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Showing posts with the label headset

Varjo is an experimental VR headset 70 times sharper than HTC Vive or Oculus Rift

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Varjo's VR headset is as detailed as human vision with a 70 megapixel resolution. The crops you see above are crops from the view with an experimental VR headset from Varjo, comcompared to the Oculus Rift desktop VR system.  Simply put, it looks incredible.  Varjo's resolution is 70 megapixels per eye compared to the 1.2 megapixel resolution of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Varjo is a startup formed by former Nokia employees and their goal is to create a headset with as much resolution as human vision will allow.  That will require tremendous amounts of data, which they aim to reduce through foveated rendering, which means that it will track your eye, and only the parts that you are looking at will be rendered at full resolution. Here is another crop: I'm curious how the extremely high resolution affects a viewer's sense of immersion.  Will images become much more convincing?  We'll see.  In the meantime, you can check out more samples on Varjo's official w...

DEALS: VR headsets and 4K action cameras flash sale

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Gearbest has a flash sale with discounts on a couple of VR headsets and some action cameras that can be used for 360 camera rigs. HIGH RESOLUTION VR HEADSET: PIMAX 4K Pimax's 4K VR headset is a desktop VR headset with a 4K (3840 x 1920) screen.  The per-eye resolution is 1920 x 1920, which is significantly higher than that of the HTC Vive or Rift (1080 x 1200).  Upload VR tried it and they said that it was crisper than anything they had seen .   Pimax 4K is on sale at GearBest for $375  with free shipping. HOMAGE TO GOOGLE DAYDREAM: MI PLAY 2 Xiaomi's Mi Play 2 is a Google Cardboard viewer based on the design of the Google Daydream headset (but I don't have anything to indicate that it is an actual Daydream headset with NFC codes etc.).  It fits phones with screens from 4.7 to 5.7 inches.  It looks like a comfortable Cardboard viewer.   It's on sale for $23.99  with free shipping to the US. 4K ACTION CAMERAS ON SALE There are several 4K action cam...

2017 Samsung Gear VR Review: differences from 2016 Gear VR and Google Daydream; Samsung S8 vs. S8+ for Gear VR

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Here's a review of the 2017 Samsung Gear VR, and how it differs from the 2016 Gear VR (yes, there are a few differences) and Google Daydream.  Also: which is better for the Gear VR: a Samsung S8 or S8+? Not counting Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR is the most popular VR headset, with over 5 million users as of January 2017.  If you haven't tried it, it's easy to dismiss it as an overpriced cardboard headset, but you would be mistaken -- it's totally different, and the experience is much closer to desktop VR than Google Cardboard. The 2017 Gear VR is not much different from the original Gear VR in terms of its immersion, so I'll refer you to my original Gear VR review here .  Instead, this post will focus on the differences between the 2017 Gear VR and the 2016 Gear VR as well as Google Cardboard. SAMSUNG GEAR VR  2016 vs 2017 The primary difference between the 2016 and 2017 Gear VR is the motion controller.   The controller has several buttons: - a trigger but...

How to watch YouTube in full resolution on Samsung Gear VR (360 and non-360 videos)

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Young360 created a very good tutorial for watching YouTube in full resolution on the Samsung Gear VR headset . Samsung Gear VR ( reviewed here ) is the most popular VR headset, with 5 million users as of January 2017.  It is my favorite platform for watching 360 videos because of its much more accurate head tracking compared to Google Cardboard (Oculus Rift and HTC Vive also offer accurate head tracking but 360 videos don't utilize positional tracking anyway, so there's little incremental benefit from using a Rift or Vive to watch YouTube). However, one of the Gear VR's peccadilloes is that when watching YouTube videos (in 360 or otherwise), the resolution would often be less than the highest available resolution.  At the same time, Google doesn't want to create a YouTube app for Gear VR because Gear VR is competing directly with Google Daydream (which does have a YouTube app). Thankfully, Oculus has updated the Gear VR's software to make it easier to watch YouTube...

Otterbox Commuter review: great for Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream

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The Otterbox Commuter is a very good smartphone case for those who Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream users because it's very easy to remove and re-install, while also offering great protection .  See the video! I just got a Samsung S8 Plus (I'll tell you guys why next time) and I was looking for a case that's easy to remove but would also provide good protection.  After trying a few different cases, including the Otterbox Defender, the one I like the best so far is the Otterbox Commuter. Here is a video: As you can see from the video, the Otterbox Commuter is very easy to remove and to re-install. At the same time, it offers great protection for which Otterbox is famous.  It also won't block the no-bezel infinity display of the Samsung S8.  The biggest downside is probably the cost.  Simply said, it's not cheap, but then again, neither is it cheap to replace a damaged phone.... The Otterbox Commuter is available here: - Samsung - iPhone - Google Pixel - other ...