I just got the Nreal AR glasses dev kit. I’m going to skip unboxing and intro stuff since there are plenty of those on the web already. So this is a day 0 review, what I did as soon I got them. So lets jump right in.

First off, the glasses do not fit me properly. I had a chance to look at the Nreal glasses last year and knew this would an issue. The fix? Well since I have to wear glasses anyway, I fixed it with a few bread ties. Almost all engineering problems can be fixed with duct tape and bread ties.

Now that I can see clearly, I first started up the puck and tried the demo experiences. They are good. Again, plenty of reviews on the web so unless there is a particular question, I can say in general the colors are bright, rendering seems around 30-45 fps, FOV is good enough. Images do have some swim and jitter, but that is dependent on the environment. In a perfect setting, the image hold position pretty well, more challenging, less stability as one would expect. Rotation correction (timewarp or pLSR depending on who you talk to) is pretty good. I point this out because I assume all the LSR functions are on the phone as well, but its possible pLSR is done on the headset. The NrealTower app does not work for some reason, still trying to sort that out. However, I’m not that interested in those, instead I want to connect to my phone.

<caution: segway rant ahead> A LONG time ago, I went to visit ODG in SF to have a look at their AR glasses. I have a background in 3D graphics, VR, and computer graphics going back to 1995, so I immediately saw a problem with their approach. This is going to be a world of hurt because of the power/heat requirements. So I asked; hey, can I get a set of glasses with only camera and IMU support? I want to run everything on the phone. Got a look like; ‘Are you nuts? No.’ I left there disappointed, but convinced that a successful AR HMD needs to do two things; be very lightweight, and have lots of content. Connecting to the phone does both. Our phones are powerful have as much access to content as our PCs. If I can get that content on my glasses, that would be worth the price. Que in something called Samsung DeX, and now I can have desktop experience in AR! Full disclosure, I work at Samsung in R&D and got a really hacked version of DeX in working in VR and AR a few years ago so I have already experienced how cool this could be.

So back to the Nreal. ALMOST right out of the box, I connected the glasses to my Galaxy S10 (later Samsung Fold) and boom! I have HDMI. BTW I say almost because you need to hold down brightness up to get into 3D mode on the glasses. So once that happens, DeX!! I already have a travel set up with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse so I was up right out of the box. A limitation right now is the display is headlocked. This is fixable by setting up a virtual display and getting RGB images from the video buffer to the HMD after performing timewarp or pLSR. Or something like that. I’m sure they will figure it out sooner or later. Once they do that, then I can have two screens, DeX in the glasses and the normal phone display. I was pretty impressed I could have both running at the same time. No sure how long this will last from a power point of view, so I need to experiment with this more. So all and all, my experience in DeX was great. Images are bright and clear. Easy to read text and if you keep the brightness down, no eye strain.

On day zero I had a web meeting that I needed to attend. As an experiment, I login via the PC like normal, but instead of using the PC, I connected the glasses. Same thing, HDMI headlocked video, just on the phone. I was able to participate in a 1hr online meeting using just the glasses, and bluetooth mouse. I was sitting up on the bed fully relaxing, drinking tea and had no problems reading content on the power point slides. I could even reply to messages when I later added my bluetooth keyboard. Tying on the phone is a bit if a challenge with the Nreals being headlocked.

This event is pretty key for a zero day experience. I was able to use the glasses right out of the box. Later I watched the news via YouTube on the phone. The only thing that stopped me using the glasses even longer is the hack I have to attach to my glasses are not the best. Once this is sorted out, I can see using these for long conf calls so I can walk away from my desk now and again.

So to sum up, on day Zero I had access to via the phone to a desktop experience (DeX), web browsing, office docs, videos, a few games, chat, photos, etc.. I know what you are going to ask; then why not get a HDMI HMD viewer? Few reasons. Headlocked is still a limitation. To free up headlock we need 3 DOF, min. 6 DoF is better in my mind. Plus the are going to be times I will want to full AR experience. I do not want to buy a device that cannot support this.

BTW: Follow up to this post. function follows form: consumer AR use-cases

Now some questions I got since people found out I had this.

Q: did you find the cable an issue? No, not really. I have a usbC extension cable so I feel pretty free, but mostly I just place the phone where ever and its fine. My wish right now is for DeX phone UI to support keyboard in addition to mouse entry. So this is a Samsung issue.

Q: Does it get hot? yes, but the heat dissipation is top front, so I never really feel it.

Q: Does WebXR work? I read that its coming end of the year. I will try to get invited as an early tester.

Q: How is your experience comparing Hololens 2.0? I’ve said many time before, the hololens is the best example of AR you can get. V2.0 is better but not a massive jump. That being said, the CV on the hololens 1 is better then Nreal. The graphics feel about the same as far as brightness and ease on my eyes. (headset fit not withstanding). I do not think the Nreal will ever be as good as the HL in terms in CV, but it does not need to be. Two different products with two different customer segments.

Q: Does it feel heavy after long use? Hard to say. Longest I have used it is 1.5 hrs and both times I was either laying down and reclining, so the weight was a bit more off the nose then if I wore it standing. So more testing to do.

Q: How was reading text? Again it was headlocked so until they support at least 3DoF, I will hold back judgement, but while headlocked, I could read fine.

Q: Can you connect to a PC? Yes. you get pretty much the same experience as DeX. Same problem though, headlocked.

Q: How does it compare to Magic Leap, since they are both tethered? So quick answer, it was pretty much the same. I got used the Magic Leap tether pretty quickly and same with the Nreal. What is better about the Nreal is of course, I can plug it into various devices and I have an usbc extension and that gave me extra room. But from a user point of view. it was a non issue. Somewhat like wearing wired headphones, you figure out the best way to route the wire, then you forget about it. The only case where I can see the wire becoming an issue is if I was doing a high activity experience, like beat saber or something like that. And even then, I’m sure I could figure something out.

Q: How is DEX in AR? Did you not just read this post?!

Any other questions? Let me know and I’ll add them.

• Quick note.  Look likes it US phones only running the Qualcomm chip for now.

Some games seemed to have a glitch the first time I would try them.  I tried Fallout Shelter first.  Did not load the first time, but worked fine after that.  Not sure what the story is here. Same with Pokemon Go. Did not work the first time, then works fine.  However,  it locks to portrait and when using AR, the camera does not display correctly.  I turned AR off and it was fine after that. few other games seemed locked to one view port or another, but that was not too much of an issue after I got used to it.  I would make the window a bit smaller for portrait games, larger for landscape.

I then tried Monument Valley, a favorite of mine.  This took 3 tried, but again, seems to work after that.  That game play was even nicer with the view port set to the largest setting despite portrait mode.  I have it smaller in my screenshot.  It took a little bit of effort to get used to the controller, but I got it down soon enough.  I do not like this screenshot that much, but for some reason, screen capture and video capture are iffy with PhoneCast.  There is a video of this at the bottom of the post as well.

What was really cool was trying ARCore apps in PhoneCast.  It ‘mostly’ works, and when I say mostly, that is because the viewport is not locked to the head. If you check out the video below you will see what I mean.  Still, VERY cool! I tried the first ARCore app that was released, ‘Atom Visualizer‘ from Signal Garden.   I contacted the good people involved in this project and made a request, we’ll see how it goes.  If they can lock the view port, this would be really fun!  Have a look for the video at the bottom of this post.

Here is a Pro tip for you.  The controller takes a bit of time to get used to, so don’t get put off.  Keep working at it.  BTW, there is not pinch to zoom.  Something I found out on Fallout Shelter.  Hopefully they will find a work around.  I suggested they should map something on the controller for zooming and zoom around the center view.  That could take some work though.

So there you go!  Enjoy.

When I first tried the Daydream I had the same response most people had.  It was small, attractive and felt great. I really like the tactile feel of it, better then the hard plastic GearVR.  My only complaint was the field of view.  However, now that I have spent a good deal of time in it, my opinion has changed somewhat. When I first tried it the strap was VERY tight, however, that kept light bleed to a min and I never really felt the weight.  However, the next time I tried it, the tight strap started to really bother me, so I loosed it. That made it far more comfortable, but then light bleed was pretty substantial.  The fit also felt a little less complete and instead felt a bit top-heavy.  Once you get into the task you are doing, a game for example, the light bleed ‘sometimes’ goes away.  What I mean here is when I’m deep into doing something in the game, I do not noticed, but at transition or other points in the game where I’m not deeply focused, the light bleed comes back to my attention. Same with the fit.  When I’m in the middle of something, I do not notice, but at transition, I cannot help but feel like the headset it resting on my forehead and not comfortably across the face.

Now to the phone.  The head tracking at the beginning feels just as good as the gear. I have to really pay attention to notice any lag. However, for whatever reason, the phone heats up very quickly. The hotter the phone gets, the slower the system becomes.  Then you can feel the head tracking slow down just a bit.  Enough that if you are standing, you can start to get motion sick.

Now here is where the Daydream is great, and its nothing to do with the headset or the phone. It’s the hand controller.  The hand controller is a simple 3DOF motion tracked device but what this does is greatly enhance immersion because you can ‘see’ you hand movements in the environment and allow you to interact with object more naturally.  So far I have not seen an amazing implementation, but give it time.  This simple controller works very well, yes it drifts but centering is not a big deal.  I really wish the GearVR came with one. I fully expect someone at sometime is going to write a driver to allow the Daydream controller to work on the GearVR if Samsung or Oculus does not make one themselves. As simple as this is, the knowledge that ALL Daydream devices will have this controller gives developers confidence to design their apps with this support.

An issue with Daydream, which I also have with the Gear is drift.  As the phone heats up it tends to drift, typically to the left.  Seems like this is just a limitation of the internal compass for now.  I’m sure they will fix it in the future.

So my final assessment:  I would buy the Daydream for a casual user, but stick with the GearVR for anyone else. A key point however is that the daydream does not need to compete with the GearVR, its needs to be a friendly, accessible device that anyone can use.  And for Google, this seem like exactly the market they are after, so despite my complaints, I think Google nailed this one spot on.

I took two plane trips in the last 2 weeks and decided to see what level of utility the gear VR would be on a flight.  Not only was it great, it totally changed the flight experience. In this post I’m going to list my favorite VR apps for flying and WHY it was so much better.

First, lets set the stage. Most of the time when I fly, I do not get to fly first class and often I’m sitting behind someone. short continental flights means I’m crammed into a small seat, with little leg room and even LESS room for my laptop if the person in front of me decides to recline back… which is often.

So here we are in the little space, unable to work comfortably and if you want to watch a movie you have those little screens in the headrest in front of you or worse a large screen somewhere on the ceiling.  Not the best experience.

Now lets introduce the Gear VR to this situation.

We already know that by putting on the HMD we would find my ourselves immersed in a virtual reality.  Whats great about that is almost all the VR immersion take you to a space that is FAR larger then the little seat you are sitting in.  Add good headphones and you are fully isolated from crying babies, people opening and closing blinds, and the person in front of you trying to recline into your lap.  Even though I knew this would happen, the effect and relief was beyond expectations.

Although the Gear VR is not perfect, and you have to deal with cooling and power issues, I found I was able to stay in the HMD for multiple hours per session.  On my flight to Spain I watched Star Wars IV.  Using the oculus theater mode, I started the movie using the cinema setting, making me feel I was in a large empty space.  After about 15 min I switched to ‘void’ mode and did not lose the feeling of watching a large screen TV in a large comfortable setting. BTW, helpful hint here; to maximize the battery live of your s6, turn down the brightness, stay in airplane mode and use ‘Void’.  The void setting will help reduce demand on the system to render all those polys that make up the various movie settings.  Also, turn on the air and have it blow on you.  It will cool the phone, and you, and help with fogging.

One issue, well two issues I’ve found is the movie tends to drift over time and I have to recenter it.  Annoying.  Also when the plane turns I have to recenter.  Its not a big enough issue to stop me from watching movies, but hopefully they will find a fix for this.

A common question I was asked is; can I play any movie?  Yes.  As long as its in a mp4 or other supported format, you should be fine.  If you place the file in you ‘movie’ folder it will find it.  You an use MilkVR too.  Create a folder called “MilkVR” and it should find it.

I preloaded a few movies, some TV episodes and few random video’s I shot. Worked great.

Now on to games.  Here you need to be a bit more selective.  Remember you are sitting in an airline seat and can only turn your head somewhat.  ALSO remember you might have someone sleeping next to you so lots of turning to see 180, which means you have to often turn your shoulders could be out of the question.  So get games where all the action is not more then say 160 fov.  My absolute favorite game, Bandit six o’clock, is around 120.  Perfect.  So if needed play your game a little before the flight in a ridged chair.  Many games lose their essence if you are not in a swivel chair.

Next, try to be sure your game uses the gamepad.  If you game only works on the HMD trackpad, then either make sure you get the window seat or the person sitting to your right is quite tolerant because odds are you might smack the with your elbow.

Finally, spend the money and get full games.  Remember, you are trying to kill time up there and a demo is not going to last.

There are a few games I like but NOTHING come close to bandit six o’clock, and even MORE so when flying.  The game is simple.  You are a tail gunner on a WW2 Lancaster.  Enemy plans are trying to get behind you to shot you down.  What is so great about this game is the game play is actually a bit more sophisticated then it sounds.  Also the immersive effect is amazing for a game.  Unlike most of the games I play I really sense the dimensionality of the airplanes when they are flying in.  Its even more believable when you get a bit of turbulence on your flight!  I played this game for 1.5 hours TWICE! and for an hour on the Spain trip.  I only stopped because of the phone overheating or I was interrupted for one thing or another.

Now some tips.

* Plugin earphone or nice a nice headset.  BRING it! shutting out outside sound is your friend.

* Bring back up power.  Although most flight has AC or DC, not all of them do.  Be prepared.

* Bring a cigarette DC adapter.  My section had a DC socket; I got lucky that I asked the flight attendant right away and got one. I may not get so lucky next time.

* Keep your jacket on and turn the air full blast.  You need to keep the phone as cool as you can.  I have actually hacked a small cooling fan for my Note4 and working on a s6 version now.  I’ll post the these modes when I get time. This is really important, the hotter your phone get the less efficient everything is, including the battery, and at 35,000 feed you need to save power where you can.

There are a number of other apps I played on the flight I did not talk about but the main point is the VR helmet as an escape from a small airline seat was extremely successful. As such I will never fly again without my Gear VR.  And if you have a fear of flying, or hate small places, this is for you!

Image from http://inhabitat.com/

Now there are exceptions to this of course, but when I tell people that in five years they will no longer need a new car, I get a look like I’m nuts.  But once I explain that you are getting a new(ish) car and its a ‘need’ not want, then they are a little less skeptical.  However, once I give the full explanation, as I’m about to here, gentle readers, you will agree with me and start telling your friends the same thing just to get that ‘your crazy’ look from them.

First, the caveats.  There are people who buy vehicles for work or hobby.  Truck, Van, taxicab or RV for example.  Then there are those that WANT to buy a new car because its a part of their identity, or love high performance, or have that classic that they love to drive.  Then there are those who live near the edge or off the grid with poor or dirt roads.

OK, now that we have the exceptions out of the way, lets talk about your typical citizen living in a urban environment. In five years, that will be the last time you need to buy a new or newish car. How does that figure?  3 things are going to start happening in 5 years and be complete in 15.

In 5 years we will have our first autonomous vehicles on the road. FULLY autonomous meaning we have the legal issues sorted out that these little Google panda cars driving around my neighborhood will no longer need a driver.  This will be huge. The idea that I can use my phone to have a car pick me up and take me where I need to go will be just as convenient as taking my own car. To make this work, there needs to be a lot of these little buggers running around such that I can have a car at my door in 3 min or less.  Assuming Uber has not been sued out of existence, they will be first in line to try and make that happen.  Watch for them to partner with google and some car maker.

In 5 years the price of these little bugs will be 1/10 the cost of a normal car.  They will be fully electric with no frills.  There will be competitors (Apple, Tesla and later other car makers) that will focus on higher end self driving cars, but those will be seen more as luxury than a necessity. The simple ‘autono-cabs’ will be simple, and thus inexpensive such that there will be many of them. So many that in 15 years many of the next generation will question why they need to ever buy a car or even get a drivers license. (By the way, when that happens we will need a new form of ID.)

Parking space, who needs a parking space?  If you live in San Francisco you know parking is a pain. Worse when you are coming home tired and the last thing you want to is run circles around the blocks trying to find a place to park.  That goes away.  Worried about finding parking when you go somewhere?  Don’t worry about it anymore.  The autono-cab will pick you up at your door and drop you off at your location. Suddenly, parking anywhere will be easier and cheaper because of the reduction of demand.  Going to the game? Or big event?  Not only will you not worry about parking, there will be special lanes for electric autono-cabs so you will get there faster then driving?  Why will this happen?  People who run events and the cities authorities where the event takes place does not want traffic anymore then you do.  They want people in and out quickly, without accidents and drunk drivers making a mess of things.  Win.

Range?  Got that covered. I looked into buying a leaf and decided not to.  If I wanted to take a day trip from mountain view to say Napa, or halfmoon bay, or Oakland (hey its kick’en over there) or even SF I could not be sure I would get back unless I was positive I could find a charging station and have the car there long enough to get a charge.  Our little cabs?  Well, being smaller, lighter and battery tech about to double the range of current car battery packs, we only need to go one way.  Odds are these little guys will have a 60-75 mile range, more then enough for a one way trip anywhere in the bay area.

Now, back to the 5 years thing.  So its 2015 (at least at the time of this writing). I just bought a 2013 PIP Prius although once the new Tesla comes out I will sell the Prius and get that.  But lets say I keep it for 5 years and buy a 2018 Tesla. (I almost never buy new). That takes us to 2020.  Many people believe, as I do, that we should start seeing autonomous cars on the road in 2020. I live in Mountain View, which is not ‘Big city’ but dense enough that the first wave of autonomous cars will reach me.  Odds are, like bike sharing, there will be a monthly or yearly fee you can pay for near unlimited rides.  So that means my Tesla stays in the garage unless I need to go somewhere outside of my local area or I want to go for a fun drive. So now that 2018 is taking on less miles and holding onto more value.  So instead of getting a new car in 2025 I can wait until 2030 or longer depending on how often I drive it.

So now we are at 2025. Battery tech will have doubled again (conservatively) making autono-cabs to more specialized public cars cheaper to make.  The autono-cab is mostly a giant tablet now with multiple screens.  Averts help reduce the costs even more. Choice increases as well as we see Apple cars, luxury Lexus and turbo Tesla’s available via an app. My 2018 Tesla is sitting in the garage most of the time and my wife got a new’ish’ car in 2015, so we have two cars that we really do not drive.  It does not make any sense to have 2 cars now, so we will sell one of them.  Now we just need to stretch the remaining car to 2030, which will be easy because again, we do not drive it much.

From www.fastcodesign.com

By 2030 the autonomous car is ubiquitous. There will still be manual cars out there but even they will have ‘safety’ overrides. The number of car accidents plummets, car insurance goes up for some, and no longer exists for others. There are gas stations, but they are also charging station for the autono-cabs.  Owning a car repair shops goes they way of the local newspaper. Traffic actually goes down instead of up even as population increases. There are more people on the road, but traffic is more efficient, almost no accidents to cause backups, no rubber necking and very few breakdowns since the cars know when they need attention and can drive themselves for service. Places like LA see a marked reduction in pollution.  And one of the biggest win IMHO, drop in drunk driving. Buying a car in 2030 does not make much sense.

Now there will be losers in this grand future I’m painting.  Vehicle drivers; cab, truck, bus will be losing their jobs. Mechanics, we will not need as many.  Oil?  Do not need as much of that either. Car insurance, car dealerships, towing services; not a growth industry.  Municipalities will need new revenue (most likely they will tax the cabs per mile). Traffic tickets?  Kiss those dollars goodbye. Toll takers?  That is already disappearing.

So lets recap.  I said that in 5 years, that will be the last time you ‘need’ to buy a new car.  Math review time!  Buy car latest in 2020.  Good for 5+ years.  We should see the first deployments of self driving public cars in 2020.  By 2022, they should cover most urban and sub-urban areas. Since you are driving your car less, you can hang on to it for another 8 years easy which brings us to 2030.  Not so crazy sounding anymore right?  1) So start telling your friends.  2) Make money bets before you explain.  3) Profit!

P.S.  I started telling people this back in May, and started writing this post in June.  So no, I’m not following the crowd, just talking WAY to long to write my posts now-a-days.

First the Gear S.  I’ve been using it for 2 weeks as I gave my trusty LG First gen a rest.  Notice I said it was good, not great or I love it.  There are things about the UI that bug me, lack of apps, and I miss my integration with the Android system and Google services. But after a few weeks, the design, size and the key functions the watch does perform have won me over despite its initial size and previous listed issues.  The first thing that really surprised me is the curved screen is way more functional then I expected, but not so much from a UI/UX point of view, but the fact I can easily extend my arm and expose the watch! Such a simple thing.  And when I lower my arm, my shirt sleeve smoothly covers it again.  My LG and the few days with the Apple watch did not do this despite being smaller watches.  Even the round Moto gave me issues.  After a few weeks, what I though was a large clunky looking watch started to grow on me which is even more surprising since I got the white band instead of black like I would normally do.  The second very useful thing was wifi support and taking calls on the watch.  (I did not spring for a sim card).  The sound was clear and I found it was just as easy to take a call on the watch if I was in a quite room.  Basically as an everyday watch, the Gear S form factor is better than I thought.  It’s comfortable, quick to get used to seeing on my arm and my clothes do not get hung up on it.  More importantly, I have plenty of screen real-estate.  It may not happen overnight, but I think we will see this size curved smart watch more and more and people get used to seeing it, just like when the first large phones came out.

The Gear S form factor is just one direction in the second generation of smart watch design.  The LG Urbane will set the tone for the watch as a design artifact.  Not for everyday work, but for going out, special occasions, etc.  In other words, I can see some people owning two watches as people used to when I was young. I have the Pebble Steel with a nice leather band and tend to wear that when I go out.

I will be watching the price on the Urban ( I tend to buy used ) and most likely will use that as my replacement when the price drops enough.  As nice as the Apple watch is, it still looks like a throw back to the first attempt and smart watch design.  Sure Apple is already talking about the Apple 2 watch, but from what I understand, the form factor will be the same.  Old.

Last year we heard that Apple was moving away from its licensed voice recognition technology from Nuance and building its own team to create a neural-net deep learning system as used by Google and Microsoft.  To date I have not heard any big announcement on how far they have progressed, but they may want to push down on the gas if they do not want to see users leaving Siri and moving to Cortana. Although Siri was a great feature when it was first released, the addition of voice actuated watches, TV, cares and more IoT voice enabled objects coming on the scene, intelligent voice assistant technology supported across multiple devices will become highly desired to expected functionality in the near future.  And right now Siri is not meeting the new coming standard, but they may not be too worried.   Mature Google Voice has been on iOS for more than a year and I have not heard anyone who had dropped Siri for Now, not because Siri is better, but because they are used to it and its a default voice system. However, given a significantly better system, that could change.

First all everything I list must still come at the same price points, same battery life and same size (or smaller) then the current watches.  That being said:

Microphone!  This is what keeps the pebble off my arm right now.  I do not use the voice command all that much but every now and again I use it and appreciate it.  This should be a pretty easy add.  Odds of seeing this, Very high.

Color.  Will it be a beauty OLED or some e-paper version that does not look as good but take less room and less power.  I say color is high and most likely the e-paper type display.

Health monitoring info.  Low. BUT, I would bet they will have some sort of band option you can get that will give you all the bio data you want.

Internal character support.  VERY HIGH.  This has bugged me. I wanted to have a Japanese version of NewsSnacker and could not do it because the OS does not support extended language symbols. This will happen.

Touch screen.  Med.  I love the buttons on the Pebble and I can live without touch screen.  But perhaps we will get better accelerometers that will allow us to detect taps and swipes and other touch like gestures without have a ‘touch’ screen.

Better integration with Android, iOS and.. wait for it.. Windows!  yes Windows!  Why do I say that?  Ok, have you seen the Windows watch?  No, those are really exercise bands, they do not have a watch.  Now why its taking this long to get Windows integration I do not know. I would bet windows was not cooperation because they ‘thought’ they would ave their own watch.  Well they still do not and of you have noticed, Microsoft had been pushing VERY HARD to get its apps in the cloud and other devices.  Perhaps they are realizing they cannot survive in a Windows only world.  If they do have a change of heart and are working with Pebble then I think it could be a mutual win for both companies.  Sure there are not that many windows phones out there, but enough to make it worth it since you are rebuilding you OS from the ground up anyway.

Speaking of App, and this is and easy one, better app cloud based dev tools including better JavaScript support.  High.  They have been walking this road for awhile so not really a wish as much as an observation.

So what does all this mean?  As you look at all the other players in the smart watch game no one seems to be trying to capture the low end market.  Seems Pebble can have this market all to themselves.  Sure there are plenty of other cheap so called smart watches out there, but non with the rich list of apps that Pebble has which means it can break out of the West and start selling in the East.

I’m excited to see what they will have.  I already have the Steel, but at $199, I might replace it.

Image from gizmodo

Not too impressed, but I cannot wait to see an actual game like in the Gear VR.  The quality could be a bit better, but still pretty good.  The NBA All Star video should be out in a few weeks so we are on standby.  REALLY looking forward to it though.

There are two videos, both just over a minute. The 3 point video has 3 guys, two collecting and feeding the ball, one doing 3 point shot exercises.  Hitting .. every… one.. by the way.  You are standing at the top of the key watching.

The second video is similar but instead you are shown some basics of the game.

The videos do a good job of putting you in the scene, but somehow it still felt like it could have better depth punch.  Could be I was looking at this after testing out 2 other CG Gear VR titles and I was expecting too much. Also, lighting seemed pretty general and its just some guys shooting, a game, with more action will be better.