Rudderless HTC builds a “Metaverse” smartphone with NFTs - Ars Technica

HTC says this phone will somehow help you "enter the metaverse," as "the phone to carry you into the future." The metaverse is the latest tech buzzword companies have been hyping up.

HTC's latest VR goggles, the Vive Flow, use an Android phone as the controller and can show the phone screen inside the VR environment.

This phone comes with that Vive Flow controller app, but you can install it on any Android phone that supports miracast and get the same features.

Presumably the buzzword gimmicks are meant as a distraction from the fact that the HTC Desire 22 Pro is a generic-looking mid-range phone.

Now we've got the Metaverse phone, and by the way, the company has already signaled its next fling will be with augmented reality?

We always ask the same questions of this smartphone-buzzword gimmick: How does this make the phone better.

To the extent that these phones actually do anything related to their marketing buzzwords, the integration is usually just a piece of included software—an app that you could just as easily install on a better phone from a serious manufacturer.

It's the same story for this metaverse phone, which is just preinstalled with the available-to-anyone HTC Vive app.

Oh, by the way, we've got one more buzzword for you: NFTs, which this phone also has, of course.