Oculus starts shipping Rift VR headsets to customers

It’s finally happening. The headset that’s seen to have kicked off the resurgence of virtual reality is finally going to make it into the hands of the public. Oculus VR Chief Executive Brendan Iribe confirmed on Twitter that their company has started shipping the consumer version of the Rift to those who preordered the headset. It should arrive at customers’s doors by the March 28^th official launch date. It isn’t just a big moment for the company but for the industry as well as they are the first big VR company to release to the public. The HTC Vive is still up for preorder and coming out in May, while the PlayStation VR is coming out at the end of the year. Of course, you can argue for Google Cardboard and the Samsung Gear VR but these still lack the feature set the Rift has.

Source: The Independent

Mark Zuckerberg talks VR’s role in Facebook’s future

“VR [virtual reality] is the next platform, where anyone can create and experience anything they want,” Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at Samsung’s event at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. VR has always been something Zuckerberg has been interested in and it’s helping guide him as he thinks about the future of his social media platform. He believes the future for Facebook will be immersive and it’ll bring people even closer together. And that this idea isn’t that far off. Facebook as we know is invested in virtual reality. They do own Oculus and they started working with Samsung to develop their own Gear VR headset, which uses technology from Oculus.

“Pretty soon, we’re going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you’re just right there in person,” Zuckerberg said. And with the new 360-degree cameras from the likes of Samsung and LG, it truly can happen sooner. Facebook already supports 360-degree videos on its platform. According to Facebook’s CEO, there are already 20,000 videos of that kind on his platform but work still has to be done. “One day soon, all of us will have the power to broadcast live. To do that, we’re going to have to solve a lot of really complex engineering problems.” But he reiterates that Facebook and Oculus are committed to VR “for the long term” and new VR games are expected to come out this year.

Source: PCWorld

Lebron James stars in latest VR adventure from Oculus and Samsung

Lebron James is front and centre of Oculus and Samsung's "Striving for Greatness," Samsung VR experience which shows the two-time NBA champion in a downloadable film and Samsung Milk VR app which shows King James training in immersive VR which is the next best thing to being present in the gym. The 12-minute experience makes for a great demo of what's coming to VR in 2016

Samsung brings the Gear VR Consumer Edition to Canada

Canadians who have been waiting for Samsung and Oculus Gear VR Consumer Edition have to wait no longer. Samsung Electronics Canada has brought the VR set to the country. This latest version of the Gear VR works with the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, S6 and S6 edge. It’ll make use of the Super AMOLED displays to give you the virtual reality experience you want. The unit is also said to be 19 percent lighter than the Gear VR Innovator Edition and it comes with an improved touchpad as well to make using the Gear VR more intuitive.

Samsung and Oculus boast that now more than ever there are more content options available for users such as Samsung Milk VR appicaltion, which has become available for download in Canada today.  This will bring high-quality content to Canadians, including exclusively developed content like GONE, a thriller produced by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert’s Skybound Entertainment. You can even watch things like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay and other channels for music, sports, action, and lifestyle. The Samsung Gear VR Consumer Edition will be available in Frost White and it comes to select Canadian retailers and Samsung Experience Store for $139.