Best Device: Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is a new virtual reality, 360 degrees head tracking, stereoscopic, wearable and affordable ultra wide field of view headset. It's a device that you wear strapped around your head which then gives you a real life perspective into a video game. In simpler terms, its a personal video game screen in a box attached to your face.

Is it really the "best advice"? According to The Verge, Wired, Engadget, Business Insider, Gizmodo, CNN, Time Magazine, TechRadar, The Wall Street Journal, and so many more, this new virtual reality device is turning heads wether you're wearing the headset or not. As for my insignificant opinion on the device, I think it makes you look like the biggest anti-social person ever. I mean, your face is being consumed by a box. You're in your own little world and there's no escaping until your mom says "dinner's ready!"

As far as convergence goes this device is still just a prototype. Once it becomes more readily available it will provide the performance of a game into a whole new world. The interactivity of this device is entirely visual. You don't actually push buttons or touch the device once it's sucking onto your face. All you have to do is just look around and move your head from left to right to experience the interactivity thats happening in your interpersonal bubble. You are entirely in control of what you look at when you play a game with this snow-goggle-looking tumor hanging in front of your eyes.

With the research I've done on this device I found that a lot of people have been giving their own personal reviews and a few of them have said the phrase "without even leaving the comfort of your home." I understand that it means you can go have fun and get the thrill of a roller coaster without having to get dressed first... but does that mean that one day cars will be obsolete? Because we can just do everything from home?

The developer of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, says that he wanted to be more involved with his games. He wanted something that would give him an experience like no other. But he couldn't find anything that he was looking for so he just started developing it himself. Other people must have had the same desire as Luckey because suddenly this device had $75 million invested in it.

For some people, gaming is just a temporary escape from reality. But for others, gaming is their reality and their whole world. So why not make it a virtual reality? The technology is there. Go for it.

This device started on KickStarter and raised $250,000 in no time. “All of the components in this prototype have existed since late 2008" said Luckey. "It's old stuff: four-year old technology. We have fitted it with a more modern display and a better tracker since [the Kickstarter campaign], but what everyone has been writing and raving about since then existed in 2008.”

“Even though it’s reliant on external hardware, whether that’s a PC or mobile device, that definitely won’t be forever necessarily,” said Nate Mitchell, Oculus VR’s vice president. “It’s just the inevitable direction the industry is going to go in, especially for VR and [augmented reality]. The Rift is going to support plugging right into your mobile phone or tablet."

However, the compatibility with the XBOX One or the PlayStation 4 doesn't look so good right now. The only way to play new games is to find a developer and have him or het make a game fitted to the Oculus Rift... Oh... and did I mention that they're hiring?

Overall, the Oculus Rift has been awarded many "best of..." and "best concept/prototype/design..." but is it really the best device so our social society? ...I don't think so. I don't think the Oculus Rift brings anything to the table except entertainment. I see it as unpractical and destructive to our social capabilities and our economy.

Would you buy this?

Hey Eric,

Would you buy this for one of your kids? 

http://mashable.com/2014/02/20/wikibear/

Just wondering. 

-Sara

No Sex Please.

Did you know that in Japan there are more old people in diapers than there are new babies in diapers? Did you know that seven years ago there were 128 million people and by 2060 there will be 87 million people? Why is that? Why are there so many old people and why is the birthrate lowering? 

The answer is technology. 

They've taken social media to a whole new level - interpersonal media. In Japan, the anime and manga culture is so huge that it's actually consumed lives to the point of no desiring to procreate because maintaining a human relationship is too hard and messy. Instead the men have real relationships with computer animated girls. 

It's not just a "teenage thing to do." Anita Rani, from BBC, finds two men over 35 who are both deeply involved with thier virtual girlfriend. Her documentary No Sex Please, We're Japanese introduces us to Japan's culture and fascination with anime and manga.    

Sarah Eberspacher wrote an article called Everything You Need to Know About Japan's Population Crisis where she also sees these virtual relationships as a factor to the crisis. 

Assessment One: There's a Lazy Way for Everything

Yeah, that's right. I said it. There really is a "lazy way" to do just about everything. And it's all because of the Internet. Thanks to the Internet you can now order pizza online, buy your socks and underwear online, go to school online, watch TV and movies online, hang out with friends online, even tour the Grand Canyon online... and better yet, protest online. What? Yeah, apparently so.

**Begin New Content**

So I saw this bumper sticker the other day while driving to an undisclosed location: 

I had the kindness to blur out the dude's license plate... But is it all that nessiscary? I mean, look at the bumper of his 4Runner. From the back of this guy's gas-gobbling SUV you can see that he's a firefighter (special license plate), he's a right-winged republican (Mit Romney bumper sticker) and he doesn't believe in the liberal media (the obvious one). 

Well sir, thank you for all that information. Now if only you had a sticker with your name on it... Then I'll be able to look you up on Facebook and see what high school you graduated from and all sorts of other information about you. 

I guess I could do that with any car on the road - stalk them and such - but this guy is making things extra convenient for me by displaying who he voted for and what kind of person he is. 

This guy seems like a genuinely cool guy. He drives a pretty cool car that can get over 200,000 miles and still drive like new. He's a firefighter who relates to the hardworking, conservative American. He's obviously a very smart guy... Who also disagrees with the liberal media. 

Why? 

Why would you have a biased bumper sticker about biased news? And another biased bumper sticker regarding your biased opinion on who you think should be president?  

I don't play the little game of "I'm pro this. I'm anti that." Overall, I don't do politics. At all. I don't have a stance on abortions, I don't care who the president is and I don't care all that much about this dumb gay debate. 

I mean, who am I to say that gays can't get married? I don't care. So go do what you wanna do, leave me out of it and leave me alone. 

In other words, stay out of my life and off my Facebook profile, everyone. 

***End New Content***

Assessment One: 

"How [I] believe public opinion may have been influenced through social media and new devices"

Let me ask you something, you know those posts on Facebook that go around saying "click 'like' to find a cure for cancer" or something dumb like that? Well did you ride the wave of changing your profile picture to a red equal sign during that equal rights debate in the summer of 2013? Because apparently some people think that counts as voting.

In an article on Mashable.com, Alex Fitzpatrick asks the question "Did Red Equal Sign Avatars Affect Court's Marriage Decisions?" Although the answer to the question seems to be undoubtedly "no" there are still some people, such as those who participated in the "changing your profile picture for a cause" phase, who believe this is a strong show of protesting. (I only see it as affective as a bumper sticker.)

The definition of "voting" is: to express a wish to follow a particular course of action. And voting is generally submitted anonymously. So why would anyone want to tie their name, their martial status, pictures of their kids and what they're a "fan" of to their vote for the government to see? Doesn't that seem like a lot of free private information? Is that the cost of being lazy and not protesting out on the streets or even simply doing some homework on this liberal communist before voting for him because "he's cool because he's black"?

I believe social media has the power to made anything look good (and sometimes bad), but I still need to ask myself if what I'm observing and learning from the Internet is really what it appears to be.

"How social media [has] contributed to the push for action, either in efforts to petition for or against marriage equality in Utah, and to organize for civil protest"

Facebook lets people express freely and instantly. It's able to catch the attention of people in power, much in the same vain as what happened with proposition 8. People outside of influence, in an entirely different state, were able to make an impact. The Internet and social media give us the opportunity to voice our opinion and come together with people with the same values and perspectives. 

People who participated in this movement changed their profile pictures hoping that the government would see the red box with the pink equal sign and then make gay marriage legal. So... that means these people are okay with the government spying on them and looking at their profiles? Well, so it looks like you guys got your way, I'm sure it helped but it didn't entirely convince the courts - according to Fitzpatrick.

So now that you gay guys can get married what're you going to do next? Try to legalize sodomy? Yeah, let's not put up pictures of that all over our Facebooks.

Moreover, I don't think changing your profile picture should be considered a valid ballot. Fitzpatrick's article states that the red equal signs showed a great deal of support and it wasn't over-looked but it didn't actully affect the court's decision. I don't think the government should be looking at our private social media outlets for opinions or votes. Everyone on the Internet is opinionated. Myself included. But the government needs to restrict itself when it comes down to our private lives. 

"What [I] think about technological determinism's role in this"

I think technology should never take the role of parents or social activities. It can be a great tool but it needs to be used responsibly. Advances have given us more opportunities to learn and explore, all from the safety of our own home, but it's important that we get out of our home and learn how to be a normal civilized person and function properly in society. 

I've seen how influential social media can be and its foolish not to believe that it hasn't affected gay rights. People use the Internet to let their voices be heard and this topic is no different. 

When the TV show Glee comes on in the homes of our society it becomes "normal" to see gay people having a good time and enjoying life. All we want in life is to be happy and when we see someone expressing happiness we are happy for them. I'm not gay myself but I do see that there are happy gay couples and I don't want to be the rude one that doesn't support their happiness. But at the same time I didn't change my profile picture to support their happiness. 

App Review: TouchCast

TouchCast. What is it? It's an iPad app. iPad? Yes, iPad. Is it available on iPhone? No. Oh... Ok. So it's just an iPad app? Yes. Is it available in the Android Market? What? No... But it was recently made available for Windows computers... I don't know why, don't ask, I'm not getting into that.

Anyways, so TouchCast is a weird little new way of gathering and interacting with elements using multiple mediums in one TouchCast... cast... in one TouchCast episode... video... holy crap I don't know what to call them! I'm just gonna keep on writing... reviewing... blogging... moving on. 

The app alone is a broadcasting and editing studio for TouchCast videos. It's also the only viewing platform for other's TouchCast videos. You can't create a TouchCast video on any other device and you can't interact with a TouchCast video without the TouchCast app. Sure, you can send a link of your wicked sick video to your Facebook friends. But they're not gonna understand what you mean by "wicked sick" unless they view it in their TouchCast app on their iPad. It's basically an iPad exclusive thing right now. But they're working on branching out to other devices. 

So in order to fully understand this new form of implementing multiple layers of media into one video is unheard of and hard to explain without demonstrating the product itself. Basically what it allows the viewer to do is touch the video and interact with it. You can click on photos in the video and bring them up into full screen. You can click on website links and be on the web page without leaving the video or the producer's commentary. Like, you know how some news websites embed videos in the middle of their articles? Well TouchCast is like the exact opposite. You can embed websites inside videos. And photos, weather reports, maps and so many other little things called "vApps".

TouchCast's website says vApps keep the viewer engaged...  

Now, hold up. Let's take two steps back. I completely agree with this statement of "keeping me engaged." Because it really does. But have we really gotten to that day and age where video alone isn't as engaging as it once was when my great grandpa was my age? I remember my great grandpa telling me that when he saw a video, or TV in his case, for the first time he felt like the people on screen were right there in front of him. He was fully engaged with his TV set and he never took his eyes off the news anchor lady... probably for other reasons... but he was engaged... with video alone. 

Why would TouchCast feel the need to create vApps to keep the viewer's attention? Has our ADD gotten that bad? Maybe it's for the better. Maybe I like two cookies better than one cookie but that doesn't mean I'm not happy with just one cookie alone. 

Ok, so let's get back to the app. When you first open TouchCast it asks you what you'd like to do. Touch? or Cast? If you select 'Touch' it'll take you to all of the TouchCast videos created by other people. Basically explore. If you select 'Cast" it'll take you to the producer's view and from there you'll be able to make a TouchCast video. Basically create. 

So let's explore the Touch side first so that you can see what the heck I'm talking about. In the Touch side you'll see what kinda looks like a YouTube layout with video links with thumbnails and categories such as "Featured", "Trending" and "Channels." There's also a search option and on the left side it says "Cast Side" - a button to take you directly into the producer's layout so you can create your own video. 

Let's "touch" on that top Featured video, called "Fort Tilden", and see what the viewer sees. 

You can scrub, pause and play the video right away. I quickly scrubbed over to the little orange dots in the timeline because those represent vApps. The interesting things. The orange ones are photos, the red ones are external links and the blue one is a map you can actually navigate around in while the video is still playing. 

This is what happens when the viewer touches a picture:

The video will continue to play in the lower right corner and you can exit this "photo full screen mode" by touching the video picture in the corner. 

I scrubbed forward to the map. The drop pin was originally centered in the frame but I touched it and moved the map around so I could see how far Fort Tilden is from Hoboken. 

Now I'm gonna scrub forward to the end to catch those quick "follow me on twitter/facebook" things because maybe I need to know more about this Fort Tilden thing. 

Can you see the webpage image in the video frame down there in the lower right corner? Yeah well I clicked on that. The above shows what that looks like. And I've actually been taken to the website. I can now navigate around the site without leaving the TouchCast app. What?? How?? I don't know. It blows my mind.

The Cast side is where all the magic happens. 

When you first open the Cast side it seems like just a camera with a bunch of weird features. (for some reason it opens with the front facing camera and you just so happen to be making an ugly face at the moment)

There is a "Swap" option, however, in case your ugliness is too much to handle. 

There's also a "Telepromt" option. Oh yes. How convenient. (except I don't speak "Lorem Ipsum")

Down at the bottom there is an "Effects" tab. It's great. But I would seriously never use it in a serious setting ever. 

There's also a whiteboard. Because sometimes you just need to doodle right on top of your video. 

And then there's a tab called "Titles" but it's boring so we're not gonna get into that. Let's move right along to these strange wonderful things called vApps. When you click on the vApps tab it takes you to this: 

So I'm gonna create a little TouchCast episode here and show you the behind the scenes to making a video like the Fort Tilden one. I'm gonna start off with a nice website. Please don't be offended. It's the Bible online and I'm in Matthew chapter 4.

Here's my website vApp with the blue border around it: 

I've added in several photo elements and my first one is a picture of a map. Here's a map of Israel:

Now I'm going to tab over to my Whiteboard section and draw a line going from Nazareth to Capernaum because in Matthew 4:13 Jesus travels from Nazareth to Capernaum. 

So I went back to my vApps tab and now I'm gonna show you all a nice picture of my mom and dad who actually went to Israel and The Town of Jesus. 

Now, do you guys see that little glowing green icon down there at the bottom? It allows you to change the image layout. So here it is in absolute full screen with the camera in the lower corner turned off: (don't worry, the message on-screen fades away but I snapped the screenshot with it because I thought it was cool)

And here it is with the handles on the side so you can adjust the size to whatever you want: (Please do not use your tongue to actually adjust your frame - just touch it)

Alright, so do you all kinda understand what I'm talking about now? Did the photos help? I think they did because it's hard to explain this app without a visual presentation of how it's supposed to look. ....Plus I had fun with the photos if you hadn't noticed. 

Oh, and I forgot to mention this; once you hit "Record" everything you do afterwards is recorded in real time. Meaning, if you hit record and talked about mac and cheese for 30 seconds and then tapped a vApp picture of Kraft's logo and brought it up into your camera screen, or canvas, then when you play it back your vApp won't appear until 30 seconds in. Does that make sense? Everything happens in real time. It records what you do with your vApps at the same time as what you do in camera. 

I'm sure all of you have tons of questions now... well lucky for ya'll TouchCast has a Frequently Asked Questions page on their website. Imma do things "old school" way now, if you click on the photo below it'll take you to TouchCast's website... Just too bad I couldn't actully embed a TouchCast video on my blog for you guys. 

While we're on the subject of TouchCast's website I should show you guys TouchCast's mission. So here it is: 

Oh...and if you're wondering more about vApps, and how to possibly build your own, Edo Segal and his buddies Erick Schonfeld (former TechCrunch Editor in Chief) and Charley Miller, the product chief, might be able to help you out. They have an entire page on building your own vApp. 

TouchCast was made possible in July, 2013, by Edo Segal, Erik Schonfeld and Charley Miller.