How serious are you about virtual reality?
The absolute best/worst virtual reality stock photo we could find
Are you prepared to dedicate a room in your house to virtual reality? Perhaps you’re a little less crazy than me, but you’re okay with a wire running across your living room to a headset? Or maybe both of those sound crazy to you, but a headset that can plug into your phone is okay?
These are the emerging options for virtual reality: a medium finally coming into its own, that’s poised to disrupt industries and hairdos the world over.
Polygon‘s Ben Kuchera sent me this fascinating piece last week, written by Robert McGregor, which compares virtual reality to swimming pools. Stay with me. The long and short of the analogy is this: Both concepts are incredibly compelling, and both require a very serious investment for maximum impact. You can have fun with a kiddie pool (Google Cardboard), but you can have a lot more fun with a multi-level, ornate swimming pool (HTC Vive).
With VR, as it stands right now, there are distinct tiers. I’ve broken out four here, but I’d love to hear arguments for more distinct tiers. And no, I’m not including augmented reality solutions; VR and AR are, currently, distinct mediums.
TIER 1: Google Cardboard
The kiddie pool analogy with Cardboard is apt: It offers a great taste of VR, with none of the comfort, fidelity or depth that other headsets offer. It also costs next to nothing and works with nearly any phone (Android, and some apps also support iOS). The benefits of Cardboard are ease-of-use (accessibility) and price (accessibility).
It is the ultimate trade-off of low barrier to entry versus depth of experience — no one is spending more than 15 minutes in a Cardboard. Zero people. Even if you could, you wouldn’t; go figure, it’s not that comfortable pushing a piece of cardboard to your face.
Those aren’t knocks against Cardboard, but a comparative measurement. Putting someone in Cardboard remains the easiest way to give an interested person a quick VR demo. That cannot be oversold: Cardboard is very easy, and that’s a crucial component for the adoption of a new medium. It works with basically any smartphone! There aren’t any headstraps or controllers! It doesn’t cost very much money!
And hey, if you’d never experienced a pool of water, a kiddie pool is a pretty exciting first experience.
TIER 2: Gear VR
One gigantic step up from Cardboard, in both experience and cost, is Samsung’s Gear VR. The South Korean phone giant teamed with Facebook-owned Oculus VR on a phone-powered experience that offloads some functionality to the headset: a touchpad, a gyrometer and lenses (among other bits). There’s a strap, and you’ll need to do some fiddling to get it set up, but it’s mostly plug-and-play with your Galaxy Note 4 phone (and soon the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge as well).
Sure, you need to own a very expensive, brand-new phone to use Gear VR. And sure, you need to shell out another $200 to buy the headset. And yeah, after that, real games cost money in Gear VR. But the games are such a tremendous step up in depth and engagement from the experiences you get with something like Cardboard that it’s all worth it.
If we’re sticking to McGregor’s simile, Gear VR is the gym/sports club membership that grants you regular access to a swimming pool. A full, real pool! But it’s not yours and there’s limited access and other people are in it and whatever else. There’s no depth-tracking in Gear VR, and your experiences are limited by the Note 4’s processing power, but it’s a great second step in the VR continuum. And a pretty accessible one at that!
TIER 3: Morpheus
Yet another massive step up from Gear VR and similar experiences is Sony’s Project Morpheus: a highly capable VR headset with a high-res built-in screen, powered by the fairly capable PlayStation 4 game console. We’re getting into “I’m buying an out-of-ground pool” territory here.
With Morpheus, when it launches in 2016, you’ll need:
- A PlayStation 4 game console
- A PlayStation 4 camera
- A Morpheus headset
- Space to run a wire from your PlayStation 4 to the Morpheus processing box — a separate, small unit that has onboard processing and acts as a go-between from the console to the headset
- Space to run a wire from the processing box to the headset
- (Optional) PlayStation Move controllers
Ideally, you’ll also have some space to move around, and nothing getting in the way of any wires. This is a much more serious commitment to VR, and one that’s going to pay off tremendously in terms of experience.
Project Morpheus just got an update this week at the Game Developers Conference, where Sony revealed beefed-up specs and new software demos. The experiences you’re able to have in Morpheus are far deeper than in Gear VR: I ducked and dodged bullets in The London Heist, and my colleague Joseph banged his head into the wall dodging a murderous shark.
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Not only is it a gorgeous screen, but also the PlayStation 4 is simply capable of delivering more processor-intensive experiences. The camera tracks movement in three dimensions and Move controllers approximate hands far better than anything you can use with Gear VR. Morpheus is admittedly limited by the PlayStation 4 hardware, but that’s a pretty high limit.
TIER 4: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and bleeding-edge VR
Call up the construction crew and go all in: It’s fantasy pool time. If you’re getting Oculus VR’s Rift or HTC and Valve’s Vive, get ready to dedicate a full room in your home to VR. Or maybe you’ve got a massive open area with a spare 15 x 15-foot chunk?
Wherever that space is, get ready to outfit it with a bleeding-edge PC. It’s not required, but why bother going this far and not all the way? The trade-off here is that every single time you use it, you’re going to be transported.
What Oculus and Valve are promising is the future of the medium: presence. I spent five minutes this week walking around and painting in three dimensions, with a virtual palette in one hand and a magical paintbrush in the other. It was an unbelievable experience, like nothing I’ve ever done before. I could have the same experience on the previously discussed VR solutions, but none would compare in depth.
Valve’s tracking solution — Lighthouse — enables an incredible ability to interact with the virtual world. While wearing HTC’s Vive, I was able to carefully articulate strokes in between a flower’s petals. It felt real. It was eerie.
For me, that is “presence.” The sense that I am actually somewhere else, not just allowing my brain to be tricked into believing I’m somewhere else. So I’m all in. I’m getting the in-ground pool. How serious are you about virtual reality?
Don’t miss out on all the latest from GDC 2015! Follow along at our events page right here.
[Image credit: Mediacolors/Alamy (stock lead image)
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wearables, Software, HD, Mobile, Samsung, Sony, HTC, Google, Facebook
Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google team up to support marriage equality
A total of 379 companies, including tech’s biggest names, are trying to convince the Supreme Court to rule in favor of nationwide marriage equality. These corporations, including Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have filed an amici curiae or a friend-of-the-court brief prior to the high court’s April hearing that will decide the future of same-sex marriage in the US. The court is slated to discuss whether same-sex couples have the constitutional right to get married anywhere in the country. In case that doesn’t pan out, the court will also discuss whether same-sex marriages performed in states where it’s legal must be recognized even in states where it’s not. If you read the filing, you’ll see the companies emphasize repeatedly how marriage equality benefits American businesses.
They listed a number of ways how, such as that it will allow them to offer everyone the same benefits to entice top talent. It can also prevent employees from leaving and moving to states that recognize their marriage. Diversity in the workplace, brought in part by members of the LGBT community, is “crucial to innovation and marketplace success,” the companies’ wrote.
We’ve pasted parts of the filing below that explain their stance in greater detail (emphasis ours):
Some of the states in which amici (the 379 companies) do business make marriage equally available to all of our employees and colleagues; others prohibit marriages between couples of the same sex and refuse to recognize existing same-sex marriages. This dual regime burdens amici. It creates legal uncertainty and imposes unnecessary costs and administrative complexities on employers, and requires differential employer treatment of employees who are similarly situated save for the state where they reside.
State laws that prohibit or decline to recognize marriages between same-sex couples hamper employer efforts to recruit and retain the most talented workforce possible in those states. Our successes depend upon the welfare and morale of all employees, without distinction. The burden imposed by inconsistent and discriminatory state laws of having to administer complicated schemes to account for differential treatment of similarly situated employees breeds unnecessary confusion, tension, and diminished employee morale.
A diverse, inclusive workplace environment increases the total human energy available to the organization. People can bring far more of themselves to their jobs because they are required to suppress far less. Inclusive companies are more open to new ideas and opportunities, while less prone to overconfidence when approaching challenges. Companies that are diverse and inclusive obtain better profits and other outputs, thanks to improved team collaboration and commitment.
Aside from the Big Four, other tech companies in the list include Amazon, Comcast, Cisco, DocuSign, Dropbox, eBay, EA, GE, HP, Intel, Oracle, Qualcomm Incorporated, Symantec, Twitter, Verizon, Xerox and Zynga. There are multi-national corporations from other industries, as well, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Walt Disney and United Airlines. You can see the full list in the amici curiae document, along with links to the studies the group used to back their arguments.
[Image credit: Shutterstock / govicinity]
Filed under: Misc, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook
Via: The Verge
Source: Morgan Lewis
New update to Slingshot app lets you interact with new users around the globe
Facebook has issued a new update to the Slingshot application which now makes user discovery less cumbersome. The app now gets a new “Explore” option which lets you discover people around the globe.
It’s much like Snapchat, which is Slingshot’s primary industry rival. If you’re worried much about privacy, you can turn off the Explore feature from the settings to be left out from results.
Once you tap Explore and if you like what you see there, you can choose to follow the particular user or simply check out what other users have to offer. It’s a very handy discovery feature, which will ensure that your experience with the app is enhanced.
Here’s what Facebook had to say about the new addition – “Explore is a place to discover funny, inspiring and creative people from across the globe. It features popular people who are active on Slingshot. You can view their shots and then decide who you want to follow. If you don’t want to be featured in Explore, you can turn on Approve Followers in Settings.”
Source: Slingshot Blog
Come comment on this article: New update to Slingshot app lets you interact with new users around the globe
Facebook’s Slingshot lets you explore and follow popular user accounts
As much as you’d like to give Facebook’s Slingshot a try, most of your friends still prefer Snapchat, huh? If you don’t mind slinging photos or videos with strangers, the app’s new Explore feature can help connect you to people who do use it regularly. It shows a list of popular users you can follow, so you can finally get to enjoy what the app can do. In case you are one of those popular users and would rather not be hounded by strangers sick of Snapchat, though, simply switch on “Approve Followers” in your settings page. This update also comes with bug fixes and an easier way to follow someone while viewing their entries, and it’s now live for both iOS and Android users.
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Facebook Slingshot
Have you noticed: The Facebook app for Android devours battery life like nothing else
If you have an Android smartphone, and you’re relatively tech conscious, it’s pretty likely that you’ll have the Facebook app for Android on your device. Facebook‘s app has always been a little unusual compared to the other social media apps, but it’s made great strides in recent times to bridge that gap and create a smoother, […]
The post Have you noticed: The Facebook app for Android devours battery life like nothing else appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Pebble sets a new record, net neutrality passes and other stories you might’ve missed!
Pebble beats its own record, Motorola confirms what we already knew about the Moto E and Facebook takes a break from the sillier aspects of its site to get serious about mental health. Basically, we’ve got everything you need to know from this past week in one neat little package. Won’t you catch up with us?
The top 11 tablets you can buy today
If you like to take your tech on the go (or even just to the couch), a tablet is usually a good gadget to have on hand. Not sure which one is best for you? We’ve rounded up 11 that we think are excellent choices.
Pebble returns to Kickstarter for its next-gen color smartwatch
Three years ago, Pebble made Kickstarter history with its smartwatch. Now, with a new color display and other features, the company is besting its own crowdfunding records. We explain what’s made the brand so popular in this breakdown of the wearable’s triumphant return.
I got a connected surveillance camera, but used it mainly as a puppycam
If peace of mind is important when it comes to your home, a connected surveillance system might be just what you need to feel secure. We gave Withings Home HD camera a try to find out if it’s worth the $200 price tag.
What you need to know about HTTP/2
The familiar four letters — HTTP — in your address bar are getting a behind-the-scenes makeover. The current version has been the same since 1999, but in case that date alone isn’t reason enough for an upgrade, we explain why you’ll soon be using HTTP/2.
Here’s what we know about Magic Leap so far
We know it’s a blend of augmented and virtual reality, but the rest of the specs behind Magic Leap are shrouded in mystery. We’ve amassed all of the information available on the project to find out why companies like Google are dropping half a billion dollars to invest in it.
Motorola’s budget Moto E gets LTE, a quad-core CPU, and more storage
It’s official: Motorola is releasing a bigger and better budget phone. We go hands-on with the updated Moto E — now with LTE — to break down its new specs.
Facebook rolls out new tools to help prevent suicides
Social media has become an outlet for for many, whether that means sharing exciting life changes or issuing a cry for help. When it comes to the latter, Facebook is stepping up its policies and introducing new suicide prevention efforts.
FCC approves net neutrality rules, reclassifies broadband as a utility
Both mobile and home-based broadband are now classified as a public utility thanks to new rules from the Federal Communications Commission. This marks a huge milestone for those in support of a free and open internet.
Adult Themes: The rise and fall of America’s first digital brothel
RealTouch Interactive lets consenting users “have sex” with each other over the internet. But it’s going out of business — not because of moral protests — because of patent licensing.
Happy net neutrality day! Here are some llamas and a dress
As our Engagement Editor John Colucci stated on Thursday night, “Twitter was on fleek today.” Join us as we take a minute to celebrate the glorious and sometimes ridiculous platform that is the internet.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Wearables, Internet
Oculus offering up a $1 million prize pool for Gear VR development challenge
Oculus has announced a new competition for developers with a fairly massive prize pool for great games or experiences. The challenge is focused around Samsung’s Gear VR, and the prize pool totals up to $1 million. There a few different awards, with the top game netting 200k, the top app or experience taking home 100k, and a few steps below that with different variations of prize money. Games are obviously the central focus here, but quality apps are still getting some recognition, which is good to see.
The development jam kicks off on April 13th and runs through May 11th with a few different milestones for the apps and games spaced out throughout the month. Winners get announced in June.
If you had any doubts about whether or not you’d see companies take virtual reality headsets seriously, this should answer your question. Samsung looks like they’re going to try to make VR as mainstream as possible, and Oculus isn’t afraid to throw money at advancing the technology, especially now that they’ve got access to Facebook’s deep pockets.
source: Challenge Post
via: Engadget
Come comment on this article: Oculus offering up a $1 million prize pool for Gear VR development challenge
5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly
Welcome back to Android Apps Weekly! Here are the headlines!
- Google Play developers from 12 new countries can sell apps now!
- Pebble Watches now support Android Wear apps which is great news if you own one.
- Facebook is officially working on VR apps which is either exciting or terrible.
- Google Helpouts will be closing its doors on April 20th, 2015.
- Xposed Framework has officially been released on Lollipop but beware, it’s quite buggy.
For more headlines, app updates, and app release news, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter! I curate it myself every week and we’ll never send you any spam or ridiculousness. Just app news, app releases, and app updates straight to your email every Friday!
Subscribe to our Android Apps Weekly newsletter!
VLC
[Price: Free]
VLC is releasing an update soon to version 3.0 and with it will come big changes. The biggest of which will be Chromecast support. That means very soon, Chromecast users will have a powerful media player in their arsenal. The update isn’t out yet but it should be coming sometime soon.
Monkey King Escape
[Price: Free with in app purchases]
Monkey King Escape is a new infinite runner out of Ubisoft that features some colorful graphics, fun cartoons, and of course, that always addictive infinite runner style. It’s fairly run of the mill when compared to others, but it’s still a great game for kids and adults who love animals.
Pushbullet
[Price: Free]
Pushbullet received a huge update this last week. Now, on top of text messages, you can also respond to Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and Google Hangouts messages on your computer. This is the update that a lot of people have been waiting for and really helps augment an already strong set of features from Pushbullet.
Draw Slasher by Mass Creation
[Price: $2.99]
Draw Slasher was a popular game on the PS Vita console and last week it saw an official Android release. It’s an action-adventure hack and slash game where you swipe to slash up bad guys. It’s a paid game but there are no in app purchases which is quite refreshing.
Do Button by IFTTT
[Price: Free]
Do Button by IFTTT is a new app from the same great minds that brought us, you guess it, IFTTT. This allows you to create a button that does whatever you want when you press it. Simply create the recipe and then whenever you tap the button, your device will do the things you want. It’s also totally free.
Wrap up
If we missed any great Android apps and games news, let us know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter!
Oh boy: Facebook for mobile lets you add stickers to photos
Well, here’s a nice Facebook feature for the more fun-loving users: the social network now lets you add stickers to photos before you even post them from an iPhone or an Android device. The social network launched a separate sticker app in December, but that one’s only for pictures to be sent through Messenger. Also, its built-in stickers were only for use in private messages and the comments section, prompting anyone who wanted cute accoutrements in their pictures to turn to third-party apps. Now, you’ll see a small icon at the bottom of each uploaded image, which you can click to see all the stickers you can use. These graphics can be resized, rotated, moved to another location — or just straight up deleted if you change your mind. Sure, go on and roll your eyes at the news, but we promise you teens and tweens will eat this up: cue the rise of super-kawaii, sticker-ridden Facebook selfies.
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Facebook
Source: iTunes, Google Play
Pushbullet now lets users reply to Hangouts, WhatsApp, and others from PC
If you’re a user of Pushbullet, then the latest update brings about some good news to improve the functionality from a PC. You can reply to Hangout, Whatsapp, and other supported app notifications right from your PC desktop.
WhatsApp, Telegram, Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, and Line are currently supported and all you have to do is hit the ‘Reply’ button on the notification.
Drop us a comment below to let us know what you think of the update.
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