Oculus VR Brings a New Reality to the Gaming Industry

After walking the floor of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, many gaming industry participants saw the virtual reality (VR) writing on the wall for the first time — and in a very realistic way. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) gaming has arrived, or gotten extremely close, with the official ship date for the Oculus Rift VR viewer set for March 28 and current pre-order acceptance now taking place.

Some issues remain in the technology and user experience, not to mention the price point. However, barring a major misstep by the Oculus unit of Facebook, none of these remain permanent obstacles to prevent a long-term VR trend from taking effect in 2016 (according to a January 2016 report from SUPERDATA forecasting an install base of about 38 million VR gaming consumers by the end of the year and a July 2015 Business Insider estimate of VR headset shipments growing at a 99 percent CAGR between 2015 and 2020, reaching $30 billion by that end date).

Game console makers feel the heat from PC VR

While the Oculus Rift VR viewer existed in the purview of developers alone since June 2015, with this January’s announcement, the mainstream gaming public will now have an opportunity to experience VR firsthand. However, most of these potential gamers could remain on the sidelines unless they upgrade from Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox consoles to a fully decked-out PC. That’s unless the console makers get in the PC VR game.

“Nintendo either needs to adapt or be left behind,” Tim Lynch, CEO of Psychsoftpc, tells me. “Microsoft already has its own VR/AR HoloLens in beta now for developers. And since Xbox is essentially a PC-based system, it is better equipped to meet this.”

Actually, Nintendo is playing a wait-and-see game, according to Joanan Hernandez, CEO and founder of Mollejuo, an augmented reality (AR) company with a mobile app called Terra Icons.

“Microsoft is betting heavily on AR with HoloLens,” he says. “Thus, the only direct competition for Oculus is PlayStation VR and HTC Steam VR. There’s space for the three of them — Oculus, HTC, PlayStation — at least initially.”

In fact, HTC does a great job with physical-digital interactions, according to J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, a global research and advisory firm. “And it might have some advantages over Oculus in the features department,” he tells me. “For example, by tracking your movement throughout a room using base stations.”

Demand for VR technology looks good for console and mobile gaming platforms.

Expectations for VR exist at a high level. And with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets scheduled to hit retail in Q1 2016 and Sony PlayStation VR in Q2, demand for VR technology looks good for console and mobile gaming platforms. “This is positive for both our video game and tech brand businesses,” Eric Bright, senior director of merchandising at GameStop, tells me. “During our GameStop EXPO September 2015, we saw customers wait in long lines to experience the virtual reality demos Sony and HTC had with positive feedback.”

Price point and immersion

Some industry observers have questioned the $599 price point that Oculus chose for the formal introduction of the Rift, such as Mike Goodman, director of digital media strategies at Strategy Analytics, a consumer-focused business consulting firm.

“Oculus views the Rift as a ‘premium’ product and has priced it accordingly; however, there is ‘premium pricing’ and then there is pricing yourself out of the market,” Goodman tells me. “While there is a small segment of PC gamers who think nothing of dropping $2,300 on a high-end PC, $600 for the Oculus Rift plus an additional $1,500 for a PC capable of running Oculus VR games and entertainment is just too much for most of us. Considering Facebook spent roughly $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR, they might want to rethink their premium price point.”

Rather than price, immersion will be the key factor in VR’s success.

— Olli Sinerma

However, others have seen that earlier breakthrough consumer electronics with elevated acquisition costs have gone on to perform well in the marketplace. It comes down to the value proposition of immersion VR versus price point.

“The future of VR will not be determined by its current cost,” Olli Sinerma, co-founder and project lead at Mindfield Games, developer of the forthcoming VR gameP.O.L.L.L.E.N, tells me. “What Oculus can ship, it will sell, and others will develop cheaper alternatives like the already available Google Cardboard. Rather than price, immersion will be the key factor in VR’s success.”

Install base barrier

But immersion alone may not ensure that Oculus will surmount its seemingly lofty sales tag. Other barriers beside the console makers represent plausible pitfalls for Facebook’s VR gear maker. The install base of VR-capable PCs presents the largest hedgerow for Oculus to jump over.

“Oculus’s $599 price point was higher than many expected, but that’s not the core inhibitor for adoption — it’s having a PC that’s Oculus-ready,” says Gownder. “Aside from PC gamers — and not even all of them — very few people have PCs with the needed specifications. Most people would have to buy the Rift and a $1,000-plus PC to use the device.”

Concurring with that perspective, Goodman opines that the vast majority don’t have PCs that meet Oculus Rift’s minimum PC requirements to run VR games and entertainment. Overall, Gownder estimates that only 13 million PCs globally are currently compatible with the Oculus Rift.

Which comes first, VR hardware or software?

Seeing that the install base for VR-capable PCs remains at a low level, the market might not yet exist. The classic chicken-or-the-egg scenario pops into view. Without a critical mass of hardware to run VR software, who will write the games? And with a lack of first-person shooters, etc., who will build PCs and consoles with VR compatibility?

“When it comes to consumer entertainment, the content dilemma poses a significant hurdle for adoption,” Maurice Patel, industry strategist, media and entertainment at Autodesk, developer of 3D design software, tells me. “Many VR headset manufacturers try to kick-start content creation by funding their own productions through initiatives like Oculus Studio. However, it will take several iterations of hardware and successful production projects before the technology is mature enough to warrant generalized, large-scale production of VR content.”

Today, VR is an exciting, bleeding-edge technology for exploring new ways of telling stories, driving gameplay and communicating ideas. Where it will go from here is yours to dream.

Virtual Reality Meets Education

Since the 1950s, virtual reality (VR) has been hovering on the periphery of technology without achieving accepted mainstream application or commercial adoption. Since 2012, VR startups have raised more than $1.46 billion in venture capital, including more than $100 million in funding during the last four consecutive quarters.

According to Citi analyst Kota Ezawa, 2016 is the year that VR will take off in earnest, with the VR market expected to grow to a $15.9 billion industry by 2019. Citi also anticipates the market for hardware, networks, software and content will reach $200 billion by 2020.

The content share of this market is of particular interest, as this segment of the tech industry has historically been dedicated to gaming — but the world is changing. We are shifting from the now relatively benign universe in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to Ernest Cline’s VR paradigm as described in Ready Player One. Like Huxley, Cline has written of a dystopian environment wherein technology has overtaken humanity.

For our purpose, let’s consider VR as a useful tool, and perhaps even a productive enhancement to human interaction, bringing together people from around the world to engage and interact — regardless of social, economic or geographic disparities. In the abstract as well as the applied, modern education is poised to take advantage of this latest tech innovation.

Over the last several years, VR has moved from being the purview of the military and aviation to the mainstream of professional development, as managers, instructors, coaches and therapists have claimed increasing benefit from immersive experiences.

While statistics on VR use in K-­12 schools and colleges have yet to be gathered, the steady growth of the market is reflected in the surge of companies (including zSpace,Alchemy VR and Immersive VR Education) solely dedicated to providing schools with packaged educational curriculum and content, teacher training and technological tools to support VR­-based instruction in the classroom. Myriad articles, studies and conference presentations attest to the great success of 3D immersion and VR technology in hundreds of classrooms in educationally progressive schools and learning labs in the U.S. and Europe.

Perhaps the most utopian application of this technology will be seen in terms of bridging cultures and fostering understanding among young students.

Much of this early foray into VR­-based learning has centered on the hard sciences — biology, anatomy, geology and astronomy — as the curricular focus and learning opportunities are notably enriched through interaction with dimensional objects, animals and environments. The World of Comenius project, a biology lesson at a school in the Czech Republic that employed a Leap Motion controller and specially ­adapted Oculus Rift DK2 headsets, stands as an exemplary model of innovative scientific learning.

In other areas of education, many classes have used VR tools to collaboratively construct architectural models, recreations of historic or natural sites and other spatial renderings. Instructors also have used VR technology to engage students in topics related to literature, history and economics by offering a deeply immersive sense of place and time, whether historic or evolving.

In what may turn out to be an immersive education game changer, Google launched itsPioneer Expeditions in September 2015. Under this program, thousands of schools around the world are getting — for one day — a kit containing everything a teacher needs to take their class on a virtual trip: Asus smartphones, a tablet for the teacher to direct the tour, a router that allows Expeditions to run without an Internet connection, a library of 100+ virtual trips (from the Great Wall of China to Mars) and Google Cardboard viewers or Mattel View­Masters that turn smartphones into VR headsets.

This global distribution of VR content and access will undoubtedly influence a pedagogical shift as these new technologies allow a literature teacher in Chicago to “take” her students to Verona to look at the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or a teacher in the Bronx to “bring” her Ancient Civilizations class to the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.

And with VR platforms like AltspaceVR and LectureVR (an initiative of Immersive VR Education), entirely new possibilities are available for teachers of all kinds, as the technology of making avatars and supporting “multi-player” sessions allows for an exponentially­ scaled level of socialization and outreach.

Potentially, a collaboration between these innovative VR platform offerings could result in a curator or artist guiding a group of thousands around a museum exhibition or cultural site, or an actor or professor leading a virtual master class in real time with students from all over the world.

Perhaps the most utopian application of this technology will be seen in terms of bridging cultures and fostering understanding among young students, as it will soon be possible for a third-grade class in the U.S. to participate in a virtual trip with a third-grade class in India or Mexico.

Access to some type of mobile VR device is affordable for many more individual users and, in turn, many more schools.

Despite the fact that VR is still developing, real progress has been seen in the economic scaling of the technology. The cost to the consumer of VR hardware (headsets, in particular) has steadily declined, as noted in the head­-mounted displays (HMDs) commercially available today: Google Cardboard for $20 and Samsung Gear VRfor $99 (at this writing, Oculus Rift, a desktop VR device, is available for pre­-order for $599).

The fact that The New York Times recently supplied more than one million subscribers with Google Cardboard headsets to access its newly launched VR experiences has further advanced accessibility and mainstreaming of the device, as well as this innovative means of media consumption.

Overall, access to some type of mobile VR device is affordable for many more individual users and, in turn, many more schools. Some forward-thinking instructors are even using 3D printers to print their own customized HMDs with their technology students, a solution that dovetails with the popular maker­-trend philosophy.

So maybe we are ready for the futuristic world of Cline’s Ready Player One. But perhaps the utopian rather than dystopian construct is not only more appealing, but also more relevant in this global community.

Educators and students alike are seeking an ever-expanding immersive landscape, where students engage with teachers and each other in transformative experiences through a wide spectrum of interactive resources. In this educational reality, VR has a definitive place of value.

Google to Speed Up Chrome For Faster Browsing

Google is planning to make Chrome faster in order to provide its users fast Internet browsing experience.

Thanks to a new, open-source data and web compression algorithm for the Internet called Brotli, which Google announced last year to boost its web page performance.

With Brotli, Google will speed up Chrome and users could get a significant performance boost in coming months.

Google introduced Brotli last September and claimed that the new algorithm is a "whole new data format" that could reduce file sizes by up to 26 percent higher than Zopfli, the company's three-year-old web compression technology.

Net result – Fast Internet Browsing

In a post on Google+ on Tuesday, web performance engineer at Google Ilya Grigorik announced that the new algorithm is coming to Chrome soon, which will change the way files are compressed, improving loading speeds by a quarter.

Besides faster loading speeds, Brotli also have additional benefits for smartphone users, which includes:

• Lower data transfer fees
• Reduced battery use

Brotli is currently in beta testing mode, with a current status "intent to ship", however, it is likely to be rolled out with the next stable release of Chrome.

Advantages of Brotli

• Brotli outperforms gzip for typical web assets (e.g. css, html, js) by 17–25%.
• Brotli -11 density compared to gzip -9:
• html (multi-language corpus): 25% savings
• js (alexa top 10k): 17% savings
• minified js (alexa top 10k): 17% savings
• css (alexa top 10k): 20% savings

Chrome to Speed Up Web Page Performance Over HTTPS

At present, Brotli is restricted to HTTPS connections, and if you are curious to see Brotli in action, you can activate the feature in Chrome Canary, which is Google's browser for testing new features.

Thereby, you can carry out internet speed test with the help of various website performance testing tools to know what difference Brotli makes to your Internet browsing experience.

So, Get Ready to Speed Up Chrome and make your web page performance faster.

Youtube is UNBANNED in PAKISTAN

After over three years of being told to ‘Surf Safely’, Internet users in the country were able to access the popular video-sharing website, YouTube, following orders from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that the website be unblocked.

However, digital rights groups and other stakeholders, who had originally opposed the blocking of the website, still have concerns over the deal – struck between the government and Google – which may empower the former to censor content on the website.

YouTube was blocked in September 2012, after a blasphemous film, ‘Innocence of Muslims’, triggered global protests. The government of Pakistan initially tried to restrict access to the clip inside Pakistan, but ended up having to block the entire website because Google refused to restrict access to the video on the website itself.

“We have directed all ISPs to unblock the website as Google informed us on January 12 that a country version of YouTube has been launched for Pakistan. Google has been using country versions for different countries such as Saudi Arabia,” a PTA official, who was not authorised to speak on the record, told Dawn.

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Google’s accession to govt demands worries digital rights activists

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“Google has also informed us that objectionable content will be restricted in Pakistan. It has assured that, in the future, content can be restricted at the request of the government of Pakistan,” he said.

A spokesperson for Google told Dawn via email, “We are glad that YouTube is now accessible in Pakistan so viewers can watch and share videos, as well as take advantage of the vibrant and growing global online video community.”

Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) Convener Wahajus Siraj told Dawn that he had checked to see if the objectionable video could still be accessed on YouTube.

“The film is no longer available on the website. There are certain purported links, but when I tried to open them, it told me the content could not be viewed in Pakistan. This shows that the government’s demands have been met,” he said.

“It doesn’t make a difference whether one types in youtube.com.pk or simply youtube.com. It seems that the website is filtering IP addresses and it gives Internet users in Pakistan the ‘PK’ version irrespective. This is a positive development,” he said.

Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) Chairman Syed Ahmad told Dawn that restoring access to the website was a good step because YouTube was a major source of educational material and several users depended on it for updates on new technology.

“We were concerned that not opening the website would hurt Pakistanis far more than it would hurt Google,” he said.

“Now, however, thanks to the localisation, the website won’t be blocked because of political issues. But there are still concerns that the government will be able to get content restricted,” he said.

“Although control lies with the management of YouTube, but if someone uploads a video critiquing government corruption, the Pakistani government can ask for the video to be restricted. In addition, the management of YouTube will have to pay more attention to the government’s demands making it easier for the government to censor content,” he said.

Digital Rights Foundation Executive Director Nighat Dad said that there was no transparency in the agreement between the government and Google.

“Earlier, the government used to say that the issue was pending before the Supreme Court and the court would decide. However, a few days ago, restrictions on YouTube were relaxed and then, suddenly. we came to know that Google representatives were in Pakistan and it was announced that the website had been localised,” she said.

“The agreement should be made public because that is how we can know what kind of material has been restricted and what kind of content will be restricted in the future,” she said.

Source of Info: Dawn.com

Future Processors will only Support Windows 10

Microsoft is seemingly going to a new limit to define Windows 10 as the ultimate platform for the people of its ecosystem. In short, older OSes will no longer be supported by newer processors, making Windows 10  the absolute minimum starting point for people who are still holding out to their outdated hardware and software configurations.

As it turns out, the AMD, Intel and Qualcomm processors of the future will only support Windows 10 to get enterprise support. This news will allow Microsoft to further add reluctant business users who have stuck faithfully to older OS iterations.

What about Windows 7, 8 and 8.1?

The company is making it mandatory for Skylake processors to upgrade in the near future. It has made a list of these 6th-gen chips that will get support for Windows 7 and 8.1, but that too will end barely a year-and-a-half later on 17th of July, 2017.

After the expiry of the 2017 deadline, it is almost certain that an upgrade is needed and only those updates will be rolled out that don’t risk the “reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7/8.1 platform on other devices”.

Users with older versions of Intel and other options will get the support till Jan. 14, 2020 and Jan. 10, 2023 for versions 7 and 8.1 respectively.

Here’s Tyler Myerson in his own words regarding the change:

“Windows 7 was designed nearly 10 years ago before any x86/x64 SoCs existed. For Windows 7 to run on any modern silicon, device drivers and firmware need to emulate Windows 7’s expectations for interrupt processing, bus support, and power states – which is challenging for Wi-Fi, graphics, security, and more. As partners make customizations to legacy device drivers, services, and firmware settings, customers are likely to see regressions with Windows 7 ongoing servicing.”

It is not immediately clear what hardware developments are making Windows 7 a nuisance at this point, but as Skylake has shown, a better power management between the chip and the OS it runs on is possible. With Koby Lake coming soon, this and much more can be taken to an all new level.

Microsoft Hololens to come in Q1 2016 for Developers

After our experiences with smart watches, it is clear that an aspect as important as battery life is not to be underestimated. So far, HoloLens, said to be one of the exciting future prospects in technology, missed this detail but thankfully, Microsoft is working towards covering that too now.

According to the company, the mixed-reality computing platform will bring life of up to 5.5 hours on a single-charge, rather acceptable for a first-generation product of its kind. However, it can vary quite a lot with heavy 3D applications, whose use can shorten it to a rather subpar 2.5 hours.

Microsoft also detailed further aspects of the HoloLens, including connectivity. HoloLens uses both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for communication, so pretty much every wireless device out there is covered. Several headsets can be connected together for a shared experience too over Wi-Fi, and don’t need to be at the same place at the same time.

It can run just about any Windows 10 universal app. The field of view offered is similar to 15″ monitor placed at two feet from your face, due to cost and battery-life limitations. In the future, with improved manufacturing, that range can be expanded further as well.

We still aren’t sure when will the technology arrive for consumers but developer units should start hitting in Q1 2016. With this slightly different approach with virtual reality, Microsoft can surely blaze a trail for other lesser-known companies with HoloLens.

Facebook adds Built-in Tor support for its Android App

Rejoice for Privacy Lovers!

Facebook today took a surprising move by announcing that it is bringing the free anonymizing software TOR support to its Android app, almost two years after the social network planned to make Facebook available directly over Tor network.

Yes. Believe it or not, the Android version of the popular Facebook application now supports the Tor anonymity network.

In October 2014, Facebook launched a .onion website on TOR in order to let its users around the world access its service more securely.

Access Facebook over TOR via Orbot

This latest move to expand that access to the Android app opens up the option to millions more users to maintain their privacy when they visit the world's most popular social network.

Facebook says "a sizeable community of people" are already accessing the site over TOR, so the company is bringing this feature to Android via the free Orbot proxy app, which is available on the Google's Play Store.

"We commonly receive requests for additional platform support beyond the browser,"reads the announcement, "...we are now offering experimental support for using Facebook over Tor via the Orbot proxy app for Android devices."

How to Use Facebook Over TOR?

• In order to access Facebook over TOR, Download Orbot proxy app from the Play Store.
• Now open Facebook app and Select "Use Tor via Orbot" in the app's Settings menu.

That's it. Now you are connected to Facebook's Tor hidden service that will mask your real IP address and will stop your internet service provider (ISP) from seeing when you visit Facebook.

Moreover, this new feature could potentially allow users to access the social network site even if it is blocked in their country, like China and Iran.

Facebook says that the company is releasing this new feature "over the next few days," so do not expect to see the pop-up right now. 

And as the feature is currently in the experimental stage, flaws and other issues may occur.

WhatsApp is now FREE for LIFETIME..

Good News for WhatsApp users!

The widely popular messaging service is going completely free. And you'll be able to use WhatsApp without paying a penny.

Old WhatsApp users might not be aware of this, but WhatsApp introduced the subscription fees for its service a few years ago, forcing new users to pay an annual 99 cents (~$1) subscription fee after the first year.

However, WhatsApp announced Monday that the Facebook-owned company is dropping its annual subscription fee to make its service free to all users.

While announcing the plan today, WhatsApp's founder Jan Koum stated that the annual subscription fee was still a barrier to some users.

"As we have grown, we have found that this approach has not worked well," WhatsApp admitted in a company blog post today. "Many WhatsApp users do not have a debit or credit card number, and they worried they'd lose access to their friends and family after their first year."

What will be WhatsApp's New Business Model?

WhatsApp categorically said the company won't be replacing the subscription fee with third-party advertisements like intrusive banner and interstitials, which nowadays is a common practice used to make free applications profitable.

Instead, the company said it will explore ways businesses can use WhatsApp to connect with individuals, and will introduce new ways for users to communicate with businesses and organisations that will pay the company to target relevant communications with customers.

For example:

• A bank could use WhatsApp paid account to communicate with its customers about recent transactions and necessary fraud warnings.
• An airline could use WhatsApp paid account to contact its passengers about a delayed schedule or cancelled flight.

It is the same approach WhatsApp parent company Facebook is using with its own Messenger application, which in last month started allowing its users to book an Uber cab directly through the Messenger app.