While Amazon had a huge revenue surge over the past year thanks to lockdown and the resulting rise of online shopping, the company’s recent earnings report shows that it might be slowing. Net sales increased 15 percent to $110.8 billion in the third quarter, which is a step down from the previous quarter’s 27 percent growth rate.

At the same time, Amazon also warns that global supply chain issues, labor shortages and increased shipping costs could incur “several billion dollars of additional costs” in the next quarter. Amazon shares dropped 3.8 percent in extended trading as a result.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company wanted to minimize the impact of these issues on the customers and selling partners this holiday season. “It’ll be expensive for us in the short term, but it’s the right prioritization for our customers and partners,” he said in a press release. This also marks Jassy’s first quarter as Amazon’s CEO since Jeff Bezos stepped down earlier this year.

Of course, Amazon is still making a lot of money; it’s the fourth consecutive quarter it’s earned over $100 billion. Even if online sales have dipped, Amazon Web Services continues to be a huge money maker for the company, with a 39 percent revenue increase to $16.1 billion.

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Apple has made a lot of substantial tweaks to its product line up the last two years or so, and it appears to be making the right moves here. The company just reported its results for the quarter ending in September, and Apple made 29 percent more revenue than a year ago — that's $83.4 billion, for those keeping track.

As usual, the iPhone led the way. iPhone sales made up almost 47 percent of Apple's total revenue, and iPhone revenue of $38.9 billion was up 47 percent year over year. But it's worth remembering that last year, the iPhone 12 series was delayed and didn't go on sale until October (or November, in the case of the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max). This year, all four iPhone 13 models went on sale simultaneously, in mid-September. While that's only a few weeks of the quarter, it likely helped fuel that massive growth.

The iPad, too, had a strong quarter. While revenue of $8.25 billion makes it the smallest of Apple's five main product categories (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Services, and "Wearables, Home, and Accessories") the iPad category grew 21 percent year over year. The Mac, on the other hand, was flat — revenue of $9.2 billion was only up two percent — but that was just enough for Apple to say it was a new all-time high for the Mac. 

Apple's Services business has been growing steadily for years, so it's not surprising that this quarter's revenue of $18.3 billion was an all-time high, as well. But for the Mac, it's interesting to see it hit that high-water mark without new MacBook Pro models on the market to help move the needle. Now that the new MacBook Pro has been announced, it'll be worth seeing how it affects Mac revenue overall next quarter.

The wearables, home, and accessories group also grew in strong but not spectacular fashion (up 12 percent). But just like with the Mac, next quarter could be huge for that segment — the new Apple Watch Series 7 and third-generation AirPods just went on sale and it's easy to imagine those products making a big impact. 

As usual, Apple is holding a call with investors at 5PM ET, and we'll be listening in to see if CEO Tim Cook has anything of note to share this quarter.

You won't have to buy a Lucid Air if you want a car with more immersive Dolby Atmos. Mercedes will equip its cars with Atmos audio on all models that use both its latest MBUX interface (introduced with the latest S-Class) and an optional Burmester 3D or 4D sound system. Whether or not you'll driving, you'll hear compatible music in a vertically enhanced sound field — it might not sound like a "live concert" as Mercedes claims, but it should be a step up from the usual stereo playback.

The 4D system includes 31 speakers, six of which create the 3D effect from above. Another four "near-ear" speakers sit in the front seats, and all four seats have two sound transducers (aka exciters) each. Throw in 1750W of total power (including an 18.5-liter subwoofer) and you'll likely be happy regardless of the audio processing.

Just don't plan on buying an Atmos-equipped car right away. The format will first be available in the Mercedes-Maybach in summer 2022, and the S-Class soon after. Other models will follow, but you might not want to count on buying an A-Class with Atmos any time soon.

The Oculus name may be no more, but there is at least one piece of good news in Facebook's decision to rebrand itself as Meta. You won't need a Facebook account to use its Quest headsets. That tidbit of information was nestled in a post from soon-to-be Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth detailing what the rebranding means for the company's various products.    

"We’re working on new ways to log into Quest that won’t require a Facebook account, landing sometime next year," Bosworth said. "This is one of our highest priority areas of work internally."

Meta announced in August 2020 it would eventually require all Oculus owners to log into their devices with a Facebook account. At the time, the company said people it would start prompting people to merge their Oculus and Facebook accounts starting in October 2020. Under that plan, Oculus owners would have had until January 1st, 2023 to continue using their headsets without a Facebook account. After that point, Meta said the devices would continue working, but warned some games and apps would not. Unsurprisingly, the Oculus community immediately hated the decision. "What the fuck," said one of the more tame comments an Oculus owner posted in the comments section of the blog post detailing the policy change.  

Earlier today, Facebook announced it was rebranding itself as Meta. When CEO Mark Zuckerberg first shared the news during the company's Connect event, it wasn't clear how broadly it planned to adopt the name across its product portfolio. But now we have a much better idea thanks to a Facebook post from incoming CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth. For one, Meta is retiring the Oculus brand.    

Beginning in early 2022, the Oculus Quest will instead be known as the Meta Quest. Similarly, the Oculus App will be called Meta Quest App moving forward. According to Bosworth, the intention is "to make clear" to consumers Quest is a Meta product. "We all have a strong attachment to the Oculus brand, and this was a very difficult decision to make," Bosworth said. "While we’re retiring the name, I can assure you that the original Oculus vision remains deeply embedded in how Meta will continue to drive mass adoption for VR today." 

As part of the rebranding, Meta is also backpedaling on its unpopular decision to require Facebook logins to use Oculus headsets. Bosworth said the company is working on new ways to allow people to log into the platform, and that will roll out sometime next year. "This is one of our highest priority areas of work internally," he added. Additionally, the name will filter to other products, including Facebook Portal. Moving forward, the company plans to call its smart display Meta Portal.   

The possibility that the Oculus name would disappear is likely something fans have had in the back of their minds since Facebook acquired the company in 2014. For better and worse, the company that once existed is no more. It's now a cog in Meta's ambitions to create a metaverse.  

Facebook, the social network, will no longer define the future of Facebook, the company that will now be known as Meta. Facebook Inc. is changing the name in order to distinguish its beleaguered social network, which has an increasingly poor reputation around the globe, from the company that is pinning its future on the promise of a “metaverse.”

"Our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future," Zuckerberg said. "From now on, we're going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook first."

Zuckerberg announced the new name during a virtual (meta-virtual?) keynote for the company’s Facebook Connect conference. Under its new arrangement, Facebook and its “family of apps” will be a division of the larger Meta company.

The restructuring bears some similarities to when Google restructured itself into Alphabet, the holding company that now operates Google, along with its “other bets” like DeepMind and Nest. Facebook has already said it plans to separate Facebook Reality Labs, its AR and VR group, from the rest of the company when reporting its financial performance.

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Facebook is positioning the name as more reflective of its future ambitions to evolve from social network to metaverse company. Zuckerberg still has yet to clearly define exactly what being a “metaverse company” means for its main platform and users, but augmented and virtual reality are central to the vision. The company has already shown off an early version of one project, called Horizon Workrooms, that allows people to conduct meetings in VR. The company also previewed new "Horizon Home" and "Horizon Venues" experiences. And, earlier this month, the company announced plans to hire 10,000 new workers in Europe in order to build out its metaverse.

The name change also comes at one of the most precarious moments in the company’s history. The social network is reeling from the fallout of the “Facebook Papers,” a trove of internal documents collected by a former employee turned whistleblower. The documents have been the basis for a series of complaints to the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the source of more than a dozen reports about the company’s failings to stem the tide of misinformation, hate speech and other harms caused by the platform.

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Facebook is working on a new high-end VR headset codenamed Project Cambria. The company teased the device during its recent Connect conference on Thursday. It plans to release the headset sometime next year. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it will be a separate "high-end" product from the company's $299 Quest 2 headset. It will also cost more than that device.

Cambria will include capabilities that currently aren't possible on other VR headsets. New sensors in the device will allow your virtual avatar to maintain eye contact and reflect your facial expressions. The company says that's something that will allow people you're interacting with virtually to get a better sense of how you're feeling. Another focus of the headset will be mixed-reality experiences. With the help of new sensors and reconstruction algorithms, Facebook claims Cambria will have the capability to represent objects in the physical world with a sense of depth and perspective.

Cambria will also feature new optics that the company said will increase visual fidelity. Facebook promised to share more details about the headset next year. In the meantime, it mentioned that third-party developers are already working on experiences for the device.

Blade & Sorcery has been a strong showcase for VR, but it has a drawback: its PC-only nature has meant occasionally tripping over wires while you fight your fantasy battles. Thankfully, that won't be an issue for long. Warpfrog has unveiledBlade & Sorcery: Nomad, a stand-alone game coming to the Oculus Quest 2 on November 4th for $20. The basic concept remains the same — it's a "sandbox" brawler with immersive swordplay and magic — but the developers are taking advantage of the freedom that comes with a stand-alone headset.

The familiar Sandbox mode is now fine-tuned for room-scale VR. There's also a Dungeons mode that challenges you to fight through "semi-procedurally generated" chambers. In 2022, there will also be a mode with progression that rewards frequent play.

This probably won't get you to spring for a Quest 2 by itself. It might tip the balance if you were already curious about titles like GTA: San Andreas, though, and it may serve as a good introduction to what VR can do. If nothing else, it shows what's possible when you aren't tied to a computer.

One of the most-loved entries in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series is coming to VR. On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a port of 2004's GTA: San Andreas is in development for the company's Quest 2 VR headset. "This new version of what I think is one of the greatest games ever made will offer players an entirely new way to experience this iconic open world in virtual reality," Zuckerberg said during the event.

Zuckerberg didn't go on to say when Quest 2 owners can expect to play the game, and the blog post the company published after the event didn't provide many other details either. "This is a project many years in the making, and we can’t wait to show you more of it," the company said. Whatever form the final product takes, it's likely to look a lot like the Resident Evil 4 remake Facebook and Capcom released last week.  

Oculus Quest 2 users will see a new living space: Horizon Home, a more social version of the virtual living room that pops up when you slip on your headset. Instead of just being a pretty and sterile virtual environment, you'll be able to invite friends to hang out in your Horizon Home space. The idea is that you'll be able to do things together, like dive into VR videos or play multiplayer games. Eventually, you'll be able to build and customize your Horizon Home space too. It's all part of the company's drive to focus on the metaverse, something Mark Zuckerberg talked about at length during today's Facebook Connect conference.

For the first time, Facebook is also opening the Oculus Store to 2D apps like Slack and Dropbox. You'll be able to access them from within Horizon Home, so you won't have to take off your headset to keep tabs on your work chat. And of course, there will be apps for Facebook and Instagram as well.