Virtual reality is a growing market, and one of the best places to find content for it is through YouTube. Unfortunately, the popular Oculus ecosystem hasn’t supported YouTube VR. That is, until now, as today it’s been announced that Google’s service is coming to the $199 Oculus Go in the near future.
Chrome 66 rolled out earlier this week with a new password export feature and restrictions to when media can autoplay. On Windows, this update also adds support to view web-based virtual reality apps through an Oculus VR headset.
Oculus has today announced that it’s adding Chromecast support to its app for Gear VR. With the latest version of the app, you can simultaneously stream everything you’re experiencing in your headset to a TV…
As rumored, Samsung and Oculus have announced an updated version of their Gear VR headset at MWC today. The notable highlights are lens optimizations and the addition of a motion and touch controller, much like Google Daydream, for easier game interactions.
Several days ago former Google executive, Hugo Barra, announced that he would be stepping down from his position as Global Vice President of Xiaomi. In his post on Facebook, Barra said that he had plans to come back to Silicon Valley but did not give any specifics. Tonight, Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, has announced that Barra will be joining Facebook and leading its VR efforts…
I’ve long be intrigued about the potential of virtual reality, and as such, I’ve been dying to try the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. Sadly, I’ve yet to have the opportunity to try either.
I humbly settled on Google Cardboard, which is a nice novelty, but a less than ideal experience. For all that Google Cardboard lacked, it made it clear that VR is more than just a passing fad, and that it features some serious potential.
Google Cardboard, for all of its merits, doesn’t do the idea of VR justice. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend ~$1500 to enjoy a proper VR experience. Samsung’s Gear VR, an idea brought to reality via a partnership with VR pioneer Oculus, is a legitimate VR experience that makes me downright excited about the future of this technology.
Gear VR is far from perfect, but it’s a huge upgrade over Google Cardboard, and cheap enough to where the masses can both experience and validate it.
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Samsung’s Gear 360 video camera leaked a few weeks ago, and today it’s official. Until now the idea of owning a camera that can capture video and images in a VR-compatible 360-degree format may have been a foreign concept to most, but Samsung is really taking a stab at bringing VR content to the mainstream with this offering….
Back at its event in August, when it launched the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge plus, Samsung also unveiled the first consumer-focussed Gear VR headset. The ‘Innovator Edition’ tag has been dropped, and you can now pre-order the latest version of the Samsung Gear VR from Best Buy for $99. It’s compatible with all the latest flagship Samsung Galaxy products including the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5.
Samsung built the new Gear VR to be lighter and more comfortable to wear than its predecessor. It’s built with flexible padding, has an easy-to-use touchpad on the side, and ships with a 16GB microSD card loaded with 3D movie trailers and 360-degree videos to enjoy right out of the box.
Multiple companies are aiming to transform the way we view multimedia with virtual reality. Samsung partnered with Oculus to create an affordable, smartphone-powered headset, while Google developed the even more budget-friendly Cardboard. HTC went more high end with its Vive (which is yet to be released), and of course, there’s Oculus’ own-brand set among others. Even YouTube recently updated its Android app to enhance it with VR content and site-wide Cardboard compatibility.
In short, companies are seeing VR as the next step in multimedia and are betting big to make it happen. Whether or not the Gear VR becomes a lasting or memorable part of that move is yet to be seen.
The new Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2, or DK2 for short, started shipping this week; and as the first units begin arriving to eager gamers and developers alike, iFixIt has posted the first teardown of the device. If you don’t know much about the new DK2, its most prominent upgrade over the first edition Rift is its new, 1080P display. Speculation grew as to exactly what panel Oculus would use for the new DK2, but the teardown from iFixIt reveals in fact that the display has been provided by Samsung.
Samsung is reportedly developing its own VR headset, a device that will be similar in many ways to the Oculus Rift, for use with its flagship Galaxy smartphones and tablets (via Engadget). This headset is apparently separate from the “Galaxy Glass” project that is slated to be unveiled later this year.
The VR headset is being described as a peripheral, as opposed to a stand-alone product, and will require a connection to a Samsung device in order to function.
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