With tech companies like Meta—previously known as Facebook—going full steam ahead on augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), or what some call the Metaverse, the need for high-speed mobile processors capable of running AR/VR applications is obvious. Enter Qualcomm’s XR2 processor, the first mobile AR/VR chip with 5G broadband connectivity, which enables high-speed AR/VR processing even on the go. Already being used in AR/VR headsets from Meta, HTC and others, the XR2 is not just fast-tracking technology lets users move freely around a space, meaning headsets using the chip don’t need cumbersome wires that can interrupt the experience. If the Metaverse is indeed our future, tech like the XR2 will help get us there. —Patrick Lucas Austin
More Must-Read Stories From TIME
- How to Help Victims of the Texas School Shooting
- TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2022
- What the Buffalo Tragedy Has to Do With the Effort to Overturn Roe
- Column: The U.S. Failed Miserably on COVID-19. Canada Shows It Didn't Have to Be That Way
- N.Y. Will Soon Require Businesses to Post Salaries in Job Listings. Here's What Happened When Colorado Did It
- The 46 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2022
- ‘We Are in a Moment of Reckoning.’ Amanda Nguyen on Taking the Fight for Sexual Violence Survivors to the U.N.