Software : Oculus Rift to launch VR headset for Android mobile gaming |
- Oculus Rift to launch VR headset for Android mobile gaming
- Twitter's 'more visual tweets' look and feel like Instagram
- Facebook amping Messenger app, lets you text your non-FB friends and more
- Hangouts gets SMS support, more as Google+ laps up photo, video updates
| Oculus Rift to launch VR headset for Android mobile gaming Posted:  Just last week, John Carmack was waxing poetic about an untethered Oculus Rift experience powered by Android and a system-on-a-chip. Well, seems like the Oculus Rift CTO's vision has come to fruition. CEO Brendan Iribe announced today at GamesBeat 2013 that the company is definitely working on a lighter mobile virtual reality headset aimed at consumers. The headset will use the Android device's processor, according to Iribe. If that isn't exciting enough, the team is shooting to launch the mobile version with the PC headset in 2014, which means we would see the device next year as opposed to our previous 5-year estimation. The Oculus blog further elaborates a standalone headset as the future of virtual reality noting that an Oculus Android software development kit is already running, with the team "working on core optimizations for mobile chipsets now." No iOS?While the Android SDK is merrily frolicking with the Oculus, it seems like iOS has been left in the dust. The lack of Apple support hasn't been addressed by the company yet, though it's apparent the Android OS is a more open platform for console gaming devs - with the Android powered Nvidia Shield, Ouya and Mad Catz Mojo being a few notable examples. Rift doesn't see Apple's absence as a hindrance, either. As quoted by Venture Beat, Iribe said, "We have some exciting plans on the mobile VR side as the PC VR side ... It's pretty incredible what [John Carmack has] been able to do." Iribe also echoed Carmack's sentiments about watching television and movies in virtual reality home theaters as a possibility. Seeing that a mobile Rift system is almost here when we thought it would take much longer to hit the market, this concept doesn't sound too far off either. |
| Twitter's 'more visual tweets' look and feel like Instagram Posted:  Twitter announced some changes to timelines today that make it easier to interact with tweets, as well as putting photos and Vine videos front and center. The changes apply to Twitter's mobile apps on iOS and Android, as well as Twitter.com, and they take effect today. Users scrolling through their timelines will now see previews of tweeted photos and Vine videos, and a tap or a click reveals the full version. In addition, the buttons to reply, retweet or favorite a tweet are now available from the timeline itself on mobiles, rather than requiring users to tap through to the message to see those options. Enriching tweetsTwitter revealed the changes on its blog and posted a Vine video showing the improvements in action. "So many of the great moments you share on Twitter are made even better with photos or with videos from Vine," Twitter VP of Product Michael Sippey wrote in the blog post. "These rich Tweets can bring your followers closer to what's happening, and make them feel like they are right there with you. We want to make it easier for everyone to experience those moments on Twitter." Overall, the changes make Twitter look and feel a lot more like rival Facebook's photo-focused Instagram service, though tweeted Instagram photos still won't appear in users' timelines. There's no word on any changes to the Windows Phone Twitter app. |
| Facebook amping Messenger app, lets you text your non-FB friends and more Posted:  Facebook is upping its messaging game in a bid to win you over. The social media site announced that staring today a select amount of Android devices will see a new Facebook Messenger system - one that is faster, easier on the eyes and best of all, provides more functions. Facebook's main aim is a better "mobile-to-mobile" system where it can stack up more competitively against other messaging clients like WhatsApp. The good news for FB is that it may actually succeed in this as the changes seem to drastically improve the Messenger experience. What's new?The biggest and perhaps best change is how Facebook Messenger now lets you use the system to text everyone you know, like that friend who refuses to give in and get Facebook.
Confirming phone number seems to be the only obstacle to chatting with contacts. To make texting faster, the lightening bolt Messenger icon will let you know which friend is also using the mobile app, allowing messages to be sent and received instantly. The icing on the cake is the new color scheme attached to the revamped app - Messenger is now dressed up in a new blue hue to help you better differentiate between Facebook apps. TechRadar asked the social networking giant for info on a wider release for more devices, but we were told the app is being tested with a limited amount of people with it coming to "everyone on iOS and Android in the coming weeks." |
| Hangouts gets SMS support, more as Google+ laps up photo, video updates Posted:  Google often rolls out updates en masse, and today was no different as it introduced 18 features to its social media platform, Google+. Hangouts, the Talk replacement Google made official at IO, is seeing a handful of enhancements as well. We'll start with Hangouts - among the additions to the Android app is SMS support, or the ability to send and receive a message without having to exit and enter a new app. Location sharing has also found its way to the app, letting users message a map of their current coordinates with whomever they're hangin' with. A simple tap of the place button on the bottom of the app will input a map into the convo stream.
And because GIFs rule the world, animations will now play inline. All these add-ons will be available in the coming days, according to Google. Now On AirFor those using Hangouts On Air, a few new features are entering to the mix, including the ability to schedule an H.O.A., dedicated watch pages, and a Control Room function with eject and remote mute. On both the mobile app and desktop version of Hangouts, users will notice (or maybe not, since it's automatic) that webcam lighting during video calls will be much improved. Conversations in either mode will now take up the full screen too. Look for the video calling features to land in a few days with On Air's improvements rolling out in the "next few weeks." Google+ photo and video improvementsCall it the quiet creep, but Google+ now has 540 million active users across Google with 300 million active users participating within the core social experience itself. Photo uploads have hit 1.5 billion a week, with momentum increasing. Google has seen a 20X increase in video uploads to boot. Those are respectable numbers for a social media service generally written off as forgotten/useless/not Facebook. Photos and videos are clearly an area Google wants to own with Google+, and to that end it's introducing a number of image-related enhancements. Auto Awesome, also unveiled at Google IO, is being gifted with three new techniques. Auto Awesome Action will create a strobe effect with an image, so there's a trail of the subject moving through space. Eraser lets users wipe out obstructive objects in a photograph. It takes a sequence of photos, say of your friend in a busy intersection in front of the Arc de Triomphe, and removes cars and pedestrians to create a clean image of your ami.
Lastly, Movie pumps out highlight reels from your photos and videos and automatically puts in effects, transitions and music. During a presentation to introduce the new features, Google SVP Vic Gundotra demonstrated how users can choose different soundtracks, trim clips, set length of time and add different filters to customize their mini movies. There is a twist with this Movie, however. According to Google, the feature works on "certain devices with Android 4.3+." All the other app features are widely supported and will be available this week (and for some even as early as today), but it looks like Movie won't see mass adoption anytime soon. Oh, but there's moreGoogle has also improved photo search within Google+, upping the number of objects it recognizes to over 1,000. Searching for a photo of the epic snowman you built last weekend should be quicker with the smarter search function. Users now have the ability to turn enhancements in Auto Enhance up or down, putting greater control in their hands when it comes to "improving" their pictures. And if users process their images elsewhere, Google is offering an exemption for the whole album. Don't worry iOS users - Google hasn't forgotten about you. The Google+ app on the Apple-made system will soon see full size backups and background sync coming its way.
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