Oculus had already caused a storm in the start-up community having generated a strong following on Kickstarter, but it was the acquisition earlier on this week by Facebook for $2 billion that really thrust the virtual reality gadgeteer into the spotlight. With a current emphasis on gaming, Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that he has big plans to integrate Oculus' VR technology across the wider digital spectrum, revolutionizing the way we communicate and interact with the world around us. Today, a neat concept by Chaotic Moon has thrown up an interesting idea, showing a user navigating through a virtual shopping mall using a VR headset, and giving an early insight into just how Zuck and co. might eventually utilize Oculus.
Those of us that use social networks on a regular basis are well aware of the fact that even though we frequently delete status updates, tweets, photos and other such fodder, they're probably stored in a vault somewhere to incriminate us at some point in the future. But in the case of Facebook, messages you thought you deleted by hitting that 'x' button in the corner have actually just been archived, and as such, are still easy to go back, recover and re-read. If you want to find out how to locate this secret archive and recover your messages which you thought soared into oblivion, we've got a little tutorial below.
Comic book-based movies are currently in vogue, and in the run-up to each new theatrical release, we tend now to see an accompanying title for mobile devices. With Captain America: The Winter Soldier soon to hit the box office, the customary mobile edition has just hit the iOS App Store, as well as Google's Play Store for those on Android. We've got all of the details, as well as those all-important download links, coming up after the fold!
The Philips Hue range of smart bulbs is seen by many as a great gateway into the world of home automation. We really wouldn't argue against that, and with plenty of geeky types telling us at every turn that we should join the home automation revolution, it seems that turning our lights on and off using our smartphones or with the help of a schedule is something we really are going to have to get used to.
It seems that someone at Facebook likes nice round numbers, because the social network has released Facebook Messenger 4.0 for iPhone and Android. Big new updates are great, except when they're not big at all, which is certainly the case with Facebook Messenger. See, the app has seen its version number bumped to the lofty number of 4.0, but do the changes warrant a new point-0 release? Probably not, no.
In what has to be one of the most leaked phone releases of all time, two days ago HTC set to the stage to officially announce their newest flagship smartphone, the 'all new' HTC One M8. The previous iteration of the HTC One line, the M7, happens to be one of my favorite smartphones of all time, so I was extremely excited to get this one into my hands. As the original HTC One was such a success with the general public, and technology community as a whole, HTC aimed to build on its success and take the methodology that ‘if it ain't broke, don't fix it.’ I'm extremely glad they did.
While Spotify and Rdio are taking over from iTunes when it comes to the kids' favorite way of consuming music, we're told by just about everyone younger than us that the real way to get a music fix is to use YouTube. Full of music videos as well as the odd unofficial recording, YouTube has become a huge video-based music jukebox for many, with the added benefit of it being absolutely free. Really, what's not to love?
Over the past few years, we've seen smartphones continue to grow, but one thing that hasn't changed so much is the size of our hands. This presents a bit of a dilemma to those in the market for a new handset, unsure of whether their palms are capable of comfortably holding all that digital loveliness without suffering a repetitive strain injury.
Google is building Glass, Facebook has just purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion, and in case you hadn't noticed, virtual-reality devices are steadily rising to prominence in our digital worlds. At the recent Game Developers Conference, Sony took the wraps off, and demoed, its own VR solution, known as Project Morpheus, and if you missed the original presentation, the whole announcement and demonstration session is now available to watch back.
The notion that two new iPhones will be releasing later on this year - both notably larger than any previous Apple handset - has been corroborated by several reputable sources over the past few months.
