Virtual reality is still in its early days as a mass medium, but the dawn of VR subscriptions is now here. On Wednesday, VR studio Wevr launched the first subscription model for VR content with $8 and $20 annual membership levels, in an update to its viewing app called Transport. Wevr is one of several …
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Oculus CEO steps down to lead new PC virtual reality group
Oculus is shaking things up. Brendan Iribe, CEO of the Facebook-owned virtual reality company, said Tuesday he’s leaving the top job to lead a new division within the company. Oculus will be split into two groups: one focused on developing VR that’s powered by personal computers, and one for VR that’s powered by mobile phones. Iribe said he’ll be leading …
Read More »Michael Fassbender: VR will change the whole medium of film
Michael Fassbender is stoked about virtual reality. That’s no surprise, given that he stars in “Assassin’s Creed,” a film about reliving the memories of your parkour-loving ancestor through a machine called the Animus. It’s like VR, but taken to an insane nth degree. (The filmmakers also worked on an Assassin’s Creed virtual reality experience.) Aguilar (Michael Fassbender) lets his sword …
Read More »Apple in 2017: Biggest year ever?
If you thought Apple’s last couple of years were big, just wait for 2017. The launch of the large-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in late 2014 sent Apple’s fortunes soaring. Apple became the most profitable company in the world, and the following year, with the 6S and 6S Plus, was even bigger. But enthusiasm waned in 2016 — iPhone …
Read More »Facebook to launch 360
Facebook wants you to step inside live videos. The social network on Monday announced plans to release a 360-degree live video feature. That means viewers will be able to look up, down and around in videos that are being streamed live on Facebook. Live video has been crucial for Facebook as the social network tries to get people to spend …
Read More »Dell drops prices on ‘Green Monday’ laptops
While Best Buy, HP and others are offering some surprisingly steep “Green Monday” discounts (what, you’ve never heard of “Green Monday“?), the deals being offered by Dell are not especially exciting, and most hover between 8 and 15 percent off regular prices. That said, a couple of these caught my eye. Alienware 13 R3 (OLED): $1,849My favorite gaming laptop of …
Read More »My favorite laptops of 2016
Now playing: Watch this: Our favorite laptops of 2016 1:45 While 2016 may not have had a lot of highlights for many people, it was at least a good year for laptops. We saw the first systems with OLED displays (something you really have to see in person to appreciate); gaming laptops that could handle VR hardware without being as …
Read More »Occipital Bridge turns an iPhone into a mixed
Now playing: Watch this: This VR/AR headset uses your iPhone to make mixed reality 1:00 Odds are, you might have tried VR. But maybe you’re not as familiar with “augmented reality” or “mixed reality” headsets that blend virtual things into actual reality, like Microsoft’s HoloLens does. That could change once more affordable phone accessories start to arrive. Occipital Bridge is …
Read More »Google is searching for hardware love
When you want answers fast, chances are you think of Google: What’s the name of Prince’s third album? How tall is the Empire State Building? How long is a flight from San Francisco to New Orleans? That seemingly infinite breadth of knowledge made Google one of the most powerful companies on the planet. Now, the internet giant is hoping that …
Read More »Virtual reality gets a little more grown
Never mind that consumers are actually starting to buy into all the virtual reality hype. An industry isn’t an official industry until it has its own acronym-ready association. Enter the Global Virtual Reality Association, or GVRA, which arrived officially on Wednesday. It’s made up for now of six competing headset manufacturers — Acer Starbreeze, Google, HTC Vive, Facebook’s Oculus, Samsung …
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