Qanta Computer Inc., a manufacturing partner of Apple, has a licensing agreement with Lumus to produce AR lenses. Qanta led the $45 million investment round last year for Lumus, a company based in Israel that designs displays for AR glasses. Under the new agreement, Qanta will manufacture the lenses for Lumus, and also have the option to produce them for other technology companies. Qanta has other clients that include HP and Acer, but the company gets almost 60 percent of its revenue from Apple. — BLOOMBERG

Facebook has created an accelerator program for VR in India. The India Innovation Hub will work in partnership with T-Hub, a VR incubator started by the Telangana government. Facebook will work with ten VR startups and give them access to the company's VR Innovation lab as a part of the six-month program. Facebook also announced a School of Innovation program, which will give ten teams of engineering students the ability to build a new product idea using VR. — ECONOMIC TIMES

High Fidelity's new Avatar Island VR experience includes a blockchain-based digital commerce system. The developer is led by Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life with his former company Linden Labs. There are 300 items on Avatar Island that users can purchase using the blockchain system, which has a wallet and marketplace interface. People submit their creations to be certified on High Fidelity's Digital Asset Registry and then they are available for purchase using High Fidelity’s blockchain currency, HFC. — VENTUREBEAT

HTC Vive has confirmed that the Valve studio is still working on new VR titles. Valve's CEO Gabe Newell revealed last February the the company was creating three new games, but there have been no updates until now. In a recent interview, Vive's general manager Dan O'Brien said that Valve was "committed" to delivering the games but would not comment on the games. In the meantime Valve introduced its new Knuckles controllers and announced it is working on custom lenses. — VRFOCUS

The company Object Theory has released a new Prism app that allows users to collaborate in mixed reality. Object Theory was founded by Raven Zachary and Michael Hoffman, a former developer from Microsoft, and they were one of the first teams to join Microsoft's Mixed Reality Partner Program. The new Prism app has two demo experiences and holographic avatars that can interact with each other and examine and annotate 3D objects and environments. — VRSCOUT

Starbucks' new Reserve Roastery in Shanghai includes an in-store AR experience. The roastery is a lavish 30,000 square-foot retail space that was built in partnership with Chinese tech company Alibaba. Customers use a smartphone app and point at the store's features to get more information. The app also has a digital menu and unlocks virtual badges. Starbucks has previously experimented with AR on its cups. China is Starbucks' fastest growing market with more than 3,000 stores (600 in Shanghai alone) and a new store opening every 15 hours in the country. — GEEKWIRE