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Alongside the official reveal of the Quest 3, Meta has announced when this year's edition of Connect will take place. The event, which focuses on Meta's developments in the augmented and virtual reality spaces, is set for September 27th and 28th, according to its website.

Connect is taking place a little earlier than usual this year. The 2022 edition happened in October. More details about Connect 2023 are coming soon, but one thing's for sure: we'll learn much more about the Quest 3 in late September.

Meta's next virtual reality headset will be available sometime this fall and it'll start at $500. The company says the Quest 3 is its "most powerful headset yet." It will offer full-color passthrough to support mixed reality experiences. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the latest model will have twice the graphics performance of the Quest 2. The Quest 3 comes with redesigned Touch Plus controllers and hand-tracking support out of the gate. The company also noted that it's reducing the prices of the Quest 2 headsets on June 4th.

Uber drivers won't just have easy access to Tesla cars when they want to switch to EVs. Ford and Uber are launching an expanded Drive pilot program that provides a flexible Mustang Mach-E lease to rideshare drivers in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Operators pick leases in one- to four-month increments, and get their Mach-E within two weeks. After that, they use a Ford Drive app to handle payments and maintenance. Ford, meanwhile, buys fleets of the electric crossovers from dealerships and uses them for service.

A lease costs $199 per week with 500 included miles, and $249 per week with 1,000 miles. Drivers pay 20 cents for every additional mile beyond what their plan offers. That may seem expensive, but Ford is counting on the no-hassle exits and renewals as a draw. Uber workers can lease only when they have enough driving time to justify the expense.

Ford and Uber initially tested Drive in San Diego last year with over 150 Mustang Mach-E cars in the fleet. The companies didn't say how successful the initial run was, but they note that California is Uber's best market for EV demand. Nearly 10 percent of all passenger miles were completed in EVs as of late 2022, Ford says.

To qualify, drivers need to have at least a 4.85-star rating and over 150 trips. The Mustang on offer is a no-frills rear-wheel drive model with 247 miles of range, although it does have CoPilot360 driver aids.

The lease option is in line with Uber's goal of becoming a zero-emissions service in North America and Europe by 2030. This theoretically makes EVs more viable for drivers who can't commit to a purchase or multi-year lease. Uber also sweetens the proposition with an extra $1 per ride (up to $4,000 per year) and the option of serving premium Comfort Electric passengers. Not that Uber has much choice. California will require that most ride hailing cars are electric by 2030, while New York City wants a wholesale switch by the same year.

Ford, meanwhile, benefits by getting the Mach-E into the hands of rideshare drivers who would otherwise rent a Tesla EV through Hertz. This boosts exposure for the brand for passengers, too, and helps with Ford's bid to establish itself as a general mobility company. The challenge is simply competing against Tesla's sheer volume. The Hertz deal puts up to 50,000 Tesla EVs on American roads, and Ford's Drive pilot won't compete at its current scale.

Arturia's effects collection just became a better value, particularly if you're looking to recreate classic sounds. The company has released an FX Collection 4 pack that adds four effects, including a brand new Rotary CLS-222 kit (above) that modernizes the Leslie rotary speaker emulator. It's best known as the sound used by guitarists like George Harrison and David Gilmour, and has also been used by jazz organists.

FX Collection 4 otherwise adds effects you previously had to buy separately, including the Dist Coldfire distortion plugin, the Korg-derived Filter MS-20 and the upgraded Rev LX-24 '80s reverb box. There are tweaks to several tools, including 40 new presets for Efx Fragments and new functionality for the Bus Force and Rev Spring-636 effects. You might also be happy to see support for NKS VS3 and Apple Silicon AAX.

There's now a total of 30 effects, including the SansAmp pedal-inspired OpAmp-21, Dist Tube-Culture (a riff on the legendary Thermionic Culture Vulture distortion unit) and the tape emulation tool Tape Mello-Fi. While this won't cover every possible need, there's a good chance you can either reproduce a familiar sound or make an ordinary instrument almost unrecognizable.

The company is offering FX Collection 4 for $399. That's not particularly expensive as far as plugin bundles go. You might not need to buy much else to complete a track. We'd add that Arturia runs frequent sales, so it's worth watching out for potential discounts.

It didn't take long for me to fall in love with Street Fighter 6. Maybe it was during a particularly epic Drive Gauge parry, which filled my computer screen with explosive color, or while playing through the Yakuza-esque World Tour, as I picked fights with randos on the street. At some point, I felt like I was home again, combo-ing into Dragon Punches and wreaking havoc with Chun Li's endless arrays of lethal kicks. Street Fighter 6 proves that Street Fighter is back – it's a game primed to welcome new fans and bring old ones back into the fold.

When I talk about old fans, I'm referring to myself. I remember the sense of awe I felt when I first encountered a Street Fighter 2 cabinet at my local Burger King (my hometown was sadly devoid of arcades). The sprites were bigger than I'd ever seen and gorgeously animated. The characters were all distinct and filled with personality. And the controls opened my eyes to the possibilities beyond mere platformers.

There's a reason Street Fighter's special moves have lived on: They're easy to learn, but they require practice to pull off consistently. Get good enough, though, and they start to feel like an extension of yourself. If you're a hadouken master, you may as well have lightning crackling around your fingers.

Capcom

In an effort to open up to new audiences, Street Fighter 6 takes a remarkable new approach to special moves. In addition to the classic controls fans love, there's also a "Modern" scheme, which dramatically simplifies button inputs, as well as "Dynamic" controls, which basically let you mash buttons to have the game's AI take the wheel. The modern mode replaces the six separate punch and kick buttons with three buttons for light, medium and heavy attacks. There's also a standalone special move button that activates different attacks depending on how you're holding the directional pad. This change gives you four functional buttons right on the face of your gamepad, rather than shoving some attack buttons to shoulder buttons like the classic controls.

While Street Fighter's hardcore fans may decry these options as a way to water down the series, I see them as essential to its survival. The previous entry, Street Fighter V, was widely criticized for catering to e-sports players and other diehards. It took years for a traditional arcade mode to appear, but by then many had already written the game off. Street Fighter 6, on the other hand, is a direct appeal to casual fans and the Street Fighter-curious.

That's also evident in the new World Tour mode, which involves designing your own fighter to go on a series of quests throughout an NYC-like environment. It's basically a Street Fighter RPG crossed with a Yakuza game: You'll earn experience points and level up, and you can also challenge people on the street to impromptu matches. The results are almost always ridiculous — I never got tired of seeing bored businessmen throw down — but crucially, it's also genuinely fun.

Early on, World Tour also serves as a sort of interactive training mode for new players. It helps you understand the modern fighting mode, as well as some of the finer details of street fighting. You're also coached along the way by Luke, the last character introduced in Street Fighter V, and the ostensible main character for this game. As a big brother figure, he's cocky yet supportive, a helpful combination for new players.

Even before you get into a match, Street Fighter 6 oozes style. The opening menus are a combination of neon city lights and street art, the character select theme is a catchy (if cringey) hip hop tune, and the music in every stage got my subwoofer thumping. Street Fighter 6 feels like a party that everyone's invited to, the vibes are just spot on.

Maybe that's why I had a hard time peeling myself away to deal with the real world, or to play other titles like Tears of the Kingdom. The arcade mode is breezy enough to complete in under 10 minutes. By default it includes four fighting matches and one classic vehicle destruction mini-game, and the actual gameplay feels more addictive than ever. As usual, playing through an arcade session unlocks background details for characters, but this time you also earn classic Street Fighter art, most of which hit me right in my peak ‘90s nostalgia heart.

On top of the usual super-responsive Street Fighter mechanics, there's also a Drive Gauge that unlocks a wealth of new options. You can use it to launch into attacks that throw your opponents against the wall (leaving them vulnerable to some satisfying follow-up combos), parry attacks, throw out a reversal after blocking and rush across the screen. The drive gauge, which regenerates over time and with your own attacks, can also be used to give your special moves more bite. All of the drive mechanics are relatively easy to pull off, they typically just involve hitting two buttons, but learning how to deploy them will take some time.

Super Arts, the super-powered attacks that require more complex button inputs, also make a return. (Otherwise, Street Fighter players would probably just revolt again.) They rely on a separate super gauge, and in addition to dealing tons of damage, they can be used to blow away your competitor's drive gauge.

I swapped between an Xbox Elite 2 controller and a Hori arcade stick while playing Street Fighter 6 on my PC, and both inputs felt incredibly smooth. As someone raised on SNES fighting games, I tend to favor gamepads, but I also found myself enjoying the arcade stick experience more than usual. The combination of Street Fighter 6's visuals, thumping soundtrack and overall style made me feel like I was in an actual arcade, and having a fight stick on my desk just enhanced that sensation.

In addition to Luke, Street Fighter 6 adds new characters like the Judo expert/supermodel Manon (what a concept!), and the dapper older fighter JP. It usually takes me a while to warm up to new characters, especially when I haven't had much time with the classic Street Fighter roster recently, but all of the new additions bring something to the franchise. A few are also nods to earlier characters: Kimberly is a student of the former Final Fight ninja Guy; Lily is a member of T. Hawke's Thunderfoot tribe; and Jamie takes inspiration from Yun and Yang.

As for online play, I was only able to try Street Fighter 6's multiplayer for a few short sessions, but all of my matches felt smooth and lag-free. Of course, the experience will likely be different once hordes of desperate players show up. A new dedicated Battle Hub also serves as an online space for interacting with other players using your World Tour avatar. You can queue up for matches at arcade cabinets, play older games like Final Fight and Street Fighter 2, and even jump into matches with other player's avatars. I enjoyed the social element of Battle Hub, and it made multiplayer matches far more appealing than just queuing up against faceless players.

Street Fighter 6's many modes and fighting options may feel overwhelming to new players, but it's ultimately a celebration of everything that makes Street Fighter great. Franchises like Mortal Kombat have their extreme gore and (surprisingly) robust storytelling to rely on. The joy of Capcom's series has always been around hanging out with your friends, perfecting your combos and special moves, and learning the intricacies of your favorite characters. Street Fighter 6 is a reminder that Street Fighter is for everyone, and that's a beautiful thing to behold.

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed the Meta Quest 3, the company's long-rumored, next-gen virtual reality headset. The Meta CEO showed off the device for the first time a few hours before the latest Meta Quest Games Showcase and just ahead of Apple's WWDC.

As with the Quest Pro, the Quest 3 supports mixed reality and offers full-color passthrough. This enables users to see a color version of the physical space around them via the external cameras. The headset will be able to blend augmented reality elements into the outside world. 

It's hardly a surprise that Meta has a Quest 3 on the way. Earlier this week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said he'd had hands-on time with a Quest 3 prototype. Gurman wrote that the headset “feels far lighter and thinner” than the previous model and that it had a sturdier head strap. Unlike the Quest Pro, though, the Quest 3 may not have face or eye-tracking features.

Even if it weren't for all the reports that an updated headset would arrive this year, Meta is continuing to invest in VR games and experiences — it has sunk tens of billions of dollars into building its vision of the metaverse over the last couple of years. It's hard to imagine the company doing that without having a successor to the three-year-old Quest 2 in the works.

In another year, Zuckerberg might have waited until Meta Connect, which typically happens in October, to reveal the Quest 3. However, Meta may be trying to steal some of Apple's thunder. The latter is widely expected to reveal a premium mixed-reality headset at WWDC next week. As such, Meta may soon have a major competitor in the mixed reality space.

This story is developing, please refresh for additional updates.

AMC Entertainment’s streaming service is migrating its users to Vudu. The companies announced today that Vudu is “the official new streaming platform for consumers of AMC Theatres on Demand.”

AMC launched its on-demand streaming service in 2019, and its popularity surged during pandemic-era lockdowns. In 2020, as moviegoers largely avoided theaters, the company partnered with Universal to allow the studio’s films to jump to premium video-on-demand (PVOD) platforms — including AMC’s service — only 17 days after premiering in theaters. However, as viewing habits have readjusted in the last three years, AMC has now decided to offload the service to a frequent partner instead.

Vudu says AMC Theatres On Demand customers will have their content libraries automatically upgraded “to the highest quality format available on Vudu, including 4K Ultra HD.” In addition, new Vudu accounts moving from AMC’s service will get 15 percent off every purchase for their first month on the platform.

Fandango Media, a joint venture between NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, currently owns Vudu. Walmart bought the platform in 2010 and ran it for a decade before selling it to Fandango Media in 2020 for an undisclosed amount. Its new owner then rolled FandangoNow, its previous standalone streaming service, into the platform in 2021, keeping the name Vudu for the resulting product.

The companies didn’t reveal any business details of the handoff. “As we continue to evolve our business and remain focused on Making Movies Better by enhancing the theatrical experience, we’re even more excited to expand our relationship with a trusted partner, who will ensure a continued preeminent experience for those consumers who are streaming their post-theatrical movies at home,” said Nikkole Denson-Randolph, AMC Senior VP of Content Strategy & Inclusive Programming.

You might’ve seen password managers in the news recently because of the breach affecting LastPass customers. We need to trust that all of our logins, banking credentials and other sensitive information has been neatly locked away, only accessible by us when we need it. But most tech is fallible, and the benefits of unique, strong passwords across your online presence outweigh the risks. Password managers remain a great way to securely store all of the credentials you need on a regular basis. We tested out nine of the best password managers available now to help you choose the right one for your needs.

How do password managers work?

Think of password managers like virtual safe deposit boxes. They hold your valuables, in this case usually online credentials, in a section of the vault only accessible to you by security key or a master password. Most of these services have autofill features that make it convenient to log in to any site without needing to remember every password you have, and they keep your credit card information close for impulse purchases.

But given that passwords are one of the top ways to keep your online identity secure, the real value of password managers is staying safe online. “It's just not possible without a password manager to have unique, long and hard-to-guess passwords,” Florian Schaub, an associate professor of information and of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, said.

Common guidance states that passwords should be unique, with the longest number of characters allowed and uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. This is the exact opposite of using the same password everywhere, with minor variations depending on a site’s requirements. Think of how many sites you have credentials on — it’s an impossible task to remember it all without somewhere to store them safely (no, a sticky note on your desk won’t cut it). Password managers are more readily accessible and offer the benefit of filling in those long passwords for you.

Are password managers safe?

It seems counterintuitive to store all your sensitive information in one place. One hack could mean you lose it all to an attacker and struggle for months or even years to rebuild your online presence, not to mention you may have to cancel credit cards and other accounts. But most experts in the field agree that password managers are a generally secure and safe way to keep track of your data, and the benefits of strong, complex passwords outweigh the possible risks.

The mechanics of keeping those passwords safe differs slightly from provider to provider. Generally, you have a lengthy, complex “master password” that safeguards the rest of your information. In some cases, you might also get a “security key” to enter when you log in to new devices. This is a random string of letters, numbers and symbols that the company will send you at sign up. Only you know this key, and because it’s stored locally on your device or printed out on paper, it’s harder for hackers to find.

These multiple layers of security make it difficult for an attacker to get into your vault even if your password manager provider experiences a breach. But the company should also follow a few security basics. A “zero-knowledge” policy means that the company keeps none of your data on file, so in the event of an attack, there’s nothing for hackers to find. Regular pentests and security audits keep the company up to par on best practices, and other efforts like bug bounty programs or hosting on an open source website encourage constant vigilance for security flaws. Most password managers now also offer some level of encryption falling under the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES 256-bit is the strongest, because there are the most number of possible combinations, but AES 128-bit or 192-bit are still good.

Who are password managers for?

Given their universal benefit, pretty much everyone could use a password manager. They’re not just for the tech-savvy people or businesses anymore because so much sensitive information ends up online behind passwords, from our bank accounts to our Netflix watch history.

That’s the other perk of password managers: safe password sharing. Families, friends or roommates can use them to safely access joint accounts. Texting a password to someone isn’t secure, and you can help your family break the habit by starting to use one yourself, Lisa Plaggemier, executive director at National Cyber Security Alliance, said. Streaming is the obvious use case, but consider the shared bills, file storage and other sites you share access with the people around you as well.

Are password managers worth it?

You likely already use a password manager, even if you wouldn’t think to call it that. Most phones and web browsers include a log of saved credentials on the device, like the “passwords” keychain in the settings of an iPhone. That means you’ve probably seen the benefits of not having to memorize passwords or even type them out already.

While that’s a great way in, the downfall of these built-in options are that they tend to be device specific. If you rely on an Apple password manager, for example, that works if you’re totally in the Apple ecosystem — but you become limited once you get an Android tablet, Lujo Bauer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and of computer science, at Carnegie Mellon University, said. If you use different devices for work and personal use and want a secure way to share passwords with others, or just don’t want to be tied to one brand forever, a third-party password manager is usually worth it.

How we tested

We tested password managers by downloading each of the nine contenders on iPhone, Android, Safari, Chrome and Firefox. That helped us better understand what platforms each manager was available on, and see how support differs across operating systems and browsers.

As we got set up with each, we took note of how they iterated on the basic features of autofill and password generators. Nearly all password managers have these features, but some place limits on how much you can store while others give more control over creating easy-to-type yet complex passwords. From there, we looked at extra features like data-breach monitoring to understand which managers offered the most for your money.

Finally, we reviewed publicly available information about security specs for each. This includes LastPass, which more experts are shying away from recommending after the recent breach. For the sake of this review, we’ve decided not to recommend LastPass at this time as fallout from the breach still comes to light (The company disclosed a second incident earlier this year where an unauthorized attack accessed the company’s cloud storage, including sensitive data).

Password managers we tested

• 1Password

• LastPass

• Bitwarden

• Dashlane

• Keeper

• NordPass

• Enpass

• Norton password manager

• LogMeOnce

Best password manager: 1Password

Many security experts trust 1Password with their private information and, after testing it out, it’s clear why. The service includes industry standard encryption, a “secret key” that only you know on top of your master password, a zero-knowledge policy that means it keeps no data, and other security features like frequent audits and a bug bounty program.

Plus, it has a pretty intuitive feel. A tutorial at download helps you import passwords from other managers onto 1Password so that you don’t feel like you’re starting over from scratch. It also clearly rates the strength of each password and has an “open and fill” option in the vault so that you can get into your desired site even more quickly. We also liked the option to scan a set up code to easily connect your account to your mobile devices without too much tedious typing.

At $3 per month, the individual subscription comes with unlimited passwords, items and one gigabyte of document storage for your vault. It also lets you share passwords, credit card information and other saved credentials. If you upgrade to the family plan for $5 each month, you’ll get to invite up to five people (plus more for $1 each per month) to be a part of the vault.

• Number of tiers: 4

• Pricing: $3/month for Individual, $5/month for Families, $20/month for Teams Starter Pack, $8/month per user for Business

Best free password manager: Bitwarden

Bitwarden’s free plan includes unlimited passwords on an unlimited number of devices, which is more than we’ve seen from some of its competitors. There are drawbacks like you can only share vault items with one other user, but we think that’s a fair tradeoff.

Bitwarden is based on open-source code, meaning anyone on GitHub can audit it, which is a good measure of security. On a personal level, it includes security audits of your information, like a data breach report, that can keep you in the know about when your passwords have been leaked and when it's time to change them. Plus, it’s widely available across the platforms we tested with a level of customization, options to access your vault and more.

Bitwarden may be the best free password manager, but it does have a paid version and we do think it’s worth it. At $10 annually for individuals or $40 for families, you unlock encrypted file storage, emergency access, unlimited sharing and more. But the free version comes with the basics that can get anyone set up on password management easily.

• Number of tiers: 3

• Pricing: Free, $3/month per user for Teams Organization, $5/month per user for Enterprise Organization

Best cross-platform availability: NordPass

Across password managers we tested, cross-platform availability was relatively similar. Most are widely available across web browsers and different operating systems, including our other top picks on this list. But we wanted to give a nod to NordPass here because of how easy the service makes it to access your vault from any platform.

NordPass has a free option with unlimited passwords and syncs across devices. A $2-per-month premium subscription keeps you logged in when switching devices, comes with security notifications and allows for item sharing. A family subscription comes with six premium accounts and only costs $4 per month. This makes it a pretty good budget option as well. Besides the pairing code to connect accounts, NordPass is a pretty standard password manager. Scanning a code gets me from my laptop to mobile device to work computer super easily. If you’re constantly switching devices and those extra few seconds save your sanity, it’s worth considering.

• Number of tiers: 3

• Pricing: Free, $2/per month for Premium, $4/month for Family

Best for shared access: Dashlane

Dashlane has four subscription options: A free user gets access to one device with unlimited passwords; an advanced user pays $3 per month to get upgraded to unlimited devices and dark web monitoring; for $5 per month, a premium user also gets VPN access and an $7.49-per-month family plan includes access for up to 10 people.

It met all the criteria we looked for, but with a clear emphasis on sharing credentials. Dashlane highlights “secure sharing” starting at its free level, which is a feature that some competitors keep behind a paywall. Access for up to 10 members in a family plan is one of the bigger plans we’ve seen as well. While we were testing it, password sharing seemed front of mind with a tab dedicated to it in Dashlane’s browser extension. Arguably the biggest caveat here, though, is lack of Linux support.

• Number of tiers: 4

• Pricing: Free, $3/month for Advanced, $5/month for Premium, $7/month for Friends and Family

BeReal was Apple's iPhone app of the year for 2022, but buzz around the social media app (that forces you to post daily selfies) has died down of late. Now, the French company has introduced "RealChat" private messaging, allowing it to boast a feature found on most major social media apps, TechCrunch has reported. 

The function is one of the most requested, the company said. You can only message another user if you're friends with them on the platform. For a message to be deleted, both parties have to do so — deleting your own message won't delete it from a friend's app. The chat system will reportedly feature blocking and reporting features. 

BeReal has an interesting and somewhat messy approach to social media. It sends notifications at a different time each day, prompting you to quickly share photos taken with your phone's front and rear cameras simultaneously. You have a two-minute window to do so, forcing you to share spontaneous moments without spending extra time to make sure the photos are perfect. Friends are notified when you're late or revise a post.

Earlier this year, BeReal refuted an analytics report that engagement on the app had fallen significantly, saying it still had 20 million daily active users. The company admitted that while it's been busy behind the scenes, it hasn't released many new features of late, so "people have been guessing what we've been up to and how things are going, and not always accurately. 

Over the past couple of months, though it has launched an integration with Spotify showing what you're listening to when you post, along with the Bonus BeReal feature that lets you post more than one BeReal if you post on time. As with other social media apps, the RealChat feature looks like a way to boost time spent on the app and allow friends to comment privately on posts.

Google has listed a bunch of features rolling out to the Android ecosystem starting today, June 1st, and one of them can help new readers improve their diction and vocabulary. The new reading practice tool for phones and tablets is available with thousands of compatible children's books on Play Books. It challenges kids or people who've only started to learn English to read sentences with the mic on. The buttons that show up when they tap help allow them to quickly look up the definition of words or to hear the sentence be read out loud for guidance. It's now available in the English language for users in the US, as long as they have a device running Android 8 and above. 

The tech giant is also rolling out new widgets that show entertainment suggestions for Google TV, stock trading information from Google Finance and curated stories from Google News. These widgets will be available for everyone with devices running Android 6 and later in all supported languages. Meanwhile, for those tired of the usual emoji options, there's a new tool called "Emoji Kitchen." It lets users fuse and remix emoji available on Gboard — so long as they have a compatible combination — and then turn them into stickers they can send. 

Users with devices running WearOS 2 now have new Spotify tiles and watchface complications to choose from. Spotify DJ, available in US, Canada, UK and Ireland for premium subscribers, can play a personalized selection of tracks or stream episodes from the user's favorite podcasts the moment they press play on the new smartwatch tile. WearOS 3.0 users can now also add a tile for a single to-do list from Google Notes. Those living in Washington, DC and the San Francisco Bay Area are getting something extra: They now have the option to load their SmartTrip and Clipper cards to their Google Wallet, so they can tap and pay to ride local transportation using their smartwatches. 

Aside from all these features, which have only started rolling out, Google has also announced that its One subscription service's dark web report is fully available in the US. Subscribers will be able to run scans to check if their Gmail addresses have been exposed in the dark web. They can also check if any sensitive information, such as their social security numbers, have been compromised. Plus, they can choose to start automatically monitoring the dark web for their personal information, so they'd get notified as soon as any of their details get posted. Dark web monitoring is only available to Google One customers in the US at the moment, but Google plans to expand its availability to more than 20 countries in the coming months. 

NVIDIA has introduced a new AI model called Neuralangelo that can create 3D replicas of objects from 2D videos, whether they're classic sculptures or run-of-the-mill trucks and buildings. Neuralangelo works by selecting several frames showing the subject from different angles in a 2D video, so it can a get a clear picture of its depth, size and shape. It then creates a rough 3D representation of the object before optimizing it to mimic the details of the real thing. 

According to the company, the new model has adopted the technology from its old one, the Instant NeRF, to be able to accurately capture the finer details of whatever the user wants to recreate in 3D. Those include its texture, patterns and color variations. NVIDIA says Neuralangelo's ability to capture tricky textures, such as the roughness of roof shingles and the smoothness of marble, "significantly surpasses prior methods." It's apparently even good enough to create usable virtual objects from videos taken by smartphones, which could give creators an easy way to generate 3D recreations for their projects. It's a quick solution, too: NVIDIA Research told us the tool can create 3D scenes within two hours. 

Ming-Yu Liu, co-author of the paper on Neuralangelo, said it will "eventually enable developers to import detailed objects — whether small statues or massive buildings — into virtual environments for video games or industrial digital twins." In the video below showing what the technology can do, NVIDIA said it can create large-scale vistas from drone footage, making it easier for developers to recreate real locations in their games. It has a lot of other potential applications, as well, including in robotics, virtual reality experiences, architecture and, of course, art.

The company's research arm will present Neuralangelo at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition event that's taking place on June 18th through the 22nd in Vancouver.