Students from around the world can now travel to Pakistan and learn more about the country — virtually. Online educational community PenPal Schools has launched a free six week field trip project to connect about  2,000 students from 17 countries — 300 from Pakistan, and the rest from Australia, Argentina, United States, Pakistan, Canada,Read More →

My role in my school district, involves working directly with classroom teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade to help them create effective learning experiences with technology. Recently, I’ve become a fan of what virtual reality brings to the classroom. I came across CoSpaces through Twitter at the start of this school yearRead More →

Search marketers can now use Google’s VR View, Street View and Cardboard Camera apps to capture, upload and optimize 360 degree videos, virtual reality videos and images for better and easier visibility on search engines with Street View and hence without the need for a native mobile application or virtual realityRead More →

Udacity, an online platform for college courses, is now offering a VR development course — with no previous programming experience necessary. The class costs $199 per month, and runs for six months. Those who complete the program will receive a “nanodegree” certificate from Udacity — and get half of theirRead More →

MyWebRoom will launch a free new social virtual reality platform next month, myVR, which will allow users to create and customize private room, and hold events using mobile-based VR headsets. It could be the first virtual reality platform that allows user-created environments. Two of the big players in the space, AltSpace and vTime, onlyRead More →

Did you just get a Cardboard-compatible virtual reality headset? You can tell if you have a mobile headset by the fact that it weighs very little, costs very little, and does not plug in to your computer. Instead, it has a place where you put in your smartphone. Then, if theRead More →

The latest version of the YouTube app can play any video in virtual reality mode, on both Android smartphones and iPhones. Just open up the app on your smartphone, and pull up any video. Take, for example, this  Cirque du Soleil virtual reality video. Notice the little Cardboard outline at bottomRead 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 →

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 →

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 →

Developers love the Oculus, Vive, and PlayStation VR because they offer the most cutting edge technology and the highest degree of immersion. But developers are ACTUALLY working on content for the Google Cardboard ecosystem. Don’t confuse the platform for the little cardboard give-away sets, please! There are some VERY niceRead More →

Update: I was doing a demo yesterday and the Cardboard Enabler app I reviewed below mysteriously stopped working. I could no longer switch to the Gear VR view. Deleting the app forced me to reinstall the Gear VR applications and reboot my phone several times. Then my phone died forRead More →

If you go to the official Google Cardboard site, you might think that there are only a dozen or so compatible headsets — and that half of them are made of cardboard. In fact, that page only shows a very tiny subset of the Cardboard-compatible headsets on the market. WorstRead More →

Back in January, I ordered a free Cardboard viewer from Raytheon. The offer is no longer available, but the headset finally came in my mail a week or so ago. If your company is considering giving away VR viewers made out of cardboard, this is what your customers will get:Read More →

Today in the mail a manufacturer sent me a free review copy of the ViarBox Google Cardboard headset. If you’re in Europe, you can buy these at around $17 each with a headstrap and $15, which is roughly about what any of the brand-name Google Cardboards cost, or a littleRead More →

Five million Google Cardboard-compatible headsets have been shipping, Google announced yesterday. The accompanying graphic shows a lot of headsets made out of cardboard, and two — the Mattel Viewmaster and the Goggle Tech C1-Glass — made out of plastic. Google didn’t provide any details about how they track these numbers, andRead More →

Google Inc, has appointed Clay Bavor as the new boss of its virtual reality team, according to the company’s spokesman Joshua Cruz, in a move seen as the company’s further dive into virtual reality after huge successes with the Google Cardboard. “We can confirm Clay’s new role on the VRRead More →

Having tried more than a dozen virtual reality headsets over the past few months, there are a few features that I now consider to be must-haves — but which seem to be rare to find. If any manufacturers are paying attention, please considering including more of the following in yourRead More →

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 →

Select Verizon wireless retail stores will give away a limited number of Google Cardboard viewers to Verizon customers, the company announced today. The giveaway starts tomorrow, December 2, with four different designs featuring BB-8, R2-D2, Kylo Ren, and the new First Order Stormtrooper. There are also companion apps for iOSRead More →

More than 100,000 students have participated in virtual reality field trips through Google’s Expeditions, and the program is now expanding to 15 additional cities, Google announced Monday. Benefiting from the new move are Alexandria, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Washington DC,Read More →

Update: In August 2016, I bought a FiiT VR 2S, and that is now my new favorite. Another headset I’m recommending is the BoboVR Z4 headset, which has a 120-degree field of view, built-in headphones, and a built-in control button. As some of you know, I’m a big fan of open-sided headsets, likeRead More →

Update: There are now apps you can use that make it easier to create a new Google Cardboard QR Code. One we tried out recently is Sites in VR. Read our review here. I recently ordered Baofeng Small Mojing virtual reality headset from AliExpress. They start at $12, with free shipping, andRead More →

YouTube has updated its Android app, the company announced yesterday, with better support for virtual reality. The app first added an option to watch videos in immersive 3D with the Google Cardboard-compatible headset back in June. The platform already had thousands of 360-degree videos, where people could use a mouse orRead More →

SAN ANTONIO – Merge VR has announced that its soft, foam goggles are available for pre-order through Amazon, and will ship before holidays. The Merge VR Goggles are among the top tech products debuting in the consumer entertainment market this holiday season. Compatible with any iOS or Android smartphone from the lastRead More →

Like a lot of people, I do a fair bit of shopping online. Amazon, eBay, Staples, Best Buy — I know them well, plus dozens of other online retailers as well. Until this fall, however, I’ve never considered shopping at AliExpress. I’d never heard of the site before, and ifRead More →

The Google Cardboard virtual reality application has been installed 15 million times, Google said in an announcement yesterday. The app, typically one of the first installed when a customer buys a smartphone-based virtual reality headset, is available for download from the Google Play store for Android phones and from Apple’s AppRead More →

Trying to find new virtual reality apps? Check out WearVR, which catalogs nearly 1,000 virtual reality applications for all major platforms. Apps can be sorted by newest, highest rated and most popular, and can also be filtered by device, platform, and genre. The site also has a section of virtualRead More →

With around 2 million Google Cardboard devices already in user hands, and Taobao and AliBaba alone selling 300,000 additional units a month, mobile-based virtual reality is going gangbusters. The iOS app store and Google Play have hundreds of virtual reality apps. Microsoft’s app store has less than two dozen. So,Read More →

Beloola, a browser-based social virtual world, plans to leverage new developments in Chrome and Firefox to support virtual reality headsets. It is a room-based world, where every user gets a free room to start with. Travel between rooms is via menu-based or portal-based teleports. This is different from Second LifeRead More →

I’ve written before about what an amazing service AOL did in getting people to go online for the first time. They spent more than $300 million on all those disks. They were at checkout counters. They came in the mail. They were in cereal boxes. They were everywhere. As aRead More →

Mini USA, the company behind the iconic Mini Cooper, has just jumped on the free Google Cardboard bandwagon. They’re following in the footsteps of several other companies that have been giving away virtual reality headsets lately, including Volvo, cell phone manufacturers LG and OnePlus, the HomeLane furniture store, a pornRead More →

According to Roy Taylor, corporate vice president of Alliances for AMD,  there will be 30 million virtual reality headsets in use in North America and Europe by 2018. He was citing figures that resulted from the inaugural meeting of the VR Council, an industry group with 70 members. Half ofRead More →

On Saturday night, Mal Burns joked that virtual reality headsets are now like the AOL disks — they’re everywhere. All we need now is to see them in cereal boxes. With prices of $5 or less for Google Cardboard sets — $1 or less if you buy them in bulk —Read More →

Technology altering the way companies conduct business is nothing new. From devices like iPads, to the use of social media as a marketing tool, advances in technology have made running businesses more efficient. Now there is another emerging technology that is delivering promising results in every industry that’s tested it—virtualRead More →

As my regular readers know, I’ve been trying to use a smartphone-and-Cardboard combo as an Oculus Rift replacement so that I could walk around my OpenSim builds without having to shell out $350 for the Oculus development kit. It’s not that I’m cheap — okay, yes, I’m cheap — butRead More →

I’ve never sat through an entire presentation dedicated to the launch of a new phone before, and I probably never will again. But the OnePlus 2 launch last night, from Chinese firm OnePlus, was an unusually compelling and intimate experience. Presented completely in virtual reality — or, for those withoutRead More →

So you want to try out some of the new virtual reality apps coming out, or you want to watch movies in 3D, but aren’t quite ready to shell out real money for a real headset. I don’t blame you. The technology is evolving quickly — by the time the headset arrives,Read More →

Late last year, Destination British Columbia filmed British Columbia’s raw wilderness with 360-degree cameras to create The Wild Within VR Experience for the Oculus Rift. If you don’t happen to have an Oculus Rift developers kit, you can watch the behind-the-scenes video below about how the virtual reality experience was filmed.Read More →

AT&T has partnered with Google Cardboard headset maker Knox Labs to offer a $10 white cardboard virtual reality headset, based on last year’s model. These older-style headsets, normally $15 each, have the magnetic button on the side of the headset, not the touch-sensitive button on top like this year’s modelsRead More →

It was the longest happy relationship of my life. We slept together every night, and she woke me up every morning. She caught me up on the news, and whenever we drove somewhere, she gave me directions. If I missed a turn, she didn’t complain, just recalculated the route. SheRead More →

Nike’s latest promotional video can be viewed on virtual reality headsets like the Google Cardboard. The short video, Nike Hypervenom II – The Neymar Jr. Effect, A Virtual Reality Experience, was filmed in 360 degrees from the viewpoint of Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr., and has been watched more than 1.5 millionRead More →

Chinese phone maker OnePlus offered everyone a free Google Cardboard headset — you just pay for shipping — so that people could watch its smartphone launch virtually on July 27. The company sent out 30,000 sets, and ran out in about a day. According to the company, their Cardboard is thinner,Read More →

Travel agencies and tour operators are now using virtual reality technology to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Agents are showing potential guests immersive virtual experiences that help the viewers better understand where they could travel and stay, and what they can do at different destinations. For hotels to take advantageRead More →