If you’ve been on the fence about dropping $600-$800 on a virtual reality headset, then this video might push you over the edge.
YouTuber Marcel Pfister used a racing simulator, an Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2, and a green screen to give viewers insight into what sim racing in VR can look like. In post production, he took footage from his head-mounted camera to overlay his actions on top of the game.
In it, we can see Pfister doing the same things he would be doing if on a real race track. Things like glancing at side mirrors for oncoming cars to looking around corners to find the apex. It’s totally gripping, and shows the power of VR as a simulation tool.
This isn’t Pfister’s first crack at doing what he called “mixed reality.” He uploaded a rally video last month. Granted it wasn’t as refined as the one shown above. If you compare it to his live video of driving through the infamous Nurburgring, the experiences look very similar.
Compare this to traditional sim racing rigs, which require multiple monitors and a good amount of room. Setups, like the one below provided courtesy of Reddit user GTSpeedster, while awesome, can be very expensive and difficult for newbies to set up. A VR headset can be a cheaper and more accessible alternative to a hobby with a high barrier to entry.
With consumer builds of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive now shipping to eager buyers, albeit with some delays, it will be interesting to see how the sim racing scene evolves. And of course, we assume PlayStation will get in on the VR sim racing action with the next Gran Turismo. Now, if only Nintendo would release a VR version of Mario Kart or F-Zero, that would be awesome.
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.