Snapchat Glasses, Google Daydream, Wireless Vive, Microsoft VR, Wireless Rift

Snapchat is a cool little product, but they are also kind of a gimmick right now, they are hard to get, the marketing campaign is…

Snapchat is a cool little product, but they are also kind of a gimmick right now, they are hard to get, the marketing campaign is ridiculous, it’s not AR or VR, it’s just a 10 second video capture. Those glasses could potentially be a huge money maker if they were actually sold to the general public in a normal way instead of being restricted to a single vending machine that randomly spawns somewhere every 24 hours, however that may just be part of a brilliant marketing campaign leading to a general release of the product. Who knows.

What it's like to use Snapchat Spectacles
Snap's Spectacles are having a spectacular debut today, with (at least) hundreds of people lining up at their first…techcrunch.com

HoloLens has figured out how to do precise inside out position tracking by combining inertia tracking with optical tracking. The accelerometer makes it fast, and the camera makes it accurate.

Now HoloLens is applying that same technology to VR and opening it up to all computer companies like ACER, ASUS, HP, and more can build headsets that are in every sense superior to the offerings from Oculus, Samsung, HTC, and Valve.

Microsoft Leapfrogs Facebook and Google in VR With HoloLens Tracking
Microsoft's play for command of next generation personal computing can be seen today with the announcement of a series…uploadvr.com

HTC Vive has a number of companies making wireless adaptors, with 1 hour long battery life, but they promise to later on sell an optional larger battery you can have in your pocket.

HTC Vive Goes Wireless With $220 Add-On You Can Pre-Order Friday
Update: HTC says the initial stock of the TPCAST accessory kit sold out in 18 minutes. A second batch may be available…uploadvr.com

HTC is also working on lighter headsets and new controllers.

Oculus as you know is building a standalone headset with inside out tracking, but it won’t have the same graphical ability as an Oculus that is wired to a PC.

Facebook and Oculus are building a standalone VR headset
Facebook and Oculus VR are working on a standalone Oculus Rift that will offer positional tracking, bridging the gap…www.wareable.com

The same sort of wireless adaptor that works for Vive could be adapted for the Rift, but it could also be adapted for the Microsoft VR headsets built by all the computer makers.

The 600+ apps for sale on the Vive should work on the Microsoft headsets and a software called Revive will likely be adapted to make it possible to use Oculus apps on the Microsoft headsets, although developers themselves tend to have little trouble bring their apps to Microsoft’s store or Steam’s VR store directly, this is given thanks to the cross platform nature of the two most common game engines, Unity and Unreal.

Daydream isn’t much more than a Gear VR with a slightly improved interface, ie a controller that is like a laser pointer with some issues like drift. It’s not like an HTC Vive motion controller. The headset also does not feature any kind of position tracking. It’s rather boring given the context of next generation technology that will feature mobile inside out tracking and real motion controllers.

Google Daydream View review: mobile VR done mostly right
On a structural level, the Daydream View is much like Samsung's Gear VR, or even Google's super-simple Cardboard…www.theverge.com