Tag Archives: oculus

People will spend a lot more on VR this year, IDC predicts

This year a lot more of us will be spending time wearing augmented and virtual reality headsets. Regardless of a growth slump in 2017, the AR/VR headset market is predicted to increase by 48.5 percent year-over-year to volumes of 12.4 million units, according to market research by IDC. The firm also says headsets will grow …

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HTC Vive Pro: premium VR upgrade costs $799, hits April 5

How much would you pay for high-end VR? HTC is betting $799. (UK and AU prices aren’t available yet, but the equivalent is roughly AU$1,040 or £575 converted.) But there’s a catch: This time, that’s only for part of the package. The HTC Vive Pro, a new PC-connected VR hardware update to the original HTC Vive, was unveiled in January …

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You may have to wait for Oculus Go until Facebook’s May event

Can’t wait till you can buy a relatively inexpensive VR headset that doesn’t need a PC or phone? You may need to wait a tad longer than we originally thought. Variety reports that the $199 Oculus Go headset will launch at Facebook’s F8 developer conference on May 1.  While that’s not technically a delay, it definitely stretches the company’s original …

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Google and LG could be fixing the dreaded ‘screen door’ for your next VR headset

Google and LG are expected to unveil the highest-resolution OLED VR display yet at Display Week in May, according to the event’s program guide (as noted on Monday by Digital Trends.) The two companies are heading a session at the conference entitled “An 18-megapixel, 4.3inch, 1,443 ppi, 120 Hz OLED display for wide field-of-view, high-acuity, head-mounted displays.” That spec equates to …

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Galaxy S9 and Gear VR: How not to break your new phone

The appeal of phone VR is simplicity and affordability: Just use a $100-ish set of goggles and your phone, and you’re set. Samsung gummed that up a bit over the last couple of years by requiring slightly different new models of Gear VR to fit its newer phones, most recently the Note 8 last year. This year, there are a …

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Can’t reach Oculus Runtime Service? How to fix your Rift

Are you locked out of your Oculus Rift? There’s a pretty decent chance you have — Facebook appears to have goofed, and now its Windows-based virtual reality headset is totally unusable. (We confirmed with our own Rifts.) Good news: Your headset isn’t bricked, and there’s now a fix right here. Plus,  Oculus tells us you’ll automatically get a $15 Oculus …

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VR pioneer Chris Milk: Friendship’s the new magic ingredient

When we think about innovations in virtual reality, we often think about technological advances: sleeker headsets, more realistic images, gloves that touch what isn’t there. But for VR luminary Chris Milk, the next step forward is something simpler: hanging out with your friends. Milk is the co-founder, with Aaron Koblin, of VR and multimedia company Within (previously known as Vrse). Between …

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2018 could be the year VR cuts the cord

If you fear trying virtual reality and getting tangled in cords, you’re in luck: 2018 could be your year. The last vestiges of tethered cables may finally be going away. But being wireless isn’t the same thing as being hassle-free. What’s the big deal about wireless VR, you ask? Maybe you have a phone-connected Gear VR, Daydream View or even …

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How AR blurs the line between porn and ‘adult entertainment’

Two years ago, Naughty America made waves at CES with its debut of VR porn — or, to be specific, 180-degree 3D videos viewable on VR headsets. Riding the coattails of upcoming VR hardware like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, it was a return to the risque days when CES overlapped with the adult-themed AVN (Adult Video News) show, making …

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Occipital Tracking maps rooms so VR can involve less tripping

When wandering around with a VR headset on, I’m afraid of going too far without someone to spot me. The reason is simple: I can’t really see where I’m going. Odds of tripping over a chair or a table are extremely high. One company seems to have tried to solve that problem, and I tried out the result deep in …

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