Just a week after Google unveiled its new virtual reality platform, Daydream, the first compatible headset has hit the market. Mumbai-based ConvergeVR Tech Labs Pvt. Ltd.’s headset is now available for order as a developer’s kit preview edition. The ConvergeVR DK3 headset costs 2,099 Rupees, or about US$31, plus delivery fees. The company willRead More →

I just received a review copy of the Pico 1 headset in the mail. Disclosure: It was provided free by GeekBuying. But even though it was free, it still wasn’t worth the money. Was I disappointed? Absolutely! From the pictures and early descriptions I had this fantasy that the PicoRead More →

Since it first launched in early 2011, Kitely has been the only major grid not to publish its stats, instead providing them by email to Hypergrid Business on request. That changed today, as the grid began publishing its land area and total registered users on its login page. This isRead More →

China-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus gave away 30,000 free OnePlus Loop VR headsets today, manufactured in partnership with AntVR. The Cardboard-compatible headset is reminiscent of the Gear VR in its design, and is a significant upgrade from last year’s giveway, which was a Cardboard-compatible headset made of actual cardboard. Like lastRead More →

A Brazilian team has launched a new grid and OpenSim hosting company, offering local payment and support options. OpenSim Brasil offers hosting for full grids, starting at 230 Reals, or about US$64, with a 100 Real setup fee, for an eight-region grid. The AllCity grid, currently has 25 regions andRead More →

StubHub competitor Rukkus, which sells tickets to concerts and sports events, has released a virtual reality app that shows the view from any seat. The app, Seat360, is available for both iOS and Android, and works with Cardboard-compatible headsets. The company told UploadVR that it’s generated $350,000 through the app thus far,Read More →

Press release: IMAX Unveils Comprehensive Virtual Reality Strategy; Launches Location-Based Initiative Through Partnership With Starbreeze IMAX to Create Fully Integrated Premium Out-of-Home VR Offering Encompassing Camera Capture, Content Distribution and Delivery NEW YORK — IMAX Corporation announced its strategy to develop a premium location-based virtual reality offering that will deliverRead More →

Update: In August, I bought a FiiT VR 2S, and that is now my new favorite. But I’m also still recommending the BoboVR Z4 headset, because of its 120-degree field of view, built-in headphones, and built-in control button. I would not recommend that anyone go rush out and buy a virtual reality headset rightRead More →

With this week’s Daydream announcement, Google is cementing its strong early lead in the virtual reality platform race. Although some virtual reality proponents don’t consider mobile-based headsets to be “real” virtual reality, this platform is adequate for watching traditional movies on virtual screens, and for experiencing virtual videos. This is currentlyRead More →

Delightex, a Munich based firm that builds virtual reality platforms, released the CoSpaces app this week, which allows users to explore and share virtual reality spaces with other users on iOS and Android devices and Google Cardboard-compatible headsets. This is in addition to the company’s web-based application that allows users to create virtualRead More →

Pornhub’s March launch of a channel dedicated to virtual reality content put a big stamp of approval on the technology, since it’s the most popular site for adult content on the Web. But there only had a handful of content providers to start with. That’s changing quickly. Last month, PornqueenVR launched withRead More →

Music streaming service Rhapsody released a virtual reality application this week, Rhapsody VR, for Cardboard-compatible headsets. “We’re excited to unveil the latest project we’ve launched — Rhapsody VR, a virtual reality app that immerses you in a live concert experience by dropping you onstage with the artists,” the company saidRead More →

Press release: “Web Valentine’s Day” – P&G and Alibaba Refresh VR Shopping Experience BEIJING — P&G China and Alibaba VR Lab jointly launched the “VR Boy Friend” and “VR Girl Friend” marketing campaign on May 20, “Web Valentine’s Day,” the Chinese online version of the holiday, using VR technology on Alibaba’s TaobaoRead More →

Online games and social networks are already hotbeds of bad behavior, but virtual reality offers an even higher degree of potential harm — and experts are urging VR innovators to build in more safeguards from the ground up. That includes building in controls to deter bad behavior and giving usersRead More →

If you are located near Northampton, Massachusetts, or plan to swing by, Northampton Community Television is offering free public virtual reality demos using the HTC Vive and Gear VR headsets. Stop by the NCTV facilities at 380 Elm St. on Tuesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. and on Wednesdays and Fridays from 2 to 3 p.m. It’sRead More →

Google Expeditions, the virtual reality version of the 1990’s TV series The Magic Schoolbus, has reached over one million students, Google announced today. Google Expeditions was launched last spring, and is now in eleven countries. There are more than 200 virtual trips available to such destinations as Buckingham Palace and the Great Barrier Reef. TheRead More →

EBay has launched the world’s first virtual reality store, in partnership with Australian retailer Myer. It works with all Google Cardboard devices, and the company is also giving away Shopticals, a branded headset made out of Cardboard. You can download the app for iPhones and for Android devices — but onlyRead More →

A startup that allows a smartphone’s own camera to be used to track hand gestures has received a $20 million investment. Chinese technology conglomerate Kuang-Chi will invest in Israel-based provider of software-based machine vision and gesture recognition technology eyeSight Technologies, the company said in a statement. Currently, gesture controllers are only available for high-end,Read More →

In a survey of more than 2,000 tech-savvy US consumers conducted late last month, 40 percent said that they planned to buy virtual reality headsets in the next two years — but that price was an issue. In addition, 61 percent of the respondents, who were mostly young and male,Read More →

Google announced a new operating system for virtual reality that will run on new, compatible Android phones, the company announced at its annual developers conference today. The platform is called Daydream and seems to include some of the features of the Samsung Gear VR platform, including a virtual environment thatRead More →

The crowdfunding campaign for a Virtual Lisbon grid is up and running again, asking OpenSim users to contribute just $1 each to the project. The founder, Carlos Loff is an experienced virtual worlds builder and community manager, and has been active in Second Life since 2007. This is his fourth tryRead More →

The Virtual Life Grid has turned on hypergrid connectivity, the grid announced in a press release today and on Twitter. The grid’s hypergrid address is now virtuallifegrid.com:8002. For those interested in learning more, the grid will be holding a general meeting for residents on May 28 at 2 p.m. Pacific at the Virtual LifeRead More →

If there was any doubt, two new reports out this week confirm that we have the first killer app for virtual reality, and it’s watching videos. That might come as a surprise to people who expected immersive, first-person games to be more attractive, or virtual meetings and socializing. However, watching videosRead More →

Virtual reality trailblazer Oculus VR has launched its VR for Good program, offering support to students, filmmakers, and nonprofit organizations looking to create immersive films. The first part, aimed at high school students in the San Francisco area, is a six-week program designed to help students explore careers in the sciencesRead More →

Google added support for virtual reality headsets to its Android YouTube app late last year, enabling any video to be seen in side-by-side immersive view simply by clicking on a cardboard icon at the top right or bottom right of the video screen. Traditional videos were shown as if theyRead More →

The total number of standard region equivalents dropped this month on OpenSim’s public grids due to a large cleanup of orphan regions on Metropolis. The grid removed around 1,600 unused region reservation slots from its grid map. The total number of standard region equivalents on the public grids is now 56,535,Read More →

I love virtual reality rollercoaster apps because they’re an easy way to show off the technology to people who’ve never tried it before. You don’t have to teach people how to interact with the app, or how to navigate. All you do is pull it up and hand over theRead More →

The Void, a Utah-based virtual reality theme park, is coming to Times Square in July with a Ghostbusters-themed experience. Customers put on virtual reality headsets and backpacks holding computers, and walk around inside a virtual world, Star Trek Holodeck-style. Read more about the Ghostbusters experience at The Verge. Watch aRead More →

Samsung’s Gear VR had 1 million users last month, reported its content partner, Facebook’s Oculus VR. Oculus also reported that Gear VR now has 250 apps, including the recently-added Minecraft. The average user spends 25 minutes a day using the headset, which was released six months ago. Media the killer appRead More →

The Kitely Market reported a new high in the number of product listings, and the share of those listings that are exportable to other grids was also higher than ever. The Market currently offers 13,703 different variations on 7,201 products. Of those variations, 8,909 are exportable to other grids. ExportablesRead More →

Home interior design firm Decorilla recently launched an Android and iOS application that allows users to do virtual walthroughs of interior designs using Google Cardboard-compatible virtual reality headsets. The company is also planning to extend coverage to Oculus and Samsung Gear VR headsets. The company started with Google Cardboard because Cardboard-compatible headsets areRead More →

More than 100 people responded to our survey of how people use OpenSim, and the results are in — the majority of people use OpenSim for work and for creative self-expression. The first question of the survey asked people who they were. The single biggest group of respondents, or aboutRead More →

The Great Canadian Grid and DigiWorldz have been hit by a cyber-attack that has taken the grids offline on Saturday. There should be no damage to the grids themselves. Both grids are now back up. “Everything is good and I am now in the process of doing updates on all the serversRead More →

Corrections: Well this story made people mad! But when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Here are three corrections: 1. The question of who is handling the finances is a he-said, she-said situation. If the she-said side of it is right, then associating an innocent person’s name with this mess is theRead More →

Daden Limited, a U.K Based firm that creates immersive learning and visualization systems, is planning to add a dozen new virtual locations to its recently released Fieldscapes VR, an educational virtual tour app for Android devices. Fieldscapes VR also allows users to create their own virtual learning environments, no coding required. In addition,Read More →

When I first heard about all-in-one virtual reality headsets, the idea seemed totally impractical. Who would want to spend several hundred dollars on technology that would become quickly obsolete? With mobile-based headsets, you’re still spending hundreds of dollars on technology — but you’re spending it on the phone, which youRead More →

AltspaceVR, a social world with support for virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift, Vive, and Samsung Gear VR, is adding support for its business users with Slack integration. Slack is a hot new messaging and collaboration platform and is free for small teams. Team members who do notRead More →

Disclosure: I bought this headset with my own money, and the purchase links at the bottom of this article are to all the major sites I know that carry it, with affiliate links where available. Bottom line: This headset does not make my best-buy list. It is heavy in comparison to otherRead More →

Samsung, Sony, HTC, and Oculus will lead other brands in shipping about 9.6 million units of virtual reality hardware in the global market this year, to surpass previous estimates of $2 billion in sales and reach around $2.3 billion, International Data Corp. predicted in a new research report, not counting salesRead More →

Disclosure: The folks at EverBuying just sent me a free review copy of the VRToto headset. Thanks, guys! The purchase links at the bottom of this article are to all the major sites I know that carry it, with affiliate links where available. Bottom line: This headset does not make my best-buy list. ItRead More →

Despite acceptability and huge interest among investors to adopt virtual reality, the technology is still in its learning phases and lack of technological standards across the industry and bandwidth issues will certainly derail its tipping point, according to a research report released by Greenlight VR last week. At the same time,Read More →

I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend in much of the news media and analyst research reports covering virtual reality hardware — a complete and utter dismissal of the virtual reality headsets made in China. Instead, all the attention goes to the super-pricey and super-niche tethered headsets like the Oculus Rift,Read More →

Disclosure: The folks at GeekBuying just sent me a free review copy of the DeePoon V3 headset. Thanks, guys! The purchase links at the bottom of this article are to all the major sites I know that carry it, with affiliate links where available. Bottom line: Right now, this headset is giving my currentRead More →

SAN FRANCISCO — High Fidelity has launched the beta of Sandbox, a platform for shared virtual reality. The free, open source software is available now for content and software developers to begin creating and connecting virtual worlds that are accessible using the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or desktop PCs. Sandbox makesRead More →

SEATTLE – HTC Corp., a pioneer in innovative, smart technologies, today announced it is launching Vive X, a global accelerator program targeted at start-ups operating in the virtual reality space. With a $100 million investment fund led by HTC, the program is designed to help cultivate, foster and grow the global virtual realityRead More →

Press release: SpaceVR Raises $1.25 Million to Launch Virtual Reality Camera Satellites into Space SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – SpaceVR, the world’s first platform for creating cinematic, live, virtual space tourism, announced today it has raised a $1.25 million seed financing round. The funding is led by Shanda Group with participation from SkywoodRead More →

Press release: Distribution to Coincide with Release of VR Film, “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart” NEW YORK–In partnership with Google, The New York Times will distribute 300,000 Google Cardboard viewers to its most loyal digital subscribers next month in conjunction with the publication of “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart,” a stereoscopic virtual realityRead More →