360 rumors

It's easy to shrink or enlarge your logo / watermark for your 360 photo or video.  Here's how. I posted a tutorial for making a logo or watermark for 360 photos or videos here .  Let's say you want to now want to resize the logo for a particular photo, or perhaps create more sizes of your logo that you can later use.   To change the size of the logo, all you have to do is adjust its height, using Photoshop or other image editors: This works for logos of any shape, whether circular, square, or some other shape. The resulting logo becomes larger or smaller in proportion to how much you adjusted the height.  If you decreased the height by 50%, the length and width of the logo (or its diameter for a circular logo) will each shrink by 50%.  Note that a 50% reduction in height makes the logo 1/4th as large as it was before.  Vice-versa if you enlarge the height. Using this technique, you can also adjust the size of the logo to cover the tripod legs (or your hand) exactly, with

There's a special sale on almost 200 Steam VR apps and games for the HTC Vive and some for Oculus Rift, with discounts up to 80%.  It's good only until August 1, 2016 10am Pacific Time. Some of the titles that might be of interest: Space Pirate Trainer : a highly rated shooter for the HTC Vive.  I've tried this game and it's awesome.  15% off at $12.74 (Vive). Vanishing Realms : an adventure RPG designed for room scale VR.  20% off at $15.99 (Vive). Titans of Space 2.0 : a sequel to the popular solar system exploration VR experience.  15% off at $6.79 (Vive and Rift). Zombie Training Simulator : a target shooting game that uses funny zombie targets.  33% off at $13.39 (Vive). Ping Pong Waves VR : ping pong in VR.  50% off at $2.49 (Vive). House of the Dying Sun : a space shooter.  10% off at $17.99 (Vive and Rift). Raw Data : sci-fi action shooter. 20% off at $31.99 (Vive) Brookhaven Experiment : zombie shooter.  25% off at $14.99 (Vive). Radial-G: Racing Evolved .  an

​ NVidia offered to settle the GTX 970 class action lawsuit by giving buyers a $30 rebate. In February 2015, NVidia was sued for false advertising in connection with its GTX 970 VR-ready graphics card.  Users noticed that although the GTX 970 was advertised as having 4GB of RAM, its performance dropped when the RAM usage exceeded 3.5GB.  It turned out that the GTX 970's RAM was made up of two components: a 3.5 GB component and a much slower 512MB component.  The GTX 970 also had only 56 render output processors (ROPs) instead of the advertised 64. The GTX 970 average retail price was around $350 in February 2015.  NVidia's settlement offer is not final until approved by the court.

The Playstation VR is due for release on October 13.  Meanwhile, there have recently been several articles claiming that the Playstation VR will require 60 square feet of playing space.   I've already tried the PSVR and I can assure you, the space requirements are grossly exaggerated. The diagram above shows the coverage of the Playstation VR's positional tracking.  The total area is indeed close to 50 square feet.  However, most Playstation VR games are designed to be seated or standing only.  For example, in the Battle Zone tank game, you're seated in a tank.  You wouldn't normally stand up and walk around while piloting the tank. With the Playstation VR, you can be seated as close as around 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) from the camera and still have the maximum 1.9m (6.2 feet) width of the Playstation VR's positional tracking capability, which you are unlikely to use anyway while you're seated.  That's probably the distance and width of your living room couch.

Strangely, there is no YouTube app yet for the Samsung Gear VR.  However, you can still watch YouTube 360 videos with the Gear VR using the Samsung Internet Browser. 1. Install the Samsung Internet browser app from the Oculus store. 2. Using the Samsung Internet browser, go to youtube.com. 3. Search for the 360 video you want to see. 4. When the video loads, look at the bottom of the video to see if you can change the settings (looks like a gear).  If you can change the settings, change it to the highest available resolution.  If the setting doesn't show up, sometimes you just have to wait a bit for the resolution to improve. 5.  Click on the bottom right of the video, then click on the square to maximize the view. 6.  When the view is maximized, look at the top of the video, on the left side, where it says "More".  Click on that and choose the type of viewing (360 2D or 360 3D top-bottom are the most common ones for 360). You can also use the Gear VR to watch 3D videos o

You can now get a brand new, complete VR-ready PC for $720 with free shipping!  The CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8020A has the following: -  Intel i5-6402P 2.8GHz Quad-Core - 8GB DDR4 RAM - 1TB HDD - AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB VR-Ready graphics card - Genuine Windows 10 Home 64-bit - 6 x USB 3.0 | 4 x USB 2.0 - includes Keyboard and Mouse - free lifetime tech support This is the most affordable brand new VR-ready PC I've seen so far, by a significant margin!  The 8020 been tested with both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.  The 8020 is an Amazon exclusive and is not available elsewhere. Update: CyberPower also a similar VR-ready PC but with an AMD processor, also for $720: The CyberPowerPC Gamer Ultra GUA4400 features the following: - AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz Six-Core - 8GB DDR3 RAM - 1TB HDD - Windows 10 home 64-bit -  AMD RX 480 4GB VR-ready graphics card - 6x USB 2.0 - keyboard and mouse - free lifetime tech support The advantage of the AMD is a higher clock speed (3.5ghz vs. the Intel

One of the obstacles to using a desktop VR system such as the Oculus Rift (previewed here) or HTC Vive is the high cost of a VR-ready PC, which is generally at least $1,000.   However, I was able to cobble together a VR-ready PC for $600, thanks to the new NVidia GTX 1060.  Hit the jump to see its performance! I got an old Dell T3500 workstation powered by an Intel Xeon W3565 quad-core processor.  I got mine for just $270 (with 15GB RAM).   It performs very well for 4k video rendering .  You can get one on eBay for around $250. Then I got a new graphics card, the new NVidia GTX 1060.  The one I got was the Founders' Edition ($299 + tax).  It came in a handsome reinforced cardboard box. It looks really high-tech, like a piece of alien technology! It is quite heavy -- heavier than my DSLR, for example -- although I've never bought a high-end graphics card before, so I don't have much frame of reference. Here is the top part, which has the logo and a 6-pin power port. Here is

On August 2, Samsung will announce the Note 7.  However, according to NowhereElse.fr, we may also see the next Samsung Gear VR . According to NWE, the next Gear VR will be compatible with the USB Type C used in the Note 7, but will also be retroactively compatible with the Note 5, S6 series and S7 series.  The field of view will also increase from 96 degrees to 110 degrees.  It will be available next month. There was no word on whether either the Note 7 or new Gear VR will be compatible with Google Daydream .  However, I think the Gear VR will indeed be Daydream compatible: First, Daydream is set to launch this Fall, and Samsung is a Daydream partner.  It is unlikely that Samsung will release two competing headsets within the same time frame.  It is much more likely that Gear VR will be cross-compatible with Daydream.  Second, if there is indeed a change in field of view as indicated by NWE, it could be an indication that the Gear VR was modified to make it Daydream-compatible. Check o

Here are underwater videos from the Samsung Gear 360 using a self-made underwater housing.  They were captured by Sdoin?  in the Maldives. I found this video on 360CamerasForums.com , a forum for discussing 360 cameras and techniques. Meanwhile, Samsung has a dedicated underwater housing   ( see also an actual photo here ) for the Samsung Gear 360, but so far it has only been available in Europe.

​ The VR-ready Radeon RX 480 will be available at B&H tomorrow for $249.99 .  (You can preorder it now.)  The Radeon RX 480 is a VR-ready graphics card that is designed to be more affordable, while providing similar performance to the NVidia GTX 980.  The RX 480 is positioned against the NVidia GTX 1060 which also provides similar performance to the GTX 980.  However, the RX 480's MSRP is $200, while the GTX 1060's MSRP is $250.  Due to demand, the street price for the RX 480 is around $250 or more, while the GTX 1060 is selling for around $300.  Even at $250, the RX 480 is not easy to find in stock. Meanwhile, the GTX 1060 will be available at B&H on August 6 for $269.99  (you can also preorder now).

The iOS version of the Ricoh Theta S app now allows sharing to YouTube directly.  This makes uploading 360 videos much more convenient for Theta users.

The Theta+ Video app for Android is finally available!  The app enables users to edit 360 videos from the Ricoh Theta, such as applying filters, or transforming them to other views such as a little planet or rabbit hole. The app had been available for iOS for several months now.

The Insta360 Nano is a 360-degree camera for the iPhone. I got my order on launch day July 18 and have been testing it in "real world" conditions.  Here is a review.  The review will cover the following topics. 1. Background 2. What's in the box* 3. Description / Parts* 4. Phone compatibility* 5. Using the Nano 6. Accessories 7. Viewing Photos and Videos 8. Editing Photos and Videos 9. Sharing Photos and Videos 10. Image Quality 11. Livestream 12. Pros and Cons; Summary; comparison with other cameras *These parts are identical to those in my preliminary review, so feel free to jump ahead if you've already read that. Camera firmware version: v1.43_0160 App version: 1.2.0 BACKGROUND Ever since I broke the news about the Insta360 Nano in March , I had been very interested in the Insta360 Nano, much more than its big brother, the Insta360 4k . In my opinion, a 360-degree camera has to be portable, easy to use and affordable, in order for it to be adopted by the masses.  T