virtual reality

Although VR headsets have more or less settled down around a common set of specs, that doesn’t mean that there’s little motivation for innovation in that space. Screen resolution and field of view are two of the biggest areas for improvement in VR headsets. It’s hard to strike a balance, as shown by the Pimax, billed as the world’s first 8K VR headset. It promises to deliver a completely hi-res VR experience, if you’re willing to wear an almost embarrassingly large contraption on your head. As if wearing a regular VR headset isn’t bad enough.

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Google has just launched ARCore, its not so subtle answer to Apple’s ARKit, but if you thought Google was done with virtual reality, then you don’t know Google at all. It is a company with near infinite ideas and near infinite money to throw at those ideas, whether they end up on store shelves or in the trash bin. So, yes, it seems that Google still has its eyes on virtual reality and might even put out a second gen Daydream View headset that looks prettier, sturdier, and, thus, more expensive.

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FOX Sports has announced plans to broadcast the Michigan State vs Notre Dame football game in virtual reality, giving fans a very immersive way to enjoy the upcoming game airing on September 23. FOX is calling this a 'social virtual reality' experience, saying it will be available through the FOX Sports VR app available for Android, iOS, and Gear VR/Oculus.

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Virtual reality is fun and entertaining but hardly useful when it comes to getting real-world things done, it isn’t of much help. At least with the current state of technology. In the meantime, however, users can have an approximation of productivity in virtual reality by having their non-gaming software brought before their eyes. That is exactly what the Samsung PhoneCast VR app is trying to do by making some “2D”, a.k.a. flat, regular, and boring apps, available on the Gear VR headset.

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We haven't heard much about HTC's upcoming standalone VR headset — a model of the Vive that doesn't need to be tethered to a PC — but that's likely to change in the near future. There's still a lot of questions about the hardware details, however there's a good chance the device's name has just been discovered. A pair of trademark filings from HTC were recently made, referring to a device called " Vive Focus."

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Exploring our fine planet in Google Earth VR can already be a awe-inspiring thing, but today Google is making the experience a little more immersive by adding Street View to the app. Assuming your Earth VR app is up-to-date, you'll now be able to drop down to street level in a variety of different locations around the world. When you do, you'll see a 360-degree image of the location, giving you a good idea of what it looks like in real life.

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If you haven’t heard of WiGig yet, don’t fret. It might not matter anymore anyway. Advertised by the Wi-Fi Alliance last year as the future of Wi-Fi and the IoT industry, WiGig just lost one of its biggest supporters. Well, somewhat. Intel has just told partners that it will be discontinuing controllers and cards for what is formally known as 802.11ad Wi-FI. That said, what it isn’t saying, formally or otherwise, is that it may still plan to use WiGig for making wireless VR headsets not only possible but also usable.

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Generally speaking, Rockstar has stayed away from Nintendo consoles in recent years, but it revealed today that it will be tossing support behind the Switch with a port of LA Noire. That's not all it announced, as LA Noire will also be getting an enhanced re-release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, ushering the game into the current generation.

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Google has introduced what it calls an 'interactive experiment,' one that uses virtual reality to take music lovers inside of songs, doing so in a way that is entirely new thanks to this budding technology. The new experiment has been done in conjunction with the podcast Song Explorer, and it uses audio from a variety of artists. All you need is a VR headset (Cardboard will work) to get started.

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Fans of the hit strategy-based board game Settlers of Catan will soon be able to enjoy the classic title in a whole new way using some of the latest technology: that's right, virtual reality. The VR game developer Experiment 7 has announced that it's adapted the game for headsets with the help of the original team behind Catan, and will be released for the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR this holiday season.

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This week the folks at HP have revealed the release information around their fabled HP Windows Mixed Reality Developer Edition Headset. This isn't the final edition, instead opting to use the "Developer Edition" moniker we've seen used on several of the most famous VR headsets to be released over the past several years. This headset is part of Microsoft's big Windows 10 Creator Update headed to users this Fall.

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Microsoft is betting big on Windows Mixed Reality, and Lenovo is hoping to ride that headset rollercoaster with the Lenovo Explorer. Its first headset to take advantage of the virtual and augmented reality technology Microsoft will bake into the Windows Fall Creators Update, the Explorer is making its official debut at IFA 2017 this week.

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