Microsoft's 'mixed reality' headsets aren't ready for primetime

There's the promise of mixed reality. And then there's, well, the reality.

Microsoft's mystery Oct. 3 event proved to be an unveiling of sorts. A new $500 Samsung Windows Mixed Reality headset was announced, and the company revealed it had bought Altspace, a struggling virtual social network of dead-eyed avatars with disembodied hands. 

For the most part, however, this was Microsoft trying to double down on its new marketing category, that of mixed reality. The idea is that only Microsoft, with its top-of-class HoloLens tech, is capable of offering both augmented reality and virtual reality in the same transcendent device (one manufactured in various flavors by Microsoft partners). Read more...