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The headset, which the company will reveal tomorrow morning [Tuesday] in San Francisco, will likely cost $79, Variety reported Monday. The headset will be manufactured by HTC, the same company rumored to be making the Pixel and Pixel XL, a pair of phones Google is also expected to unveil Tuesday, according to Variety.
The new headset underscores the tech community's growing interest in virtual reality, which promises to transport goggle-wearing users to a computer-generated 3D environment. Alphabet, Google's parent company, is said to be investing big money on content for the platform, much of it going toward development of video games and apps, licensing sports leagues and shooting 360-degree videos.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday October 04 2016, @06:42PM
Its the $15 viewmaster VR bundled with a bluetooth wii controller-ish thingy for $70 or $80. the article is helpfully unclear. Probably $10 shipping.
I have the viewmaster VR and used it with my nexus 6p for at least an hour before I tired of it. At $15/hour that's not ridiculous but not cheap either. Everything I found that was 3-d was pretty gimmicky and the 3-d didn't add anything fundamental.
I'm pretty well unimpressed.
https://www.cnet.com/news/google-pixel-phones-daydream-view-and-chromecast-ultra-everything-google-just-announced/ [cnet.com]
Daydream is a rebranded cardboard viewer, not a complete headset or self contained display.
I found the viewmaster product a huge PITA to use, because unlike apparently 99% of the population, my phone lives in a case and there's a Qi charger receiver plugged into it so when marketing says "yer phone just drops in, in seconds!" they mean after 15 minutes of disassembly and parts laying everywhere, THEN my phone just drops in.
The problem with cardboard-class VR is no bandwidth into the machine other than turning head and maybe a 1 bit pushbutton if you're lucky. Sucks. Imagine minecraft. Or "The Room" (A classic phone puzzle/fidget game). Or even Pokemon Go (Remember that fad from months ago?) None of that can happen with a literal 1-bit UI of there's a pushbutton that sometimes works on some peoples cardboard.. There's some interesting 360 google earth panoramas you can scroll around but to be honest its easier to go "2d mode" and scroll around on the phone without turning your head etc because the UI sucks. There are also a handful of youtube videos and 99.9% of youtube being garbage and there being less than a thousand videos, well, you do the math on that one.
Imagine if your favorite video game system were re-released with a UI consisting of ... a single pushbutton. Makes 1975 "pong" look exotic and high tech in comparison. (Whoa man, a dial...)
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday October 04 2016, @07:05PM
thanks for the review - I have a Nexus 6P and have not had time to "try VR".
Guess I'll wait another year....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04 2016, @11:14PM
They haven't simply repackaged 2 year old technology!
"and maybe a 1 bit pushbutton if you're lucky. "
You obviously haven't read up on Daydream..... doh!