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Kia's 2019 Niro EV is an electric crossover for the people
It was bound to happen to EVs eventually. No matter how mind-blowingly, world-changingly incredible an idea starts out, it will invariably reach the realm of the mundane before too long. Just look at smartphones, maglev trains and avocado toast. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's that vanillaness, that no-nonsense lack of flair, that makes the Kia Niro EV so great. I'll tell you right now: it's not going to turn heads (even when I honked), nor is it going to smoke sports cars off the starting line (unless you have a head start). What it is going to to do is get you, your friends and all of your gear where you're going in relative comfort and safety without stomping all over your budget.
Oculus' most powerful, wireless VR headset ships spring 2019 for $399
Project Santa Cruz has left the pre-production phase. Oculus VR's powerful standalone headset is officially called Oculus Quest and it's due to hit the market in the spring of 2019 for $399 -- let's just call it an even $400. That's the starting price, for a 64GB model. Oculus Quest has a display resolution of 1600x1440 per eye. The new headset will ship with more than 50 titles, plus developers are working to bring notable Rift VR games such as Moss, The Climb and Robo Recall to it as well.
Watch the Oculus Connect 5 keynote at 1PM ET
What's arguably the biggest VR event of the year, Oculus Connect 5, is about to kick off -- and to no one's surprise, Oculus is encouraging you to tune in. It's streaming the OC5 keynote, and you can watch the regular stream live below or on Facebook starting at 1PM Eastern. On top of that, you can watch in VR this year -- if you have an Oculus Go or Gear VR, you can spectate with fellow headset wearers using Oculus Venues.
Facebook's Hugo Barra says standalone headsets are key to social VR
Even though Oculus didn't have an official presence at CES this year, its leader, Hugo Barra, made a surprise appearance at Qualcomm's press conference to make an important announcement: Xiaomi would be its global hardware partner for Oculus Go, its first standalone VR headset. What's more, Xiaomi would also be making a special variant of the Go, the Mi VR Standalone, especially for China. In an interview with Barra following the press conference, he explained the reason for the push in standalone headsets: social VR.
Oculus' standalone headsets point to a changing VR landscape
Last year was the year that VR went mainstream. The Oculus Rift finally shipped to consumers, as did the HTC Vive and the PS VR. But even as the VR industry is finally starting to take off, it's already beginning to splinter. Before, we had phone-based VR like Samsung's Gear VR and Google's Daydream, and then higher-end PC models like the Rift and the Vive. Now, the standalone VR headset is emerging as a category unto itself. And it stands to make the VR landscape a lot more accessible -- and possibly more divisive -- than ever before.
Oculus' Santa Cruz gets closer to the future of wireless VR
Earlier today, Oculus announced Go, its first-ever consumer-ready standalone headset. But it's actually been working on another standalone headset -- Project Santa Cruz -- for a while longer. I had a chance to try on a really early version of it last year, and it was so unfinished that an Oculus helper had to put it on for me. Today at Oculus Connect 4, I tried on the latest version of hardware as well as the new Santa Cruz controllers, and the difference is night and day. It felt like a completely finished product.
Oculus Santa Cruz offers standalone VR with full motion control
Oculus isn't limiting its new stand-alone VR experiences to the Go headset. It's introducing a much more refined version of Project Santa Cruz, the stand-alone VR headset it showed off last year. The new prototype is far sleeker, and importantly includes true six-degrees-of-freedom motion control. This is the first headset with full "inside-out" tracking, Oculus says. There are no wires and no external sensors for any movement tracking, whether you're tilting your head or waving your hands. There aren't many details as of this writing, but it'll take a while before you can strap one to your cranium -- it's reaching developers within a year. It's also introducing brand new controllers, simply called the Santa Cruz controllers. They look a little similar to the Touch with a grip button and a touchpad, but they look different, too -- a little more streamlined and a little more compact. They rely on the same four ultralight infrared tracking sensors that the Santa Cruz headset itself uses.
Oculus has a $200 wireless VR headset in the works for 2018
We know that truly wireless VR is the future for Oculus. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out his vision for wireless virtual reality last year, and shortly afterwards we got a brief glimpse at the company's "Santa Cruz" prototype headset. But it's been unclear just how long it would take Oculus to deliver a truly cord-free VR experience. Turns out, we might not have to wait too long: Oculus is apparently developing a $200 wireless VR headset for release next year, Bloomberg reports. The device, codenamed "Pacific," won't just be an empty shell for your smartphone, like the Gear VR and DayDream View, it'll pack in all of the hardware it needs for VR experiences.
Oculus' prototype headset points to VR's wireless future
Tucked away inside the dark hallways of the San Jose Convention Center is a meeting room with signs that read "No photos" and "No food or drink." I shook the hands of the Oculus spokespeople who were there to greet me and proceeded to try to get in the door. But before I could do that, I was instructed to leave my backpack, my purse and my phone behind. When I was finally allowed in, I was surprised to see that the room was decorated to look like a giant living space, with a large sofa and chaise in one corner and pillows, books and paintings placed throughout. But I wasn't there to judge the interior design. No, I was there to try the prototype of Oculus' newly announced standalone VR headset. Its name is Santa Cruz.
Oculus' next headset is a cross between the Rift and Gear VR
Virtual reality is kind of stuck between two markets right now: an extremely mobile but lower quality, phone-powered experience, and an very high end, expensive, wired PC experience. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg says neither is really good enough for the future of the platform. Virtual reality needs to be high quality, wireless and mobile. Today at Oculus Connect 3, Zuckerberg announced that it's coming. Referred to as the "Santa Cruz," the company now has a prototype wireless virtual reality headset designed to bridge the gap between the high end Oculus Rift and the portable Gear VR,.
Silicon Valley to become one ginormous WiFi hotspot
Silicon Valley can't be shown up by, say, Singapore, now can it? That's why the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force has selected the Silicon Valley Metro Connect, a tech consortium that includes IBM and Cisco to build a giant WiFi network for the region. When built, this massive WiFi hotspot will span 1500 square miles (nearly 3900 sq. km), from the city of South San Francisco to Santa Cruz, a distance of over 60 linear miles (96 km). The plan, for now is to have free access for local residents via advertising, but higher bandwidth applications like VoIP or streaming video would cost extra, reports The Associated Press. No word on how GoogleFi fits into all of this, given that Mountain View is part of this territory. Perhaps Google will use its other stronghold in San Francisco to make a power play for the rest of the Peninsula -- creating one giant battleground of free wireless internet access. Still, WiFi for the SiVi is superfly.
