Today I picked up a used Gear VR. Some of you may not know what this is. It's one of the new set of VR kits, and it's the most consumer accessible one (read: cheapest). All you need is a Samsung phone and this headset accessory. I was expecting it to be kind of cool. But it was way cooler than that. Some of you may know that I started in VR 15 years ago when I was in graduate school, back when VR was clunky and stupid. It is no longer clunky and stupid. Here are some big reasons why I think Gear VR is a game changer:
1) It's cheap. Relatively speaking, of course. But if you already have a Samsung phone, the Gear VR accessory is only $100. And I picked up the Gear and the phone for under $500 total. That's way cheaper than any useful VR has ever been before.
2) It's easy. It's not intimidating at all. There's no cables or anything. You just put your phone in the headset and then strap it on your head. Set up was just downloading an app. I was using the thing inside of 15 minutes. Your mom could do it.
3) It really works. There's a threshold for this sort of thing, where it crosses over into "it just works". Is it perfect? No. But it passes the smell test. You feel like you're really there. Some people complain about nausea, but I never had that issue. The software was flawless. There was no weird flickering and it never lost tracking. It just worked.
4) Largely because of those first 3, there's actual content. I downloaded this free thing where I was walking around Nepal and it was just really really cool. I could feel like I was really there in a way that watching a documentary just doesn't quite give you.
It would be really cool if you could actually walk around, of course (you can't). And pick up stuff (can't do that either). But man. We're finally getting there! Our kids will just think this stuff is normal. It's coming, folks. It's coming. Actually, it's kind of already there.