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Run the Jewels made a VR music video for 'Crown'
Rappers Killer Mike and El-P teamed up for two albums worth of tracks under the name Run the Jewels. There's also a collection full of remixes made entirely from cat sounds. After creating some of the best hip-hop in the last two years, the duo is now letting fans take a step inside its video for the song "Crown" with a little help from the New York Times' VR app. What's more, Run the Jewels says that this immersive video marks the launch of its virtual reality platform VRTJ. For "Crown," the pair teamed with VR production company WEVR to complete the 360-degree views.
Coachella helps festival-goers prep for the desert with VR
VR has become a key marketing tool, especially when it comes to big events. When Coachella attendees receive this year's Welcome Box containing the requisite wristbands and more, a special edition Google Cardboard headset will be in the package, too. The festival teamed up with Vantage.tv on a Coachella VR app that's available for viewing on Google's virtual reality accessory and the Samsung Gear VR. Inside the app, there's plenty of 360-degree photos from previous years alongside interviews and performances from artists that'll hit the stage at this year's soiree.
ABC's 'Good Morning America' takes you on a live VR safari
If you're a fan of ABC's morning show, the network is offering viewers a rather unique take on remote reporting this week. From 7:00 AM to 9:00 ET tomorrow (February 23rd), Good Morning America will broadcast live in 360-degree VR from the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. ABC News' Amy Robach will be on location as the network captures footage from the Great Migration which includes the largest concentration of Africa's big mammals each February. Robach's report on the dangers the animals face from poachers will be presented alongside the immersive visuals. In fact, ABC says this is the first time on network television that VR cameras and gear will allow viewers to pick their adventure live and in real time.
Valve's VR technology now works with the Unity game engine
For many gaming platforms, the litmus test these days is whether or not they get official support in Unity's game engine -- land that and many developers (and by extension, gamers) are likely to give them a closer look. Valve just got a big credibility boost, then, as Unity is introducing native SteamVR support. If a virtual reality game runs on Unity's seemingly ubiquitous code, it's that much more likely to work with the HTC Vive and other SteamVR-friendly headsets. And much like the Unreal Engine, teams can edit in VR if they want to know what a scene will look like for players.
Google Cardboard attracted 5 million users since launch
Google Cardboard made its debut in June of 2014, and has been picking up steam ever since. Mountain View offered an official update on the usage stats today, though, showing just how popular the VR viewer really is. The company says 5 million Cardboard viewers have shipped to users in just over a year and a half. What's more, those folks installed 25 million apps that are compatible with the headset, including 10 million between October and December 2015.
It looks like Google wants to make its own VR hardware
Google is going all-in on virtual reality hardware, if a few recent job postings are anything to go by. Road to VR spotted a handful of consumer-focused VR jobs up for grabs at Google, including a Hardware Engineering Technical Lead Manager, Consumer Hardware and a PCB Layout Engineer, Consumer Hardware. Both of these titles at one point ended with "Virtual Reality," though Google has since replaced that phrase with the more vague, "Consumer Hardware."
Ai Weiwei's recent London art exhibit is available in VR
If you missed Ai Weiwei's recent exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, don't fret. The work of the filmmaker, photographer and sculptor is available online in 360-degree video. An internet-based exhibition includes all of the imagery, video and audio needed to navigate through Weiwei's recently-displayed catalog.
NextVR announces live VR content portal for Qualcomm phones
NextVR has been streaming 360-degree virtual reality video to Samsung Galaxy devices for awhile now -- but to access it, you needed to have the right phone, the right app and a Samsung Gear VR headset. Soon, accessing this streaming VR content will be a little easier: NextVR announced today that it's creating a live-streaming virtual reality portal that will work on any android device running Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor. Yes, that includes Samsung's next Galaxy device too, but the CPU will find its way to flagship devices from other manufactures as well, ensuring that NextVR's content will be available outside of Sammy's walled garden. That's good news for everybody. [Image credit: Getty Images]
Doctors use Google Cardboard to explore a heart, save a life
Four-month-old Teegan Lexcen was born in Minnesota with a small, malformed heart, no left lung, and the faintest chance of seeing her first Christmas. Now she's recovering after open-heart surgery at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida, where a team of enterprising doctors used a smartphone and Google's Cardboard VR headset to peer into her chest and save her life.
Google's interactive 'Spotlight Stories' come to YouTube
Google's Spotlight Stories started life as a partnership with Motorola. The made-for-mobile 360-degree videos let viewers dive into animated worlds created by engineers and movie makers. The latest film, "Special Delivery," arrives just in time for the holidays and was created by Aardman Animations (of Wallace and Gromit fame). Unlike most VR video, Spotlight Stories use the sensors in your phone for a more interactive experience. Look away from the main character and the main story pauses, while you unlock mini stories that only play when you focus on them. Previous shows required a special app to view them, but Special Delivery is launching on directly on YouTube -- as the ubiquitous video site bolsters its VR library.
Take a VR tour of the White House's Christmas splendor
Think your Christmas decorations are impressive this year? Think again. Google has released a 360-degree video of the White House today which shows off some of its most impressive Christmas trees and ornaments. The tour winds through a number of lavish rooms and corridors, including the East Colonnade, the East Garden Room and the White House Library, as well as the Vermeil Room and the China Room. It only lasts for five minutes, but during that time you can look around or simply kick back and listen to the narrator explain every bauble and tinsel-covered branch.
The 'Star Wars' VR experience for Google Cardboard is here
The Star Wars hype machine's rolling at full force. But that shouldn't surprise you, considering the new film from the world-famous franchise is debuting soon, on December 18th. As part of Disney's promotional efforts leading up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, ILMxLAB (Lucasfilm's, Industrial Light & Magic's and Skywalker Sound's immersive entertainment laboratory) has created a virtual reality experience for Google Cardboard. Enter Jakku Spy, a VR project that ties directly into the latest installment of the movie series. The experience, available for iOS and Android, is designed to take you into another reality and put you in the role of a Resistance secret agent on Jakku, a desert environment derived out of The Force Awakens.
Google's made several 'Star Wars' VR experiences for Cardboard
Turns out there's more to Google's collaboration with Disney for the upcoming Star Wars flick. In addition to dressing up your Google services to represent the side you choose (Light Side or Dark Side, obviously), the two companies (along with Verizon) have developed a serialized virtual reality experience for the Cardboard viewer. The episodes, which were created by ILMxLAB (Lucasfilm's, Industrial Light & Magic's and Skywalker Sound's immersive entertainment laboratory), are directly connected to The Force Awakens. They can be accessed through the Star Wars app for Android and iOS, though you'll have to wait until December 2nd to be able to watch them. If you don't have a Cardboard yet, you can get one right now straight from the Big G. But in case you want to collect anything Episode VII, Google will also start selling four Star Wars-themed viewers on December 2nd in Verizon stores.
Google's VR for students comes to more cities and countries
Google's virtual reality education efforts may have only just begun this fall, but they're about to grow in a big, big way. The search giant is expanding its Expeditions Pioneer Program to schools in 12 US cities (including Las Vegas, New Orleans and Portland) as well as three in Canada, Denmark and Singapore. Each school will get a kit with everything it needs to take students on VR field trips, including ASUS smartphones as well as either Google Cardboard or View-Master's device. The project is still far from ubiquitous, but it's big enough to make us a little jealous -- where were these kinds of virtual adventures when we were kids?
The New York Times VR app took me inside the news
I'm standing in the center of a rubble-filled classroom. The floor is ankle deep in books with overturned desks jutting up like volcanic islands in a sea of literature. At the chalkboard, a young boy is writing something. It's difficult to see what he's writing on the one item that establishes that kids used to learn in this room. I do know that the boy's name is Oleg and he's one of three child subjects of the New York Times' VR app (NYT VR) lead story, The Displaced. He starts telling me his story and I'm spinning trying to take in the virtual environment the publication has dropped me in. Everything is fuzzy at first while I adjust my iPhone in the Google Cardboard headset. Then after a few adjustments, everything lines up. It's not crystal clear, but the story starts to unfold without the technology getting too much in the way. That should be the end game for The New York Times. Tell stories without the tech getting in the way. The app is a good -- yet gimmicky -- start, but it'll need more adjustments to bring it into focus and really change the way we get our news.
NY Times launches VR app with Google Cardboard giveaway
The New York Times is launching a VR app, and will give a million plus subscribers a Google Cardboard VR viewer to use it. It'll also debut a VR film for the app called The Displaced, which details the struggles of three children caught in the global refugee crisis. Executive Editor Dean Baquet said the NYT "created the first critical, serious piece of journalism using virtual reality, to shed light on one of the most dire humanitarian crises of our lifetime." The film is best viewed on Cardboard, but will also be available on YouTube and smartphones via a 2D version of the app.
Microsoft VR Kit is a more colorful Cardboard for Windows Phones
If Google Cardboard is just a little too cheap looking for your tastes, you're in luck: Microsoft is making its own foldable VR headset. And it's purple. The Microsoft VR Kit, as it's called, was announced as part of Microsoft-hosted virtual reality hackathon happening in Russia next month -- developers will presumably use the headset to prototype VR content on Lumia devices.
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.
OnePlus is giving away Google Cardboard for $0 plus shipping (update: out of stock)
Well, this is one way for an up-and-coming company to get people's attention. OnePlus, the Chinese manufacturer best-known for making a cheap handset with surprisingly good specs, is about to launch its second-generation phone, and to get folks pumped up, it's selling a modified version of Google's Cardboard virtual reality headset. Make that: "giving away." The headset is free, plus a $5 shipping charge, making it a great deal, even for what's already marketed as a cheap way to experience VR. All told, it's very similar to the second-gen version of Cardboard unveiled at Google I/O a month ago, except this particular iteration is made of a thicker material, is 20 percent smaller and is coated in a dirt- and oil-resistant film, according to TechCrunch.
Recommended Reading: The new and improved 'Halt and Catch Fire'
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Hard Reboot: The Excellent Season 2 Makeover of 'Halt and Catch Fire' by Andy Greenwald Grantland Despite an interesting premise, AMC's Halt and Catch Fire never really took off during its first season. The show that chronicles the effort to reverse engineer an IBM PC in a Texas garage got a full revamp for season two, though, and Grantland's Andy Greenwald explains how the changes have drastically improved the series for version 2.0.
