Can the Gear VR sell phones for Samsung?

Ecosystem lock-in might finally pay off for Samsung with the Gear VR.

Samsung is about to give away an unprecedented number of Gear VR headsets to folks who jump on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge train early. It’s the first serious push the company has made with this hardware, after years of courting developers and offering small demo stations in Best Buy stores. For many this is going to be the first VR experience they’ve ever had, and that first impression is not likely to be a bad one. That experience is going to be shared with a whole lot of friends and family, who will shortly discover that the Gear VR is something you can only experience through Samsung’s latest and greatest.

The big question is what happens next, and whether that experience is enough to push someone on the fence to consider a Samsung phone in order to share this VR experience.

The whole ecosystem play happening here is significant, and the timing is important. Giving everyone a free Gear VR with the Galaxy S6 wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful as Samsung’s offering with the Galaxy S7. Announced alongside the Galaxy S7 was the 200 app milestone in the Oculus Store, which means there’s no shortage of things to do in this VR world now.

The content available now is exceptional, especially compared to what was available a year ago on this platform. Samsung and Oculus have worked hard to fill this playground, and the end result is a full entertainment system you can wear on your face. It’s a game console, a movie screen, and a budding social network all at the same time, and nearly all of it is exclusive to this platform.

The urge to play multiplayer games alone will be enough to encourage early adopters to nudge their friends to this experience.

Everyone who shares their free Gear VR with someone else is essentially a salesperson for Samsung. The Gear VR is an unparalleled VR experience in the mobile space, but it’s exclusive to Samsung and that bit of information is going to be secondary in any casual demonstration. Sticking someone in a cool video sphere, handing over a controller to play any of the incredible games, or even just showing Netflix and Oculus Social will all be unique and memorable experiences. It’s the kind of thing that, outside of a typical sales environment, plants the seeds for suddenly needing to upgrade your phone so you can share this experience. The urge to play multiplayer games alone will be enough to encourage early adopters to nudge their friends to this experience.

But is the experience enough to sell a phone? Of course it is. The Samsung Galaxy S7 is already going to be on a list of phones to check out for a lot of people out there. It’s that phone they saw on TV that wants you to get rid of your iPhone, which by the way has no experience that comes even close to this. When this phone is already on the short list and the Gear VR is introduced in a social situation, the decision becomes a lot easier for those who enjoyed the demonstration.

It’s also not a huge investment, and it’s not hard to see that. A frequently used argument when discussing the cost of the Gear VR is the need to have a Samsung phone, but that conversation gets weirdly distorted in most situations. The Gear VR is normally $100, but making it so you have to use a $700 Samsung phone does not then make the Gear VR $800, especially when the act of purchasing a phone was already going to happen. Even if other phones were made to work with the Gear VR at some point, Samsung’s unparalleled display tech offers the best overall experience in this platform. It’s icing on an already incredibly appealing cake.

Samsung hopes the end result here is more Galaxy S7 sales through this shared experience, which also means more Gear VR sales and more platform lock-in. It’s not a particularly new approach, but Samsung is uniquely positioned to make it happen. We’re a long way from this experience becoming common in the household, but this early rush is likely to be a massive push in that direction.

Samsung Galaxy S7

• Galaxy S7 and S7 edge hands-on
• Galaxy S7 and S7 edge specs
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Details on the Galaxy S7’s camera
• The SD card is back on the GS7
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

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Samsung Gear VR

• Gear VR review
• Five Gear VR games that shouldn’t be missed
• Inside Samsung’s Gear VR web browser
• Gear VR vs. Google Cardboard
• Where to buy Gear VR

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Samsung rumored to be shutting down Milk Music service

Samsung could be closed to closing down its Milk Music streaming service. A new, but unconfirmed, report claims that Samsung could replace Milk Music via a partnership or acquisition of another streaming service.

According to Variety’s sources, Milk Music has not met with the returns that Samsung expected since it launched in May 2014. While many users have signed up for Milk Music’s free version, few have paid the money for its premium tier:

Insiders and sources close to the company also told Variety that the Milk Music team has seen significant staff reductions over the past couple of months. “A lot of people in the organization have left or are shifting positions,” said one source. A post to the job review website Glassdoor indicates that Samsung Research America, the organization that includes the Milk Music team, was hit with layoffs over the past few weeks, something that a source close to the company corroborated. “There are lots of empty desks and cubes there,” that source said about the Milk Music team.

There are rumors Samsung has had talks about acquiring Jay Z’s Tidal service, but Variety’s sources claim such a deal is not set in stone yet.

Source: Variety

T-Mobile’s HTC One M8 scheduled to get Marshmallow update on March 7

HTC continues its wave of over-the-air update announcements. The company has revealed the T-Mobile version of the HTC One M8 will receive the update rollout to Android 6.0 Marshmallow starting on March 7. That’s the same date that Verizon owners of the same phone will get their own Marshmallow update.

HTC’s Mo Versi broke the news on T-Mobile’s HTC One M8 Marshmallow update release on Twitter:

Great news on T-Mobile HTC One (M8) owners! We have received technical approval on Marshmallow! OTA to start on 3/7. Thank you @mvenugopal

— Mo Versi (@moversi) March 4, 2016

Source: Mo Versi (Twitter)

The Public Access Weekly: Feelin’ good

YOU.
GUYS.
Fiber internet is coming to my neighborhood. Fiber. Internet. This is a pretty serious game changer — Not only is Google looking to roll out fiber to all of San Francisco, but a smaller, local company has already started outfitting houses on the west side of the city with a tasty fiber connection — and they plan to be done with those two neighborhoods by the end of the year. Since my current internet connection is so pathetic that I can’t even successfully stream a movie rental through Xbox Live, I’m now going to take a moment to do a little happy dance.

This week starts off a whole new month of geek holidays! Today, celebrate Game Master’s Appreciation day by showing your RPG GM some gratitude for all their efforts; next week celebrate the International Day of Awesomeness by… being awesome? If you’re celebrating any of these geek holidays, we really want to know. Take pictures, write it up and share a Public Access post on it!

And now: Housekeeping. Some of you have noticed that some published posts have been showing up with old dates — for example, you start a post on Monday, save it and close out and then come back and publish it live on Thursday… But when the post shows up on the Public Access page it has the Monday date, making it easy to skip over in the feed. This is a glitch that happened when we added the “Preview” feature, however, it is currently getting worked on and should be fixed by next week. If you notice a date issue with a post in the meantime, feel free to email us and we’ll correct it manually.

Next, we need to talk about links. There have been a lot of stories going up on Public Access lately with some pretty iffy links in them so let me just reiterate here again: Public Access is not a place for marketing articles or SEO promotion. That means it is not okay to include SEO type links in your Public Access posts.

What counts as an “SEO link”? Any link that highlights key words in order to direct a link to a company or business is not okay (think “luxury watches” going to a site that sells watches). It should be unequivocally clear where all links go to — for example, linking the words “a survey on CNET” should take you to a survey on CNET, not a third-party blog that discusses the survey, or a site that sells survey services. Linking in this manner is not cool, and I will remove them from your post without warning.

Lastly, I’m working on creating a guide to contributing to Public Access to provide you all with a complete tome on all the in’s and out’s of writing and publishing posts. So, if you have any questions, run into any difficulties, or need a better explanation on something please let me know! Feedback and questions about Public Access can be sent to us here.

Looking for something to read? Check out:

Public Access member Richard Heby discusses why he won’t be forking over cold hard cash for the new Samsung offerings in this popular piece, which has some folks eager to pitch in with comments. And, as he is a stand-up contributor, Heby is talking to time to respond. Read up and weigh in.

This story on what is, reportedly, the first incident of a Google self-driving car getting into a fender-bender, is provoking a discussion in the comments about the rules of the road, who was at fault and the assumptions that Google’s technology makes about human driving decisions.

Too good to be true? We were excited when we first reported on the Coleco Chameleon, but commenters were quick to cry foul. Developments this week, including an image pulled from Facebook, are casting some serious accusations at the product; we’ll be updating the story as it develops.

Looking for something to write about? Mull over:

Humans are (apparently) very trusting of robots. To whit, a study recently found that humans would follow a safety robot away from clearly marked emergency exits. Is it just human nature to fall in line with a perceived authority figure? How much trust do you put in robots? (How about robot dogs?) Can humanity as a whole ever really trust a robot? Write an argument in favor of, or against, trusting robots. Or, alternatively, write us up a list of your favorite robots (real or fictional).

Although there’s a lot of talk about how technology isolates people around their smartphones, that same technology often brings people together through forums, comments sections, and chat rooms. When it comes to internet communities, which is your favorite and why? (Personally, I’m a big fan of Imgur commenters).

‘Sup, Imgur?
Swiss researchers recently developed “thin electronic circuits that can be stretched …up to four times their original length in any direction.” The flexibility of these circuits makes them ideal for being sewn into fabrics or used in biological sensors. Inspired by this advancement, write about or design your ideal wearable: What does it look like? Where and how does one wear it? And what does it read/measure?

KitchenAid Artisan Mini Stand Mixer Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

KitchenAid

As if bakers ’round the world didn’t already covet KitchenAid’s array of colorful stand mixers, the company is making it even harder to resist with its new Artisan Mini line.

Available in the US this summer for $400 and elsewhere later this year — that translates to roughly £280 in the UK and AU$540 in Australia at the current exchange rate — Artisan Mini’s are cute 3.5-quart versions of KitchenAid’s classic mixers.

It’s worth noting here that KitchenAid hasn’t downsized its iconic stand mixers since 1962, so this update is pretty significant. The new dimensions make the Artisan Mini “suited for limited counter space and ‘smaller batch’ lifestyles,” the company said in a release. Millennials and city dwellers, that means you.

Its existing models, some of which have been around for over 50 years, include mixers that range in price from $350 to over $1,000 — with sizes from 4.5 quarts up to 8 quarts. That makes the new Artisan Mini’s the smallest KitchenAid stand mixers, but not the cheapest. And cheap isn’t exactly a fair word to use when we’re talking about a single, nonessential kitchen appliance that costs 400 bucks.

There are literally top freezer refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines that cost less than that.

Other cool kitchen stuff:

• This machine promises to cook it all — and with Wi-Fi, too
• Nespresso’s smart coffee maker brews java over Bluetooth
• The kitchen catches up to the rest of the CNET Smart Home

Price aside, KitchenAid’s mixers have become something of a status symbol in the American home, a design piece that’s both functional and beautiful. And the fact that, as with earlier models, the Artisan Mini mixer comes in every color of the rainbow means there’s bound to be one to suit your kitchen decor.

We expect to see KitchenAid’s Artisan Mini mixers on display at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago this weekend, so stay tuned for hands-on pictures and video.

Meerkat pivots from livestreams to a video social network

Meerkat’s time in the media spotlight was short-lived. The livestreaming app was a hit at last year’s SXSW festival, but it quickly lost steam after Twitter blocked access to its social feed and launched Periscope, a direct streaming competitor. And once Facebook joined the party with its live videos, Meerkat simply couldn’t compete. Now the company is planning to shift away from individual livestreaming and towards a social network “where everyone is always live,” Recode reports.

It’s unclear how, exactly, Meerkat’s new strategy will work. But Recode notes that it sounds similar to traditional video conferencing apps like Skype and Google Hangouts. It’ll likely be more about chatting with your friends, rather than the entire world.

Meerkat’s big problem over the past year, according to its founder Ben Rubin, was that it simply couldn’t get users to stick around and continue streaming. That might also be an issue for Periscope and Facebook Live moving forward, but at least those services have the benefit of large social graphs of their very own.

Source: Recode

How to pair your Apple Watch with a new iPhone (when you no longer have your old iPhone) – CNET

This blog post should first serve as a public service announcement: Before you sell, erase, lose or otherwise divest yourself of your current iPhone and move to a new iPhone, Apple Watch wearers should unpair their Apple Watch from their old iPhone. Because if you don’t, the only way to pair it with your new is to reset your Apple Watch and erase everything in the process.

If your old iPhone is no longer in the picture, then you will need to return your Apple Watch to its original factory settings before you can pair it with your new iPhone. Here’s how:

On your Apple Watch, head to Settings > General > Reset. On the Reset screen, tap Erase All Content and Settings and then tap Continue to erase all media, data and settings.

After your Apple Watch resets, you will need to choose a language and then you can pair your Apple Watch with your new iPhone, either by using the camera or manually.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

After hopping through a number of setup screens, starting with agreeing to terms and conditions and choosing your wrist preference, you will be given the option to install any apps currently installed on your iPhone that are compatible with the Apple Watch.

So, even though you need to reset your iPhone, all is not lost since you can quickly sync a number of watch apps that you installed on your new iPhone.

And if you still have your old iPhone, here’s how unpair your Apple Watch: Open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap the My Watch tab and then tap Apple Watch at the top. Next, tap Unpair Apple Watch and tap again to confirm.

How to make an ice pack with common household items – CNET

Taylor Martin/CNET

It’s always a great idea to keep an ice pack in your freezer for bumps, bruises, aches and pains.

If you don’t have any on hand, however, you can easily make one out of things you probably already have, and it will only take about one minute to put together.

Learn how to make your own ice packs at home.

What you will need

The materials for a DIY ice gel pack are very common household items. You will need:

• Two zip-top bags per ice pack
• Isopropyl alcohol
• Water

If you don’t have isopropyl alcohol, you can use dish soap instead.

How to make your own ice pack

Begin by ensuring the zip-top bags you have are both strong and watertight. For this use, it’s probably best to stick to higher-quality zip bags instead of the cheapest ones you can find, solely for the durability. In my personal experience, the zip-top bags from IKEA work exceptionally well.

Add one cup of isopropyl alcohol to the zip-top bag. Next, add approximately three cups of water to the bag. To make the gel a bit more viscous, only use two cups of water.

Next, remove as much air as possible from the zip-top bag, close the seal and slip it inside the second zip-top bag. Once again, remove all the air from the bag and press the seal shut.

Taylor Martin/CNET

Place the bag inside the freezer for several hours. Since isopropyl alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water, when chilled, the solution will create a slushy mix that will easily wrap around limbs or conform to your body. Once it has warmed up, toss it back into the freezer.

Due to the fragile nature of zip-top bags, these ice packs won’t last forever. That said, they cost less than $1 each to make, so you can make several for less than the price of a store bought ice pack. Also, if it ever starts to leak, you know exactly what is getting on your clothes, skin or furniture — water and rubbing alcohol.

Rugged Alcatel Go Play goes on sale for $200 with free ruggedized case

The recently renamed Alcatel (no more “OneTouch”) has begun selling a Android-based rugged smartphone, the Alcatel Go Play, on its website. The price for the unlocked phone is $199.99 and from now until the end of March it will come with a free ruggedized case, with your choice of blue, red, green or black colors.

Here are the main features of the Alcatel Go Play:

• 5-inch HD (720p) Display
• Android 5.0
• 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM (expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD)
• 4G LTE support (B2/4/5/7/17)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8916 (1.5GHz Quad-Core)
• 2500mAh Battery (up to 8hrs of talk time)
• 8MP main camera + 5MP front camera
• GSM Unlocked
• IP67 Water and Dust Resistant

See at Alcatel

HTC plans to bundle and sell its Vive VR headset with optimized PCs

HTC has already started pre-orders for its HTC Vive virtual reality helmet for the price of $799 in the US. However, the company also plans to sell the Vive bundled with PCs that have been made to run the headset as well.

Buried in a chat with Fortune that mostly talks about a temporary glitch that caused some initial Vive online shoppers to think the headset was sold out (that glitch was quickly corrected), there’s this bit of news from Dan O’Brien, vice president of planning and product management for HTC Vive:

“We’ll have PC bundles with Vive-optimized PCs on our website soon and we’ll tell people they’ll have a great experience,” O’Brien promises. “But I don’t think PC bundles will be a major driver of sales.”

There’s no word on which PCs will be available to buy with the HTC Vive, nor is there any word on their cost. By the way, HTC did sell out of its initial shipment of the headset that are slated to ship in early April, but O’Brien says that current pre-orders will still ship out sometime in May.

More at HTCVive.com

Source: Fortune