Google I/O is right around the corner, and this year’s a bit different. Google’s holding the event closer to home — at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. And everything’s happening outside in the cool breeze of the Bay Area. This is different scenery than the last several years that have at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, and we’re hoping that this means the event itself is going to have some fresh scenery as well.
Among many other things, this year looks like it’s going to be heavy on virtual reality, with a little bit of Android N, Chrome OS, Project Tango, ATAP, and messaging sprinkled in for good measure…
Android VR
The first and most obvious headliner for this year appears to be virtual reality, specifically a new platform
under the name of Android VR. The company that brought a primitive and basic entry into virtual reality in the form of Cardboard just a few years ago is expected to get serious about the technology this week.
How do we know? Veteran tech journalist Peter Rojas said last week that Android VR is set to launch as a dedicated, standalone headset. Details other than this are a bit light at the moment, but this corroborates earlier reports and the mention of “AndroidVR” we saw the other day in the latest Unreal Engine preview. Rojas says that this Android VR headset will be “less powerful than the Vive or Rift.” But according to his sources, it will be a better experience than the Gear VR. Read More…
