QPORIT

The Oculus Connect 3 (or CONN3CT) keynote just concluded.

For me, the biggest stories are...

1. Continued solid progress on creating the best possible VR experience (as opposed to mobile VR which is designed not around "best possible," but "most practical").

1a. The progress includes software advances that enable less expensive Oculus Ready Computers, and the possibility of Oculus Ready Laptops soon.

2. Release of the Oculus Touch controller by the end of the year.

3. A lot of money available for indie development, including diversity.

The keynote concluded with a realistic description of what could be accomplished with VR and AR now and in 5 years. Mixed Reality also got a new name: "augmented virtual reality".


(Less positive was that, at least for me, the NextVR live stream as well as the Twitch live stream kept crashing.  I finally found an embedded Twitch live stream on CNET that worked.  YouTube did not have a live stream. We'll have to see if the recorded keynote is posted later on the Oculus YouTube channel.)


There were (of course) also many new applications previewed that will be available by the holidays, and more coming soon after.

It seems to me that anyone seriously interested in developing for VR and augmented VR, as it continues to improve, should be developing first for the Oculus Rift, and then porting to mobile and other platforms. These other platforms will continually catch up to the leading edge, while the leading edge will continue to forge ahead and be, well, the leading edge.

I do believe that using virtual and augmented reality displays will become a major computing platform, following after the Mainframe, Minicomputer, Personal Computer, Laptop, Tablet, and Smart Phone.

Labels: augmented virtual reality, Connect 3, Gear VR, Oculus CONN3CT, Oculus Rift, Oculus Touch, Virtual Reality, VR.

SNL got off to a great start tonight with a hilarious cold open: Kate McKinnon as Hillary and Alec Baldwin as Donald in the first Presidential debate!

First sketch,with host Margot Robbie as a woman who looks as spectacular as Margot Robbie, was terrific.

Two more fine sketches...  Margot Robbie as the un-Margot Robbie and (the always reliable) Family Feud (Election edition).

A sharper than usual Weekend Update!

(wow. so far, every segment has worked brilliantly!)

The NYFF Women's Roundtable presents insights into the Old Hollywood.

(Lots and lots of commercials. Film & TV previews are fun. But too much else. Not even funny commercials this time. But at least the ample commercial time allowed me to keep up with writing this almost in real time.)

Program ended with an interesting take-off from Mr. Robot.

One of the best written SNL's! Consistent quality and very funny from beginning to end.

PS. ... The program that followed SNL was a 1st Look which featured the East End of Long Island, a reminder of the always fantastic Hamptons International Film Festival that starts this week.

Labels: Alec Baldwin, Kate McKinnon, Margot Robbie, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Weekend