Meta adviser and ex-Oculus CTO John Carmack expresses heavy skepticism at pushing for avatar fidelity, focusing on the Quest Pro to drive VR adoption, and more (Kyle Orland/Ars Technica)

New York Times:
Internal note: Meta adviser and ex-Oculus CTO John Carmack leaves the company after more than eight years, saying Meta is operating at “half the effectiveness”  —  John Carmack, who was chief technology officer of Oculus, which Meta bought, is departing the company.

Steve Haske / Ars Technica:
A history of consumer VR since 2012, from the first Oculus developer kit and the 2016 hype cycle to Quest 2, and what mainstream success for VR could look like  —  VR hasn’t taken over the world, but that doesn’t mean it has failed.  —  Six years ago, consumer virtual reality seemed set to be the next major tech breakthrough.

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
macOS Ventura review: Stage Manager has some good ideas and runs much better on the Mac than on the iPad, the new System Settings app is inconsistent, and more  —  A pleasantly surprising new multitasking UI and app redesigns define macOS 13.  —  If you asked me to tell you all the most exciting things …

Parikshit Mishra / CoinDesk:
Charles Schwab, Citadel, Fidelity, and others announce cryptocurrency exchange EDX Markets, that will leverage tech from US stock market MEMX  —  The exchange will be led by Jamil Nazarali, a former senior executive at trading giant Citadel Securities.  —  Financial heavyweights including …

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
What to expect from Apple’s Far Out event: iPhone 14 lineup, including Pro models with a revamped notch, new AirPods Pro, a rugged Apple Watch Pro, and more  —  Apple’s biggest event of the year is just a few days away, with the iPhone 14, Apple Watch Pro and new AirPods on tap.

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Meta unveils the $1,499 Quest Pro headset, offering eye and face tracking and color passthrough video for mixed reality, shipping on October 25 in 22 countries  —  Meta has finally announced the Meta Quest Pro: a $1,499 virtual reality headset it’s been teasing for the past year.