HTC Archives - VR World

Augmented Reality (AR), Business, China, Mobile, News, US, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

China might beat the US in AR adoption, according to forecast

According to a report from Digi-Capital, China is likely to beat the United States in AR adoption. The company posits quite a few things relating to AR/VR in its study, so let’s break them down below. About Digi-Capital’s study Digi-Capital focuses on releasing detailed reports and statistics concerning the AR/VR markets and many related tech segments. Their most recent report, for Q2 2018, provides insights, interviews, and even a database on all kinds of market information. A considerable part of this report focused on VR and AR adoption, which we’ll detail below. How China could win in AR adoption, and our thoughts According to the

Augmented Reality (AR), HTC, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

HTC releasing Vive Pro AR Dev Kit and Vive Pro 2.0 Kit

After releasing with just the headset, the HTC Vive Pro is now launching with a more complete 2.0 Kit and a Vive Pro AR Kit. The first of the new HTC Vive Pro kits is the Vive Pro 2.0 Kit, which includes the headset itself, two new base stations, and two of its motion controllers. Altogether, the package retails for $1399, a $600 increase from the price of the Vive Pro headset alone. The New Vive Pro 2.0 Kit is targeted at business users who want everything they’ll need in a single package, as well as enthusiasts who don’t already own an HTC Vive. More

Business, Gaming, HTC, Intel, Mobile, News, startups, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Stories You Might’ve Missed: HTC 5G VR, CLOVR and more

Today in stories you might’ve missed, we’ll be covering stories that broke from March 1st to March 8th that we didn’t cover in their own articles. Big names like HTC and Intel made headlines this week, and even a Kickstarter project called CLOVR got a day in the limelight as well. To find out why, keep reading! HTC CEO believes that 5G can turn any compatible smartphone into a VR powerhouse Cher Wang, founder and CEO of HTC, believes that 5G networks can turn any entry-level VR device into something comparable to an HTC Vive. Considering HTC’s authority in VR- especially with their aforementioned Vive

Analysis, Gaming, HTC, News, VR World

Developers are receiving HTC Vive Pro kits

Since earlier this month, VR developers have started receiving HTC Vive Pros so they can start optimizing around the new headset. After the HTC Vive Pro’s announcement at CES, news on the headset has been trickling out steadily. Most of this news is developer-centric: prior to this story, we learned that some developers are using the new Vive Pro hardware to enable hand-tracking applications. We've been eagerly awaiting this moment to share with you all. Announcing the arrival of the newest member of our VR HMD family… It's a Vive Pro! 🌟 pic.twitter.com/5lkK5sqh0G — Owlchemy Labs (@OwlchemyLabs) February 16, 2018 Owlchemy Labs, developers of Job Simulator

Hardware, HTC, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

HTC Vive Pro adds hand-tracking and more through new cameras

The HTC Vive Pro boasts numerous improvements over its predecessor, the HTC Vive, but its new dual cameras are particularly interesting. HTC was intentionally vague about them at CES, so it left many enthusiasts speculating. According to Vive VP Raymon Pao, the cameras are stereoscopic and only have a VGA resolution. As originally developed, they were just there as a safety feature to help people stop themselves from bumping into things. Where things changed was when developers got their hands on it. Speaking to Engadget, Pao says the cameras are able to capture depth data within two meters. An unnamed Japanese developer used the dual

Google, HTC, News, Oculus, Rumors, Virtual Reality (VR)

HTC Vive Focus ships in China, may have US debut after all

Consumer electronics company HTC officially started shipping pre-ordered Vive Focus VR headsets at an event earlier this week, in what was heralded as the “world’s first on-stage in-VR customer product delivery.” The company also announced that forty pieces of VR content, including several games, are already available for the Focus. The news comes via HTC’s China Regional President of VR, Alvin Wang Graylin. The Focus is HTC’s first stand-alone headset, and is based on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor which will power Lenovo’s Mirage Solo headset announced at CES 2018. Akin to the pending Lenovo offering, HTC’s Vive Focus also offers a 6DoF technology

Analysis, Augmented Reality (AR), Facebook, Hardware, HTC, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), News, Oculus, Opinion, Sony, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Top 10 AR/VR Stories of 2017

Although 2017 has come and gone, its impact on the augmented/virtual reality industry will undoubtedly be felt for decades to come. While it remains to be seen if 2017 will be recognized as the year AR/VR finally made its first real push into the mainstream, there were a veritable plethora of events that occurred last year that will continue to influence the industry. After substantial contemplation, we have picked what we at VRWorld believe to be the Top Ten VR/AR Stories of 2017. Here they are, counting down from #10: #10 – Pimax 8k First discussed by VRWorld last January, the Pimax 8k would go

2018, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality (AR), Cloud Computing, Companies, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google, Hardware, HTC, Mobile, News, Qualcomm, Smartphones, Virtual Reality (VR)

CES: Lenovo introduces quartet of new AR and VR technologies

Lenovo used this week’s CES in Las Vegas to highlight several aspects of their 2018 product and service lineup in the augmented reality and virtual reality spaces. These announcements spanned both consumer and commercial/industrial applications, and include the Lenovo Mirage Solo headset, Mirage Camera, C220 Smart Glasses and NBD AH Cloud 2.0. Lenovo Mirage Solo and Mirage Camera with Daydream Billed as a “new take on VR consumption and creation,” this complementary product duo is targeted primarily at consumer markets. The Mirage Solo stands as the first stand-alone headset offering that is part of Google’s Daydream platform; an ill-fated offering from HTC was announced and

HTC, News, Oculus, Smartphones, Virtual Reality (VR)

HTC ends year on sour fiscal note

Smartphone and VR headset manufacturer HTC ended the year with a steep decline in revenue, according to a news release issued by the company last week. The company announced unaudited consolidated revenue for December 2017 of $4.02 billion TWD (approximately $136 million USD), and total unaudited consolidated revenue from January to December 2017 of $62.12 billion TWD (approximately $2.1 billion USD). Those revenue numbers represent a 29% month-to-month decline and 36% year-over-year decline. Reports indicate that HTC’s yearly revenue marks its worst performance in over a decade. Some of the revenue decline may be due to aggressive price cuts during 2017, which saw both HTC

2018, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), HTC, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

CES: Meet the HTC Vive Pro

Thanks to their critically-acclaimed Vive headset, HTC became one of the biggest names in virtual reality two years ago. The Vive Focus, a standalone headset, was announced in 2017 but didn’t quite satiate people’s hunger for a Vive successor. Fortunately for the world of VR, HTC is pulling out the big guns at CES 2018 with the new Vive Pro. The biggest improvement from the Vive to the Vive Pro is in the display. The original HTC Vive boasted a 2160 x 1200 resolution with 1080 x 1440 per-eye. The Vive Pro’s display comes in at a whopping 2880 x 1600 resolution, with 1440 x 1600

3D, Amazon, Augmented Reality (AR), CPU, Graphics, Hardware, HTC, Internet, Mobile Computing, News, Virtual Reality (VR)

Smartphones gain PC-strength VR capabilities via new codec

NGCodec, a company that specializes in developing algorithms, silicon logic and FPGA implementations for cloud video processing, this week announced the availability of their potentially transformative cloud-based encoding technologies via the Amazon AWS Marketplace. The company’s RealityCodec acts as a low-delay H.265/HEVC encoder, which allows much of the processing load of VR video streams to be shifted into the cloud. The codec also boasts sufficiently low latency that it can reliably deliver VR streams to untethered, mobile, VR head-mounted displays. “We have worked diligently to bring our advanced video codecs to the Amazon Cloud and to demonstrate the potential for cloud media and virtual reality,”

Augmented Reality (AR), Facebook, HTC, News, Oculus, Virtual Reality (VR)

Facebook Spaces now available on Vive, other platforms pending

Facebook has brought its beta social VR app, Spaces, to users of the HTC Vive. First announced in April, Spaces had previously only been available to users of the Oculus Rift. Spaces is among a handful of apps that combine social media with an immersive VR experience. Using the app, users can meet in VR; go Live; play games; make video calls; and create and share 3D objects, videos, and photos. These features are identical to those available to Rift users. Interestingly, however, the Spaces app is not available via the Steam store, and is instead being offered for direct download via Facebook’s website. “VR

HTC, News, Virtual Reality (VR)

Nobel Prize-winning discoveries featured in new VR experience

Nobel Media and VR hardware manufacturer HTC Vive yesterday announced a new partnership that has culminated in the two organizations producing a VR experience entitled The Circadian Rhythm. The VR experience, which will be shown for the first time during Nobel Week, helps viewers visualize the work of Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young. The trio received this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of molecular mechanisms behind the circadian rhythm. The announcement marks the first time a VR experience has been produced in conjunction with that Nobel Prize being awarded. “Together, with HTC Vive, we are creating

Augmented Reality (AR), Dell, HP, HTC, News, Oculus, Sony, Virtual Reality (VR)

Global quarterly VR headset shipments achieve new record

Uptake of virtual reality hardware continues its upward trend, according to the latest numbers from independent market analysis firm, Canalys. In a report issued Monday, the company indicated that total global shipments of VR headsets set a new milestone, exceeding one million units during the just completed 3rd quarter. Meanwhile, Sony, Oculus, and HTC continue to dominate the VR hardware marketplace, with an 86% combined market share. One driver of headset acquisitions was a temporary-turned-permanent price cut by Oculus in Q3, who matched Playstation’s VR headset price point at $399. This precedes the upcoming release of Oculus’ $199 Go standalone headset, expected next year. “VR

Hardware, HTC, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Meet The HTC Vive Focus

HTCs latest announcement is a new headset, but it’s not the Vive 2 or anything. Not exactly. The new headset is called the HTC Vive Focus, and for the time being it seems to be aimed squarely at the Chinese, so how relevant it is for Western consumers is a valid question to ask. Even without Western availability, though, the Vive Focus is still worth talking about, for multiple reasons. First and foremost is that it’s a completely standalone headset, meaning that it functions separately from any smartphone or PC. Its internal hardware boasts, among other things, a high-res AMOLED display and a Snapdragon 835

Gaming, Holiday Shopping Guides, HTC, News, Oculus, Sony, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PSVR All Getting Black Friday Discounts

Holiday bells are jingling and everyone’s getting excited about celebrating the Winter holidays with their loved ones. A part of those festivities, at least in the United States, is to spend the day immediately after Thanksgiving engaging in free-for-all brawls in markets all over the country for Black Friday sales. Virtual reality and virtual reality gaming is not an exception from this craze. While Black Friday is still a few weeks out, many businesses are already announcing VR-centric bundles and Black Friday discounts for those who want to jump into VR gaming while saving a little bit of cash. This, in addition to the recent

Business, Companies, HTC, News, Virtual Reality (VR)

HTC announces arts funding initiative

Yesterday, HTC VIVE announced a new initiative to advance arts and cultural initiatives using VR technology. Called VIVE Arts, this new program will inject millions of dollars into the development of VR installations in collaboration with organizations worldwide. The new program will build upon HTC’s existing arts and cultural institution partnerships, which currently include London’s Royal Academy of Arts, Taipei’s National Palace Museum, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (French National Museum of Natural History) in Paris, Washington D.C.’s Newseum, and St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum. In addition to being used in on-site VR installations, content developed under the program will be made available in the VIVEPORT app

Companies, Entertainment, HTC, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Wearables

Logitech develops tangible solution to VR keyboard input

Logitech yesterday announced the availability of the BRIDGE developers kit, an SDK intended to assist application developers with the challenge of effectively enabling text entry in virtual reality environments. The kit, designed to work with the HTC Vive, includes a Logitech G gaming keyboard, a Vive Tracker to enable proper keyboard positioning, and associated software. The software interfaces with the HTC Vive Tracker to seamlessly integrate a virtual keyboard (complete with key animations) and the user’s hands into any SteamVR app. “The developer’s application does not need to manage anything; the overlay appears automatically as soon as the associated Vive Tracker is turned on,” explained

Hardware, HTC, News, VR World

HTC Vive Pulls Out All Stops For Halloween

HTC is one of the biggest names in virtual reality, thanks mainly to their excellent HTC Vive headset. The HTC Vive has remained a favorite among enthusiasts for quite a while and even experienced steady price dropping since its release. As some may know, the Vive was produced in collaboration with Valve, the company behind Steam. As a part of Steam’s annual Halloween sale, HTC is pitching into the action by offering a free copy of Star Trek: Bridge Crew for those who purchase a Vive through its Steam page. But it doesn’t stop there: that wouldn’t be enough to justify its own article. In

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Google, HTC, Microsoft, News, VR World

Digital marketing will grow to more than $162 billion

According to an International Data Corporation report, the digital reality market will grow from $5.2 billion last year to more than $162 billion in 2020. Corporate CEOs in any field would be hard-pressed to find a multibillion-dollar industry with an anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 181.3% over the 2015–2020 forecast period in any sector other than digital reality. Also, established by HTC earlier this year, the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance, or VRVCA, is an organisation comprising of VR-invested firms and companies who believe VR is the next big medium. With HTC at the forefront, the VRVCA has set aside US$12 billion to grow VR, with investments