As many may (or may not) know, Oculus and Samsung arbitrarily, capriciously and maliciously have conspired to deny Note 4 and Gear VR (Innovator Edition 1) early adopters access to critical new features/products, by actively refusing to permit pairing of the new Gear VR Controller with Note 4s. The only comment one receives after a month of patience (other than "root your device"--a dangerous or impossible task, depending on the Note 4 variant, e.g. AT&T with a locked bootloader!) is that the Controller is "not supported"; this is absurdly disingenuous. In fact, far from being merely "not supported," the pairing actively is denied, by using a private bluetooth pairing mode in Android and by actively searching root for the device ID (model, i.e. the Note 4 variant) and then forbidding the simple pairing. There is no technical reason for this, of course; a considerable number of third-party bluetooth devices, including controllers, not similarly constrained--and, often of far more complexity than Samsung's simple new Controller--pair and operate admirably. Given other, related, actions--e.g. by Samsung--one easily can infer precisely why Oculus and Samsung are doing this dastardly deed: to artificially, callously and cynically attempt to force owners to upgrade to new kit. As with Samsung's decision to make unibody (sealed) phones, with no access for battery replacement (whether conveniently on-the-go, or after a couple of years when batteries actually fail--or, perhaps catch fire!)--and to make even a successor to the Note 4, the Note 5, both unibody and without Samsung's previously infamous Micro-SD slot--Samsung has contrived slavishly to copy Apple's infamous pattern of reducing useful and desired internal components, while keeping prices at high flagship levels. Meanwhile, these policies artificially force consumers to upgrade--just when U.S. carriers' have been abandonng the heretofore ubiquitous post-paid two-year financing cycle, that served largely to guarantee upgrades every two years. We've been able to swap out batteries ever since we've had cell phones--all the way back to the days when analog cell phone "bricks" had to be slung on a strap over the shoulder to make the ten-pound-plus weight "portable." Even the tiny, marvelous Mototola Star-Tac of the 1990s had a replaceable battery! Now, we are forced to upgrade periodically when we find that the ONE internal component that decades of device use has taught us to KNOW will fail, cannot be replaced! Similarly, we are forced to upgrade ou Note 4s and Gear VR headsets, if we want merely basic, Samsung- and Oculus-branded control of our VR experiences--which developers specifically have been requiring for new game and other VR experiences! This is in addition to Oculus and Smasung failing to require developers to make apps Note 4 compatible, such that the most desirable titles and/or features will not work on a Note 4. Early adopters have been shat upon and cast away--after having spent, perhaps, $825 for an AT&T-variant Note 4, $300 for the first Gear VR, $70 for an S-View Smart Cover and $30 for a spare battery. Plus $40 for the Gear VR Controller...perhaps $1265, not including third-party accessories. For a phone. Well, accordingly, I'll never buy another Oculus product--nor a Samsung phone, as I've long-resolved, now, that doesn't permit replacement of the battery. I'll just buy another new/old stock or refurbished Note 4. How long will other consumers remain gullible--settling for new "features" that are merely solutions looking for problems, gimicks (a screen that wraps around the sides actually reduces resolution and real estate, people!), or MISSING components, such as a headphone jack and internal DAC, that demand an upgrade to other components such as expensive bluetooth headphones withe internal DACs and their necessary adapters--immediately at purchase (!) for functionality that should be in-built! Wake up, folks. Caveat Emptor.
We were having many discussions with sustainability programs at various universities globally. In relation to our phone based 360 VR initiatives it was discussed what of the upgrade cycles of these phones.
It seems the upgrade cycle every year or 2 had to have them disposed. Several facilities decided from a sustainability/Green standpoint it was far better to have a communal LBE VRcade solution centralized to the facility than hundreds to thousands of phones per institution. Or any other distributed devices that may fill up the local landfills with toxic waste. Tablets etc.
We contacted Apple on their new Apple HMD initiatives and asked would they be implementing any trade in programs that were eco friendly to the environment for future AR/VR devices that may be under this 1 to 2 year upgrade cycle. Several governments were interested in offering subsidies to various corporations to take in the full lifecycle of the costs all the way to the landfill. As you know the full cycle is sometimes not considered by large corporations. May be a point to bring up to various institutions and governments you consult with how LBE is much more eco friendly that distributed devices. Are you aware if Oculus offers an eco friendly trade in for any of their devices?
On your point about POOR PEOPLE in VR. A few years ago Tom ForsythE shared a beer with geekmaster at GDC 14. Geekmaster pleading with tom to please not forget the early adopters of dk1, dk2, note 4, etc. That there were still lots of uses for these old devices (geekmaster liked to hack them to work with his raspberry pi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJU3Ks2m5DQ
And forsythE in his Zuckerberg approved Black Hoodie told geekmaster, screw the poor people, just upgrade, and geekmaster said he didn't have silicon valley Zuckerberg levels of money, how could they care so little about the poor people in VR, things kinda spiraled down after that. What is sad is that ForsythE (don't forget the E, tom hates if you forget the E) was all hog wild against patents when it involved some work he was doing years ago.
We all know and love loose octrees, right? Really useful things. Have been for used for around ten years in games - about twice that long in raytracers. Well, some doofi at Intel have patented them. http://www.google.com/patents?id=sH54AAAAEBAJ&dq=7002571 Filed in 2002. Not only is this well after they were in common use, but it's two years after the publication of Game Programming Gems 1 where Thatcher Ulrich wrote the definitive article on them. The title of the article is the fairly obvious one - "Loose Octrees". Not exactly difficult to google for, should you be investigating a patent application on the subject, and indeed the top page found is Thatcher's. Understandably, he's not that thrilled about this either: 9th May 2007 entry
Normally I simply avoid reading about patents entirely, and I try not to pollute anyone else's brains with them because of the incredible abuses they are put to in this utterly broken system. But in this case it's too late - you already violated this one. You thought you were safe didn't you? Just because it was invented before most of us started programming, just because loads of people have used it in tons of shipped code, just because it's been discussed ad nauseam all over the internet, and just because it's been several years since actual publication in a popular hardback book - none of that stops some idiots from patenting the existing contents of your brain. But that's fine - the sooner someone gets sued by Intel for violation, the sooner the patent can be revoked from orbit for gratuitous and wanton disregard for prior art and obviousness. As Kevin Flynn put it - "the slimes didn't even change the name, man!".
(So Geekmaster tried to talk to tom about new Oculus tech that was being patented, stuff geekmaster had worked on a long time ago and knew about prior art for them, and all I can figure is all those ZUCKERBUCKS and GREED got ForsythE to change his mind on patents, sad isn't it? 😞
Here is the new Samsung commercial for VR, no oculus logo anywhere, can you tell me what is up? Where is zenbane when you need some oculus positivitiy spin? 🙂 Why is Samsung ditching their old buddies, ditching carmack? What do they know you don't?