Oculus Rift VR headset pre-orders start later this year, shipping in Q1 2016

Nearly three years after Oculus took to Kickstarter to fund its first virtual reality kit, the Facebook-owned company is finally getting ready to sell its VR products to the general public. Oculus has just announced that pre-orders for the Oculus Rift will begin sometime later this year, with orders shipping out to consumers sometime in Q1 2016.

In the announcement post, Oculus wasn’t exactly clear as to whether or not users will need to use a separate device to power the Rift. It’s entirely possible that the Rift will require some other power source that plugs into the headset, similar to Samsung’s Gear VR headset, which requires either a Galaxy Note 4, S6 or S6 Edge to run. There is mention of a “fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed specifically for virtual reality” in the announcement, though details aren’t exactly clear at the moment. The company says it will reveal hardware, software, input and gaming information in the weeks to come, so we’ll have to wait to find out for sure.

As for what users will experience with the headset, Oculus explains:

The Oculus Rift builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences, as well as a highly refined industrial design, and updated ergonomics for a more natural fit.

If you’re a developer who would like to build your own virtual reality applications for the Rift, head on over to the Oculus Developer Center for more information.

Deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 specs spotted

MediaTek has been putting increasing pressure on the mobile SoC market leaders lately, and newly leaked details about a high-end Helio X20 SoC could point to the company’s biggest challenger yet. According to the leak, MediaTek is working on a Helio X20 SoC that will feature 10 CPU cores.

The ‘deca-core’ design is arranged in a tri-cluster big.LITTLE setup. There are two high performance, more efficient Cortex-A72 cores clocked at around 2.4GHz combined with eight low power Cortex A53 cores configured in two further parts. The eight A53s are split up into four clocked at 2GHz and four clocked at just 1.4GHz, each of which can presumably be allocated tasks for the best energy efficiency.

You wouldn’t usually associate a deca-core CPU design with mobile, but the SoC also features a new ARM Malit-T800 MP4 GPU clocked at 700MHz, supports displays up to 2560×1600, Cat-6 LTE connectivity and integrated Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. There is also mention of 4K video hardware decode, slow-motion video capture and support for dual-ISP 25MP camera configurations, leaving no doubt that this SoC is designed for mobile applications.

The leaked specification sheet pits the MediaTek Helio X20 directly against Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon 810 SoC and you’ll see that the two are quite evenly matched in a number of capabilities. The only area noticeably lacking for the MediaTek chip is support for dual-channel 933MHz LP-DDR3 memory, which falls behind the 1600MHz LP-DDR4 standard being adopting by other leading mobile SoC manufacturers.

If you’re going to throw 10 CPU cores at a chip, a big.LITTLE arrangement certainly makes sense, but there are a few questions to be asked about silicon expense and the heat generated by the unconfirmed design. The latter may be particularly important, given the recent Snapdragon 810 reports.

We’ll have to wait for some official details before drawing any final conclusions, but a 10 CPU core chip design for mobile is certainly interesting. MediaTek previously announced its new octa-core Helio X10 back in March.

Double Fine Productions releases Grim Fandango Remastered to the Play Store

Grim Fandango, the acclaimed dark comedy originally released for PC in 1998, has just come to the Google Play Store in remastered form, thanks to Double Fine Productions. In this new remastered version, Grim Fandango gets a facelift with repainted, high-resolution character textures, dynamic lighting and a concept art browser. Double Fine has also completely re-recorded the classic score with a live orchestra, and added in over two hours of exclusive developer commentary.

As for the storyline, Grim Fandango hasn’t changed one bit. You still play as Manny Calavera, travel agent at the Department of Death in the land of the dead. During his time selling luxury packages to souls on their four-year journey to eternal rest, Manny is on a mission to untangle himself from a mystery that threatens his own salvation.

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The game will normally be available for $14.99, but to celebrate the launch of the remastered game, Double Fine has set the price at just $9.99 for a limited time. This game is definitely worth the $10 price tag, so head to the Play Store link below to download it at a discount.