After successfully fighting off Magic Leap’s claim that it stole trade secrets, Nreal is finally able to launch its Light mixed reality glasses into the consumer market. Starting today, folks in Korea can pre-order the Light — locally rebranded as “U+ Real Glass” — as part of a mobile phone plan on the LG Uplus network, so long as you pick the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 or the LG Velvet as your handset. That way you can buy the Light at a subsidized price of 349,500 won (about $295). You can also purchase the glasses separately for 699,000 won (about $590) at an LG Uplus store from August 21st, if you’d rather use them with other phones.

Nreal

Since Nreal designed the Light with 5G smartphones in mind, this consumer kit lacks the Toast computing unit we saw in earlier demos. What do you gain, however, is a “VR Cover” that blocks out your view of the outside world, thus converting the Light into makeshift VR glasses. They won’t replace dedicated VR headsets given their 52-degree diagonal field of view (it’s the same figure for Microsoft’s enterprise-centric Hololens 2), while most VR headsets exceed 100 degrees here, but it’s still a nice bonus feature for when you want to immerse yourself into games or video.

The GMT is an international effort to create a telescope that delivers images 10 times clearer than those produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. When it’s up and running, the GMT will help scientists tackle some of the biggest questions, like are we alone in the universe? It will allow astronomers to collect more light than any telescope ever built and at the highest resolutions yet.

But achieving this is no simple task. The team broke ground in 2015, and the telescope isn’t expected to be complete until 2027. That’s partly because of the complexity of the mirrors. Each primary segment is curved to a precise shape and polished to within a wavelength of light — about one-millionth of an inch. And thanks to an intricate honeycomb mold, the finished glass is mostly hollow, making it lightweight and easier to cool.

While this second segment took seven years, the University of Arizona was able to significantly speed up the front surface polishing process. The GMT team hopes replicating the technique will help future segments get through production even faster.

BTS World, which launches on iOS and Android on June 26, gives players the chance to manage the chart-topping boy band from the very beginning. The game’s website indicates that at least some of the action will unfold like a visual novel, and a recent report from CNBC suggests other in-game tasks include finding the boys a proper dormitory to live in. That’s… not an easy feat when consider each member of the group has their own preferences. (One of them apparently wants to live close to a convenience store, which some of you will surely be able to relate to.)

Beyond these seemingly limited gameplay mechanics, players will also be able to access dozens of video clips of the septet, along with nearly 10,000 photos and a soundtrack crafted by the boys themselves. For now, though, it’s unclear how many of those goodies will be available to users right out of the gate — while developer Netmarble plans to release BTS World for free, the company’s fondness for in-app purchases will almost certainly restrict some of the goodies for paying customers.

Two rounds of competition will be held over the next five months to choose the Top 100 and Top 18 acts to advance to the next round based on the popularity of their videos and the judges’ selections. TikTok says five to ten acts will be crowned winners at the end of the season, with prizes including recording opportunities.

Spotlight builds on TikTok’s talent-finding program in China, according to TechCrunch, where the app claims to have secured deals with over 800 labels, including Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group (both present this time round). Existing A-list acts like BTS and Blackpink also use the app to promote their music through viral dance challenges. Meanwhile, TikTok’s deals with record labels have helped it to secure a library of tracks that users can add to their videos.

Never one to ignore a trend, Facebook has followed suit with its own record label deals in recent years and launched music features for its main platform and Instagram. There were rumblings that Facebook was planning to launch a talent contest of its own but that’s yet to materialize. These types of digital auditions aren’t exactly new in the K-pop world — leading Korean pop culture site Soompi launched its Rising Legends competition back in 2016 — but they should nonetheless appeal to TikTok’s base of budding musicians. And if Spotlight is a success, it could end up being exported to the west in the future.