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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]
VR film festival will tour the US and Canada this fall
The thing with virtual reality is, you really need to try it out to "get" it. And since head-mounted displays aren't considered a necessary gadget like phones yet, something like a touring VR film festival will allow more people to experience the technology. The Kaleidoscope VR Film Fest will showcase around 20 short films from around the world, including one called Butts (see above) by American director Tyler Hurd. You will be able to watch them on Oculus Rift and on Samsung Gear VR headsets if you attend, though you do have to pay an entrance fee priced at $10 for students and $15 for regular folks. If you want to skip waiting in line to watch the shorts, you can shell out $99 for a VIP ticket.
Oculus names VR Jam finalists, and here are some of them
Oculus VR's apps and games contest for the Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition is in full swing. The 2015 Mobile VR Jam contest received quite a number of interesting submissions, including a game that puts you in the POV of a bullet, one that wants you to fight blind, and another that lets you text and drive without putting real people in danger. Alas, the company has no choice but to narrow the entries down to 61 finalists for the competition, 37 of which are games and 24 are apps or experiences for the virtual reality headset. Before any of them wins part of the $1 million prize pool, though, a panel of ten judges will examine them further in the next few days until they come up with a list of winners for June 3rd. You can browse through a select few of the finalists below (in addition to the ones we listed above, all of which made the cut), but you can also look at the full list on the contest website.
Samsung's next smartwatch will be round
Samsung's gearing up for the launch of its latest smartwatch by releasing its SDK ahead of the official reveal, which it has never done before. Devs might need some extra time to prep their applications for its release you see, since the newest Galaxy Gear will most likely have a rounded watch face unlike its older siblings' rectangular ones. The press release announcing the SDK, spotted by Android Central, came a with a circle weather watch face graphic, along with a few images of rounded apps (CNN, Yelp and more). Sadly, there were no hints in the PR indicating when the new device will be launched. But if you're really hankering for a rounded smartwatch, there's already a few out on the market, including the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch R.
Samsung Gear 2 smartwatches coming in April with Tizen OS and better battery life
Even in an industry known for evolving at an impossibly quick pace, it's rare for a product to be replaced in just five months. If you've read our review of Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch, however, it probably makes sense why the manufacturer would want to antiquate it as soon as possible -- while an interesting concept, the wearable was clearly half-baked. This morning, Samsung is starting off Mobile World Congress by announcing the Gear 2 (shown above, right) and the camera-less Gear 2 Neo (above, left), both of which (the company hopes) will address most of its predecessor's pain points when it arrives in stores worldwide this April. The absence of Galaxy branding is no typo, by the way; the new Gear will run on the Tizen operating system, a platform which Samsung has been investing large amounts of money and resources into. It's not the company's first device running that OS -- that honor goes to the NX300M camera -- but regardless, it's hard to know exactly how different the user experience will be on a Tizen-powered smartwatch instead of an Android-based one. According to Samsung, we can expect a battery life of 2-3 days (two to three times better than the first Gear's one-day life), an "enriched application ecosystem" and some sweeping changes to the external design. Check out the gallery below and join us after the break for more details.
