Oculus Go available to purchase now at Oculus.com and today at Bestbuy and Amazon.com
Today at F8 Facebook via Mark Zuckerberg’s Keynote demonstrated a profound demonstration of self awareness, integrity, and responsibility.
It started with a direct acknowledgment of how intense this year has been only 4 months in. Facebook is going the extra mile to address the real world concerns of privacy, mentioning Cambridge Analytica specifically, and breaking down the not only the issues that real people care about, but also how Facebook is addressing them.
Mark Zuckerberg also talked about a plethora of new tools that Facebook is making not only for privacy but also to make relationships more meaningful. I’m not going to list all of the new tools but I will say that the audience clapped and cheered loudly for the new Facebook Dating tools, which are for couples in long term relationships.
Another thing that got a lot of cheering and clapping was the announcement of new AR features like AR Camera effects and a new AR Camera effects platform, including the integration of new AR features into Messenger, this is accomplished in part thanks to Deep Learning and Yann LeCunn’s effort. Another topic that gained big applause was the new Group Video chat for Facebook Messenger and What’s app. Lets talk about VR.
Regarding Virtual Reality, Zuckerberg talked about using VR to fill in your real living spaces with your pictures and videos. Oculus Go is shipping today, it starts at $199. As of this writing you can buy it at Oculus.com it is also launching at Bestbuy and Amazon.com today.
Oculus Go launches with three new Social VR apps including Oculus Rooms, Oculus Venues, and Oculus TV. Also it launches with another app called Gallery which may or may not also be social.
Rooms allows you to hang out with friends and watch media, Venues which allows you to watch concerts with friends or crowds of people, Gallery which allows you to view 360 video and photos, and Oculus TV which allows you to watch TV in VR.
The Oculus Go is actually a very premium piece of kit, with directional surround sound that is piped in along the strap to your ear, the ability to jump into VR almost right away with 5 minutes time for the initial setup, and I’m really excited to get one, because everyone at F8 was given one for free.
According to the official blog above the Oculus Go will have over 1000 titles at launch and there is also a 64GB version for $249 in addition to the 32GB version for $199
