One of the key differences between the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive is that the latter supports room-scale VR in addition to sitting/standing experiences. With a recent software update, Oculus Home now supports up to four trackers, enabling room-scale VR instead of only front-facing. This will improve the Rift’s performance in room-scale games, in the lead-up to the release of the Oculus Touch controllers later this year.
The initial release of the Oculus Rift was designed for use while sitting down, Xbox controller in hand. The HTC Vive, on the other hand, comes with two motion controllers and a pair of sensors that make it possible for players to walk around a room in order to interact with the virtual environment. Games supporting this are available in Steam, and are compatible with the Oculus Rift, but aren’t really playable with the Rift with just a single sensor.
That’s all going to change in coming months. Oculus Touch, controllers with built-in motion sensors, will bring player’s hands into the virtual environment later this year. Support for additional sensors means games can support larger rooms with greater accuracy.
The HTC Vive currently supports only two trackers, meaning the Oculus is moving from lagging behind to seizing the initiative. No room-scale games are currently for sale on Oculus Home, and it’s not clear if that will change anytime soon. Plus, Oculus has been focused on the standing/sitting experience as a matter of principle, as setting up multiple sensors isn’t exactly straight forward.
For one thing, you’ll need to invest in some long USB cables. Every Oculus sensor needs to be connected by USB, while the Vive’s Lighthouse trackers are wireless. For another, Oculus isn’t selling individual accessories at the moment, so most users won’t be able to take advantage of the improved tracking, at least yet.
But it’s nice to see Oculus support this technology, even if it’s only on the software side of things. This makes the upcoming release of the Oculus Touch, which will bring motion controls to the Rift, a lot more interesting.
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
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.