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MLB's VR push doesn't include 360-degree live games
Major League Baseball's At Bat streaming subscription service and app already adds an extra dimension to watching baseball games on TV or in-person. Starting next month, however, fans will be able to actually take all the live game footage and real-time data from MLB.tv into virtual reality with Google Daydream and MLB At Bat VR.
Catch up on Google's plans for VR in under 3 minutes
During day two of Google I/O 2017, the company detailed its plans for both AR and VR. If you didn't catch our live coverage earlier today, don't worry: We've cut down the half-hour talk into a much shorter clip. You can catch up on all the news about Daydream Euphrates, YouTube VR, Google Cast and much more in under three minutes. For all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2017, follow along here.
Google Cast beams Daydream VR to your TV
As slick as Google's Daydream VR can be at times, there's a simple problem: you can't easily share your experiences with others. That's about to get better. When the Daydream 2.0 Euphrates update arrives, it'll include support for Google Cast -- if you want to share a game or a 360-degree video on your TV (or other video devices), you just have to pick a source and start streaming. You won't usually get the immersive stereoscopic effect, of course, but this could be important for everything from education to social situations.
Google Daydream gives you access to more without leaving VR
After a year, Google's Daydream VR platform is ready for an update. Announced today at Google's I/O developer conference, the 2.0 release is codenamed Daydream Euphrates and it's designed to elevate the OS into more than just a mobile operating system. Indeed, one of its features seems specifically designed for the standalone VR headsets announced yesterday: a dashboard overlay that provides access to Android functions while you're still in VR.
We're live from the Google I/O 2017 day 2 VR and AR keynote!
Google's first I/O 2017 keynote ran for nearly two hours yesterday, and VR chief Clay Bavor used a fraction of it to talk about the company's plans in virtual and augmented reality. He then published a 2,800-word essay on VR and AR on Medium to offer even more insight into Google's philosophy. Point is, people at Google are taking this stuff very seriously, so we're getting a VR-and-AR-centric keynote at the show this morning too. We're not expecting many new announcements, really — instead, we're looking forward to more detail on the plans outlined yesterday, including Google's work on standalone VR headsets and that fascinating "virtual positioning system." If we're lucky, Bavor will let slip something new and hype-worthy, but it'll be a good time regardless. Join us, won't you?
Google I/O 2017 by the numbers
It was an exciting few hours in Mountain View California on Wednesday when Google took over the Shoreline Amphitheater for its annual I/O Developers Conference. The company announced a bunch of updates to its AI efforts (including Google Assistant), previewed some of the features of the Android O beta, and announced that 360 degree YouTube videos are coming to your living room. Numbers, because how else will you know how much you need to save up for the new standalone Daydream headset?
HTC Vive and Lenovo are developing standalone Daydream VR headsets
Google has another way to differentiate its mobile VR platform from Samsung's: standalone headsets that have all the hardware you'd need built right in, without the need for a phone. At Google I/O today, the company revealed that we'll be seeing standalone Daydream headsets from HTC Vive and Lenovo later this year. They'll be based on Qualcomm's 835 VR platform and use WorldSense, a variation of Google's Tango 3D mapping technology, for positional tracking without the need for any external sensors.
Samsung's Galaxy S8 will work with Daydream VR this summer
Perhaps you were excited about playing with Google's Daydream VR headsets but never bought one of Google's very own Pixel phones (or a handful of other niche Android options). Fortunately, you'll have some more familiar phone choices later this year, with a software update bringing Daydream compatibility to both Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus as well as a yet-untitled LG flagship device coming later this year. As Google notes, this will bring the number of compatible devices to 11 by the end of the year. Wait, no new Daydream Views headset? Well, not yet.
Watch the Google I/O 2017 keynote right here!
Last week we heard the latest Windows plans from Microsoft at Build and now it's Google's turn. The company kicks off its annual Google I/O developers conference today at 1PM ET and we'll bring you all the news as it's announced from the stage. As always, you can complement your livestream experience with witty commentary and real-time analysis via our liveblog starting at the aforementioned time. For your convenience though, we've embedded the YouTube livestream down below so you don't have to go looking for it yourself. Until then, familiarize yourself with what we expect to hear more about in our Google I/O 2017 preview.
What to expect at Google I/O 2017
For the second year running, Google's massive I/O developer event will take place at the storied Shoreline Amphitheater, right around the corner from the company's Mountain View headquarters. Last year's conference had a host of major announcements worthy of such a high-profile venue -- it's where Google Home, the Google Assistant and the Daydream VR headset were all introduced. But this year, things seem like they'll be a little quieter, at least in terms of big consumer-facing hardware. It'll probably be a year of refinement, where big initiatives continue to be polished. We'll be there all three days this year, bringing you breaking news, analysis, interviews, videos and more. Without the benefit of a crystal ball, here's what we think we'll be talking about this week.
Get ready for more AR apps for Google's Tango
With Google riding high on the back of Pixel's success, it's easy to forget that 2016 also saw one of the weirder releases from the company - Google Tango. Putting 3D-mapping tech into a smartphone for the first time, the Tango-enabled Lenovo Phab2 Pro, resulted in a phone better at tracking its surroundings than ever before. Now, it looks like the platform could be getting some much needed new software, as later this year Google's AR tech will receive native Unity support.
'SculptrVR' brings 'Minecraft'-style creation to Google Daydream
When Google's Daydream headset came out, we praised it for its comfortable construction, but noted its bare game library. Little by little, the platform is adding experiences, even if many are ports that have already had successful runs on other VR platforms. Today, Daydream got its own version of SculptrVR, a Minecraft-like world-building sandbox game that had previously been released for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Google hires Vive and Oculus developer to bolster its VR team
If you want to see the potential of virtual reality, check out SoundStage: a virtual reality music sandbox app for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Google just snapped up developer Logan Olson for its VR team, further proving the company's continued interest in becoming a true player in the space.
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.
YouTube boosts the quality of online VR video
When you stream VR video online, you usually have to sacrifice visual quality. There's a lot more data, so something has to give. However, that isn't stopping Google's YouTube and Daydream groups from improving what you see. They're introducing a new projection technique, the equi-angular cubemap (EAC), that promises to increase the practical level of detail for 360-degree footage. Where conventional methods produce pictures that are only sharp in certain areas, EAC is extremely consistent -- it distributes an equal number of pixels across all angle changes. It may not be as theoretically sharp in certain areas, but there are no glaring weak points.
'Trinity' will be the first interactive VR sci-fi TV show
Virtual reality production studio UNLTD today revealed that it's working on the world's first interactive sci-fi TV show. Speaking at SXSW, the company announced the premise for Trinity- a show set in a future where humanity has long become extinct. With only a few surviving androids left on Earth, the story follows the robotic resistance as they take a stand against the all-powerful singularity threatening to destroy them. After speaking about the challenges of filming in VR, producer John Hamilton promises that Trinity will be an experience which allows 'viewers to move around an episode in a way that hasn't been seen before'. The live-action series will be split into five fifteen minute episodes and is to be released on all available virtual reality platforms.
YouTube made VR gaming videos for Google Daydream and Cardboard
You might have come across a few 360-degree gaming videos on YouTube since last year. Chances are, those are some of the results of the platform's partnership with creators and publishers formed in an effort to experiment with the production of VR gaming videos. They transformed all kinds of content into 360-degree experiences, from trailers to Let's Play and even gaming-themed live action videos. YouTube has now collected all of them in a playlist aptly entitled "Step Into The Games." As you can see, they include familiar names like Minecraft, Super Mario Bros, Psychonauts, Need for Speed and Call of Duty.
Sky VR now available on Google Daydream headsets
Sky has slowly been adding virtual reality content to its Sky VR app, but those Star Wars and David Beckham specials have only been available to viewers with Google Cardboard. Fast forward almost five months and the broadcaster has finally done something about that, today confirming that it's adding support for Google's other VR platform, Daydream, to its apps. It means that if you own one of Google's Daydream View headsets or are keen to invest in one, you'll now have more local content available to stream.
Stream live NBA games in VR à la carte starting February 23rd
The NBA announced its plan to stream weekly games live in VR last fall and soon there will be a much cheaper à la carte option. Starting February 23rd, basketball fans will be able to watch matchups live in virtual reality without having to pay for an NBA League Pass subscription. Each game will set you back $7 and they'll still be available though the League Pass app. Before now, you had to pay for the $200 TV subscription if you wanted to stream live basketball games in virtual reality. NextVR does say that this is the "introductory price" for the rest of the current season, so the rate may not be permanent.
Chrome for Android adds WebVR support for the Daydream headset
If you have a Daydream VR headset, you may want to update your Android phone's Chrome browser ASAP. Chrome's stable version now supports WebVR, a JavaScript API necessary for experiences loaded on browsers to work on a VR device. Google introduced WebVR support in Chrome beta for Android last year, but now you don't have to stick with the browser's experimental channel anymore.
