In an age when leaks spoil every surprise, Facebook came very close to surprising everyone with the launch of its highly anticipated Oculus Go stand-alone VR headset. Announced at Facebook’s F8 developer conference (and given out to everyone at the keynote), the Oculus Go will hit store shelves today.
The Oculus Go itself is now available for order at Amazon, Best Buy, and a variety of retailers for just $200 for the 32GB version, and $250 for the 64GB version. The stand-alone VR headset doesn’t require a computer, or a smartphone, or any additional hardware. It works on its own, with an included controller device, and uses inside-out tracking instead of the typical outside-in tracking we’ve seen on high-end VR headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
All right, so what’s so special about this headset? Early reports suggest the headset doesn’t quite offer the same kind of horsepower you’d get out of an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift plugged into a powerful PC, but its low cost, comfortable fit, and truly un-tethered design make it something unique in the current VR landscape.
The Oculus Go features a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and reportedly boasts a full resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, which puts it right in between the HTC Vive Pro with its max resolution of 2,880 x 1,600, and the Oculus Rift with its resolution of 2,160 x 1,200. It comes in two configurations, one with 32GB of storage space, and one with 64GB of storage space.
According to leaks ahead of the announcement, it was clear that something big was going to happen at Facebook’s F8 keynote speech. Reddit users were posting photos of locked cabinets full of Oculus Go hardware, and signs at the F8 registration desk stating that attendees would be able to pick up their complementary Oculus Go hardware at 2 P.M. on May 2.
Amazon actually put up the listing a bit ahead of schedule, offering pre-orders well ahead of the official announcement, all of which promptly sold out — then Amazon removed the pre-order button entirely having realized its mistake.
Even brick-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy saw its share of leaks ahead of the announcement, with a Best Buy employee at a Fayetteville, Arkansas store showing off a photo of a locked cabinet full of Oculus Go hardware.
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.