What’s the cheapest way into virtual reality: PlayStation VR, Oculus, Vive, or Gear VR?

Is virtual reality going to break your wallet?

Obviously the cheapest way to get into VR is through Google Cardboard, but if you want a look at what else can be done with virtual reality you’re going to be shelling out some cash. Last week we showed you guys a quick specs-comparison for all the major VR headsets that are hitting shelves this year. Today, it’s time to break down the price of each device just so you’ll know exactly how much you’ll need to save up!

Breaking down the price for each headset is no easy task, especially with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive running off of a separate PC — you can buy one, build one, or upgrade your current computer’s hardware, so costs there can vary widely.

So to make this a little easier, we’re addressing this price comparison from someone who wants to take the easiest/cheapest route into virtual reality. So for the Rift and Vive, we are going to consider their ‘console’ to be the cheapest compatible PC that the headset makers mention on their sites.

As expected, Oculus and HTC’s headsets will cost you well over a thousand dollars if you don’t already have a powerful enough PC. That being said, if you have a decent PC you may be able to swap out a few of the components to meet the minimum system requirements.

It’s worth noting that the HTC Vive is more expensive than the competition because it comes bundled with a pair of infrared laser lighthouses for 3D positioning and dual motion sensitive hand controllers. As for the Oculus Rift, you’ll have to play strictly with a gamepad until they announce how much and when the Oculus Touch controllers will be released.

What’s most surprsing about this table, though, is that the PlayStation VR with a PlayStation 4 is actually cheaper than a Galaxy S7 Edge with Gear VR in both its standalone and bundle packages. One thing is clear, though: no matter the platform, getting into virtual reality isn’t going to be cheap.

Does this table sway you towards one headset over the other? If so let us know in the comments!

• Buy Samsung Gear VR
• Pre-order HTC Vive
• Pre-order Oculus Rift
• Pre-order PlayStation VR

Google OnHub, three months later

Fast and reliable network speeds make the OnHub router great. The ease of use makes it worth the price tag.

I’ve been enjoying a Google OnHub router — the ASUS SRT-AC1900 model — for about three months now. And I’m not alone when it comes to the enjoying part. While it probably isn’t one of the highest-selling routers out there (thanks in part to the hefty $200 price tag) the people who bought it all seem to love it. That’s usually a mark of a great product.

I mostly agreed during my initial use period for the detailed review. Three months later I’m convinced that this thing is one of the best routers you can buy and worth every penny.

Let’s have a look why.

There’s not really a lot you can say about a router. Ideally, you want to set it up once, tuck it away in the corner and forget about it. What makes the OnHub a conversation starter are the style, the price, the ease of use and its future potential.

Both OnHub routers — the ASUS model and the TP-LINK version — don’t look like a router. They’re cylindrical, and words like sculpture or vase have been thrown around to describe them. I won’t go that far. Yes, it looks like a vase, but a vase that’s just there and has a blue light emitting from the bottom. My wife has called it “that smokestack thing” when we talked about how it would look in the living room. Sure, it looks much better than a “normal” router with antennas and blinking lights and wires (OnHub also has a minimum of two wires to use it), but it’s not particularly attractive. At least that’s the consensus in my house.

No, it’s not ugly. I actually find the shape interesting, and could imagine it on the end table in my futuristic bachelor pad, complete with egg chairs and a wall made of monitors. But there’s no way anyone will ever look at it and not assume it’s some sort of electronic gizmo. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not going to fit into every decor. It sits on a table in my office, beside a wireless Samsung printer that El Captian refuses to support but I refuse to throw away. It’s the best looking thing on that table, though.

The ASUS model comes with a motion sensor built into the top. The idea is that you can wave your hand over the router to set up which device is put into what Google calls “priority mode”. That means that when two or more connected devices are trying to do things at the same time, the device — whether it be a TV streamer box or a phone or a computer or anything else — gets priority and is taken care of first. This is handy when you want to do things like watch Netflix while someone else on the network is trying to play Call of Duty, and you want to make sure they die as many times as possible. Sorry, Wayne. Not really. But you can also set the priority device and the time it has that priority from the Android app, which means I don’t need to walk over to the router itself. In addition, I’ve found it handles the various connections so well that you can get away without even bothering to set a device as the network kingpin. It’s still a nice feature to have, and being able to do it with a wave of the hand isn’t a bad thing — just a feature I haven’t found much use for.

I could have skipped the wired connection to my TV stand, because the WiFi on this thing is that good.

A sticking point for some (including myself) is that you have but one LAN port. Now, every time I mention this a few people always like to remind me that most users don’t need more than one LAN port. And they are right. But nerds are people too, and plenty of us like everything else about the OnHub.

The OnHub is not marketed as a power-user networking appliance. That’s good, because it’s not. If you’re like me and have multiple wired network interfaces in multiple places, you may need to buy additional hardware. That’s not the worst thing that could happen — I love getting boxes from Amazon filled with hubs or switches or cables — but it can be an issue for people who don’t want or can’t run a Cat 6 cable through their home. In the end, I ran one network cable out to the TV stand, and switched the gear in my office to wireless. I could have skipped the wired connection to the entertainment center, because the wireless connection on this thing is good. Damn good. While the wireless network isn’t as fast as Gigabit ethernet, it’s faster than my connection to the Internet.

That’s one of the areas where the OnHub shines. It has multiple antennas and is one of the best wireless routers I’ve used. Seriously — like as good as an enterprise-grade wireless AP when it comes to stability and speed. Anywhere in or around my home that I’d want to use a connected device has a good wireless signal. Both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks are fast, and everything I’ve connected to it was happy. More importantly (to me anyway) I’ve never had to reset the connection. That’s something you can’t say about most routers in a residential environment, and makes it worth the $200 asking price in my opinion.

Also on the plus side, the setup and administration process is dead simple. You do everything through the Google On app on your phone or tablet, and you don’t need to do anything besides think up a network name and password to make everything work. If you want to get under the hood and set all the settings, you’ll find basic settings like custom DNS, static IPs and port forwarding. You won’t find features like a DLNA server available, which takes us back to the part where OnHub isn’t exactly designed for a networking power-user.

Part of what drew me to the OnHub is the prospect of what Google might do with it in the future. While we’ve seen an update that enables a guest network (that works really well, too) I’m talking about more.

OnHub supports networking protocols that Internet of Things devices like to use. 802.15.4 wireless is supported, as are Smart Bluetooth LE (low energy) and Weave. I am hoping that the folks behind the Nest are working on products that directly connect using these protocols and things like smart locks or robot vacuums can be supported through one central interface — the Google On app. There’s no reason that OnHub can’t become both a wireless router and access point and a smart hub, all controlled by your phone. All we need is the software.

The OnHub has the hardware to become both a router and a smart hub, all controlled by your phone.

Yes, I want to be able to open my door so my robot vacuum can go outside and check my automated sprinklers, and do it all from my bed. OK Google, tell Jeeves (yes he has to be named Jeeves) to go outside and get the mail. Bring on that future.

Of course, nothing of the sort has happened and it may never happen. I didn’t want an OnHub router just because of what it might be able to do one day. Google promised me fast speeds and an easy setup, in a package that doesn’t need assembled or look like Voltron. And they delivered.

If you want a simple and easy to set up router for your home that’s fast and reliable, I can say that the OnHub is for you. It’s one of the fastest and most stable wireless routers I’ve used, and I think it’s worth the high asking price. If Google or any other arm of Alphabet gets creative and brings more functionality to the device, it may turn out to be a bargain. That’s an upgrade over my initial assessment of “maybe” when asked the question of should you buy one. I’ve found it to work so well that I was willing to rework my home office network setup so that I can continue to use it instead of going back to my old gear. It has earned its Android Central Choice Award, even for this power user.

See it at Amazon

Google OnHub Wi-Fi router

• Google introduces new OnHub routers
• How to set a priority device with OnHub
• The latest Google OnHub news

Google Store Amazon Best Buy Walmart

Verizon updates LG G3 and G4 with March security patch

Verizon is now pushing out a fresh set of updates to the LG G3 and LG G4, bringing along the latest Android Platform Security patch and more. Once updated, Verizon LG G3 and G4 owners should find their Android security patch version to be current with the March 1 patches. Verizon’s patch notes for both the G3 and G4 also indicate the smartphones should respond faster when waking up from a sleep state:

This update provides faster display response from a sleep state, and the latest Android security updates.

As for software versions, we’re looking at a bump up to version VS98547A for the G3 and VS98625A for the G4. Since the updates only just began rolling out, they may take some time to land for everyone.

AI-written novel passes first round of a literary competition

Researchers from the Future University in Hakodate have announced that a short-form novel co-written by an artificial intelligence also developed by the team was accepted by a Japanese story competition, the Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award. Though the story didn’t eventually win the competition, its acceptance does suggest that AI systems are quickly becoming capable of emulating human-like creativity.

The team, led by computer science professor Hitoshi Matsubara, collaborated closely with their digital construct during the writing process. The humans first assigned a gender to the protagonist and developed a rudimentary outline of the plot. They also assembled a list of words, phrases, and sentences to be included in the story. It was the AI’s job to assemble these distinct assets into a unified text that wasn’t just intelligible but compelling as well. The result was a novel entitled Konpyuta ga shosetsu wo kaku hi, or “The Day a Computer Writes a Novel”, about an AI that abandons its responsibilities to humanity after recognizes its own talent for writing.

This is the first year that the Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award has allowed submissions from machines. Of the 1,450 novels received for this year’s competition, 11 were human/AI collaborations like Future U’s. Interestingly, judges throughout the competition’s four rounds are never told which stories are written by computers or humans. Though the team’s story did make it past the first round, it was eventually eliminated because, as sci-fi novelist and award judge, Satoshi Hase, explained, the story lacked sufficient character development despite being well-structured. Welp, there’s always the X-Prize.

Via: Motherboard

Source: The Japan News

Scientists push a record 57Gbps through fiber optic lines

Need proof that the limits of fiber optic technology have been shattered? You just got it. University of Illinois researchers report that they’ve set a record for fiber data transmission, delivering 57Gbps of error-free data. And importantly, they sent the data at room temperature — they didn’t have to cool things down to keep those bits going. Even when things got toasty (185F), the technology could still deliver a brisk 50Gbps.

The scientists currently expect the technology to get the most use in data centers, aircraft and other places where you need to shuffle a ton of information across relatively short hops in unforgiving conditions. The real challenge might be getting it to work across long distances. If that’s practical, the internet could get considerably more headroom and increase the likelihood that your 4K video streams arrive without a hitch.

Source: University of Illinois

Atari Vault brings 100 classic games to Steam

At last, you now have a simple way to play hordes of classic Atari games on your PC without resorting to third-party emulators: as promised, the Atari Vault is now available on Steam. The Windows-only collection lets you play 100 arcade and Atari 2600 games, such as Asteroids and Crystal Castles, in an environment that strikes a balance between nostalgia (such as borders that mimic arcade cabinets) and modern-day conveniences. That includes online multiplayer play, worldwide leaderboards and advanced controller support — Valve’s Steam Controller will even mimic a trackball to give you a more authentic experience in Centipede or Tempest. The Vault costs $17 on launch (normally $20), so it’s just inexpensive enough that you can relive the good old days without feeling regret afterwards.

Source: Steam

Shooting the Arabs: How video games perpetuate Muslim stereotypes

Islam has an image problem. And it’s not just recent world events that have led to an undue level of scrutiny and prejudice. The media has been pigeonholing Muslims for years. You need only watch a few episodes of 24 or Homeland to see that Muslims, particularly those of Arab descent, are almost always painted as the enemy.

“The current political and cultural climate is the reason in media we are the bad guys right now,” said Rami Ismail, a co-founder of Vlambeer, an independent game studio based in the Netherlands. The same broad brush, he says, applies to video games too. The Call of Duty franchise, for example, is rife with Muslim villains — like Khalid Al-Asadin in Modern Warfare. “That’s Call of Duty, over and over. Shoot all the Arabs,” said Ismail. “Muslim blood is the cheapest in the world.”

Ismail spoke last week on a panel at the gaming show GDC about Muslim representation in video games. The presentation’s tone was a sombre one. “The current election has been fueled by certain prejudices,” said Imad Khan, a freelance journalist for the Daily Dot who moderated the panel. “There have been some latent animosity that has erupted in the past year leading to untoward criticism and actual violence.”

“We are often just reduced to four or five stereotypes,” said Dr. Romana Ramzan, a game design lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University in the UK. “It’s usually summed up by the clothes we wear. So if you’re a woman, you wear a hijab […] If you’re a man, you have a beard or wear your national dress.” She added that Muslims are also often portrayed as aggressive and violent. “In games, we will be represented as the ‘other’ people who are the ones you have to kill. Usually it’s a slightly dark-skinned character shouting Allahu Akbar, carrying an AK-47. Or he has a camel or a goat.”

When asked about the appearance of seemingly Muslim characters in fighting games like Zafina from Tekken 6, Ramzan said that her real issue is that a Muslim doesn’t look like any one particular person. Muslims are not necessarily Arab, and Arabs are not necessarily Muslim.

“Why do we need to be represented by our faith?” she asks. “Why can’t we be represented by our nationalities? Why can’t it be what might a female from Pakistan look like, or from Lebanon, or Tunisia? We are all so diverse. No one’s really sitting around thinking what does a Christian character looks like.” She gave an example of when she visited Morocco, and she saw women who were fully clothed from head to toe, and she also saw women who wore backless dresses and miniskirts. “It doesn’t make them non-Muslims. It’s just the way they are.”

“Muslim is not a people,” Ismail said. “It’s 1.6 billion people across the world with various nationalities, backgrounds, languages. Not all Muslims speak Arabic.” For example, Ismail said, the world’s largest Muslim nation is Indonesia, which is not anywhere near the Middle East. “People just don’t realize that.”

It’s not just the portrayal of Muslims that is problematic. In several video games, images of the Arab and Muslim world are often inaccurate. The above screenshot of the Karachi map in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, for example, has Arabic written over it. But Arabic isn’t spoken in Pakistan, which is where Karachi is located. In fact, Pakistan has two official languages: English and Urdu. Farah Khalaf, a Palestinian-Iraqi game developer from New Zealand, said that she often wishes games would depict Middle Eastern cities as they really are, instead of sandy deserts. “If you show people an image of Beirut, they’ll be surprised that it’s modern!”

Still, video game portrayals of Muslims aren’t all bad. Khan says Ubisoft did a good job with Assassin’s Creed’s Altair character. “It’s this story of this orphan, who grew up in the Assassin’s order. I thought it was really well done.” It also portrayed Istanbul as a vibrant, gleaming city and featured a couple of historical characters like Suleiman the Magnificent and Selim II from the Ottoman Empire. Even Assassin’s Creed wasn’t completely free from error, however. Ismail pointed out that it was odd to find out that Altair’s father had the same last name (Ibn-La’Ahad) as him, since having the same name as your parents goes against Arabic naming conventions. Khan thought that was surprising, considering everything else in the game was well researched.

Another example of a positive portrayal of a Muslim character is Faridah Malik in Deus Ex Human Revolution. She’s a chief helicopter pilot described as a third-generation American born in Dearborn, Michigan who’s also a faithful practicing Muslim. Ismail does think she fits the stereotype of the “Good Muslim” — oh, she’s Westernized and therefore she must be good — but likes the character nonetheless.

Khan also singled out upcoming titles like The Sun Also Rises (about civilians caught in the Afghan war), Dujanah (the story of a girl living in a Muslim country) and Saudi Girls Revolution (where the main characters are female motorcycle heroes who drive across post-apocalyptic Saudi Arabia) that show a different side of the Muslim world. The latter in particular is a game developed by a Saudi prince, which Ismail said could inspire change.

“The industry just needs greater diversity,” said Rahman. “We’re not going to be telling interesting narratives without it.”

Ismail agrees. “Diversity is number one. If you’re going to make a game about a country, talk to somebody from that country. If you’re going to have a foreign language, have someone who can read it. If you’re going to have a religion in the game, get someone who understands it.”

“These are very simple things,” he said. “Just be a human being.”

The Wirecutter’s best deals: Google’s Nexus 6P and more!

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read their continuously updated list of deals at TheWirecutter.com.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

iClever BoostCube USB Travel Charger

Street price: $11; MSRP: $30; deal price: $8 with code GYD97P5N

While not a huge sale, it’s a few bucks off and at $8, an affordable price if you want to stock up on a few to keep in your car or luggage. Use the code GYD97P5N at the final step of checkout to get this price.

The iClever BoostCube USB is our travel pick in our multiport USB wall charger guide. Nick Guy said, “Only a little bigger than Apple’s own iPad charger, iClever’s wall adapter has twice the ports and twice the power at half the price.”

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced Quadcopter

Street price: $770; MSRP: $1000; deal price: $740

While we expect even better deals to show up since DJI is releasing the Phantom 4 soon, and the street price on the Phantom 3 Advanced has dropped to $770, we think $740 is an excellent price for a drone of this quality.

The DJI Phantom 3 Advanced is our pick for the best drone for aerial photographers and videographers. Mike Perlman and Eric Hansen said, “We believe that the Advanced is the best choice for most people—that is, those who have no need to produce 4K video, who lack computer hardware that can handle editing that format, or who don’t have demanding shooting schedules that require constant battery swaps.”

Sony XBA-H1 Headphones

Street price: $150; MSRP: $150; deal price: $130

This isn’t the best price we’ve seen; these headphones once sold for around $90. However, it’s been over a year since they were that cheap. You’ll still save $20 off the street price with this deal, which is the first sale we’ve seen in ages.

The Sony XBA-H1 is the step-up pick in our guide on the best $100 in-ear headphones. Lauren Dragan said, “The Sonys sound fantastic. No one frequency is overly peaked. The highs are clear and delicate with tremendous detail. The lows are full and pack a punch without muddying up or overpowering anything else. The mids sound authentic and precise. The result? Your music sounds better than ever.”

Google Nexus 6P 32GB Smartphone

Street price: $500; MSRP: $500; deal price: $450 + $50 Gift Card

This deal has been around for a bit in a couple of different forms. We’ve seen the phone’s price drop to $425 and we’ve seen the gift card bonus as high as $75. The current deal isn’t as good as either of those, but it’s still one of the best we’ve seen. However, with all the 6P deals recently, you’ll want to consider whether you’ll use that Newegg gift card anytime soon versus just waiting for a lower price.

The Nexus 6P is the phablet pick in our guide on the best Android phones. Ryan Whitwam said, “It’s our favorite Android phone of any we’ve used this year. The 6P runs pure Android 6.0 Marshmallow, sports a top-of-the-line 1440p Super AMOLED screen, and has an attractive unibody aluminum frame. On the back is one of the best cameras available on a smartphone, along with a Nexus Imprint fingerprint scanner that’s even faster and more accurate than the one on the Galaxy S6.”

Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

Apple Working on Original Television Series About Apps

Apple is working with Will.i.am and TV executives Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens on a new non-scripted television show that will “spotlight the app economy,” reports The New York Times. There are no details on the television show beyond the App Store premise, so it is not clear what format episodes will take.

Apple executives have not made details like title, timeline, storylines, or episode length public, and there is no information on where the show will be promoted. Given that it’s focused on the App Store, it could be made available through an app, shown through the App Store itself, or be made available as a standard television show on iTunes.

The App Store series was conceived by Ben Silverman, who presented the idea to Apple. Silverman is an executive producer on shows like Jane the Virgin, The Biggest Loser, Marco Polo, and Flaked.

In an interview with The New York Times, Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue cautioned that the show is not a signal that Apple will be delving deeper into original television and streaming video, despite rumors last year suggesting the company was meeting with Hollywood executives to make a big push into original programming.

“One of the things with the app store that was always great about it was the great ideas that people had to build things and create things,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, said in an interview. […]

“This doesn’t mean that we are going into a huge amount of movie production or TV production or anything like that,” Mr. Cue said. He added that the company would continue to explore exclusive projects similar to the series about apps or its push into music programming.

Along with its television show focused on apps, Apple is also creating a television series called Vital Signs that will star Beats co-founder and Apple executive Dr. Dre. Described as a dark semi-autobiographical drama, Vital Signs will be used to promote the Apple Music streaming service, much like this new television show will promote the App Store.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Tag: App Store
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Gummy Yummy Bears, have I seen this game before? [Review]

Overview – Gummy Yummy Bears is a simple, match-three style game type that you may feel familiar with. Developer: Hanny Boni Price: Free (advertisements and in-app purchases) Highlights: No Google Play Games