Items tagged with VR headset
HTC is giving gamers interested in virtual reality an added incentive to order its newly available Cosmos Elite VR headset. Anyone who buys a Cosmos Elite will get the much-anticipated Half-Life: Alyx VR title for free. That includes both new purchases and everyone who had previously placed a pre-order for the high-end headset. "There are few franchises that capture the hearts and minds of gamers around the world like Half-Life and we can't wait to show our customers what awaits them when paired with Vive Cosmos Elite," said Dan O'Brien, General Manager of North America, HTC Vive. "We know our customers are going to love the experience of playing on Vive Cosmos Elite from visuals to the ability...
Read more...
Late last week, we reported that the high-end Valve Index virtual reality (VR) headset would be back in stock this week via the Steam Store. More specially, Valve said that you would be able to order the Index on March 9th at 1PM EST. Well, the Valve Index is available to order now from the Steam Store, but just an hour after it was listed as back "in stock", shipping times are now listed at 8 weeks. Yes, you read that right: 8 weeks. Half-Life: Alyx launches on March 23rd, so even if you were to place an order today for the Index, you won't get it until May at the earliest, which is a bummer. At this point, we don't know how many Index VR headsets Valve has in stock,...
Read more...
Valve is launching its own virtual reality headset called Index, presumably to go up against models like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive (and Vive Pro). When exactly users will be able to order one has not been known, up until now—preorders for the Index will open on May 1, 2019, followed by a retail launch about a month and a half later. This is a big launch for Valve, though whether it will be successful depends on its ability to execute, pricing, and the overall interest in VR. Valve's advantage is that it fields the most popular digital distribution platform for games, a little storefront you may have heard of called Steam. However, that did not help much with Valve's failed Steam Machine...
Read more...
Nearly a year ago, HTC first revealed its Vive Focus, which is a standalone virtual reality (VR) headset powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 SoC. At the time, the device was said to be limited to the Chinese market. Today, however, HTC has announced that the Vive Focus will be available in 37 markets across North America and Europe. The headset will be available to developers priced at $600, while enterprise versions will be priced at $750. That pricing puts the Vive Focus right smack dab in the middle of the original HTC Vive (priced at $499) and the Vive Pro (priced at $799). In addition to availability in the United States, HTC announced that Vive Enterprise Advantage professional...
Read more...
If you want in on some virtual reality action, one of the cheapest ways to do it is by getting a headset that holds your existing smartphone. Google has just such a headset with the currently available Daydream View that began shipping back in December of last year. It appears that Google is soon set to drop an update to that original headset. The new headset is said to still be called the Daydream View and like that original, this one will hold your smartphone rather than being a standalone VR headset or needing a PC to operate. While the original Daydream View was covered in a material that felt like a t-shirt, the new one will be covered in a nylon-type material. The headset will ship in three...
Read more...
As more and more people move to adopt virtual reality (VR) for gaming, the hardware market is beginning to heat up. In July, the Oculus Rift VR headset was slashed from $599 down to $399. HTC also chopped the price of the Vive VR headset by $200, bringing the cost of entry to a permanent $599. Sony is used to being one of the cheaper points of entry for the VR world with the PlayStation VR headset, and now the company has announced a price cut on the device. With the price cut in place, the PS VR headset and PlayStation Camera can now be had in a new bundle for $399 in the U.S. and $499 CAD. Sony says that the move essentially throws in the PlayStation Camera at no charge, and this will...
Read more...
VR and AR startup, Occipital just unveiled its Bridge Virtual Reality headset. The San Francisco-based firm's VR headset has been created exclusively for iPhones and it packs in both mixed reality and 6DoF (degrees of freedom) positionally-tracked virtual reality technologies. The device has various camera enhancements built-in, expanding the iPhone's capabilities significantly for mixed reality applications. Occipital remarked, “This is what we've always dreamed of. This is the bridge between fantasy and reality. Where virtual characters can enter our world and interact with our environment as if they were really there. Or where we can enter and immerse ourselves in a virtual world,...
Read more...
Yesterday Chinese company LeEco assembled the global media to announce a barrage of new products destined for the US market, and signaled its intention to take on Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, and Disney all at once. The company is largely unknown here in the US, so it wanted everyone to know what it’s all about, what kind of products it makes, its philosophy, and so forth.At the event the company’s spokespeople announced a slew or products including Android smartphones designed to compete with the Google Pixel as well as a range of smart TVs, a high-tech bicycle, a VR headset, and even a self-driving car. The LeSee self-driving car was on display. The company’s core business...
Read more...
One of the biggest complaints about VR in general is that it only works with VR-related creations. Google is working on changing that perception -- the company is attempting to add a fully immersive browsing experience to Chrome. This would allow users to browse any part of the web in VR, not just sites that were specially built for VR. Google has recently been working on WebVR, which is a set of standard capabilities that allow for the creation of VR websites. Users currently would need to take off their headsets in order to view non-VR websites. The latest builds of Google Chrome beta and Google Chrome Dev on Android make it so that users will never need to take off their VR headsets while...
Read more...
If you’ve been itching to get your hands on HTC’s elusive Vive VR headset, PAX Prime could be your best bet. The Penny Arcade Expo is underway today in Seattle and it’s packed with gaming goodness, including several of HTC’s VR headsets. HTC and Valve will be showing off some new titles for the headset at PAX Prime, and news about the headset’s release date is slowly trickling out.Fantastic Contraption on ViveSadly, the news thus far is that only a small number of Vives will be available before the end of the year. A note on the HTC Vive site reads “Consumer product available holiday 2015,” but HTC has been getting the word out this week that it will be a “limited” quantity and that customers...
Read more...
Move over Oculus VR and Samsung, another contender for the virtual reality marketplace is looking to compete. It is the Carl Zeiss VR One headset and it will be undercutting its future competition with a $99 price point. The VR One is based on the same concept as that of the Samsung Gear VR. Both headsets will utilize mobile devices in order to bring the virtual reality experience to mobile users. For now, though, the VR One is only compatible with the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S5. However, the device will be able to work with more smartphones in the future so long as the screens are between a minimum of 4.7 inches and a maximum of 5.2 inches in size. Supported smartphones are placed in a custom...
Read more...
