next-gen phones over the next three years, using a new AR2 Gen 1 chipset announced last fall. Samsung’s Google partnership might also involve exploring how to build phones and glasses that could work together in the years to come.

Google’s already dipping its toes into assistive AR glasses research, and has a decade of experience in AR and VR before that. Samsung has all of its experience with the Gear VR and working with Oculus. Between the two, along with Qualcomm, it seems like there’s plenty of team wisdom.

A new OS (think smartwatches)

Evolving Android into a new software experience for VR and AR is the biggest challenge and opportunity, and it would make a ton of sense for Samsung to lean on Google here. VR headsets of the last five years have tried to go it alone with dedicated app stores, much like the Meta Quest. But the whole spirit of the idea of “the metaverse” is cross-device compatibility. And, in theory, easy app support.

Samsung shifted strategy on its watches by adopting Google’s WearOS as part of a partnership announced two years ago, aiming to bring Samsung’s watches closer to Google’s Android OS. But Samsung also helped Google think about higher-end health and hardware features to advance its aging smartwatch lineup. Which brings us to…

A road to Pixel hardware?

At some point, you’d imagine, Google will try to make its own AR/VR hardware again. The team behind Google’s Daydream, led by Clay Bavor, has shifted focus into Google Labs, working on more experimental projects like Project Starline (and those research-based assistive AR glasses).

It seems highly likely that the road to Google’s future XR hardware will run through Samsung in much the same way as smartwatches ahead of the Pixel Watch. The Galaxy Watch 4 became the first experiment in Wear OS 3, and then Google entered the waters over a year later with a Fitbit-infused Pixel Watch.

AR and VR headsets are significantly more complicated. Maybe Google waits a bit longer on a Pixel device. Maybe, as both Google’s Lockheimer and Qualcomm’s Amon seemed to suggest, there will be a variety of forms and possibilities, including some that aren’t headsets at all. Remember: Google’s idea of “ambient computing” involves immersive tech from every angle, including stuff that isn’t worn.

What year will this emerge?

That’s the hard question here. It seems likely that Google will dive into this partnership more at its I/O developer conference that usually happens in May, which would be right before Apple would likely go over its VR headset at WWDC. We haven’t seen any hint of any actual hardware yet. It’s not impossible that a standalone VR headset in the spirit of the Meta Quest could materialize sometime sooner than later, but it would be a huge surprise if anything arrived in 2023.

When Samsung and Google announced the Wear OS 3 partnership in 2021, it came with a teaser photo of the watch itself and a promise of hardware by year’s end. No such statements were made or shown this time and 2024 would seem like the earliest likely launch date.

And at any rate, 2023 is looking like a turbulent year for the greater XR world. While plenty of VR hardware is coming, it’s unclear who can actually afford it. For Samsung and Google, the best bet might be to wait out this crowded year and figure out how to make improved, possibly more affordable hardware in 2024.

Technologies

25 years after 9/11, the U.S. starts rolling back travel restrictions, from liquids to gate access

Years after 9/11, the U.S. government is walking back some security screenings as threats and technology evolve.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks reshaped how we travel, from how we pack our toiletries to what we wear when we fly. Airport checkpoints for almost a quarter century for most travelers have meant shoes off. Limitations on liquids. And no tearful, cinematic gateside farewells or joyful welcomes.

But 25 years later, the U.S. government is starting to ease some of the restrictions, which include measures that were tied to other attacks attempted in the months after 9/11.

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security, which was formed after the attacks, said flyers can leave their shoes on at airports, a major change for travelers going through regular security.

That rule was introduced after Richard Reid, who became known as the “shoe bomber,” tried and failed to ignite explosive material in his shoe on a Paris-to-Miami flight in December 2001.

Rules for liquids are officially unchanged. Those regulations for liquids in carry-ons stem from 2006, when British officials foiled a plot to bring liquid explosives on flights.

New scanners installed at some airport checkpoints allow travelers to leave liquids in their bags before going through screening, though availability varies by airport and checkpoint. Limits on liquid container size remain in effect.

“The technologies today are better than they were a long time ago and some of the technology that’s been deployed is better than it was five years ago,” said Jeff Price, a professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science and an airport management consultant.

Another change since that era is the number of options customers have for airport screening. The Transportation Security Administration, for $76.75 covering five years, offers PreCheck, in which travelers undergo prescreening services and can use expedited screening lanes.

“If you’ve got a few bucks, yeah, you can reduce the amount of screening and jump the line,” Price said. “The other side of that is when you do become a member of PreCheck, you give up a lot more of your personal data to the government, and that’s the trade-off.”

There’s also a private option with Clear, with a shorter identification check line, in exchange for prescreened biometric data.

Gate greetings return

The new changes are going beyond security.

TSA this week launched a free program allowing eligible trusted travelers, including TSA PreCheck members, to apply for access to secure gate areas without a boarding pass.

The program is called “Gateside,” and the agency has rolled it out at 13 U.S. airports, including Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport.

The area beyond TSA screening has been heavily restricted since 9/11. In launching the program, the agency said PreCheck members who use the program can “meet family members at their gate, join a friend on a long layover for lunch or dinner, visit airport dining and shopping locations, or greet service members returning from deployment.”

Participants must apply online one to three days in advance and receive approval before entering through security.

Privatization attempt

Some of the tweaks to security have been more rocky.

The TSA late last month scrapped a program it called TSA Gold+ that would provide privatized security at certain airports.

The new head of TSA, David Cummins, who took the top role in early August, said that a new screening partnership program will “replace TSA Gold+ to better harness the role of the private sector in delivering a safer, more secure, and more efficient aviation system.”

TSA didn’t respond to requests for further comment.

Tampa International Airport in Florida had reviewed the program starting in May, in part because it could shield the airport from the impact of government shutdowns, airport Chief Operating Officer John Tiliacos told reporters last month. Those shutdowns left TSA officers without regular paychecks for months, and staffing shortages led to long lines at airports around the country. The chance to add new technology was also a draw.

Tampa decided not to move forward with the program, and TSA announced its replacement shortly after. Tampa’s Tiliacos told reporters last month “we weren’t quite satisfied that we were getting all of the answers to our questions regarding the technology” and that drove the airport’s decision to opt out.

Evolving threats

While some rules travelers have lived with for decades might be fading, the aviation sector is still dealing with changing threats.

“You have AI. You’ve got cybersecurity issues that continue to pop up. Drones are a major issue,” said Keith Jeffries, vice president of aviation security company K2 Security Screening Group, who is retired from the TSA and was the agency’s security director at Los Angeles International Airport. “It’s the role of security and protecting, especially the transportation sector, it’s getting broader, and other technologies are trying to keep up.”

As security technology evolves, so does the energy of potential attackers to overcome whatever obstacle they have and send their message.

Deterrents are important, but Jeffries said: “There is no such thing as the perfect security mousetrap. It doesn’t exist.”

Technologies

Houthis reportedly advance to key Red Sea island, further threatening crucial oil choke point

The advance raises the threat to shipping near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a waterway that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden to global markets.

The Iran-backed Houthis reportedly advanced to Yemen’s strategic Perim Island on Friday, delivering a major boost to the militant group’s push to take control of one of the world’s most important shipping choke points.

The capture of Perim Island, which was reported by several news agencies, citing multiple Yemeni government sources, comes just one day after the Houthis seized Yemen’s port city of Mokha on the Red Sea coast. CNBC could not independently confirm the report.

The rapid ground offensive is seen as a severe setback to Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni forces it backs and puts Iran and its proxies on course to exercise control over two critically important oil choke points on either side of the Arabian Peninsula: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz.

Perim Island is a small and rocky area of land that divides the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a waterway that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and to global markets.

There are concerns that the Houthis’ advance toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could have significant ramifications for global trade, particularly if the militant group ratchets up threats or attacks on Red Sea shipping.

The Houthi advance prompted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to personally press President Donald Trump for U.S. military intervention, MS NOW reported later Friday, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

The crown prince spoke with Trump twice Thursday and urged him to strike the Iranian-backed group as it closed in on the Bab el-Mandeb. Trump declined, saying the U.S. does not plan to widen its regional military campaign to include the Houthis, according to the person, who was granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the conversations. Axios first reported the calls.

A senior administration official told CNBC the U.S. remains focused on protecting core national security interests, including freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, “while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security challenges.”

The official added that the U.S. is “in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia.”

The capture of Mokha marked a “major blow” to Saudi Arabia as it raises the possibility of the group exerting a tighter grip on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to Hamish Kinnear, principal Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

Mokha is situated about 75 kilometers (46 miles) north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

“The Houthis were already threatening Saudi shipping from previous positions, but their capture of Mocha opens up the possibility of further advances towards the Bab el-Mandeb coastline and a tighter grip on the chokepoint,” Kinnear said in a research note.

As the war continues, Kinnear said both Tehran and Washington believe time is on their side, making a new truce unlikely for now.

“Oil and gas prices, and more specifically refined products such as diesel, will continue to tick upwards while that remains the case – even if US convoys and Strait of Hormuz export alternatives cushion the price impact,” Kinnear said.

The strategic importance of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has grown significantly since the start of the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran in late February, with the waterway emerging as an alternative route for crude moving toward Asia.

What next for oil prices?

Oil prices traded sharply lower on Friday, but both major benchmarks could still end the week above $100 per barrel for the first time since mid-May.

International benchmark Brent crude

The resilience of the oil market is being tested by a clearer recognition of the mounting threat to regional supply, strategists at ING said, with energy market participants seen repricing both the duration and severity of the conflict.

Even as flows continue through the Strait of Hormuz, ING’s strategists said flows remain well below prewar levels, underlining how fragile the situation has become.

“Saudi energy infrastructure and crude oil exports from the Red Sea are increasingly at risk, with the Houthis in Yemen targeting Saudi Arabia,” ING’s Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a research note published Friday.

“As the Houthis have taken control of the Red Sea port of Mokha in Yemen, recent events increase the threat to shipping around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait,” they added.

— Luke Fountain contributed to this report.

Technologies

Wall Street firm believes the AI stock market boom is ‘nearing an end.’ Here’s why

Stretched earnings expectations, extreme concentration and surging equity issuance point to growing bubble risks.

A range of equity market bubble indicators show that while the S & P 500 ‘s rally has further to run this year, its medium-term prospects look poor given how frothy the market has become, according to Capital Economics. “Most indicators suggest the AI equity boom is nearing an end,” Capital Economics’ senior market economist James Reilly said Thursday in a note. Capital has been more bullish than most on the stock market since mid-2023, reflecting a view that AI will be a transformative technology. Its year end-2026 S & P 500 forecast has consistently been above consensus. But the firm has also maintained that the AI-driven rally is a bubble that will eventually burst. To assess and spot a late-stage market bubble, Reilly looks at eight indicators including valuations, earnings, index concentration, equity issuance and foreign interest in U.S. equities. Some of those measures are already at or near levels that preceded previous stock market peaks. The analysis shows that while market variables such as earnings expectations look consistent with a market top, others such as volatility and leverage look slightly less alarming. Earnings stand out as the biggest warning sign. Expectations for S & P 500 earnings growth are around levels seen only at the peak of the dot-com bubble, while long-term EPS growth forecasts have surged to a record high. According to Reilly, the heavy concentration of this expected growth in the tech sector means that any signs of weakness in the tech firms’ earnings will weigh heavily on the index. Other indicators are also flashing warning signs. Index concentration is around dot-com-era extremes, net equity issuance has turned positive and foreign ownership of U.S. stocks is at a record high. Reilly said another wave of IPOs and share sales could be particularly significant, since similar issuance booms have historically coincided with market peaks. “On past form, this suggests that the end of the bubble is just months away, rather than years,” he said. Measures of leverage are not yet alarming compared to other factors, though the analyst warns that they are heading in a “concerning direction.” While volatility metrics look consistent with a mid -stage bubble, Reilly notes that constituent -level volatility isn’t as extreme as it was near the end of the dotcom boom. “While we continue to think that the S & P 500 will rally from around 7,650 now to 8,250 by end-2026 , we ultimately forecast it to fall back to 6,500 by end -2027,” he wrote. Those assumptions would equate to 8% upside this year and a 21% slide in 2027.

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