XR Developer News - Top sources of XR news and insights

Pieter Siekerman

10 Sep 2024 — 8 min read

The VR Download by UploadVR

As this fall is looking to shape up as an extremely interesting one for XR, I thought it might be useful to share which sources I tend to keep a close eye on for XR-related news. Some of them developer-specific, others more general.

In my experience there's a definite difference in quality between what's available, so below I've listed the ones I see most consistently putting out good, useful content (and follow closely myself to write my monthly XR Developer News roundup). Anyone in the regular audience of this newsletter probably knows at least a few of them, but hopefully there are a few new discoveries in here for everyone.

Let me know if I missed any sources that really should be on the list! And feel free to subscribe to receive my monthly XR Developer News roundup, just to make sure you don't miss anything.

So, in no particular order:

The VR Download podcast by UploadVR (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts), generally on a weekly schedule. What makes it so great? David Heaney! One of the most well-informed voices in XR, with some real in depth knowledge and sharp analysis. Don't be scared off by the in-VR avatars, just listen audio-only because that works just as well.

While we're at it, UploadVR (rss) in general is one of the longest running XR news websites, and a good one to follow for the day to day happenings in the XR space.

Their main competitor I'd say is MIXED Reality News (rss), which has the same type of high frequency, high quality XR news. For the daily news, I might actually recommend MIXED even slightly above UploadVR, because they more often direct link to the original sources of information their articles are covering.

I would be remiss if I didn't include Antony Vitillo's The Ghost Howls blog (rss), which he also sends out as an email newsletter if you prefer that. While I don't always 100% agree with his analysis of or opinion on each topic, he's a consistent, dedicated figure in the XR industry. His weekly newsletter is truly solid and his dry humour often makes it an enjoyable read as well. Consider supporting his Patreon if you enjoy his content.

While we're talking about giants of the industry, Kent Bye and his Voices of VR podcast (Spotify, Apple Podcasts) are a must follow. With a massive 1400+ episodes under his belt spread over 10 years, he has covered pretty much everyone and everything in the XR field through longer interviews. Topics and focus differ a lot per episode, so it's a bit pick and choose to find the ones suited to your interest, but quite regularly there are real gems in there. If you like his content, consider supporting him through his Patreon as well.

Continuing on the topic of podcasts: The AR Show podcast (Spotify, Apple Podcasts) with Jason McDowall. Similar to Voices of VR, he does longer deep dive interviews with key figures in the XR space. The conversation often also cover interesting personal and entrepreneurial stories of his guest. The frequency is a bit lower than some of the other podcasts, but the 'wow that was a good episode' ratio is definitely up there with the best. And of course, consider supporting his Patreon.

The AR Show

The AR Showconsumer

Another great source of high quality, very interesting interviews is Gabriele Romagnoli. He's actually got two shows he's running, both great. XR AI Spotlight (which is also a newsletter) has a seriously impressive list of guests and great interviews for a show that has only been around for less than a year. It really deserves more attention, because the quality is top notch. His other show Reality Shifts (which he hosts with Meta's Anand Dass) is also quite strong.

Switching gears a bit to more technical, developer-focused content, Dilmer Valecillos can't be missed. With his YouTube channel he covers developing for many different XR platforms in great detail, in well produced videos. He's also developed some more comprehensive courses on his website Learn XR and has a Patreon which you can consider supporting.

In the area of XR Development, also be sure to keep an eye on the YouTube channel of XR Bootcamp, which tend to have good webinars. They also have a paid program you can consider, but the free YouTube content alone already has a few gems now and then.

If with everything listed above, you still haven't seen enough, consider browsing around the YouTube archive of Augmented World Expo (the mother of all XR conferences). They publish pretty much all of the talks of all of their conferences. We're talking about thousands of videos by now, a truly impressive treasure trove. It can be a bit hard to find the standout ones, but they are definitely in there, so it's worth looking.

Recently I've started following MetaRick's interview show, which is one to keep an eye on. Depending on whether the guest and topic interests you, worth checking out some of the episodes.

If you're into Reddit, check out r/augmentedreality, which is curated by Norman, who has been in the XR space for a long time and really knows his stuff.
The very deepest end of the pool is definitely Karl Guttag's KGOnTech blog. We're talking hardcode display and optics analysis here, so it's an acquired taste, but his fame is well deserved I think and you will not easily find a more knowledgeable person on that topic in the XR space.

KGOnTech

Karl Guttag On Technology

KGOnTechKarl Guttag

To close off, Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth has an often interesting podcast Boz To The Future (Spotify, Apple Podcasts). Not every episode is about XR, but those that are give very good insight into Meta's thinking about the topic. And more on a week to week basis, he holds frequent AMA session on his Instagram, which often contain good nuggets of information and insight as well.

Each month I try to round up all the interesting developments in the XR developer landscape. New hardware and software releases, events, interesting tooling, etc. And sometimes, like this time, I write up a special edition about a specific topic. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, for instance if I missed anything which definitely should be in the monthly round up next time.

Hope it is useful!