The new Gear VR is 22 per cent lighter, making it more comfortable to wear.
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Some speculate that older devices and more affordable units will one day be supported by the consumer version of Gear VR, although Samsung did not make any mention of it. “We’re not thinking about advertising at all right now”, Iribe said from a spot at the ongoing Oculus Connect 2 developer conference in Hollywood, California.
Oculus is trying to change that by selling the latest model of its Gear VR headset for just $99.
The unit, scheduled to ship in November, lets anyone with a Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Note 5 or S6 Edge+ handset plug in and play.
Just imagine what the world will be like once everyone owns a VR headset.
Samsung also announced that the new VR headset includes an upgraded touchpad. The company is also developing an “Oculus Ready” programme to signal hardware that can interact with the VR glasses.
The upcoming Gear VR headset will be priced at half the cost of the previous versions of the virtual reality device, according to Trusted Reviews.
Samsung says the Gear VR has a 96 degree field of view and 54 to 70mm fixed lenses.
Samsung’s Gear VR is set to get a slew of streaming apps to boost its media capabilities, with Netflix, Hulu, Vimeo and Twitch all announcing that they will be releasing apps for the platform.
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The app reportedly launched Thursday for Samsung’s Gear VR headset and will eventually be available on the Oculus Rift headset when it becomes commercially available, expected in early 2016. “The first of these VR shorts is called ‘The Big One” and features a meteor shower that turns into an apocalyptic nightmare. Moreover, Facebook has also introduced 360-degree videos for its news feed, that will give its massive user base an initial feel of virtual reality.
