Meta Horizon OS

Meta opens Quest OS to third-party headset makers, taps Lenovo and Xbox as partners

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Meta Horizon OS

Image Credits: Meta

The mixed reality operating system that powers Meta Quest headsets can officially be used by third-party device makers, the company announced on Monday. Three major tech players — Asus, Lenovo and Microsoft’s Xbox — are the first companies to confirm they’ll be developing new devices that run the software.

Now called “Meta Horizon OS,” the open system allows developers to access technologies like eye, face, hand and body tracking and high-resolution passthrough, a popular mixed reality feature where users can still see their surroundings while wearing the headset. The company says all future headsets can connect via the Meta Quest app on iOS and Android devices.

Notably, Microsoft is teaming up with Meta to build a “limited-edition Meta Quest, inspired by Xbox,” according to the announcement. Asus and Lenovo, on the other hand, are building headsets designed for specific use cases. For instance, Asus is developing a headset dedicated to gaming whereas Lenovo wants its device to be for “productivity, learning, and entertainment.”

Meta Horizon OS comes at a time when the VR/AR headset wars between Meta, Apple and Sony continue to heat up. While the open operating system is certainly a strategic and interesting move for the company, the question remains if it will give Meta a leg up in the race or if the Quest-like headsets will even be popular.

Meta thinks it’s a good idea for students to wear Quest headsets in class

Andrew Witty, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group Inc., speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg)

UnitedHealthcare CEO says 'maybe a third' of US citizens were affected by recent hack

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Andrew Witty, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group Inc., speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg)

Image Credits: Al Drago/Bloomberg / Getty Images

Two months after hackers broke into Change Healthcare systems stealing and then encrypting company data, it’s still unclear how many Americans were impacted by the cyberattack.

Last month, Andrew Witty, the CEO of Change Healthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group, said that the stolen files include the personal health information of “a substantial proportion of people in America.”

On Wednesday, during a House hearing, when pushed to give a more definitive answer, Witty testified that the breach impacted “I think, maybe a third [of Americans] or somewhere of that level.”

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Witty said he was reluctant to give a more precise answer because the company is still investigating the breach and trying to figure out exactly how many people were affected.

UnitedHealth’s spokesperson Anthony Marusic did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Witty’s estimate.

During a hearing in the Senate earlier on Wednesday, Witty said that it will likely take “several months,” before the company can begin notifying victims of the data breach.

In a written statement filed by Witty ahead of the two hearings, the CEO wrote that “so far, we have not seen evidence of exfiltration of materials such as doctors’ charts or full medical histories among the data.”

According to Witty’s testimony, the hackers “used compromised credentials to remotely access a Change Healthcare Citrix portal,” which was not protected by multi-factor authentication, a basic cybersecurity measure that adds an extra step to log into accounts and systems.

Had that portal had multi-factor authentication enabled, the breach may not have happened. Several Senators grilled Witty on that failure, asking him whether UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare systems are now protected with multi-factor authentication.

During the Senate hearing, Witty said: “We have an enforced policy across the organization to have multi-factor authentication on all of our external systems, which is in place.”