Technologies

Best VR Headsets of 2022

Guess what? The Quest 2 still remains the best.

VR still isn’t an essential experience for anyone, but it can be a lot of fun and surprisingly useful at times. The hardware, however, is currently in transition. Sony’s $550 PSVR 2, which requires a PlayStation 5, arrives Feb. 22 but is available for preorder. There’s been a wave of new VR headsets lately, including the $1,500 Meta Quest Pro and the not-available-in-the-US Pico 4. Apple’s rumored headset should be on its way in 2023, along with the Quest 3. And yet, right now, the 2-year-old Meta Quest 2 is still by far the best choice. Right now, a couple of our favorite VR headsets also have Black Friday sales: the Quest 2 and HP Reverb G2.

The cost of a new VR headset might be going up these days, and the $400 Quest 2 jumped up in price earlier this year (it used to be $299, but is back on sale for $350 in a limited Black Friday bundle). Even so, it still offers a completely wireless experience, with access to a great library of fantastic games like Resident Evil 4 and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. It can also be connected to a PC to play titles like Half-Life: Alyx, or run a variety of PC VR applications. Meta keeps improving its software over time with added extras.

Anyone in the VR/AR industry looking to explore next-gen face tracking or mixed reality might consider the Quest Pro, but its high price means it won’t make sense for anyone else right now. Keep in mind, Meta is releasing the Quest 3 next year, at a price expected to be similar to the Quest 2 and possibly with some features that are on the Quest Pro. (The Pico 4 gives some hints of how the Quest 3 could be upgraded.) You might want to wait for it, or for the other VR headsets on the horizon.

Apple is expected to have some form of advanced VR/AR headset next year that could also be super expensive. Sony’s PlayStation VR 2, also coming in 2023, requires a PlayStation 5 but has fantastic new controllers and could boast unique games. And in the meantime, we may see more experimental, phone-connected headsets like the HTC Vive Flow start to pop up.

VR in 2022 remains an impressive but still limited proposition. Thanks to tremendous advancements in the visuals, tracking and overall performance of VR hardware, the best VR headset options have become more realistic and immersive. More advanced metaverse platforms and social worlds have given VR owners more to explore, too. Even so, VR still hasn’t become a necessary product for most people.

VR’s strongest applications tend to be gaming and fitness. For fitness, a standalone headset like the Quest 2 is practically mandatory, to avoid wire tangles and make sure you can move around. (The Quest 2 also has a fitness tracker app and syncs with Apple Health.)

Will you want a headset that works with your phone? Qualcomm’s been making headway on a wave of VR and AR headsets that plug right into phones, but at the moment the software for these devices is a work in progress. Neither Google nor Apple really supports VR at a seamless system level for phones yet, meaning devices have to figure out awkward solutions.

If you’re a PC gamer,a PC-connected VR headset still offers the most versatile collection of software for an immersive VR experience, and also lets you use that headset for creative and business tools. Note that a more powerful VR systemwill still be largely tethered to a desktop or laptop and may require external sensors.

And what about console gaming? The aging PlayStation VRstill exists, but you’re better off waiting for the PSVR 2 if you have a PS5.

We update this best VR headset list periodically, but note that prices are subject to change.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME

5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC

7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO

8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER

9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS

2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN

3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA

4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It

This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.

The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.

The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.

How and where to see Quadrantids

Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.

For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.

As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.

To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.

The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 24, #1649

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 24, No. 1,649.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little tricky, with a double letter that could confuse players. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.