GoPro launching new virtual reality camera, online platform

The race to create both the hardware and the software that will drive the emerging virtual reality market is heating up, and now GoPro has unveiled its latest plans to support VR filmmakers and fans.

At this week's NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) event in Las Vegas, the company will unveil a new VR camera and launch a new VR platform for sharing immersive videos.

First, GoPro will show off its new Omni VR camera, which features six synchronized cameras in what the company calls a spherical array, but the housing itself looks more like a rounded square.

The six Hero4 cameras, plus the aluminum rig, which is lightweight and made for action shots, will be offered for $4,999 and will allow users to capture 8K video.

The GoPro Omni

IMAGE: GOPRO

The company is also introducing GoPro VR, a combination website and free app platform for iOS and Android designed to showcase VR content from around the world as well as facilitate the sharing of that content.

In the run-up to the launch of the VR platform, GoPro released a stunning sample of some of the footage that will be available. The preview footage is fully interactive on YouTube, allowing you to pan around in all directions.

But despite the increasing amount of rich VR content out there, similar VR platforms like Samsung's Milk VR have so far failed to generate much interest beyond the VR enthusiast niche.

However, GoPro's mainstream footprint, and focus on capturing outdoor activities from skateboarding to surfing, could be just the thing to jumpstart a truly robust VR content sharing platform. 

IMAGE: GOPRO

Late last year, GoPro took the wraps off its highest end VR device called the GoPro Odyssey, a 16-camera circular array that sells for $15,000.

The Omni will be available for pre-order beginning Monday via the GoPro website.

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This is how calls and texts look in virtual reality, via the HTC Vive

This past week, Facebook showed us what it's like to take a virtual reality selfie using the Oculus Rift — an experience that has to be seen to truly grasp its awesomeness.

But that demo was just a prototype. You can't take VR selfies with the Oculus just yet. However, you can make phone calls in VR if you have the HTC Vive, and there's video showing how it works.

Delivering a scene we've only witnessed in fictional films like like Lawnmower Man — until now — a member of the crew over at Road to VR recorded a session (video above) in which he sends a text and makes a phone call.

To get VR calling and texting working, in addition to the HTC Vive headset, you'll need an Android smartphone, the Vive Windows Desktop app and Steam and SteamVR installed on a Windows PC.

Remaining connected to the outside world with minimum interruption to your ongoing VR exploits could change the way that many use VR, for everything from gaming to remote working situations (education, medicine, etc.).

Yes, the set-up is elaborate and just unwieldy enough to discourage many users. But that's not the point. People, VR phone calls and texts are real!

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Everything announced on Facebook F8 2016 Conference

Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference is one of the biggest events of the year, especially given how social media is changing our lives in significant ways. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, delivered a keynote speech yesterday which showcased Facebook’s vision of the future. He also listed how Facebook is expanding vigorously in other tech fields as well.

Zuckerberg’s F8 2016 keynote was mostly about Facebook’s future and some customer products. Bots took center stage just like at the Microsoft’s developer conference that was held recently. This was followed by improvements in some customer products, new Facebook features and some new tech coming from the world’s biggest social network.

Lets take a look at what Facebook is bringing for its users down the road.

Messenger Gets a Bot Platform

Facebook is going with bots after many of its competitors did so. Telegram, WeChat, Kik offer it already and Skype just got it. Now its Messenger’s turn to incorporate AI-powered bots for its 900 million users. The company took its sweet time before launching the feature. Even now, it’ll be offered with the newly launched Messenger Beta platform.

The developer platform will let businesses, including news companies, create bots which can interact with Messenger users. Bots can send and receive text, images, buttons, bubbles and calls. Facebook showed off a CNN messenger bot which was capable of reading stories, getting summaries and offered an “Ask CNN” command.

Zuckerberg says the app will learn from your actions and personalise its algorithms to evolve with time.

Facebook Bot Engine

The social network announced the beta launch of Bot Engine, a tool which lets developers teach chatbots what to say in specific situations. Developers can use the Bot Engine along with the Send/Receive API to build Messenger bots. The technology comes from the Messenger’s Wit.AI team.

Facebook Live Stream

Facebook Live is the company’s answer to Meerkat and Periscope. It lets users stream live videos to the social network which, the company hopes, will play a big role in its next growth phase. Live API now supports third-party hardware allowing people to use separate cameras to live stream content. The company has partnered with different manufacturers to build on it and release its own products within the next five years.

Internet Beaming Satellite

During F8 2016, Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s Free Basics program will soon launch its first satellite into orbit in the next few months. According to him, the free internet program is helping more than 25 million people around the world.

Facebook has also announced a Free Basics simulator which lets developers test out how their websites would look like when accessed using Free Basics.

360 Degree VR Camera

The social network just released its Oculus Rift VR headset a few weeks ago. However, it’s not stopping there. Facebook just revealed its new open-source 360-degree camera which can capture some great quality VR content. The camera boasts 17 cameras and can record 8K video at 60 frames per second. The built-in software automatically stitches the videos together.

Being open-source, developers can make their own hardware and software based on the available designs and code.

Instant Articles for Everyone

Facebook announced a couple of months ago that it was bringing Instant Articles to everyone. WordPress will be getting a plugin which will let publishers export their content to the social network. Instant Articles will be added to user feeds directly and increase reader interactions as a result.

Account Kit

The social network announced a new software called the Account Kit. Third-party developers can add it to apps, letting their users to sign in to connect with just their phone number or email address – no passwords needed.

Save To Facebook

Save to Facebook will be a new addition to the social network’s portfolio. It will let users add content to a list of things to view later. The button will be visible on websites, and work like Pinterest, Pocket or Digg.

Share Quotes Easily

Sharing quotable quotes have become quite popular on Facebook. That’s why the company is bringing a new method that will let users clip quotes they like on the web (or e-books) and share them on Facebook in a neat and clean way.

Mark’s View on VR and AR

The founder of Facebook says that virtual reality and augmented reality of the future will be accessible using a gadget not so different from a common pair of glasses. The glasses have been announced as a part of Facebook’s 10 year plan for the future. AR and VR are expected to grow to a $120 billion market by 2020.

Vine for Profile Videos

Facebook is making it much easier for people to replace their profile pictures with profile videos. The ability to upload a 7 second video instead of still pictures has been available since last year. However, users will now be able to upload videos using third-party apps.

Vine and Boomerang will be the first two partners with support for the profile video feature on Facebook.

Facebook and WhatsApp Beat Regular SMS

People use Facebook and WhatsApp to send 60 billion messages every single day, three times more than regular SMS. The figure is a clear indication of the world moving towards online methods of communication rather than the offline ones.

So there you have it folks. Which of these announcements are you excited about? Let us know in the comments below.

Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death comes with QR code

If you are a Microsoft’s Windows user, you may have encountered the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

The Blue Screen of Death generally appears when Windows encounters any critical error due to software or hardware issues, displaying a sad face and no information other than "Your PC ran into a problem."

However, now the company is apparently giving its infamous Blue Screen of Death a makeover.

With the Microsoft's Anniversary Update, the company is making the Blue Screen of Death a little helpful for its users.

Microsoft is adding QR code to its Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows 10 that will make it easier for users to identify potential issues with their devices.

The new QR codes are featured in the Redmond's latest Windows 10 Preview, Build 14316, which will debut this summer as the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

Now, when your operating system fails, you will see not just a sad face, but a QR code that would be helpful in two ways:

1. You would be able to scan this code with your smartphone and be directed to a Web page that could include the details on the encountered error.
2. You could also call Microsoft support to figure out the problem by determining the source of the bug based on the specific QR code and even help you troubleshoot or fix it.

Though the change is not groundbreaking one, it will surely benefit millions of Windows 10 users whose hearts stop for a while when their screen goes blue.

The BSOD QR codes are expected to come out this summer when Microsoft releases the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

Microsoft's Anniversary Update for Windows 10 will bring a lots of new features, including Ubuntu file system that will allow you to use Bash to run command-line Linux applications without a virtual machine.

How many of you think the BSOD QR codes would be useful?

Let me know in the comments below.

WebUSB API- Connect USB with Internet, SECURELY

Two Google engineers have developed a draft version of an API called WebUSB that would allow you to connect your USB devices to the Web safely and securely, bypassing the need for native drivers.

WebUSB – developed by Reilly Grant and Ken Rockot – has been introduced to the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Incubator Community Group (W3C WICG), is build to offer a universal platform that could be adopted by browser makers in future versions of their software.

Connecting USB Devices to the Web

WebUSB API allows USB-connected devices, from keyboards, mice, 3D printers and hard drives to complex Internet of Things (IoTs) appliances, to be addressed by Web pages.

The aim is to help hardware manufacturers have their USB devices work on any platform, including Web, without having any need to write native drivers or SDKs for a dedicated platform.

Besides controlling the hardware, a Web page could also install firmware updates as well as perform other essential tasks.

However, the draft API (Application Program Interface) is not meant to be used for transferring files to or from flash drives.

"With this API hardware manufacturers will have the ability to build cross-platform JavaScript SDKs for their devices," Google engineers wrote in the draft project description.

"This will be good for the Web because, instead of waiting for a new kind of device to be popular enough for browsers to provide a specific API, new and innovative hardware can be built for the Web from day one."

Privacy and Security Concerns

The Google engineers also outlined security concerns.

• WebUSB will include origin protections, like a type of the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), to restrict the Web pages from requesting data from other domains except the one from where they originate.

This means a Web page could not be able to exploit your USB device to access your PC, or your important files or any files that your computer or the USB device itself may hold.

• To address the issue of USB devices leaking data, WebUSB will always prompt the user to authorize a website or web page in order to detect the presence of a device and connect to it.

For now, the WebUSB is only a draft of a potential specification, which hasn't been officially adopted by W3C. WebUSB remains a work in progress at the current, though you can check out the full WebUSB codebase on GitHub.