Samsung releases beta browser for Gear VR, still only a hint of what's to come

Samsung announced a web browser for the Gear VR this week, formally marking its inauguration as a bonafide smart device. The app itself, currently in beta, is dubbed “Samsung Internet for Gear VR”, and it seems to be designed to allow users to watch video online without the need for a dedicated app. According to Samsung, the app "supports both 360-degree and 3D video streaming, as well as any HTML5 video from the web.” One can infer that this means the browser will be able to take advantage of YouTube’s 360-degree offerings. The app will support an on-screen keybaord as well as voice recognition for text input. The browser also supports “gaze” interactions, which trigger when a user looks at a tab to select it rather than pressing the button on the side of the device. Bookmarks can be imported from the browser on users’ phones.

From televisions to e-readers to watches, it seems that no technology is truly smart until it has an Internet browser in some capacity. This browser does have a legitimate claim of purpose however; not every video streaming website will immediately develop apps for use on the Gear, so it makes sense to have a browser that can access sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and WorldStarHipHop in the interim.

The Gear VR has been slowly gaining features over the past year, making it increasingly hard to ignore. We’re beginning to see more movie and game announcements as hype continues to grow for the Gear. I was able to briefly try a demo of the device at Engadget Live in Brooklyn last month, where I watched a short film from a startup called EEVO, and played a game from Cerevrum. The short film, though lacking in substance and narrative, impressed me just based on the “wow”-factor of being able to look around inside a movie. At the Cerevrum booth I played an alien invaders-themed puzzle game that was a bit difficult to learn, but fun once I got the hang of it. As important as the device will be to introducing mainstream consumers to virtual reality at a reasonable price, I feel as though it is merely a precursor to the main event. Of course, I’m talking about the Oculus Rift.

The Gear’s most compelling aspect is its low price and compatibility with Samsung phones, which are a near second to iPhones in terms of marketshare. However, sticking a phone in the enlarged viewfinder can only go so far in immersing the user. The low-res visuals bar the experience from feeling like virtual reality, and it ends up feeling more like a virtual space. Additionally, although Gear handles gyroscopic rotations well, it falters with other kinds of movements, which will be essential when the video game scene develops.

The value proposition for the Rift will rely on the improvements in the experience over the Gear. We as consumers should expect high-resolution graphics, and improved handling of movement in 3D space. The Gear VR is merely a hint of the potential offered by virtual reality as a next generation entertainment platform.

Samsung and Oculus announce media streaming capabilities of Gear VR

Samsung announced the Gear VR, a new $99 version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, at Oculus Connect on Thursday. The headset will be available to consumers who own one of Samsung’s flagship phones in November, and at $99, it’s the cheapest version of the headset we’ve seen so far. This is because the Gear VR is designed as an accessory for one’s phone, with a slot that holds it up to the user’s face, rather than a device with its own screen. While that does mean it won’t have as much power to run graphically-intense games, it will also be a far more accessible version of the device than past iterations, opening it up to a much wider market of consumers.

Aesthetically, the Gear VR doesn’t stray far from the looks of previous versions of the Rift. Samsung has added some design-conscious hardware tweaks however, such as depressions for d-pad buttons on the side and a raised bump in the middle for a button. They’ve also replaced the foam pads that sit between a user’s face and the device with softer fabric, and made the head strap lighter.

Oculus also announced some new media partnerships at their Connect conference that extend the usage scope of the device beyond gaming. Netflix, Hulu, Twitch, and more streaming services are available on the Gear VR platform right now, and will be accessible to everyone upon the release of the headset. While Hulu has gone above and beyond to tailor their app to the platform, with promised "original virtual reality short-form" content and "unique viewing environments created for VR devices,” (which will support 2D and 3D programming), Netflix’s offering is a much less robust viewing environment that will have users in a room alongside their friends, watching a virtual TV. It’s still cool, just not as cool.

Oculus' new media partnerships are a clear gambit from the company to be the next go-to destination for average consumers' media streaming needs, as well as gaming. Imagine being able to pop on a VR headset to use with your phone at any time or location, like during your lunch break, while using public transit systems, or in bed. The design of the headset should allow for an immersive experience while gaming or watching TV, independent of the user's external conditions, making it the ideal viewing condition for media streaming far more often than not.

Though the Gear VR has a lot going for it in terms of accessibility and affordability, there are a few caveats that prevent it from being the virtual reality experience of our dreams. It lacks positional tracking, meaning users must remain seated (or standing still, presumably) for the duration of their usage time with the device. Of course, it would be a completely different problem to have people walking around blindly while they use the device, but positional tracking would certainly go a long way in adding to the immersion, if only so people could tilt their head back and not break the Netflix app.

Though the lack of positional tracking is a hindrance for total immersion, we do have to remember that this is Oculus' first attempt at consumer-facing hardware, and it will see improvements over time. This holiday season will mark the first serious effort by Oculus to make a splash in the gaming and entertainment industries, which is why it's good that they have Samsung's marketing and Facebook's capital on their side.

Android Pay emerges as "new" mobile payments competitor

Image credit: Engadget

Google finally rolled out Android Pay last week as an update to the existing Google Wallet app on Android devices. The service will be joining the ranks with Apple Pay, as well as Samsung Pay which launches later this month on the very same operating system, to gain traction in the mobile payments space. While the new app is functionally the same as Google Wallet (which will now be split into a separate app to deal solely with online payments), it presents payment options to the user in a simpler, more direct way, and will likely be easier for Google to market to consumers who are already familiar with Apple Pay. One nice feature newly introduced in Android Pay is Auto-redeem, which brings up loyalty programs and special offers during some purchases with a limited number of retailers (probably why it has only been soft-launched so far).

Google Wallet was first introduced in 2011 as an Internet payment platform that also did mobile payments, similar to PayPal (Google even poached a PayPal exec to work on Wallet, just as they were about to sign a deal that would make PayPal the backend of the service, provoking a lawsuit from PayPal). In the mobile payment arena, Wallet failed to gain much traction for a number of years, mostly due to Google's near-nonexistent efforts to market the service, though the slow adoption rate among major retailers didn't help its success either.

If you've never used your phone to pay at a counter before, it works quite simply. Most retailers in this day and age have installed near-field communication, or NFC readers, atop their traditional credit card readers that can detect when another device with an NFC chip has been placed an inch or two away. From there, the user's pre-entered credit or bank card information is transferred between the two computers, and the goods have been purchased.

Though Google pioneered mobile payments technology originally, their competitors have severely lapped them in terms of features and technology. Last year, Apple announced their own payment service, which features compatibility with the Apple Watch, something no other player is boasting at the moment. Samsung Pay will work with card readers not outfitted with NFC in addition to ones that are, thanks to Magnetic Secure Transmission, a technology invented by LoopPay which Samsung bought earlier this year. Also in the works for early next year, CurrentC is a mobile payment system being developed by a group of retailers including Best Buy, Target, and Walmart that will link directly to users' bank accounts. This system will cut out credit card companies, eliminating fees that retailers would have to pay, but also fraud prevention checks that credit card companies do.

The adoption rate for mobile payment systems among users has not been amazing. Part of the blame resides on Apple and Google, for only allowing a certain subset of iPhone and Android users with the latest operating systems to use it. Another factor is the still-limited number of retailers currently offering support for mobile payments (not to mention CVS disabling them following the Apple Pay announcement). But there's also the matter of inherent advantage over traditional payment methods. Aside from the occasional coupon notification, or automatically applying one's rewards card to a purchase, there's no clear edge in reaching into a pocket and taking out a phone to pay for something, versus taking out a wallet to do so. Giving users tangible reasons to use mobile payments, besides the fact that it's pretty cool, will be the primary challenge faced by Google and Apple as all the new services offered by these companies begin to take their place in the market.

As Square found its niche in small businesses that didn't want a costly traditional card reader, Google and Apple will have to work on developing a hook to attract users to switch to mobile payments. Using Apple Pay on the Apple Watch has been described as a high point of the device in reviews. Perhaps there's something more that can be done there, as Android Wear, a version of Android designed to be used on smart watches, has yet to incorporate Android Pay support. Holding one's watch over a payment kiosk is a clear advantage over paying with a credit or debit card, as it actively removes a step from the process, unlike paying with a phone. We should see some substantial improvements to the services in the coming months as companies vie to assert their place in their customers' payment habits.