Daydream Home is a home screen that will come with every Daydream-ready phone and be the first thing that people see when they head into VR, according to Google lead designer Lindsey Metcalfe. There’s only so much that can be done with a slab of corrugated cardboard and an Android device.
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Google has launched Doze with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, in which the feature helps save battery power by pausing any background activity while the device is idle and still.
Google’s new virtual reality platform Daydream is expected to become the best smartphone-based VR experience.
Android N will also feature a VR mode as part of Google’s wider VR initiative named Daydream. A separate section of the Play Store, featuring VR-specific versions of YouTube, games and reportedly a variety of other apps, will also flesh out Daydream, according to Google’s vision for the platform. And now that Chrome OS will be able to run apps like theirs on their Chromebooks soon, this will open up a lot of productivity and creative opportunities for users.
Android TV users can now access the WatchESPN streaming service. It even has a motion controller, which is pretty important when dealing with VR these days.
The goal for Daydream, explained Google vice president for virtual reality Clay Bavor, is to create the kind of experience where your senses line up to create the feeling that you’re really someplace else. Additionally, the search engine giant says that they are now working with partners to launch devices explicitly designed for Play.
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Of course, Daydream’s future hinges on Google, as well as its manufacturing partners, actually delivering on these promises. And the way we get there is through the typical smartphone evolution: “where today’s premium devices-the ones that can run VR experiences-are next year’s mid-range, and the following year’s low end devices”, Elbouchikhi told developers in the audience. In fact, the entire event was streamed live in 360-degree video so that anyone with a VR headset anywhere in the world could follow along as if they were sitting right there in the audience.
