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Qualcomm's secret project with Samsung and Google is mixed reality smart glasses, and I'm glad

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon confirmed with CNBC that the joint venture is now for a pair of glasses powered by your smartphone.

At Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the company showed me a reference design by Goertek -- one that it shares with hardware manufacturers as inspiration when building their own wearables -- and the device looked promising. Having tested bulkier VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, Qualcomm's reference design was much more compact, practical, and, critically, natural feeling. If Qualcomm, Samsung, and Google can nail down the display quality, optics, and audio performance of the upcoming mixed-reality smart glasses, then I wouldn't be surprised if it draws a similar, if not larger, crowd as Apple did with the Vision Pro.

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