If you’ve ever felt like VR headsets weren’t high-res enough, I’m here to tell you I’ve seen the solution. I’ve finally tried a headset that reached retina display. And you can try it too… if you have $6,000. Up in a hotel suite at the Mandarin Oriental here in New York, I slid on the …
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With Magic Leap, your entertainment may get real weird real quick
At the Sundance Film Festival, I unintentionally slayed a rat in a child’s bedroom, summoning experimental pop star Poppy to foment a rodent uprising. I faced an ultimatum to either sacrifice myself or kill a boy held in a cage behind a hidden panel in the wall. Like a live child actor blinking at me from behind bars. Poppy, the …
Read More »Sundance shows off a new trend of AR, VR (The 3:59, Ep. 514)
On this podcast, we talk about: Augmented and virtual reality at Sundance using body movements to make experiences feel more natural. Net neutrality’s day in court. Super Bowl ads with tech and geek appeal. The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, brought to you by the CNET News team in New York …
Read More »Can Disney make VR relevant? (The 3:59, Ep. 510)
On this podcast, we talk about: Disney’s plans for a second VR short film. The many work and companion robots shown at CES 2019. What Samsung may name its new foldable phone. Now playing: Watch this: Can Disney make VR relevant? (The 3:59, Ep. 510) 4:25 The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, …
Read More »Oculus Quest feels like the Nintendo Switch of VR
I missed traveling to Facebook’s Oculus Connect developer conference last fall, where the upcoming Oculus Quest was first announced and demoed. The standalone headset is expected in the spring, and it’ll cost $400 all-in with the headset and controllers. (That price is roughly £300 or AU$560.) And unlike current PC-based VR gear, no annoying wall sensors or other accessories are …
Read More »Oculus’ VR time
I ended up in an absurdist maze world yesterday. A bemused godlike creature helped me find the back entrance to his nightclub, “The Under,” in the hull of an overturned ship. On stage, a green-skinned lounge performer sang and danced with her drumming skeleton sidekick, Tina. When a cruise-boat captain ran up to me and touched my hand, I teleported …
Read More »The eye
I knew the Vive headset I was wearing was too tight. This was the HTC Vive Pro Eye, a new model introduced at CES this month in Las Vegas, that adds full-on eye-tracking. It’s otherwise very similar to the existing high-end Vive Pro headset that HTC introduced in 2018. I’ve gone through enough eye-tracking setups to know that it would work …
Read More »NordicTrack’s VR fitness bike wore me out at CES
I’ll never forget riding a flying horse in VR while pedaling a bicycle and nearly wanting to throw up. That happened years ago when I tried VirZoom, a low-cost stationary bike that worked with fitness games and both mobile and console VR headsets. VR and fitness biking can be a rough mix. NordicTrack aims to do Virzoom one better with a …
Read More »VR needs more Disney
Somewhere in a labyrinth of simulated Venetian canals in a Las Vegas mall, there’s a slick-looking glowing storefront that’s easy to miss. THE VOID, it says in large letters. Star Wars stormtroopers beckon from the windows. We’ve come to climb inside Disney’s Ralph Breaks The Internet movie at CES 2019, courtesy of The Void’s location-based VR experience, “Ralph Breaks VR,” …
Read More »Penn Jillette’s magical advice for keeping healthy at CES 2019: Just give up
I loved watching Penn and Teller when I was young. Inexplicably, I threw up as a kid during one of their shows, and then I remember meeting them in the lobby and how they made me love magic. I still practice tricks and think about how magic bends reality. Penn Jillette also lost over a hundred pounds in 2016 after …
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