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Nicole Kidman stars in a just-released ad campaign by Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates. The commercial is a five-minute 360-degree virtual reality film that showcases the new Airbus A380. The commercial is available as a Google Cardboard-compatible app for the iPhone and Android. A Gear VR versionRead More →

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Blockchain is a hot enterprise technology topic right now. It’s the tech that makes Bitcoin possible, and allows companies or industry groups to set up distributed transaction records that can’t be repudiated, taking out the middlemen that normally keep these transaction databases. Now July’s D10e conference in San Francisco willRead More →

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The New York Times has released an 8-minute virtual reality documentary based on footage from NASA’s New Horizons fly-by of Pluto. The video includes views from space as well as views from the surface of the planet and was produced in collaboration with the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Universities Space Research Association.Read More →

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According to researchers at UK’s Staffordshire University, virtual reality could be used to transport jurors to crime scenes to help them better understand what occurred. Simon Tweats, head of justice services at Staffordshire Police, told the BBC that the technology could make a significant difference with regard to how evidence was presentedRead More →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Today, Google Cardboard users who want to switch between virtual reality apps or videos need to take their smartphones out of the viewer and use the touchscreen to navigate the apps. A future version of the Android operating system may offer a more complete virtual reality experience, Ars Technica reports inRead More →

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GearBest is holding a “flash sale” on its virtual reality headsets over the next few days, with free shipping. Some of the headsets on sale are older models, heavy and with a narrow field of view. But there are three worth checking out, that are newer releases, with wide fieldRead More →

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Preorders for Oculus Rift bundles are now available on Amazon, Best Buy and the Microsoft Store, with delivery scheduled for the end of April. Prices start at $1,499 for an ASUS desktop plus headset, and go all the way up to  $3,149.98 for an Alienware desktop and headset.    Read More →

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Mattel just announced the View-Master Viewer DLX, will accommodate a wider range of smartphones, have a headphone jack for better audio, adjustable focus, and a better latch. The new headset is expected to hit the market next fall, and will cost $40. Mattel also promised new virtual reality experiences. Read more about itRead More →

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According to a rumor which first appeared at Android World, Samsung will throw in a $99 Gear VR headset for free for customers who pre-order the new Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge smartphones on February 21. The deal is expected to last for a couple of weeks. Read more at 9 toRead More →

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In addition to working on updates of its popular Google Cardboard headset and development platform, the company is also working on a new, standalone headset that requires neither a smartphone nor a computer, the Wall Street Journal reports. Google has already seen significant success with 5 million of its phone-basedRead More →

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The race for the next computing platform may be over, according to Goldman Sachs. Researcher Heather Bellini said that she expects virtual and augmented reality to become an $80 billion market by 2025, roughly the size of the desktop PC market today. In this video below, she discusses how the technology hasRead More →

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Sony Pictures has just released a Goosebumps virtual reality experience for Android and iOS devices, and is promoting it through a partnership with Merge VR. Merge VR, which makes an expensive, purple Google Cardboard-compatible headset, is promoting the app through its Merge Start platform and is also offering a $15Read More →

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Press release: A small team of virtual reality enthusiasts create the first Pluto virtual reality experience allowing viewers a first-hand look at the dwarf planet and entire solar system utilizing real images Vancouver, BC – ConVRter Technologies Inc. announced today that it has made a virtual reality version of the PlutoRead More →

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Apple CEO Tim Cook faced a question about virtual reality at the company’s first quarter earnings call on Tuesday, and was not particularly forthcoming about Apple’s plans. “In terms of virtual reality, no, I don’t think it’s a niche,” he said. “I think … it’s really cool and has some interestingRead More →

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On an earnings call yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was happy with the number of Oculus Rift pre-orders. “I don’t show much joy, but I am happy,” he told investors and analysts. Zuckerberg said that virtual reality has reached an important milestone with the shipping of the Samsung GearRead More →

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Following Lenovo’s bundling of its new K4 Note smartphone with an Ant VR virtual reality headset last week — a promotion that sold 10,000 sets in less than a second — iberry has launched its new Auxus Stunner smartphone as part of a bundle with the Auxus VR headset. The bundle isRead More →

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Lenovo sold more than 10,000 virtual reality headsets as part of K4 Note bundles in 0.9 seconds in India this week. Unlike other similar promotions, which typically feature simple cardboard virtual reality sets, the K4 Note came bundled with a white Ant VR headset. From local media reports, it seems toRead More →

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Customers will be able to try out Oculus Rift headsets before buying them at retail stores in April, reports Road to VR. There’s no word on which retail partners Oculus will be working with just yet, but in the U.S. one suspect is Best Buy, the country’s largest consumer electronicsRead More →

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Press release: More than 200 Million Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays to be Sold by 2020, According to Tractica Fueled by Gaming, Virtual Reality Adoption Will Also Drive Sales of 52 Million Accessory Devices during the Next 5 Years BOULDER, Colo. — While virtual reality is not a new technology in conceptRead More →

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The world’s leading virtual reality treadmill, the Virtuix Omni, has begun shipping the devices to its Kickstarter backers last month, saw around $15 million worth of interest from individual investors through SeedInvest, and won at Top Pick Award from Tom’s Hardware at the CES show in Las Vegas (see video below). The companyRead More →

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HTC will start taking pre-orders for Vive, its virtual reality headset, from February 29, its chief executive has confirmed. Cher Wang told the Telegraph the company had chosen to refocus on virtual reality and away from smartphones, saying the company was now “more realistic.” The price has not yet beenRead More →

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If you can’t wait until February 7 to watch Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl XII, you can get a virtual reality preview of it today. Watch the preview reel on Discovery VR or on Animal Planet’s YouTube page (below). You can also download the Discovery VR app for the iPhone and for Android smartphones.Read More →

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A new Raytheon-built virtual reality app puts users on a New England hilltop, looking out onto the test range for the company’s new 360-degree Global Patriot Solutions radar. The app, available for both Android devices, and iOS devices, works with any Google Cardboard-compatible headset. Raytheon itself is giving away free Google Cardboard viewers, previously used the technologyRead More →

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Tokyo-based Colopl has announced the formation of a $50 million Colopl VR Fund to provide support for the virtual reality industry. The Colopl VR Fund is open to funding both Japanese and foreign companies in hardware and software, including headsets, games, video content, development tools, and distribution platforms. It also plans toRead More →

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The White House has released a 360-degree virtual reality tour of its holiday decorations. On an Android smartphone, you can watch the tour in immersive virtual reality with a Google Cardboard set. On iPhones and standard desktop browsers, you can click-and-drag to look in different directions. It’s interesting because it’sRead More →

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Flickr has released a new app for the Gear VR that allows users to browse through the platform’s 360-degree photographs. “Over the years, Flickr users have uploaded tens of thousands of 360-degree photos and today we’re offering a new way to explore and view these images,” the company said inRead More →

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Google has released the Cardboard Camera app, free for Android smartphones. With Cardboard Camera, users are able to record 360-degree panoramas for viewing with Cardboard VR headsets. The way it works is that it prompts the user to slowly turn around in a circle — I spun around in my office chair.Read More →

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As the virtual- and augmented- reality wars heat up, Apple is making sure it stays competitive with occasional acquisitions such as AR pioneer Metaio and 3D sensor outfit PrimeSense. Now it’s adding another company to its quiver, Swiss-based Faceshift, whose motion capture tech allows animated avatars to double the facial movements ofRead More →

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Press release: Vuzix Awarded Eight CES 2016 Innovation Awards, Including “Best of” in Gaming and Virtual Reality ROCHESTER, N.Y. —Vuzix Corp., a leading supplier of video eyewear and smart glasses products in the consumer, enterprise and entertainment markets, announced that the company has received eight International CES Innovation 2016 awards,Read More →

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HTC’s Vive virtual reality  headset has received the Best Accessory at Paris Games Week, and Sony’s Playstation VR received the Technical Innovation prize at the world’s second-largest video game trade fair, the organization announced. The Vive was featured at Paris Games Week with several playable virtual reality demonstrations, including a first-personRead More →

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Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts today announced the first-ever integration of virtual reality experiences into worldwide hotel sales efforts. The group has rolled out Samsung Gear VR headsets across all Global Sales Offices and produced immersive 360-degree videos for over a quarter of its 94 hotels and resorts. Nearly half ofRead More →

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Aside from some patents, Apple has been very quiet on the virtual reality front. While many iPhone users are enjoying virtual reality applications and immersive videos, they are using Google Cardboard-compatible headsets. Today, Apple has finally taken one small public step into virtual reality, with the release of an immersiveRead More →

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OSVR, the open source alternative to the Oculus Rift, is now available for pre-order from Razer for $300. “The current stock we have is being shipped to areas in the US and the EU,” the company announced on its forums yesterday. “Countries in Asia Pacific will follow soon.” According to MaximumRead More →

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Indiana’s basketball season officially opens this Saturday, October 24, with the first game live-streamed in virtual reality. The Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology introduces virtual reality to their fans with their new Samsung Gear VR headsets. Fans will be able to experience Hoosier Hysteria as if they wereRead More →

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Researchers at Australia’s James Cook University, the Tree-Kangaroo and Mammal Group and the Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat are using virtual reality to raise awareness of the plight of the endangered tree kangaroo, which lives in the rain forest. “If someone visits the Malanda Falls visitor information centre and there are no tree kangaroosRead More →

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Syfy has updated its virtual reality app for its upcoming series, “The Expanse,” with a virtual fly-by of Tycho Station and the Nauvoo generation starship and handed out hundreds of Google Cardboard headsets at New York Comic Con last week. The app was first released in July of 2015 and was promotedRead More →