‘Arden’s Wake’ paves the way for never-ending VR stories

Making movies in virtual reality is easy. Making good animated movies in virtual reality is hard. There’s no “mise en scène” to play with, and the even the basic 180-degree rule is washed away with a head turn. The limitations of a cinema screen make storytelling easier, linear, comfortable. Penrose Studios doesn’t care much for comfort, it seems. The same studio that gave us the haunting Allumette and infantile captivation of The Rose and I is back at the Tribeca Film Festival this year with its third VR story — Arden’s Wake — and it promises to be bigger, more detailed and more technically improbable than anything we’ve seen from the studio seen so far.

Little did I know when I watched a preview of Arden’s Wake recently at Penrose’s San Francisco HQ that the world of virtual reality was about to shift. This week, Facebook revealed Spaces, an app that melds hanging out with real friends with the synthetic worlds of VR. While Zuckerberg’s frivolous virtual selfies might be getting the headlines, Penrose has quietly been using VR collaboration almost every day for the past 18 months. CEO Eugene Chung explained to me that Arden’s Wake likely wouldn’t have been possible, not at this level of visual fidelity and sophistication, without it.

Collaborating inside the actual virtual world they were creating itself was so crucial that Penrose developed its own in-house tool for the job: Maestro. Imagine a VR Slack with moonlike faces for avatars, and chunky articulated hands. Maestro allows everyone involved on a project, creatives and engineers alike, to step out of their separate professional worlds, into the same virtual one. “We’re cooking food in the kitchen because we’re hungry,” Chung tells me, explaining that in absence of any existing tools for the job, Penrose was basically forced to create its own. “I don’t think we could have done any of the Penrose sequences without Maestro,” he says.

Arden’s Wake takes place in the middle of the ocean sometime after the family of its hero, Meena, is torn apart during an accident at sea. The episode I was shown is described as the prologue for a tale that will continue to grow in installments. It sets the scene, the context and the back story, with just enough teasing elements to have you hungry to know what happens next. Meena’s father, Tide, is an inventor, but is he a good inventor? We catch a glimpse at a potential love interest and a mysterious beast in the darkest depths of the deep blue. Each character’s role is unclear right now, but the delivery is captivating.

Artistically, Penrose’s last project, Allumette, sits somewhere between Henry Selick’s James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Quirky and magical. Arden’s Wake is much closer to something you’d expect from Disney or Pixar in its aesthetic style. (Penrose’s staff does contain some Pixar DNA.) The artistic style is vaguely similar to what we’ve seen before in Henry (by Oculus Story Studio, where Chung once also worked). The distinctive visual style makes Arden’s Wake feel more like a “proper movie.” The characteristics of the world it portrays feel familiar, so your attention isn’t drawn away from the characters but it’s visually compelling enough that you sneak a look around any moment you can.

I am given the chance to dive into Maestro to see how the team collaborates in the virtual world they have created. This is my first time in a “social” VR environment, and it’s hard not to smile the first time a real-not-real VR person waves at me. Through my headphones, I hear my boss’s familiar yet disembodied voice (he’s in the same building in real life, but also in the virtual meeting), and it’s all jolly fun. But then the work starts, and the tone changes.

Chung talks us through what’s happening, and the basics of how Maestro works. He also explains why the avatars are so simplistic. It’s the same reason Facebook would give a week later: Real faces, skin and expressions are just too much “uncanny valley” right now. I later find out my boss’s avatar had an older setting that gave him more realistic appendages, and for the first time, I felt genuine retroactive hand envy.

Inside Maestro, we’re once again in Meena’s world, this time joined by a huddled crowd of artists and developer avatars. Animator Bruna Berford is holding virtual court, scrubbing back and forth a part of the scene in which Meena walks across the mezzanine in her wooden house. Berford thinks one, maybe two steps don’t quite look natural enough and draws a virtual path within the scene to show how she thinks it would feel more natural. Virtual heads nod, and the occasional chunky hand waves a gesture. Meanwhile, I have a very real sensation I’m standing in someone’s virtual way. Even digital worlds still have human problems.

If Maestro has been around for so long, why is Penrose just showing it now? There are probably a few reasons. First, it’s a constant work in progress and has likely only just reached a stage where it’s stable enough for media eyes. Also, naturally, there’s the question of intellectual property and keeping new tools out of the way of curious, unwanted eyes. Chung’s clearly ready to stick his flag in the ground, though. “I think in the next two years social collaboration and social connection will drive the next wave in virtual reality.” Chung, technically a former Facebook employee (via his time at Oculus), may also know that with F8 approaching, it was probably a good time to ride the wave of interest in social VR.

That doesn’t mean Chung doesn’t want to share Maestro with the community. “We’re crafting one of the most powerful social applications in the world out of necessity,” he told me. “But at this early stage of virtual reality, it’s almost better to share [with the community].” But he’s not naive; he knows he may have a product on his hands. “I think there are some really powerful consumer applications. […] This is effectively like Slack for the virtual world.”

Penrose’s San Francisco office looks much like you’d expect an animation studio to look: Open spaces, with a kitchen full of snacks to keep empty bellies from rumbling, and large glass-fronted meeting spaces with wooden floors, where hand-drawn slides adorn the walls. The postcard-size drawings form a storyboard of virtual-reality possibilities, potential narratives for Arden’s Wake, but it’s clear that Maestro is the glue that holds it all together.

I asked Chung what’s next, both for Arden’s Wake and Maestro. The focus right now is with the Tribeca Film Festival, where the short film will have its world premiere (in the Immersive category and Virtual Arcade section). Chung already said that the film is part of a series, and anticipates the next chapter — which is already underway — will be ready by the fall. Part of the problem with episodic ventures like this is that VR is evolving almost in real time. Maintaining the core feel of the film is potentially at odds with capitalizing on the latest technology and innovation.

“With VR we have the possibility of people coming back to these worlds if they love what’s happening there,” said Chung. “Additionally, you can add interactivity. But the most intriguing thing is: How do you build full interactivity with a full story and get that to work together? And that’s going to involve a lot of AI.” Something he and his team are still experimenting with.

If you’re not at Tribeca, you’ll be able to find Arden’s Wake on Steam, PSVR, Oculus Rift and, eventually, Daydream and Gear VR. Right now, the challenges with mobile are the technical limitations. I was shown a mobile translation of The Rose and I, and graphically it’s very similar to the original — but it’s the positional tracking that’s the problem (somewhat mitigated by creative use of the Daydream controller).

Perhaps the most immediate challenge for Penrose is recognizing where it finds itself. Virtual reality is a microcosm consisting of art, software and hardware. Chung’s studio straddles two of those three pillars. It’s a company that could as easily win an Oscar as it could birth the future of virtual-reality collaboration. No mean feat for a young Bay Area film studio. Chung, for his part, is a little more pragmatic: “It’s that synthesis of the two that allows us to do what we do.”

Spotify lets thousands of indie labels limit free streaming

With an IPO looming, streaming music leader Spotify has been inking a number of new deals with record labels to ensure it has the content it needs to keep growing. The latest deal comes with Merlin, an agency that represents a swath of various independent record label around the world. In a press release today, Spotify noted that this new multi-year deal would keep ensure that Merlin’s music stayed available on Spotify, something it’ll certainly need going forward. All told, Merlin is the fourth-biggest music provider that Spotify works with, behind the three massive major labels.

But the biggest news from this new deal is that Merlin will also get to restrict new releases from Spotify’s free tier for up to two weeks. Spotify has historically fought long and hard against splitting up its catalog between free and paid users, but it finally relented when signing a new deal with Universal Music a few weeks ago. (Some would say it didn’t have a real choice in the matter anymore.) Now, it seems that two-week window is going to become the standard when new music hits Spotify.

With new deals set for Universal and Merlin, it’s likely we’ll see Sony Music and Warner Music Group also ink new contracts in the coming months. Given that Merlin is able to take advantage of what Spotify sneakily calls its “flexible release policy,” it’s likely that Sony and Warner will also get on board here — which means that basically all notable new releases won’t be immediately available to free users.

Labels represented by Merlin include electronic-focused Armada, Beggars Group (whose sub-labels feature notable artists like Adele, Alabama Shakes, The National, Pavement, Beck, The Strokes and many more), the legendary Seattle-based Sub Pop and the punk-focused Epitaph. If you’re a fan of those labels but aren’t paying for Spotify, be aware you’ll now have to be patient when looking for new releases

Source: Spotify

Stream from your Android device to an Apple TV with an $8 app

Non-Apple-device Airplay streaming to Apple TV effectively died when Apple pushed tvOS 10.2 into the world. But the folks who enabled it in the first place, doubleTwist, have returned to fix that. “We went ahead and added support for Apple’s new pairing process in the latest doubleTwist Pro release because we believe the era of walled gardens is long gone,” a post on the developer’s blog says. Meaning, if you didn’t already have the premium app, all it’ll cost to get FLAC files from your Android device to your Apple TV is a spare $8. Handy!

Source: Google Play, doubleTwist

Shopify Debuts New Chip and Swipe Card Reader, Will Be Free for Businesses Without POS Systems

At Shopify’s Unite developer conference in San Francisco today, the software-focused e-commerce company has debuted a new hardware product, which it simply calls the “Chip & Swipe Credit Card Reader” (via TechCrunch). Similar to other card readers, Shopify’s product allows merchants who run small businesses to accept a wide variety of credit cards as payment options, although it lacks Square Reader’s NFC support for services like Apple Pay.

The Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader is a modular solution that allows the reader to be detached from its base so merchants can handle card swipes from any angle. To dock, the reader connects to the base via micro USB, but Shopify said that the reader itself could handle an entire week’s worth of transactions before needing to be docked and charged. Different mounting accessories beyond the simple dock sold at launch are said to be coming in the future.

“What people forget is that it’s not just the merchant that’s touching the hardware, like a cash register,” Shopify VP of Product Satish Kanwar said. “When it comes to a card reader, it’s the shopper that’s interacting with the device and inputting their card as well. What we realized is that it’s really hard to get a good balance of good quality, versatility and something that provides that delightful experience in something that’s also affordable.”

Shopify’s reader will be free to all Shopify merchants without a current Shopify point-of-sale solution (the company also has a sales terminal with full tap, swipe, and chip payment compatibility that does support Apple Pay). For everyone else, the new reader will cost $29, and will process payments at 2.4 percent per transaction. The reader will connect to both iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth.

Merchants interested can pre-order the device today, and the launch window is currently predicted as sometime in June. There’s also a 14 day free trial for those who sign up for pre-orders.

Tag: Shopify
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iPhone Ownership Reaches All-Time High in United States

Apple currently has more iPhone users in the United States than at any point in history, according to market research firm comScore.

There are now over an estimated 85.8 million iPhone owners aged 13 and older in the United States, based on a three-month average ending December 2016, according to comScore MobiLens Plus. Apple’s latest iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models accounted for approximately 15 percent of that total.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s models, including their respective Plus-sized versions, remain Apple’s most popular smartphones in the U.S. with an estimated 48.4 percent share of the overall installed base. Meanwhile, an estimated 17.8 percent of the users are still using an iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, or iPhone 5c.

iPhone is the most popular smartphone in both the United States and the world, according to market research firms Kantar Worldpanel and IHS Markit respectively. iOS adoption trails Android in the United States, however, given a wider variety of Android smartphones available to purchase.

iOS adoption among smartphone users aged 13 and older is an estimated 43 percent in the United States, based on a three-month average ending December 2016, according to comScore. The research firm places Android at 54 percent during the same time period, with BlackBerry and Windows 10 Mobile barely registering.

comScore’s data differs from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which estimated that the iPhone’s installed base reached 132 million units in the United States as of December 2016. However, CIRP’s data is extrapolated from a survey of 500 Apple customers with no 13-and-over age parameter.

Tag: comScore
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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review: The best ever version hits Nintendo Switch

If you seek evidence that Nintendo learned some major lessons from the Wii U’s humiliating failure, you need look no further than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Its arrival so soon after that of the Switch console demonstrates that Nintendo has well and truly woken up to the necessity of providing its consoles with compelling games, as quickly as possible. Especially so when you consider that Mario Kart 8 was the only full iteration of any of its classic franchises to grace the Wii U.

And on Nintendo Switch, Mario Kart is as good as it’s ever been. Even more propitiously, Deluxe is much more than a mere tarted-up port of the Wii U original. Indeed, it’s the next must-own title for Nintendo’s latest console.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review: More than a mere port

First up, Deluxe includes all Mario Kart 8’s downloadable content, which brings 16 new tracks, including Zelda and F-Zero themed ones, a bunch of new playable characters (there are 42 in all), karts and kart-parts, plus the 200cc mode which was added to Mario Kart 8 as an update. On top of all that, Battle mode has been completely – and very effectively – revamped. But what really surprises is that a number of small but significant tweaks and additions have been made which affect the core gameplay.

Perhaps the least significant of those are new driver aids which add auto-acceleration and steering assist (the latter removing the danger of plummeting off cliffs), designed to make Mario Kart 8 Deluxe accessible to those who are so young that they haven’t yet developed effective motor skills.

But there are plenty of additions which will excite die-hard Mario Karters, including double item-boxes – stacked one on top of the other – which give you two power-ups for the price of one. You can’t select which one to use first, but they still come in dead handy – and are generally placed in harder-to-reach positions.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also adds a third stage of drift-boost: drift around one of the longer corners, and the boost will go from blue to orange and eventually to purple, catapulting you forward when you exit the corner.

Nintendo

The Boo item – which lets you steal someone else’s power-up – is back, too, despite being absent from the original Mario Kart 8.

Such tweaks don’t fundamentally alter Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s gameplay, but they add to the potential for satisfaction or frustration, depending on whether you manage to beat someone to a double-item box or just get pipped.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review: Battle mode reborn

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe contains all the original’s modes, namely Grand Prix – in which you race against 11 others, either human or AI-powered – Time Trials, VS Race (as ever, four-player split-screen is possible, and on the Switch a single Joy-Con is all you need to race, which you can fit into a tiny steering wheel accessory) and Battle.

Nintendo

Previously, Battle mode was the game’s only weak spot – abandoning Mario Kart’s pure racing, honed over a quarter of a century, in favour of party-style games that felt a tiny bit self-defeating. But Battle mode’s games have been heavily tweaked and added to in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, rendering them much more compelling than previously.

It now comprises five different games, of which the newest, Renegade Roundup, also happens to be the best. It splits participants into two teams, which are essentially cops and robbers. The “cop” team players get Piranha Plants and every opponent they chomp is transported to a jail. But they can be sprung if an elusive team-mate manages to hit the button below the jail.

Balloon Battle has been tweaked so that instead of being a case of last player with a balloon left wins, you’re apportioned points according to how many balloons you have at the end of each round.

Nintendo

Bob-omb Blast is similar to Balloon Battle, except the only available items with which to burst your opponents’ balloons are Bob-ombs; cutely, every player’s Bob-omb explosions are colour-coded.

Coin Runners involves collecting as many coins as possible – and firing items at rivals to steal their ones – while Shine Thief is all about finding a Shine and holding onto it as long as possible before someone else steals it.

Overall, the Battle mode games constitute great post-pub party-game fare, which is utterly in keeping with the Switch’s return to Wii-style party-games. And Nintendo has managed to make them all fun to play this time around, whereas in the past you might have found one which you liked and hated the rest.

Nintendo

Plus, for the Battle mode hardcore, there’s even a new technique you can learn – a sort of 180-degree handbrake turn – and you can set the items to ones which require skill to wield, such as green shells and boomerangs.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review: Irresistible online

The online side of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the one element that Nintendo hasn’t tweaked, with good reason: it just works, seamlessly, addictively and with the minimum of fuss.

Pre-launch, it was frustratingly underpopulated, as you would expect, but with the Wii U original, Nintendo showed that it could cope with the demands of taking Mario Kart online. Hopefully the success of the Switch won’t lead to undue strain on its server infrastructure.

Nintendo

If we’re to nit-pick, we’d suggest that Nintendo could have made the ranking system – in which you lose or accumulate points according to where you finish – into something a bit more glamorous, and it would have been nice if the company had added some new conversational phrases to use in the lobby. But the sheer exhilaration of taking on human opponents remotely in a Mario Kart game is what matters.

And the Switch lends itself magnificently to local multiplayer – you can take your Switch round to a mate’s house and instantly compete wirelessly; with three Switches hooked up and enough controllers for four-player split-screen on each (best achieved with each Switch hooked up to a TV), you can even keep 12 people entertained simultaneously, which is mind-boggling.

Verdict

If, like most, you never committed yourself to buying a Wii U, then you’re in for a treat with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch. It’s now 25 years since the first Mario Kart, and in that period, Nintendo has honed the franchise’s gameplay to utter perfection. No other game offers such a delicious mix of whimsy, skill and sheer brutality – the pain of being hit by a blue or red shell yards before the finish line while leading, and then being hit by a fusillade of items as the rest of the field catches and passes will live with you forever.

What is really gratifying about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is that it contains more than we expected. The 16 extra tracks are all good, and some are stone-cold classics. They even include a take on the NES version of Rainbow Road, bringing the number of Rainbow Road versions in the game to three. Graphically, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is superb – the original looked fabulous, but on the Switch, it’s even crisper, with much better textures – which won’t leave you thinking that the Switch is underpowered (not that that matters a jot).

Quite simply, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best ever version of one of the best ever games. If you own a Nintendo Switch, you would be mad not to buy a copy.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is released worldwide on 28 April 2017, exclusively for Nintendo Switch

HTC will unveil a squeezable ‘U’ phone in May

Sounds like HTC’s busy preparing for a big event in its home country: the electronics maker has just sent out a Save the Date for May 16th. Invites like this are typically shrouded in mystery, and HTC’s is no different. All the invitation says is “Squeeze for the Brilliant U,” though the blurry phone in the background and the company’s tweet gives us some idea of what it could announce. In the video, you can see a hand squeezing the edges of a phone, hinting that you’ll be able to interact with the device by giving its frame a squeeze.

That’s consistent with the reports going around about an HTC phone codenamed “Ocean.” It will reportedly sport a 5.5-inch display, 4GB to 6GB of RAM and 64GB to 128GB of storage, depending on the model. It won’t have a headphone jack. More importantly, Ocean will apparently feature what HTC calls “Sense Touch,” which gives you the power to summon menus and trigger various actions by squeezing and swiping on its edges.

Those details are but rumors, though. You’ll have to wait until May 16th to find out for sure. HTC will stream the event live from Taiwan on its website, starting at 2AM Eastern.

Squeeze for the Brilliant U. 05.16.2017 https://t.co/89OuHXbBlt pic.twitter.com/jLaeFD2wMW

— HTC (@htc) April 20, 2017

Source: HTC, (Twitter)

Apple is on a mission to only use recycled materials

With the release of its new environmental report, Apple is looking to push the envelope of what it can do for the good of the planet. Last year, it boasted about how much cash its recycling efforts had saved it, including $40 million worth of gold re-used from old devices. This year, it’s talking about “closing the loop” on its use of raw materials, potentially redefining how gadgets are made altogether.

Apple believes that it’s now on the road to being able to use only recycled materials to build its next generation of products. It’s not there yet, of course, and there’s still much to be done in order to ensure secondhand iPhones come back to Apple, rather than the scrap heap. Still, if the company can make good on its admittedly lofty goals in the next few years, it’s good for everyone.

The company also believes that its experiments with material reclamation — embodied by its Liam robots that disassemble 2.4 million iPhone 6 models a year. Apple says that the two lines that have a Liam on it have salvaged 1,900 kg in aluminum for every 100,000 phones taken apart. In fact, the company has built a secret run of Mac Mini units with materials recovered by Liam, which are used to run iPhone production lines.

The rest of the report is the usual self-congratulation, although it does make a big point about saying that its data centers are wholly renewable. Apple is probably mindful of Greenpeace’s recent public shaming of companies like Netflix, Amazon, HBO, ASUS and Acer for using coal and gas power to run their servers. By comparison, iMessage, FaceTime and Siri “run on 100 percent renewable energy.”

Apple, famously, wants to own and control every part of its computers, and that attitude carries over to its energy. The company is aiming to own as much of its power generation as it can, rather than buying juice on the wholesale market. So, where it can, it’s building, running and /owning/ its solar and wind facilities rather than partnering with a third party.

By 2020, the company is hoping to have 4 GW of power generation capacity by 2020, enough to power 725,000 homes. That will be spread between Apple owned and operated sites and those that it has helped bankroll with partners. 4GW is enough to power 725,000 homes, and that’s just the start of the company’s ambition. It’s entirely plausible that Apple could start selling its excess power as a side hustle without anyone realizing.

As always, most of the credit goes to Lisa Jackson (pictured), a former head of the EPA that joined Apple way back in 2013. She’s been spearheading the company’s efforts in switching to renewables, cutting carbon emissions and generally being a good citizen of the world. Her work has ensured that Apple went from the bottom of Greenpeace’s rankings in 2011 to the top for the last three years running.

Source: Apple (.PDF)

A letter from your editor: Changes ahead

My name is Christopher Trout, your new editor-in-chief. You may not recognize my name, but chances are you’ve read something I’ve written. When I arrived at Engadget nearly seven years ago, I was a freelancer fresh off of unemployment, our rivalry with Gizmodo was going strong and Josh Topolsky was planning an exit to start The Verge. In the coming years, I’d serve under three other editors, first as a full-time writer, then as the executive editor of our award-winning digital magazine, Distro. I’ve also been the managing editor of the whole damn thing, and, most recently, the main site’s second-in-command.

Oh, and, yes, I am that sex robot guy.

With each new editor at Engadget came a new direction, meant to reflect the state of technology. In those early days, we were the go-to place for exhaustive hardware news, and as gadgets went mainstream we followed suit. We broadened our vision beyond the narrow scope of gadgets, pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a tech blog. We took on gaming, entertainment, politics, culture and science. We acquired the archives and expertise of early digital publishing pioneers like TUAW, Joystiq and gdgt. We moved away from aggregating press releases and started focusing on original reporting, invested heavily in new formats like video and social. Some of those changes paid off; others proved to be a distraction.

Now it’s time to do what we do best. Going forward, we’ll concentrate on the areas where we have the deepest expertise: consumer electronics (“gear”), gaming and entertainment. That doesn’t mean we’ll give up on things like diversity in the tech industry or NASA’s latest milestone, but we’ll be more selective about how we cover culture and science. You’ll also see more of the stuff Engadget built its reputation on: authoritative reporting on the tech industry and the people, products and ideas that power it.

Of course, innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and what happens today can change the course of tomorrow. The future is an exciting and unexpected place and our editors have front-row seats to the action. That’s why, after 13 years in the game, we’re leveraging our history to bring the future into focus. You’ll see more on the next phase of Engadget in the coming months, but in the meantime, allow me to introduce you to the people leading the charge.

Dana Wollman, our former managing editor and the person responsible for our industry-leading gadget reviews, has moved up the masthead to become our executive editor. You can expect her expertise to come in handy as we put the focus back on our core coverage.

Terrence O’Brien, news junkie, voice of the Engadget Podcast and our current managing editor, will remain in his position to oversee our East Coast headquarters. He’ll be joined by resident drone expert and audiophile James Trew, and Mat Smith, previously our man in Japan, who will oversee our West Coast and European operations, respectively.

Senior Editor Aaron Souppouris will be stepping up as features editor in an effort to bring you in-depth, long-form reporting on the topics you care most about. He’s the monster who’s been teaching AI to take our jobs.

Nathan Ingraham is moving up to become our deputy managing editor and will be joined by Senior News Editors Billy Steele and Richard Lawler in steering our daily news efforts. You already have these guys to thank for our 24-hour news coverage, breakneck event updates and liveblogs … all the liveblogs.

Director of Video Production Olivia Kristiansen is the woman who brought you the Webby Award-nominated documentary Super Humans: Inside the World’s First Cyborg Games.

Evan Rodgers, formerly of Vice, The Verge (because everything comes full circle) and a short retreat to the Deep South recently joined us as our social media manager.

Amber Bouman, our community manager, is the one putting the smack down in the comments, so be kind.

And then there’s you. As we look to the future, your input is more important than ever. You can get at us in the comments, on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and wherever quality, ad-supported media is found. We may be strange, but don’t be a stranger.

GoPro’s Fusion spherical camera is six GoPros in one

GoPro has taken the wraps off a spherical camera called Fusion hot on the heels of Facebook’s 360-degree camera launch. Unlike the brand’s other action cams, Fusion is a spherical device that can capture 5.2K resolution VR and non-VR videos and photos. If you want to take a non-VR pic, you can use its OverCapture feature that punches out the composition you want from a spherical image. GoPro founder CEO Nicholas Woodman describes the device as “six GoPro cameras fused into one” and says it “represents the state-of-the-art in versatile spherical capture.”

The company first hinted that it’s working on a consumer-level 360-degree camera in a promo video showing its partnership with MotoGP. It featured a device with back-to-back lenses attached to the back of a motorbike. Woodman also told Engadget at CES earlier this year that he envisions a future where you can “record your activities with one multi-lensed GoPro” and create a matching 2D video for sharing with a phone app. It’s unclear if the Fusion can do that, since GoPro isn’t quite ready to release it yet and has revealed but a few details about the device. We don’t even know if it’ll look like what’s in the image above, though you can see samples of what it can do in the video below.

The company’s pilot partners will be some of the first people to see Fusion in person when the program begins this summer. In fact, GoPro is now accepting applications from professional content creators, brands and agencies who want to test it out. It’s also planning a limited commercial release for the end of 2017 — unfortunately, we can’t say how much you’ll have to set aside, because the company hasn’t revealed its pricing (and exact availability) yet.

Since the device will likely cost more than the Hero models, it won’t be able to replace them right away. An all-seeing camera that allows you to choose the shots you want sounds like the perfect action cam, though. You can go as fast as possible without having to worry about framing shots or getting the most interesting things you see on cam.

Source: GoPro Fusion