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Apple's Final Cut Pro X uses AI to auto-crop videos for social media
Apple released a major update that includes improvements for remote collaboration.
'Aftermath' is a 360-degree walkthrough of the Camp Fire devastation
Camp Fire, the tragedy that killed at least 85 victims and destroyed around 14,000 homes across Paradise, California, continues to torment as residents start returning to the ruin as of yesterday. News channels around the world have been offering a sober look at what little is left behind the walls of fire, but not long after disaster struck, former Lytro exec Steve Cooper already sensed the need to capture a proper first-hand account of this unprecedented catastrophic event. With help from his firefighter friend at the scene plus CAL FIRE's media team, the filmmaker eventually arrived in Paradise on November 13th -- day five of Camp Fire -- with his SUV and 360 camera to commence his two-day shoot. The result was the aptly named Aftermath, a seven-minute 8K 360 video documentary now available on YouTube.
The Rylo 360-degree video camera now works with Android
Rylo is one of a handful of 360-degree cameras that only requires an editing suite as big as your smartphone. Much like the cheaper Insta360 One and more expensive GoPro Fusion, Rylo's companion mobile app lets you play editor and director. Users can set specific focal points or objects for the frame to follow within a 360-video after the fact, before sharing their masterpiece to Instagram or Facebook. With two 208-degree lenses, 4K video resolution and auto-stabilization tech, it's a pretty neat little camera. Since launching last fall, though, it's only worked with iPhones and iPads, but today, as promised, Android support has arrived.
BT Sport to offer 360-degree video highlights and replays
Tottenham Hotspur star Dele Allie weaves through three defenders before whipping a cross into the feet of Harry Kane. You jump out of your seat, only to let out a groan as the linesman blows his whistle and raises a flag for offside. But was it offside? You're not so sure. If only you could get a different perspective... Enter the BT Sport app. The British broadcaster has announced today that it will soon offer 360-degree highlights and instant replays. They will be shown alongside standard replays for "a minimum of" 20 sporting events — including the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League, the FA Cup and World Title boxing — over the next six months.
PGA Tour taps Intel for VR coverage of six upcoming tournaments
Intel has been powering virtual reality sports viewing for some time now. The chip maker has enabled VR for the Olympics, Major League Baseball and the National Football League, and has taken virtual reality to the golf course with the PGA. It's this last partnership in the news now, with Intel and the PGA Tour organization connecting to produce and distribute live VR and 360 video at six upcoming PGA events starting with the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta from September 21st to the 24th. It will continue VR coverage at the Presidents Cup at the Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City from September 28th through October 1st.
Insta360's next camera may shoot orbiting video while stationary
If you've tinkered with a consumer 360 camera lately, chances are you have already tried the "round view" or "little planet" viewing mode in the companion app for a good laugh. But what if you could take things to the next level so that rather than spinning a 360 video on a fixed spot, you could actually spin around a subject such as yourself? That's the impression we're getting from an exclusive teaser video provided by Insta360 today.
Facebook boosts live 360 video to 4K for better VR
Following YouTube's support for 4K live 360 video late last year, it was only a matter of time before Facebook caught up. After all, Zuckerberg's betting big on VR. Today, the social media giant announced the launch of 4K resolution for live 360 streams, meaning we can soon enjoy more immersive VR live streams via the Facebook 360 app for Gear VR. This also preps the platform well for when 4K VR headsets finally go mainstream. As part of this update, Facebook is also bringing its Donate Button and Scheduled Live features over to its live 360 video service, in the hopes of driving 360 video viewership while helping out non-profits.
GoPro is testing its 360 VR camera with select broadcasters
It may not be out yet, but GoPro's Fusion 360 VR camera will soon be used to capture UFC fights, news footage, and awards ceremonies. To showcase the device's 5k resolution capabilities, GoPro is trialling the Fusion with partners such as Fox Sports, the Golden State Warriors, and USA Today.
This is the GoPro Fusion: the company's all-in-one VR camera
GoPro surprised everybody when it teased its "Fusion" 360-degree action camera back in April. Mostly because GoPro rarely teases anything (Karma, perhaps being the exception), preferring to show up out of nowhere with a glossy release video and launch event. The half-reveal didn't tell us much, just that there was a camera coming in the fall, it had a resolution of 5.2K, a feature called "OverCapture" that would allow you to "punch out" a regular video from the spherical capture and well, that was kinda it.
Living a digital dream with Alex Andreev's VR landscapes
"A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming," says Wikipedia. Artist Alex Andreev offers that experience with his VR dreamscape paintings by messing with the part of your brain that distinguishes reality from fantasy. "Never did I take creation as a product of man's intellect," he says. "Our conscious awareness is only a thin film in the ocean of unconsciousness."
Samsung adds UFC fights and more live events to Gear VR
Soccer. Basketball. Golf. While plenty of sports are being shot in 360-degree video, the format is still the exception, rather than the rule. For Samsung, which wants to sell as many Gear VR headsets as possible, that just won't do. To solve the problem it's teamed up with the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), the X Games and concert organiser Live Nation for a slew of VR programming called "VR Live Pass." The first events will be available from June through the Samsung VR app, with near-global access provided you have a headset handy and a stable internet connection.
Insta360's 'affordable' 8K VR camera is up for pre-orders
With the recent VR announcements at Facebook's F8 conference, things are certainly getting a lot more interesting in the 360 content space, especially with the new hardware that can shoot in six degrees of freedom for an unprecedented level of immersion. However, the current wave of professional-grade 360 cameras are still cost-prohibitive for many studios, with the Nokia Ozo asking for $40,000 and the original Facebook Surround reference design costing about $30,000 to build. This is where Insta360 comes in with its $3,499 8K VR camera, the Pro, which is now open for pre-orders ahead of tomorrow's NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Facebook predicts where you'll look to improve 360 video
When you stream a regular video, it's tough enough to get high-quality visuals to your screen without sacrificing viewing quality. Now imagine the even higher difficulty of streaming a 360-degree video. You don't know where your viewer might be looking at any given time. That's where Facebook's new view prediction systems come in.
Explore Japanese gaming culture in 360 degrees with MatPat
Matthew Patrick is best known as the guy on YouTube who uses math, science and rabid curiosity to build intense, unexpected narratives from the stray plot threads of movies and video games. As the Game Theorists' MatPat, he asks if Mario is secretly a sociopath and questions if Sega's blue hedgehog really is the fastest mascot in gaming -- and then backs up his allegations by covertly teaching viewers about actual psychology and the speed of sound. Now he's expanding his passion for making entertainment educational with a travel show called The Global Gamer. Oh, and he's doing it in 360-degree virtual reality -- and you can watch the launch exclusively right here on Engadget.
Intel's 360 replay tech is coming to more NFL stadiums
The National Football League just announced that it's moving its Thursday Night Football streaming coverage from Twitter to Amazon, but there's more news to share this week. Through its on-going partnership with Intel, the NFL plans to install the company's 360 replay tech in more stadiums before the 2017 season kicks off. Right now, the setup is only available in Baltimore, Houston and San Francisco, but it will be in place for more teams this fall.
Openreach's VR videos detail the humdrum life of a network engineer
Of all the incredible and entertaining uses of virtual reality, trust Openreach to come up with arguably the most boring content ever for the fledgling medium. BT recently agreed to spin its Openreach infrastructure business into a legally separate company after pressure from regulator Ofcom and the telecoms industry as a whole, but in the interim, the show must go on. Openreach today announced an engineering recruitment drive that aims to attract 1,500 trainees over the next either months to embark on a year-long programme. And for the first time, they can sample some of the mundane realities of being a network engineer through the magic of VR.
Watch NASA's Mars rocket tests in 360-degree video
NASA will eventually use the Space Launch System to send humans to Mars -- it might even carry a crew the very first time it launches. Unfortunately the world's most powerful rocket is a tad behind schedule (it was originally supposed to launch this year) and over budget. However, NASA has released an interesting 360-degree video of a hot-fire test of the main RS-25 engine, one of four shown above. From one vantage point, you're standing in a place you really wouldn't want to be in person -- near the flame trench directly behind the 512,000-pound-thrust rocket.
PSVR goes on safari with 'Virry VR' nature documentary
Slowly but surely, PlayStation is releasing more non-gaming offerings for the PSVR headset. Next up is Virry VR, an app that wants to put you within arm's reach of Kenyan wildlife. Among other things, you'll see rhinos bathing and lions eating according to the European PlayStation Blog. The entirety of the video was filmed at Lewa Downs, a UNESCO heritage site home to elephants, Grevy's zebras, hyenas and leopards.
Ricoh's next camera can stream live broadcasts in 360
Ricoh makes one of the best, simple 360-degree cameras out there. It's gradually added better picture quality, more video skills (and cheaper models) to its Theta series, but the company's taking its tech in a different direction with a spherical video camera capable of live streaming 2K at 30fps. The stitching takes place in real-time and the product is unmistakably for creators and media types. This is the Ricoh R Developer kit, and you can preorder one now.
UK hospital uses VR to reassure children before MRI scans
Entering a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine can be a nerve-wracking experience. You're trapped in a tight space and have to lie perfectly still as loud noises -- produced by the current in the scanner coils -- pepper your eardrums. To help patients, and in particular children, the Kings College Hospital in London has turned to VR. MRI physicist Jonathan Ashmore and technologist Jerome Di Pietro have produced an app that contains a 360-degree video. Slip on a Google Cardboard and you'll see what happens on the day, from arrival to stepping inside the scanner.
