Google’s 2019 I/O developer conference has key news on how Google Search and Lens are pushing into deeper phone uses for AR. But what about VR? In a year full of new VR headsets, including Facebook’s Oculus Quest and the Valve Index, plus hardware from HP, Vive and Qualcomm on the horizon, Google’s taking a different …
Read More »Tag Archives: virtual-reality
How Tribeca’s VR award winner The Key made magic out of metaphor
The toy trucks were patched together out of used boxes and Band-Aids. They’re the objects I remember most from the Horgos refugee camp in Serbia. A boy, whose family had lived in the tents there for months already, crafted them so he and his brother would have something to play with. I’d visited the camp in 2016 to learn how …
Read More »The Oculus Quest may be a VR headset you should care about (The 3:59, Ep. 533)
On this podcast, we talk about: CNET’s review of the Oculus Quest mobile VR headset. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasizing privacy as the new direction of his company. Apple’s earnings: iPhone sales drop but wearables and services help results. Now playing: Watch this: The Oculus Quest may be a VR headset you should care… 5:35 The 3:59 gives you bite-size news …
Read More »Facebook’s Oculus Quest heralds VR’s next gen, but will we buy in?
If you list people’s complaints about virtual reality, they usually include how expensive the headsets can be, how clunky they are to connect by wire to a computer, and how there aren’t enough compelling games and apps. Facebook believes it’s about to make a big dent in all that with its new Oculus Quest. Powered by a self-contained onboard computer, …
Read More »Oculus Quest will give life to an emotionally intelligent pink alien fuzzball
Last week, I befriended a fuzzy pink alien that my robot sidekick and I nicknamed Pork Bun. We played fetch around a bonfire and munched on virtual marshmallows. Pork Bun was so charming that, when I had to choose between protecting Pork Bun or saving the human race from extinction, I tacitly left planet Earth to fend for itself to …
Read More »Facebook’s new Oculus Rift S vs. Oculus Quest: Which VR headset is for you?
Facebook has two new VR headsets coming May 21: one is the Oculus Rift S, a new version of the PC-connected Oculus Rift that adds self-contained tracking, a higher-res display and a new design. But there’s also the Oculus Quest, a totally new standalone, self-contained mobile VR system that’s going to arrive at the very same time… for the very same …
Read More »How to preorder Oculus Quest and Rift S right now
At its F8 developer conference this morning, Facebook said starting today you can preorder its Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. The two VR headsets and controllers will ship May 21, the company said. The all-in-one Quest will start at $399 and is a solid step up from the company’s entry-level Oculus Go VR headset — which starts at $199. …
Read More »Oculus Quest and Rift S available for preorder, both at $399, shipping May 21
Oculus ignited people’s interest in virtual reality when it announced a Kickstarter for the Rift headset in 2012, promising high quality VR for $300. Fast-forward seven years, after a more than $2 billion acquisition by Facebook and the 2016 release of the Rift, and Oculus is preparing to launch its next-generation VR headsets. They’re called the Oculus Quest and the …
Read More »Valve Index VR headset to start at $499, ship before July
As if there weren’t enough virtual reality headsets already, game maker Valve is preparing to release its own take on the technology. It may see odd that Valve — whose Steam online game store and popular adventure titles like Half-Life and Portal have made it a household fixture among gamers — is choosing to release its first headset now. The device, called …
Read More »Facebook F8: Messenger, VR, privacy and everything else we expect
Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg uses the F8 developer conference to talk about the future of his social network. This time around, he’ll likely address its current problems. Zuckerberg shares big, hopeful messages. Facebook’s mission, he says, is “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” Devices, like its Oculus line of virtual …
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