The fight to get you fit in AR

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Good morning, and welcome to Protocol Next Up. This week, we're getting in shape with a look at VR and AR fitness, and revealing the first details about Syng's upcoming Cell Alpha speaker.
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FitXR CEO Sam Cole used to go to a typical muscle gym in his native London, where he'd be one of the many guys with headphones, trying as best as he could to block out the outside world. "It was a pretty dull and uninspiring place," Cole recalled during a recent conversation with Protocol.
The sad state of fitness was one of Cole's inspirations for turning to augmented and virtual reality some four years ago, which ultimately led to the launch of BoxVR in early 2019. BoxVR features a gamified training routine for boxing that has people duck obstacles and hit glowing orbs instead of human opponents. The game also features music as well as actual instructors giving you advice on your stance and cheering you on as you bounce between jabs.
FitXR isn't the only company focused on VR workouts. Immersive media startup Within launched Supernatural as a kind of Peloton subscription service for VR fitness earlier this year, and Facebook recently added a rudimentary fitness tracker called Oculus Move to the Quest to let people know how many calories they burned in apps like FitXR and Beat Saber. Cole believes that there are plenty of consumers out there who wouldn't necessarily buy a VR headset for gaming, but could give it another look for fitness. "We're only just scratching the surface of that," he said.
All the while, FitXR is also getting ready for the next big thing. Facebook has publicly said that it plans to release a first pair of AR-enhanced glasses next year, and Apple is rumored to be not far behind. Cole told me he's excited about the prospect of using AR for fitness, from gyms to at-home workouts. For instance, AR glasses could eventually allow runners to compete against AR representations of previous runs, something he likened to chasing a ghost version of yourself.
"Some of our industry's biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed [...] thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service." —"Tenet" director Christopher Nolan, commenting on the Warner Bros. decision to release its entire 2021 movie slate on HBO Max the same day the films debut in theaters.
"Any time you're going to change a model, I know it creates a degree of noise." —AT&T CEO John Stankey, responding to Nolan's criticism.
"Quibi, imagined as a kind of Uber for television, turned out to be the Juicero of show business." —New York Times film critic A.O. Scott with the final word on Quibi. Time to move on, folks.
The lockdowns this year have transformed our homes into offices, schools, concert halls, movie theaters and gyms. Our homes are working harder for us, but so is our technology. The device that is working the hardest is perhaps the TV—becoming our lifeline to a far more virtual world.
Los Angeles-based audio hardware startup Syng is getting ready to take orders for its first product: The company has quietly started a presale campaign for Cell Alpha, a spatial audio speaker slated to ship in the first quarter of 2021. Syng is selling each Cell Alpha for $1,500, according to a presale page discovered by Protocol. The company is advising prospective customers that they will be able to get the most immersive sound with three or more Cell speakers. (Buyers of multiple speakers are set to receive a small discount.)
Syng didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Syng was co-founded by longtime Apple designer Christopher Stringer as well as key HomePod engineer Afrooz Family and DC Shoes co-founder Damon Way. Its staff includes more than a dozen former Apple engineers and designers, and Nest co-founder Matthew Rogers sits on the company's board. The company's existence was first revealed in May 2020, and Protocol first reported key details about Syng's technology last week.
Syng's first speaker, Cell Alpha, is quite literally a big bet on spatial audio:
Syng's spatial audio technology has been described as "revolutionary" and capable of producing sound that's "indistinguishable from reality." But the $1,500 price tag will all but guarantee that these kinds of audio innovations are only available to a select few, and caught even well-meaning industry insiders by surprise. Former Sonos CEO John MacFarlane, who had previously praised Syng for its willingness to innovate, turned skeptical about its chances when he heard of the high price, tweeting:
Still, Cell Alpha may not be the company's only product for long. The Financial Times reported earlier this year that Syng was looking to license its technology to other companies, and Syng's patent application mentioned a number of other form factors, including a possible integration into lightbulb sockets.
A version of this story previously appeared on Protocol.
Call me a traditionalist, but I still believe in Santa … having a sweet tooth for cookies. So when one of my co-workers found a video for "Santa Eggs" on Twitter this week, I was taken aback. Hard-boiled egg whites combined with peppermint ice cream, whip cream, sprinkles and candy canes? Who wrote this recipe, Buddy the Elf?
Which got me thinking: What if someone actually put together recipes for the diabetes-inducing concoctions dished up by Will Ferrel's character in the famous Christmas movie? The internet did not disappoint. There are numerous sites with step-by-step instructions for Buddy the Elf's Breakfast Spaghetti. Oddly enough, none of these recipes seem to have gotten reviewed by a single reader. However, the chef putting together the Myrecipes.com version was brave enough to try it on camera, leading to the verdict: "I can't even believe it, I thought I was gonna throw up." That's the holiday spirit right there! But I'm still gonna stick with cookies.
The lockdowns this year have transformed our homes into offices, schools, concert halls, movie theaters and gyms. Our homes are working harder for us, but so is our technology. The device that is working the hardest is perhaps the TV—becoming our lifeline to a far more virtual world.
Thanks for reading — see you next week!