Pixar has a new movie out in cinemas later in November and it’s set to be accompanied by the studio’s first foray into virtual reality. Coco VR lets you experience the day of the dead firsthand, donning your headset to perform a range of activities inspired by the film.
“Pixar and Disney take human imagination and render it larger than life,” Coco VR producer Marc Sondheimer said in an interview published on the Oculus blog. “VR is the natural next step in our evolution, letting people experience these worlds in living color.”
The experience begins in the home of Miguel, the protagonist of Coco. As he’s called away by his mother, you fall into a trance, where you meet a skeleton called Ceci who helps you customize your avatar with a variety of different clothing options.
From there, you are given the freedom to explore the virtual environment at your own pace. The Land of the Dead bears all the artistic flourishes that it boasts in the movie, inspired by traditional Mexican artwork and, of course, the type of celebrations we associate with Día de los Muertos.
Teleporting around the town square will lead you to a swathe of different diversions. An elevator can be used to gain a better view of your surroundings, while a theme park-inspired ride will let you get a glimpse of the whole square. Alternatively, you can just try on a selection of hats and items of facial hair and take some silly selfies.
There is also an art studio where you can pore over concept art and other imagery. It’s jam-packed with information about the traditions that inspired the movie, according to Road to VR.
Pixar’s output carries a prestige beyond most animated movies, so it’s no surprise to see that every effort has been made to imbue this tie-in with a similar level of quality. The team Coco VR, Magnopus, also produced the well-received Memory Lab experience that was released in support of Blade Runner 2049.
Coco VR is available now via the Oculus store for free. A version optimized for Gear VR is set to launch alongside the movie on Wednesday, November 22.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.