It’s been an exciting week for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in the news, which may explain why this week’s edition of What We’re Reading is so darn loaded with stories about the topics. We’re also highlighting a video game and a music video this week, because why not?
The Best Thing We Read This Week
The Internet has been accused of killing journalism for more than a decade now, which made this week’s Fortune piece entitled Can Virtual Reality Save Journalism? a breath of fresh air. Rather than listing all the ways the platform will hurt journalism (the standard way the Internet is treated), writer Erin Griffith puts a positive spin on experiments in VR news collection being conducted by the New York Times (which gave away millions of Google Cardboards like the one pictured above to subscribers), ABC News and others. Can a fully immersive experience save the network evening news? We should know in a few years …
The Best Thing We SAW This Week
The Marxent staff likes to think outside the box, and two staffers offered up “Best Thing” suggestions this week that definitely broke the mold.
Up first, Marketing Creative Director Joe Johnson suggested a game called 80 Days, which he’s been hung up on for weeks. “Take a storied Jules Verne novel, smash it into a stylish steampunk world, and then dump gallons upon gallons of interesting and varied storylines into a computer, and apparently you get my favorite obsession of 2016,” Joe says. “Literary and unique, 80 Days is a perfect example of how storytelling can evolve and triumph in the era of interactive gaming.
Meanwhile, Project Lead Nick Kizirnis found himself checking out Radiohead’s new single “Burn The Witch,” which you can see above. “Radiohead could definitely be considered ‘difficult listening’ for many, but the new single is easily the most ‘listenable’ song they’ve recorded in years (it all sounds good to me).” He also mentioned the innovative marketing campaign the band has been engaging in to promote their new material. “They recently deleted everything off their social accounts and website, so expect them to do something bizarre when the record finally comes out,” Nick says.
The Best of the Rest …
The biggest news in tech in recent weeks has been the launch of the Oculus Rift. Funny thing, though: despite the fact that name recognition for Oculus is high, few people have seen one in action. That should change now that you can try the Oculus Virtual Reality goggles for free at Best Buy.
The future of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications was a hot topic in the press this week. Marxent Sales Director Jeff Morrow pointed to this story, about how Augmented Reality is changing the landscape of consumer experience, as but one example of the promise that AR and VR hold for business. There were also stories that explored how VR will be used to sell cars, provide amazing tours to museum guests, stream hundreds of concerts from your couch.
Augmented Reality is the next frontier … even for accountants!
Do you like ping pong? Yeah? Well then, you’re going to love this Tennis Table Trainer using AR, which Tech Times says is “The coolest Ping Pong Table ever.”
It’s now May, which means the Summer Movie season is upon us. Vox has an amazing preview of the biggest hitters about to take a swing at the box office, which is notable for the quality of both the writing and the design of the page. Definitely check it out.
And finally …
Daily Mail’s amazing headline really says it all: “Gamer sets a world record for spending 25 HOURS wearing HTC Vive – and the VR marathon was so long it made him VOMIT”
