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Fove starts shipping its eye-tracking VR headset
Fove, a successful Kickstarter project, was supposed to release its VR headset way back in early 2016. Unfortunately, it encountered difficulties sourcing components and had to delay the device's shipments. Now, the company has finally begun shipping the virtual reality device, which tracks not only your head but also your eyes. By following your eyeballs' movements, it can emulate how you see the real world -- it sure created a realistic experience when we tried it out -- and prevent motion sickness.
Leap Motion will bring your hands into mobile VR
Leap Motion has been working on making your interactions in VR as realistic as possible, but it's only been available to desktop or console systems. Now, the company has expanded its scope to mobile devices with its new Mobile Platform, designed for "untethered, battery-powered virtual and augmented reality devices." It has built a reference system of its new sensor and platform on top of a Gear VR, that it says it is shipping to headset makers around the world. Leap Motion is also bringing demos of its Interaction Engine (for natural hand gestures) in this portable medium to major VR events this month.
The first VR-ready Windows 10 phone is incredibly basic
Google is leading the mobile VR race with its Daydream platform and headset, but Microsoft is getting ready to join in too. Alcatel has made a $470 Windows 10-powered version of its Idol 4S phone, and it's the first mobile device running this OS to have virtual-reality capabilities. Like its Android brother, the new Idol also comes with its own headset. I played around with it to see if this first stab at VR on Windows 10 Mobile is any good. Unfortunately, it isn't.
Engadget giveaway: Win a OnePlus 3 smartphone with all the add-ons!
Smartphone competition has been fierce lately, if only due to the number of smaller international brands that have stepped up their game. Amongst the leaders of the pack is OnePlus and its latest handset, the $400 OnePlus 3. You get heaps of value for your money with this 5.5-inch device, which is fronted with Gorilla Glass 4 and a vivid 1080p Optic AMOLED display. Inside, a Snapdragon 820 processor keeps things thrumming and the experience is nearly stock Android. Overall, the build quality gets top honors and it performs like a champ, but there are also plenty of extras, and this week, one lucky reader will get the whole package. There's a OnePlus Loop VR headset, a battery to give you added juice, a car charger to re-up the handset or battery and the entire selection of protective cases. All you need to do is head down to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this OnePlus 3 package! Winner: Congratulations to Maverick D. of Hudson, WI!
VR rowing turns a workout into a vacation
Playing VR games can be surprisingly good exercise -- ducking your head behind artificial barriers or waving your arms around to shoot enemy robots can work up a sweat. But what if you wanted a genuine workout? Well, VR fitness appears to be a rising trend, with several applications designed to alleviate the tedium of indoor gyms. Here at Computex, I tried out yet another VR fitness apparatus that had me rowing through a tropical oasis while burning calories at the same time.
HTC is working on its own VR game for Vive (updated)
HTC is cooking up a game of its own for the Vive virtual reality headset. Little is known about the title, other than its name -- Front Defense -- and that it'll be shown at the Computex conference in Taiwan next week. A quick translation of HTC's announcement describes a military shooter with "fierce fighting on the battlefield" and "classic" weaponry spanning pistols, rifles and anti-tank rockets. HTC has little experience as a game developer, so the announcement comes as a surprise. Given the Vive's competition -- which will soon include PlayStation VR and Google Daydream -- a new, exclusive title could help it to sway people still sitting on the fence.
ICYMI: Health tech for VR sickness, smarter wifi and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1837{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1837, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1837{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1837").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: The Mayo Clinic is licensing a new system that uses electrodes to fool the brain from getting sick when it doesn't detect movement while using a VR headset. New, open-source recycling machines will let makers transform plastics into whatever their hearts desire. And MIT designed a smarter wifi system that can tell who is inside a room and who is out, letting those in log on without needing a password. If you're into fire effects, check out Colin Furze's YouTube channel for a crazy DIY'd thermite launcher. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
HTC's Vive will cost £689 in the UK
At last, we have a UK price for the HTC Vive. We always knew that the VR headset would cost a little more than the Oculus Rift, given the difference in the pair's hardware. The bundled wand controllers and the external sensors for room mapping and location-tracking...it had to add up. But how much? £689.
View-Master VR keeps one foot planted in the real world
Last year View-Master made the leap to virtual reality, packing a Google Cardboard experience into an affordable, kid-friendly headset. With the introduction of the View-Master Viewer DLX at this week's Toy Fair, the brand remains fully committed to VR, while still finding ways to incorporate its analog roots.
The Oculus Rift made you forget what the first iPhone cost
Yesterday, Oculus VR finally announced the price of its first consumer virtual reality headset: $599, plus shipping. Fans reacted quickly, shocked that the price was twice as much as the original developer kit and furious that the company was charging so much. During Palmer Luckey's evening AMA on Reddit, fans were petitioning the company to remove the Rift's audio tech and packaged Xbox One controller to bring the price down. That's denial, anger and bargaining, guys. Let's skip the fourth stage of grief and jump to the end: acceptance. The Oculus Rift's launch price is completely normal.
Oculus begins shipping the finished Rift to developers
Oculus has announced that it's shipping "early builds" of its Rift VR headset to developers, along with the developer kit SDK 1.0. According to the company's blog, "the Rift SDK 1.0 and runtime include features tied to the consumer product, so we've currently limited the release to developers putting final touches on launch titles." Companies now getting the much-anticipated headset are technically not the first to have received it, since Oculus has already delivered engineering samples to privileged developers. It promised to ship more developer headsets "every week in the run up to the launch."
HTC will launch its Vive VR headsets in April 2016
It doesn't sound like HTC will be able to make a limited number of Vive VR headsets available for purchase by the end of 2015, as it once told Engadget. But at least it now has a set date for the device's commercial release: April 2016. In a blog/social media post detailing the device's timeline, HTC said that it's hosting a developer conference in Beijing on December 18th and launching a second-gen dev kit before the masses can start buying the headset. It also plans to distribute 7,000 units to developers in early 2016 and taking the product of its partnership with Valve on a demo tour at a number of key events, such as The Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, GDC and MWC. Bottom line is that the headset will finally come out next year, likely a bit after the consumer version of Oculus Rift becomes available -- good luck to your poor, poor wallets.
Samsung's Gear VR goes on sale in the UK for £80
If you're intrigued by VR and whether the technology is really up to snuff, there's a new smartphone-powered headset by Samsung to consider. The consumer-ready Gear VR is now available in the UK, replacing the "Innovator Edition" models that were aimed at developers and early adopters. It'll set you back £80 and, like its predecessors, requires a Samsung smartphone to act as the display. The Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge+ are all compatible -- which is fine if you already own one of them, otherwise it's quite an investment.
Ultimate VR simulator throws you around in mid-air
Virtual reality headsets can trick our eyes and ears into believing we're someplace else. Fooling the rest of the body is a little trickier though. Companies have tried spinning chairs and omnidirectional treadmills, but nothing comes close to the "Cable Robot Simulator" developed at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. The player wears a wireless VR headset inside a carbon fibre cage, which is then suspended in mid-air and thrown around the room using eight steel cables. The exposed pod is able to tilt, bank and move with an acceleration of up to 1.5g in response to the VR experience. Researchers have shown off some basic flight and racing simulations, but we're already imagining how it could be used in our favorite video games. A dogfight in Star Wars: Battlefront? Tearing around corners in F-Zero GX? The possibilities are endless. It's still very much a prototype, and hardly suitable for home use, but we're desperate to have a go ourselves.
VR is the prize at the bottom of your cereal box
A virtual reality (VR) headset now costs the same as a box of breakfast cereal, provided you've got a decent smartphone lying around. In New Zealand, Kellogg's is promoting packs of Nutri-Grain by bundling instructions that transform the box into a Google Cardboard-style device. As a photo by Geekzone shows, the piece with the two lenses is contained separately, and with a little assembly you'll have a makeshift headset that uses your smartphone as the display. Scanning the QR code on the box will send you to the "NG Bolt" app in the App Store or Google Play, where you can watch one of three videos -- a wingsuit flight, a mountain bike ride and a downhill longboard session. Sure, it's nothing like the Oculus Rift, but like Google Cardboard it's a creative way of bringing VR to the masses.
StarVR is a QHD headset with an ultra-wide field of view
Starbreeze, the game developer behind Payday 2, Syndicate and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, is getting into VR. The company has acquired hardware startup InfinitEye and is developing its prototype VR headset under a new name: StarVR. The device is unique because it offers a super-wide 210-degree field of view, which is more than double the 100 degrees found on the Oculus Rift. The headset also boasts two 5.5-inch Quad HD (2560x1440) displays, coupled with a fresnel lens design to give players an immersive VR experience. Motion tracking is handled with fiducial markers on the headset (not shown) and a combination of gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers.
Oculus reveals its consumer Rift VR headset
Three long years after Oculus unveiled its VR headset to the world, it now finally has one ready for consumers. Say hello to the Rift headset that you can actually buy. It features two OLED screens that promises clarity, low-persistence flickering and a wide field of view. It also has a tracking system which CEO Brendan Iribe says has a very low latency movement that the company has refined over the years. They've also integrated a pair of headphones into the headset itself, which Iribe says has that 360-degree spatialized audio that's so integral to a more immersive environment (And yes, you can remove them to add your own headphones). Indeed, the entire headset has been redesigned with comfort in mind. It's lighter, it's covered in fabric for a softer touch and there's also a dial that you can use to adjust the distance between your eyes (also known as the interpupillary distance). And if you wear glasses? No problem, because you can now swap out different faceplates that fits those of us with corrective lenses as well. Interestingly, there's also now an external sensor that you can put on your desk, which replaces the webcam-like sensor from earlier Oculus headsets.
Watch Oculus' 'Step into the Rift' event here
Oculus is holding a very special event today in San Francisco simply called "Step into the Rift," and it's presumed to be, at long last, the unveiling of the consumer version of its VR headset. There isn't much we know yet about what will happen, but we're assuming we'll at least get to see what the final consumer Rift will actually look like (perhaps like this?). We're also hoping to get more detailed specs, the names of some of the game titles at launch and, of course, pricing and a pre-order date. We'll be there live to cover the event, but if you want to get a taste of it too, check out the livestream embedded right here starting at around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET today.
HTC's VR headset is available, but you probably won't get one
HTC and Valve will be giving out Vive virtual reality headsets for free as reported in March, but only if you're a developer -- a very lucky developer. The duo has just launched a sign-up form for folks who want a shot at getting one of the developer units to be distributed throughout spring and summer. They'll apparently be "distributing dev kits continually" and sending new ones out every couple of weeks. Supplies, however, "may be limited," so you'll have to take writing up that application seriously if you want to convince them to choose you during the selection process. If you're not a dev, you unfortunately can't purchase a kit, no matter how much money you're willing to throw at HTC and Valve. Don't worry, though: they're planning to release the commercial version sometime later this year, provided nothing derails their timeline before then.
Vuzix's VR headset adds earphones and supports multiple devices
Yet another VR headset? We wouldn't be surprised if that's what you're thinking after all the VR headset news these past few days. This one is the latest device out of Vuzix's headquarters called the IWear 720, which can do more than just block the world and immerse you into pure virtual reality. The headset covers more of your head, because it comes equipped with its own headphones -- even better, it supports almost any device that has an HDMI-out port. And yes, that means you can use it to watch both 2D and 3D videos, as well as play games from computers, consoles, Blu-ray players and even smartphones.
