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Opinion: I’m now a VR believer, and Google’s Tilt Brush app is particularly breathtaking

Late last week, I got a chance to give HTC Vive a test run at the Big Android BBQ in Hurst, Texas. I feel almost ashamed to say this, but I hadn’t even touched virtual reality at all — besides Google Cardboard, of course — until Friday. And while this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to those out there that have already played with devices like Oculus and Vive in the past, I’m absolutely, completely, thoroughly, fully, a believer in virtual reality. Here’s how it went down…
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Google picks up 360° photography startup Digisfera to bolster Street View

Digisfera, a startup that prides itself in “photography, design, and development services for projects involving 360° images,” has been acquired by Google. Financial details of the deal haven’t been revealed, but Digisfera’s website has been updated to reflect the acquisition and states that the group is joining the Street View team at Google to “continue building great experiences using 360° photography.”

Here’s the full statement from the team:

We’re excited to share that Digisfera is joining Google. We started Digisfera almost five years ago and have had the opportunity to work in many interesting projects involving 360º photography over the years. We’re excited to join the Street View team at Google to continue building great experiences using 360° photography.

As we move on to our next adventure, it will no longer be possible for us to keep developing PanoTag, so it is being discontinued. We are planning to open-source our Marzipano viewer in the coming weeks and hope this will benefit the panoramic photography community.

The Portugal-based startup, according to reports, has been part of capturing many significant moments in panoramic photography, including Barack Obama’s inauguration, landmarks in Rio de Janeiro during the 2014 World Cup, and parts of the 2014 Winter Olympics. These skills are going to hopefully translate to making Street View a better product and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think that Digisfera could contribute to Cardboard technology as well.

The company says it plans to open-source its Marzipano panorama viewing software.

 

 

Google Cardboard expands to 39 languages in 100 countries as SDKs get updates

Google is going global with its affordable Virtual Reality platform. The Mountain View company has announced today that its Google Cardboard app is now available in 39 languages across 100 countries, and that the Cardboard developer documentation is also now published in 10 languages to help even more developers build Cardboard experiences…
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Google’s standalone Street View app adds Google Cardboard support in latest update

If you aren’t yet aware, Google released a standalone Street View app for Android last month — and with it comes a showcase of all the best Street View imagery right at your fingertips. While previous versions of the app have allowed you to use your phone’s gyroscope to look at the Street View photography in 3D, the latest version of the app brings a great feature for VR fans: Google Cardboard support…

To access the feature, all you have to do is make sure you have the latest version of the app (which is rolling out now on Google Play, and alternatively available now over at APKMirror). Once you open the app, all you have to do is navigate your way to a view that you’d like to look at, rotate your phone 90 degrees, and tap the new Google Cardboard icon at the top-right of the screen.

 

OnePlus’ Google Cardboard viewer is now available for $0 + shipping

One of the biggest reasons of going with cardboard for Google Cardboard was to get these viewers into the hands of as many people as possible. But while many vendors are selling their Cardboard viewers for around $20 (and up), OnePlus has decided to sell its new viewer—which will help you watch the VR launch of the company’s next handset—for just $0 plus shipping. And it’s available now.


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OnePlus giving away Cardboard headsets to 1,000 lucky individuals

OnePlus is a small, exciting Android OEM (original equipment manufacturer) doing practically everything different. Just a few days ago they announced that the OnePlus 2, the next generation of the OnePlus One, will be unveiled on July 27th in a live-stream conducted using 360-degree virtual reality cameras. And to make sure as many people as possible can watch, they’re now giving away 1,000 of their own in-house Cardboard (the Google specification for how to build a cheap VR headset) headsets to lucky fans.
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Double Review: The G2 & P2 are two great Google Cardboard viewers from DODOcase (Giveaway!)

DODOcase is known for their cases, but you may not have known that they also make a line of Google Cardboard viewers (which I guess could also be considered “cases” using a looser definition of the word). A couple of newly-revised viewers, models G2 and P2, are scheduled to start shipping in the next few weeks, and we thought we would give them a look. And while we can’t say that DODOcase is bringing anything revolutionary or groundbreaking to the VR scene with these pieces of cardboard, they’re definitely good options if you’re wanting to get started with Cardboard-enabled apps…
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Adult Swim will send you a free Google Cardboard viewer… if you fax them a form

All of the attendees of Google I/O this year (myself included) got the latest version of the Mountain View company’s Cardboard virtual reality headset for free—and now it looks like you can too. To promote their “Adult Swim Virtual Brainload” app, Adult Swim is trying to put a free Cardboard viewer in the hands of as many people as they can. But there’s only one catch: You have to fax them a form.
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Dodocase announces two new $25 Google Cardboard VR viewers

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Dodocase has long been a supporter of Google’s Cardboard initiative, and at I/O this morning a variety of new features were announced concerning the VR platform. Dodocase has now revealed two new virtual reality viewer designs this evening following Google’s announcements earlier. Dodocase is now offering the G2 Viewer and the P2 Viewer for $24.95 each.


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Google Cardboard VR viewer updated for bigger phones, now supports iOS

Google revealed today at the I/O conference that its Cardboard viewer for creating virtual reality experiences easily from Android apps will now support the iPhone for the first time.

The added support for the iPhone comes as Google has added support for iOS to its Cardboard SDK for developers. This means that iPhone apps can now include virtual reality experiences when paired with the Cardboard viewer.

In addition to adding support for iOS, Google is releasing an updated version of its Cardboard view that supports larger phones with up to 6-inch displays. The new version also features an improved input button and can be assembled in just three steps rather than twelve.

Google Cardboard for iPhone is available on the App Store. Cardboard Viewer is available to buy from $19.99 through Google, although the company also offers instructions for building your own viewer.

Google announces ‘Works with Google Cardboard’ program to unify third-party viewers

Google Cardboard is getting pretty popular, and Google has today announced a new program called “Works with Google Cardboard” that unifies all the third-party viewers that have cropped up with a cute little orange badge. But beyond the visual representation of the program, it’s an attempt by Google to bring together the various variants of Cardboard and make sure they’ll all work with the many available Cardboard apps (and app developers can play along, too)…


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Google reportedly working on Android-based virtual reality platform

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Google is planning to jump into the virtual reality software game in a big way, the Wall Street Journal said today. The company is said to have “tens of engineers” working on a new project to build a VR platform based on the Android operating system. Like the smartphone version of Android, Google’s VR software will reportedly be available for free to hardware makers.

The virtual reality hardware market is growing at a speedy pace, started by Facebook’s purchase of Oculus last year. Oculus and Samsung teamed up to create a VR headset late last year, and smartphone manufacturer HTC partnered with gaming company Valve to build their own device called the Vive. Each of these devices run their own proprietary software.


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Take a virtual reality world tour with Google Maps for Android and Google Cardboard

The world’s cheapest virtual reality headset may be just a bit of fun by Google, but the company hasn’t just put it out there and forgotten about it. An easter egg in Google Maps for Android lets you use Google Cardboard to take a virtual reality tour of places like the world’s tallest building – Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

Double-tap the navigation icon bottom-right to activate VR mode, then view through Google Cardboard.

Google recently announced that half a million people are using Cardboard as it offered new SDKs to software developers and opened a dedicated section of the Google play store for cardboard apps.

Google announces Android/Unity SDKs for Cardboard VR headset, dedicated Play Store section

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Google today announced some updates for its Google Cardboard virtual reality experience that it says is now in the hands of around 500k people since launching in June (not including unofficial versions). The main updates include new SDKs for developers building experiences on Android and Unity and a dedicated section for virtual reality Cardboard apps in the Google Play store.
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PSA: Google Cardboard is also compatible with iPhone (Video)

If you’re not familiar with Google Cardboard, it’s one of the most affordable and portable VR (virtual reality) headsets to date. It’s a very simple creation in terms of design and functionality, but provides a solid look into the future of technology without breaking the bank.

Google unveiled Cardboard at I/O 2014, but it was designed with Android devices in mind. The official Cardboard app is nowhere to be found on Apple’s App Store, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost for iOS users. Google may not care about iOS as a platform, but stereoscopic 3D is nothing new. In fact, there is a good handful of apps available for iOS that are also compatible with Google Cardboard…


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Google I/O attendees will receive Cardboard and a pair of smartwatches

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Google I/O is all about developers and while revealing that Mountain View has paid out over $5 billion to devs since last year’s show, Sundar Pichai took the time to thank the people building products on Mountain View’s platforms. As the Android boss prepared to wrap up today’s keynote, he acknowledged that developers don’t make the trip to I/O just to talk about statistics and that they also attend the event to get their hands on the latest gadgets.


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