oculus

What's in a name? If you ask the folks over at Facebook and Oculus, probably nothing much. It is, after all, just a formal name change and it's business as usual for the R&D group. But you don't make a big fuss about name changes like that unless it's really something big. In this case, it isn't just a simple realignment of branding but also a reminder that Facebook owns one of the two biggest VR platforms in the market and it isn't afraid to use it.

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Change is in the air over at Oculus today. Facebook and Oculus have announced that Oculus Research will be operate under the banner of Facebook Reality Labs moving forward. This name change doesn't really mean anything for the company's research and development operations, but it does show us that Facebook is beginning to take AR and VR more and more seriously.

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This afternoon Oculus revealed a new VR headset - a prototype called Half Dome. This new headset isn't necessarily a replacement for any previous headset - it's a testing ground for what's to come. This new headset project was revealed at F8, Facebook's developer conference, where other VR and social networking projects of all sorts were also revealed as they are each year.

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Facebook announced they'd be collaborating with RED Digital Cinema to create a 6DoF camera. That's 6 degrees of freedom, a term which encapsulates the essence of the current must-have features for believable, usable virtual reality experiences. "Over the past year, we’ve worked to realize the next phase of our x6 and x24 6DoF capture prototypes and set out to find a camera hardware partner with uncompromising image quality and cinematographic acumen," said a Facebook/Oculus representative. "Today, we’re pleased to announce our partnership with RED Digital Cinema."

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Oculus Go, Facebook's standalone virtual reality headset, is shipping today. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the milestone today as part of his opening keynote at the F8 2018 developer conference. The news comes a year after Facebook first revealed the VR wearable.

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Oculus Go, the standalone virtual reality headset expected to be a key element of Facebook's F8 2018 conference today, quietly arrived for preorder online this morning. The headset cuts the cord versus the original Oculus Rift, with a fully self-contained VR system and wireless controller.

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Facebook as really stirred the hornet's nest when it comes to privacy matters. Now everyone is scrutinizing privacy policies and putting companies under a microscope. You might not immediately think of Oculus as one such company, but now that it is owned by Facebook, it naturally has come under the spotlight as well. It has just announced some changes to its Privacy Policies in light of the upcoming GDPR changes in Europe. Its FAQ, however, makes it too obvious what really caused the change.

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Oculus users were sent an update sheet today for the near-future of the VR platform owned by Facebook. In preparation for the European Union's upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules in-effect date, Oculus is taking action. This May, new tools will be launched for Oculus users, including a new Privacy Center, Updated Terms of Service, Updated Privacy Policy, and a new Code of Conduct added to the Oculus official Terms of Service. Also you'll be able to download all your data - so that's neat.

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Plex's virtual reality app now supports Oculus and the Gear VR, expanding it beyond its former Daydream limitation. The Plex VR app was announced in January, enabling Daydream users to watch content using their virtual reality headset, including co-watching with a friend who is represented in-screen via an avatar. Those same features still exist, but they're now available to more headset owners.

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A launch of Oculus GO VR may take place at Facebook's F8 conference this year. The wireless headset runs a mobile software experience very similar to that of the Gear VR (AKA Oculus VR app on Android on a Galaxy smartphone.) The Facebook developer conference would be an ideal place for Oculus' parent company Facebook to bring this phone-less mobile VR headset to the public - and right now, it seems quite likely to happen.

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Google announced this week that they've been working with Light Fields for the most realistic virtual reality in the history of VR. Google is aiming to allow people to capture still images in VR that give the end user a realistic sense of presence by processing motion parallax and "extremely realistic textures and lighting." In an effort to demonstrate their work, Google released a demonstration app in Steam VR for HTC VIVE, Windows Mixed Reality headsets, and Oculus Rift.

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Yesterday, we told you about an interesting problem that was affecting Oculus Rift headsets around the world. Many users were finding that their headsets wouldn't run software, instead returning an error that centered around an expired security certificate. It took Oculus a little while, but it now has a fix prepared for those who are affected by this issue.

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