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Google Confirms Daydream VR Is Dead

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Google rolled out Daydream VR for Android phones in 2016, right at the height of the virtual reality frenzy. Google hoped everyone would use their Android phones to consumer VR content, but as Google sometimes does, it ignored the project when it didn’t immediately take off. Now, Google has officially thrown in the towel — Daydream won’t be supported on Android devices going forward. 

According to Google, it won’t support Daydream on Android 11 and later. If you have a Daydream headset and a phone that supports it, you might be able to keep using it even if you get an update to Android 11. However, the app may not work correctly, and no one is ever going to fix it. Likewise, you won’t see any new content for Daydream. Third-party developers are free to make Daydream content if they want, but Google no longer sells the headsets. 

Google’s VR ambitions didn’t start with the Daydream VR system. That honor goes to Cardboard, which was literally a piece of cardboard that you could fold into a VR headset for your phone. People seemed to like the novelty of Cardboard, which was good enough to watch a quick video or explore Google Maps Street View. The move to Daydream required device makers to opt-in, and the headset was much more expensive. 

Google-Daydream

As we are learning from dedicated VR systems, you need very particular screen technology to make VR pleasant. Companies like Oculus and Valve are pushing the pixel density far beyond smartphone levels, and high refresh rates are a must. While it’s possible to make smartphones with similar screen technologies, it would be a huge waste when most people will never put their phones in a VR headset. Rendering VR content is also hard on a phone’s hardware — it was not uncommon for Daydream to cause a phone to lag and drop frames after just a few minutes due to processor throttling. 

Google was not the first to push mobile VR — Samsung started that with Gear VR a few years before. At the time, everyone figured we might as well use these powerful little pocket computers with their high-resolution displays to run VR content. It makes sense in theory, but the reality never caught on. Samsung stopped supporting Gear VR on new phones late last year, and it discontinued the service recently. Gear VR actually had a following and access to Oculus VR content. Daydream didn’t even have that, so it’s not terribly surprising that it’s going away.

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trparky
1528 days ago
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Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
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Dependency

10 Comments and 22 Shares
Someday ImageMagick will finally break for good and we'll have a long period of scrambling as we try to reassemble civilization from the rubble.
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trparky
1573 days ago
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I thought that was OpenSSL.
alt_text_bot
1574 days ago
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Someday ImageMagick will finally break for good and we'll have a long period of scrambling as we try to reassemble civilization from the rubble.
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7 public comments
emdeesee
1566 days ago
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I think I know that person.
Sherman, TX
chrisrosa
1572 days ago
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so good
San Francisco, CA
iaoth
1574 days ago
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Literally curl
Stockholm, Sweden
DexX
1574 days ago
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Terrifyingly true.
Melbourne, Australia
GaryBIshop
1574 days ago
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So true!
JayM
1574 days ago
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Hahaha
Atlanta, GA
rickhensley
1574 days ago
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It is like they’re looking into the history of every complaint I’ve ever worked for...
Ohio

AlomWare Reset 2.50

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AlomWare Reset: Why wait for your PC to reboot? Quickly reset in 10 seconds instead! Read more...
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trparky
3230 days ago
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Here's a better answer... Get an SSD. Not only do you get faster boot times with an SSD but your system's overall performance will be so much better with an SSD. Save your money, don't buy this snake oil; buy an SSD instead.
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Beer

16 Comments and 32 Shares
Mmmm, this is such a positive experience! I feel no social pressure to enjoy it at all!
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trparky
3475 days ago
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If you have only drank the mass produced, mass marketed beers and say that you don't like beer, well then... that's your problem. Most mass produced swill is just that, swill. Please pour that back into the sick horse it came out of. If you want good beer, discover micro-brew.
alt_text_bot
3475 days ago
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Mmmm, this is such a positive experience! I feel no social pressure to enjoy it at all!
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12 public comments
llucax
3463 days ago
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Finally somebody else say it!
Berlin
ktgeek
3471 days ago
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Don't like it, don't drink it. It's okay. I don't like most hard liquor. And there are types of beer I don't like, but in general...MMMMMMM beer.
Bartlett, IL
austinstorm
3472 days ago
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It took me a loong time to like beer. I'm not fond of the trend of really hoppy beers, and prefer Belgians. I still like craft cocktails better on the whole, but beer is worth acquiring a taste for.
Moscow, Idaho
mrobold
3474 days ago
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I once felt as you do. Drink some more...it will go away.
Orange County, California
mdurakovich
3474 days ago
That's not acquired taste, that's Stockholm Syndrome
effingunicorns
3475 days ago
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And this is why I prefer fruity drinks. Bite me, social pressure!
markcaudill
3475 days ago
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I really like beer. The learning-to-like-beer phase for me was short. I do think it's kind of silly to keep drinking it if you don't like it though. Why would a grown person spend their money on something they don't like?
Washington, DC
eraycollins
3475 days ago
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This is my recollection from about age fifteen or sixteen years.
tante
3475 days ago
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xkcd on beer (and probably other aquired tastes).
Berlin/Germany
JayM
3475 days ago
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Ha!
Atlanta, GA
pseudomatic
3475 days ago
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Beer tasting bad is a feature. You have to earn the right to be drunk.
jlvanderzwan
3475 days ago
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.
meertn
3475 days ago
Zag laatst in het blog van newsblur dat je geen .-replies meer hoeft achter te laten om anderen te laten commenten :)
jlvanderzwan
3475 days ago
Ah. Nou moet ik dat weer afleren.
ddmf
3475 days ago
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It's not that you don't like beer - it's that you haven't found the beer for you yet...
Dundee
skittone
3474 days ago
Nope. Some of us just don't like beer.
korg250
3474 days ago
@skittone : then don't drink it!

Pirated movie service Popcorn Time goes P2P to side-step legal action

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As some of you may know, Popcorn Time (and its various iterations) has gone through a number of ups and downs in order to offer its community pirated movies. In order to protect itself and its users even further, Popcorn Time is adapting into a peer-to-peer based service.

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trparky
3551 days ago
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Use this and get a DMCA notice? Nope, not worth it. Better to go and rent the content you want or buy it from iTunes or Amazon.com.
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Worrying

3 Comments and 10 Shares
If the breaking news is about an event at a hospital or a lab, move it all the way over to the right.
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trparky
3629 days ago
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Alt: If the breaking news is about an event at a hospital or a lab, move it all the way over to the right.
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2 public comments
shyamy
3618 days ago
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Pretty accurate
Bear, DE, USA
bronzehedwick
3629 days ago
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Perfect.
Tarrytown, NY
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