Posted on

The ‘Father of Modern Gaming’ Insists That the Virtual Reality Takeover Is Finally Here

virtual reality set

After years of anticipation and vivid imagination, industry experts are confident that the tech world is finally on the brink of introducing consumers to the kind of virtual reality technology they only dreamed about.

The past few years in tech have seen incredible advancements and exponential growth.

Cars are able to park themselves. Phones know more about us than our friends and family do. Google claims to have the technology to build an elevator to space. Printers have gone from printing out family photos and research papers to spitting out figurines and prosthetic arms.

Needless to say, tech has come a long way.

But even in the age of real-life jetpacks and speakers you can text, tech-savvy consumers are still not completely satisfied.

The good news is that the moment they have been truly waiting for, perhaps even more than the flying car, could finally be peeking over the horizon.

The age of virtual-reality sets could finally be here.

Virtual reality got off to a bit of a false start when Oculus Rift was first announced back in 2012, but since then the growth of this technology has seemed slow. Rumors of any breakthrough have yet to spark a massive whirlwind of media attention online.

According to Tim Sweeney, however, things are about to change.

Sweeney, the man who started Epic Games and is hailed as the “father of the modern gaming industry,” believes virtual reality is about to change the world.

“There are some amazing things happening in VR right now, and a lot of them haven’t seen the light of day publicly at all,” Sweeney said during a phone interview with Engadget. “But next year is going to just be a watershed time for VR.”

There have been a few industry moves that suggested big things were happening with virtual reality, but nothing that seemed too exciting without someone like Sweeney backing it up.

Facebook paid $2 billion to purchase Oculus VR in 2014, and other tech giants, including Samsung, Valve, Google, Microsoft and Sony, have also started delving into the world of virtual reality.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, virtual reality stole the show with demonstrations of 360-degree monster films and stunning flight simulators.

But that isn’t the full extent of the possibilities of virtual reality, according to Sweeney.

“It’s going to change the world,” he said. “The hardware is going to double in quality every few years for another decade, to the point where, 10 years from now, it’s going to be hard to tell the difference between virtual reality and the real world.”

Posted on

These Smart Home Products Are Not Only Mind-Blowing but You’ll Actually Want Them in Your Own Home

It seems like 2015 is looking a lot like the year of the smart home, and CES is ground zero. But building a good smart home ecosystem needs to be about solving genuine human problems and not just filling a house with toys. Bloomberg’s Stephen Pulvirent rounds up the best smart home products at CES that you actually should buy.

Source: Bloomberg Business

Posted on

LG Unveils Sleek Text-Message-Controlled Speakers That Eliminate Wireless Connectivity Hassles

LG Electronics is ready to revolutionize our music experience with speakers that can be controlled through text messages.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 in January, the tech giant plans to showcase the Music Flow speaker system.

The line of new speakers will be able to accept text message commands through a service called Line.

These days most popular tech gadgets can be controlled by using our smart phones as remotes, but LG wants to take the smart phone capabilities a step further.

In addition to using a text message to pause, play and skip songs, the texting commands will also be able to tell the speakers what kind of music you’re in the mood for.

A message that reads something along the lines of “play music for party” will have the system switch over to your party playlist.

If you won’t be in the mood to jam for too long you can also text the speaker and tell it to “turn off music after one hour.”

LG also hopes to do away with the pesky connecting process that people currently deal with through Bluetooth technologies.

Going through the trouble of pairing devices and searching for the right one only to somehow end up connected to your neighbor’s printer is a funny but slightly irritating story that most people have heard once or twice—or at least some variation of it.

LG’s new speakers, however, will be able to detect when a smartphone or tablet gets about a foot away and will automatically connect to it and play any music that is playing on the phone.

“So you could be listening to music on your headphones on the subway ride home but the music will begin playing automatically from your living room Wi-Fi Sound Bar when you enter your living room,” LG said in a press release.

Of course, the usual means of connectivity will still be available such as Bluetooth and a home Wi-Fi network integration.

The Music Flow line is also stylishly designed to fit the taste of the average modern consumer who appreciates chic simplicity and clean lines.

The complete line of the new speakers includes “the company’s first battery-powered Wi-Fi Speaker (Model H4 Portable), advanced Wi-Fi Sound Bars (Models HS7 and HS9) and the Streaming 3D Blu-ray Player (Model BP550),” according to the press release, and all items are designed to be compatible with Android and iOS devices.