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Facebook’s Google Two Big Ears Move

Facebook has just purchased VR audio company Two Big Ears (TBE), and they’re putting the technology up for takes.

Yesterday, Oculus’ parent, the social media giant, Facebook, announced it has bought the Edinburgh-based company Two Big Ears and will be letting everybody use it for free as part of the new Facebook 360 Spatial Workshop. They’ve just “Googled” TBE. No, not in the traditional sense.

It looks like someone’s been reading “What would Google do” because it sure seems like a move only Google would do and has done numerous times, the latest being their open source learning machine technology. Recently, “to Google something” has taken the meaning of sharing or making open source and it looks like Facebook is stepping on the giant tech’s steps big time.

The terms of this newest transaction were not disclosed. Two Big Ears, who has been around since 2013 creates spatial three-dimension audio in gaming and cinematic experiences.

In a blog post, TBE details the acquisition and its bigger picture vision stating they’ve worked hard at creating the tools and technology needed for how the immersive audio is experienced in virtual reality and audio reality. Their mission is to make “VR audio succeed across all devices and platforms” and “serve billions of people across the world.”

The company focuses especially on how the sound is played in three-dimension spaces or how the sound interacts with the surfaces in the space in which the user is immersed. This progress in building ultra-realistic three-dimension audio is a major steppingstone for Facebook, its video, and the Oculus platform.

Both Oculus Rift and Gear VR support the immersive audio performance, but to make Two Big Ears’ 3Dception technology available for developers, it’s a smart move that will make Facebook grow even bigger.

Previously, the company has had two audio products solutions for both cinematic and gaming VR; while the cinematic one is integrated into the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation, the two teams will now work to integrate the immersive audio in the gaming software.

Giving the compatibility issues with only Oculus Rift and Gear VR, TBE has said it will “continue to be platform and device agnostic,” so developers, worry not.

With this new Two Big Ears acquisition, the social media mogul is helping a lot of developers and also making sure Facebook will be the default hub for VR content. Well played, Facebook, well played.

Image source: Lloyd Digital

New StarVR from Acer and Starbreeze

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The new StarVR headset

A new VR headset called StarVR will be the “shared-custody brainchild” of Acer and Starbreeze’s partnership.

In a joint release sent out this Sunday, the game maker Starbreeze and the PC maker Acer, will form a partnership to manufacture, launch and sell a new virtual reality headset called StarVR.

This new move could bring positive change for the PC maker’s overall ailing business, or it could create a disaster. The numbers will show; it must be known, however that since 2011 Acer is on a continuous PC market sliding slope.

Starbreeze, the relatively small Sweedish Company, announced the StarVR headset a year ago, but giving its fierce giant Facebook, Sony and HTC rivals and its personal $10 million 2015 sales, they needed a partner.

Starbreeze needed leverage to reach the level of manufacture and distribution of Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and Vive; they needed help to be able to compete fully with these powerfully marketed headsets.

Nevertheless, the product is believed to be one of the best VR headsets to enter the market. Its standout feature is a 210-degree field of vision, a view that mimics much better what someone sees in real life than the 110-degree vision field of Oculus and Vive.

Although Acer is in freefall with the sales growth, the company’s annual sales reach $1.2 billion. This means that Acer has the money and engineering capacity to scale Starbreeze’s StarVR. More important than that, Acer has the immense computing power needed to deliver the deeply engaging 3D video experience of the virtual reality.

Acer’s bet on Starbreeze might, in fact, be a smart one because PC makers are almost absent from the virtual reality business and everybody – see Amazon or Alibaba – are investing in VR connecting platforms and software.

Acer will likely capture a good portion of the VR market profit.

The advisory firm Digi-Capital says that by 2020, up to “40% of all VR sales will come from hardware.”

To have a virtual reality experience you must have the hardware, yes, but the profit doesn’t stem just from the hardware, it comes from the virtual experience as well.

Therefore, Acer’s partnership with Starbreeze is no chance. With StarVR, Acer will be at both ends of the VR rope: both software with Starbreeze, and its personal computing power and hardware.

Image Source: Everythingvr

Oculus Rift Will Take a While to Come to Macs

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On top of the fact that there aren’t that many people who even have a good enough computer to run the Oculus Rift VR headset, there are also the few unfortunate ones who own a Mac. Despite the tense expectation of an announcement saying that the Oculus Rift will be able to run on Apple Macs, none of such thing has come. And by the looks of it, none shall be coming very soon either.

Palmer Luckey, the founder of the Oculus VR, recently made a statement to shed some light on the company’s plans regarding the not so lucky Apple computer users. After being asked if it was in the plans – whether they were short-term or long-term – Luckey said that a Mac release of the Oculus Rift is not up to them. According to him, the fate of the VR headset regarding Apple computers depends on the tech giant alone. To quote Palmer Luckey, “if they ever release a good computer, we will do it”.

While to some this may feel like this was a subtly snide remark on behalf of the Oculus VR founder, in all reality, Apple Macs are a type of computer that excels in certain areas. Gaming, and even more so virtual reality gaming, are not part of these fields.

And to cut straight to the point, the place where the Macs fail, or, at least, underperform enough to be crossed out from the Oculus Rift list of compatible computers is the graphics processing unit. Because Apple doesn’t prioritize adding highly performant and state of the art GPUs in their computers, it comes with the unfortunate limitation of virtual reality.

According to Palmer Luckey, not even the topmost rigs that Apple offers on Macs – which can take you to prices as high as $6,000 – won’t be able to run the Oculus Rift and its applications properly. If Apple decides to once again begin to pay some extra attention to their machines becoming more proficient on the graphics rendering side, then Oculus would not have any sort of trouble of porting their VR headset on this platform just as well.

Judging by the standards imposed by virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift, Apple users represent only a tiny segment of the people who won’t be able to enjoy VR very soon. According to statistics studied and released by graphic processor manufacturer Nvidia, there is a rough estimate that only 13 million computers in the world currently have enough juice to run VR devices.

Talk about a limited market.

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Minecraft VR Game for Oculus Rift Is On Its Way

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Along with all the new, rather unknown titles that are programmed to be launched for the Oculus Rift in the near future, one particular title rears its head at us, the Minecraft VR game. While this is not a new addition to the virtual reality world, with one version of the game having been tested on the Microsoft HoloLens already, it’s certainly something different on the Oculus Rift.

There has already been a demonstration made of how Minecraft things work on the Oculus Rift last week at an Xbox showcase in San Francisco, just days after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ambiguously suggested the game will eventually make it to the Oculus Rift a week prior.

The demonstration of the game showed a pretty complete experience that felt more than just ready to be released in the near future. And surprise came when Microsoft officially announced that Minecraft will be coming to the Oculus Rift this spring. Whether that means this spring as in as soon as the Rift ships out or this spring as in right before Q3 starts, is not yet known.

The incredibly popular game Minecraft was acquired by Microsoft from the original developer Mojang back in 2014 for the sum of $2.5 billion. Ever since its release, it has progressively been released on every single platform, to this day being able to be played on nearly everything you could ever think of: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Wii U, OS X, Linux and even Raspberry Pi.

At the presentation, the company announced two ways you can play the game in, which makes for a very interesting approach to the entire ordeal. The fist method involved playing the game ‘inside a screen’, where there’s not much difference from playing it using a VR headset or a really huge looking TV screen to play it on. It’s a great alternative to the full VR experience because, as any user of VR headsets will be able to tell you, the experience can get pretty intense and tiring.

The other option is the full VR experience, which will put the entire world of Minecraft around you. While dealing with a rather odd-looking and out of place HUD that floats on your retina like a speck of something, being in the world of Minecraft is probably one of the best methods of showcasing what the potential of VR is. Which is more than unexpected since the virtual reality experience is supposed to be realistic and immersive. Doesn’t quite work when everything is made of blocks and pixels, you’d think.

Users who have tried out the game on the Oculus Rift were excited to announce that Minecraft manages to retain its unique essence and provide another sort of immersion instead.

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Porn Is Now Available in VR

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Naughty America has released two VR-ready adult movies.

You may not believe it, but, porn is now available in VR. So, if you were planning on not buying a VR-ready device, like Oculus Rift or Samsung Head Gear VR, then think again, because you don’t know what you’re missing.

Naughty America, probably the biggest adult movie producers in the United States, have stated, in a couple of official comments, that users are now able to take advantage of their VR headsets in order to view steamy adult flicks.

All you have to do is strap on (not the best choice of words) the VR-enabled head-gear and enjoy the steamy action brought by the best actors from Naughty America. The new VR-ready movies have been tested with the Samsung VR head gear.

According to the testers, it would seem that with the help of the VR technology, the user can jump right in the middle of the action. Moreover, it would seem that the characters featuring in the adult clip are real-life actors and not computer generated characters.

After putting on the VR headsets, the viewer can easily adjust his point of view. This means that you can view the movie from hers or his point of view (which is disturbing at best).

Porn is now available in VR with the courtesy of Naughty American and some very talented and promiscuous actor.

But, as promising as the new asset may seem, it does come with a couple of limitations. First of all, in order to view these glamorous flicks you need to have a VR-ready devices. Samsung VR headset works with most Samsung phones. As for the Oculus Rift, I think you need to ask NASA to borrow their computer in order to plug-in the device.

Second, the movies are not free. If one wishes to engage in a first-person VR sexual fantasy, he needs to cough up 25 dollars per month. Yes, I’m afraid you got it right. Want VR porn? Then you must buy a monthly subscription.

Let’s say you did all those things, and more, but you may be in for quite a surprise. According to Naughty America, their official website features only two VR-ready movies. But the adult movie producer promised that more will be on the way.

Whatever the case may be, VR headsets are true marvels of technology. It was expected for the porn industry to move in order to use the new piece of technology.

Porn is now available in VR. Users must pay a monthly subscription fee of dollars to Naughty America to view the VR related content.

Photo credits:www.wikipedia.org

Oculus Rift Hits the Market in 2016

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The VR device will ship out with two cool games.

Well, it may be old news, but here we are, confirming that Oculus Rift VR headset will soon come to cure us of the VR-eebie-jeebies. According to official statements, Oculus Rift hits the market in 2016 and the device won’t come alone.

As stated, 2016 will now be known as the year when our perception on reality and virtual reality will change forever. Oculus Rift, the crowning achievement of computer technology, will turn any dull game into an experience that will not forget so easily.

Far be it from us to wax on poetics when it comes to this mouth-watering gaming device, but everyone who was invited to test the VR headset declared that the device is almost magical, transforming each gaming experience into something personal.

But hold on tight, because there is more to come. Apart from the official release of the VR-ready and able headset, Oculus also announced that the device will be shipped with two new games: Lucky’s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie.

Over the past year, it would seem that revamping games have become quite a trend. Old games like Prince of Persia, King’s Quest or Abe’s Odyssey, have gotten their remastered versions.

Well, with this in mind, we are looking forward to seeing both new and old games getting VR support. Imagine how epical it would be to play Skyrim using an Oculus Rift device. D&D is not your cup of tea? How about exploring the Fallout’s Wasteland using a VR-enabled device?

For now, we have to settle with a platform game and with MMORPG game. Lucky’s Tale, a platform game created by Playful, narrates the adventure of Lucky, the fox, a colorful character set on bashing enemies, jumping through hoops or platforms. The game seems to be a combination between Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog.

According to Playful, the game might not look pretty and it certainly doesn’t take advantage of the VR technology. Still, the platform-like game is capable of giving you a taste of what virtual reality is all about.

We don’t know when the Oculus Rift will hit the market, but according to its makers, the device might hit the market in the first quarter of 2016.

A word of advice before heading on over to buy the new VR device. First of all, due to its specs, the Oculus Rift won’t be cheap. Second, be sure to check your computer’s specs before thinking about buying an Oculus Rift, because the device requires at least 8 GB of RAM in order to work properly.

Photo credits:flickr.com

The Purchase of Oculus by Facebook Received Immediate Feedback

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No earlier than yesterday we were presenting you with the hottest news in the tech industry, the purchase of Oculus by Facebook for $2 billion and the beginning of a new era of communication and life experience, or so does Facebook officials market the deal. Once the details of the deal came out, an impressive number of Oculus developers, VR fans and gamers started bombing the Oculus website with exponentially increasing negative comments and even threats of leaving the boat (for the competition, nonetheless), while Twitter caught fire with all sorts of statements and warnings about Facebook ruining it for everybody with this particular deal. And the media also asks itself if it is true that everybody hates Facebook.

Why is the world upset by the purchase of Oculus by Facebook?

One of the main concerns coming from the gaming community is that Facebook is focused solely on advertising and data gathering, so gamers fear they will be exposed to Facebook ads, when everything they want to do is immerse into a VR gaming world. On the other hand, it’s not only the gaming community who shouts out loud against Oculus Rift becoming a new toy for Facebook to use, but renowned developers weren’t shy to express their decision of not working with Oculus anymore. Such developer who didn’t hide behind an anonymous avatar was Markus Persson, the man behind Minecraft, who openly Tweeted that any collaboration idea or project with Oculus regarding a VR developed version of Minecraft for Oculus was cancelled.

The debates are hot and it is interesting to watch them live, as in the opposite corner there are the other developers and gaming fans that applauded the deal and can’t wait for the promises of Mark Zuckerberg to come true, as he dreams of a world where we could use VR to communicate, experience all sorts of events, be able to travel anywhere and get services we have never dreamed before. Mark Zuckerberg’s own Facebook notes reveal that Facebook will not only allow Oculus and its developers to build the Rift and make it successful, but also helping them achieving it faster and better too, while on the long term, Facebook aims to

make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home.

All good, but how about the developers threatening to leave to Sony who starts to gain the gamers on its site with the PS 4 and their Oculus VR headset rival, Project Morpheus? And is Markus Persson going to send his Minecraft over there too? It is clear that the purchase of Oculus by Facebook is going to be a hot topic in the next few days and we all can expect some serious tables’ turning.

Facebook Will Buy Oculus Headset For $2 Billion

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It looks like Facebook wants to own every single piece of new gadgetry. It hasn’t been long since they bought the social media app WhatsApp for $19 billion and they’ve just announced that they will be purchasing the new virtual reality headset called Oculus Rift for $2 billion. Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook will buy Oculus headset because they see a real potential in it to become the future of social media, changing the ways we communicate, work and play.

Oculus is a 3D headpiece that you put over your eyes and connect it to a computer to start playing. It’s only available to its developers for now but since its release, Oculus has gained a lot of positive reviews from gadget critics. It is rumored that a consumer version of the headpiece will be on the market later this year. Another virtual reality headset is Sony’s Project Morpheus that was revealed recently and seems to be the Oculus’ only competitor for the time being. Besides creating games, Oculus wants to expand and create apps for other areas like automobiles, architecture, education and marketing.

Facebook Will Buy Oculus Headset and explore other areas of communication

Some say that Facebook will buy Oculus headset because they want to further explore the virtual reality domain and integrate it into the communication, education and entertainment fields. Mark Zuckerberg further explained: “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow. Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”

The transaction between Facebook and Oculus will close by the second quarter of 2014 and Oculus will keep its headquarter in Irvine, California.

We really hope that the reason Facebook will buy Oculus headset is to finally develop a way in which we can enjoy a virtual vacation or adventure without really leaving our room.

Oculus Rift developers gain $75 million in funding ahead of release

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The Oculus Rift has been in development before the Kickstarter project landed last year, but it is still not available to the public and the only place to really check the virtual reality headset out is at various trade shows and gaming events where it is likely to be available to try.

In many ways the Oculus Rift shares the same story as Google Glass, two companies trying to reinvent how we consume media – on the Oculus Rift side, you have games and on the Google Glass side, you have social networking and other features a smartphone may use.

This is not the first time the Oculus Rift developers have asked for funding, recently grabbing $100 million on top of the funding from Kickstarter. They have now grabbed $75 million, apparently to fund the launch of the Oculus Rift and to market it out to gamers.

Users of the Oculus Rift say it is an immersive experience, better than anything on VR headset previously. The development team have put a lot into making the SDK and hardware feel right and work incredibly well and soon it may be in the hands of game developers to make great games.

Oculus Rift is running on open source software and it should be easy for developers to get into the swing of things – perhaps it will take a little bit of time before any developers brings out a truly immersive game that feels better on the Oculus Rift than any other platform, simply due to the immersion.

We still have no clear date on when the Oculus Rift will be available to buy, without any restrictions and “beta” words being thrown about – like Google Glass it shares a unique goal of becoming as great as possible before being unleashed on the public, for better or worse.