Oculus Rift CV1 Consumer Virtual Reality HUD Sensation Debuts on E3 Press Conference with Latest Hardware Breakthroughs

""The Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus today showed off a streamlined version of its gaming headset, Rift, that will be available to consumers in the first quarter of 2016.

Oculus first excited the gaming world three years ago when it launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance the development of its headset. It easily blew past its $250,000 crowdfunding goal and ended up raising $2.4 million. Then in 2014, Facebook acquired the startup for $2 billion, based on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s belief that virtual reality will represent the next major computing platform.

“Oculus Rift is going to deliver the magic of presence,” Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said today at a press event in San Francisco. “This isn’t science fiction. This is reality, and it’s happening today.”

Oculus has yet to reveal the cost of Rift, but Iribe said it will be at an “affordable price.” As part of a partnership with Xbox, Oculus Rift will ship with a wireless Xbox One controller and be able to stream Xbox One games.

The company also introduced new handheld sensors called Oculus Touch.

“One of the first things people do [when they put on Rift] is they reach out to this virtual world,” said Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. Touch will be able to recognize hand gestures, such as waving or pointing, and enable people to hold and interact with virtual objects, such as a gun in a shooting game. It will be sold separately and available shortly after Rift launches.

Revealed ahead of the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles next week, the new headset has been slimmed down and wrapped in fabric so it’s more comfortable for people to hold and wear. The company says it has also improved eye tracking so the experience is less jarring and nauseating for wearers.

“Really, for the first time it feels like a consumer product,” Iribe said. But while Oculus is finally getting ready to ship its first consumer product, it’s still far from achieving Zuckerberg’s vision of becoming a mainstream computing platform. “I think that’s going to realistically take a while,” Iribe tells Quartz. “I do absolutely think that will happen, but it will just take time.""

http://qz.com/426151/oculus-finally-unveils-its-consumer-virtual-reality-headset/

6,000 Stores Closing Nation Wide as Retail Chains Start to Collapse

""The long feared “retail apocalypse” may be hitting with little or no fanfare if a growing list of store-closing plans by major chains is any indication.

Major U.S. retailers have announced the closing of more than 6,000 stores from coast to coast. The list includes only those retailers that have announced plans to close more than 10 outlets this year and next.

For example, 1,784 Radio Shack stores are vanishing, 400 stores in the Office Depot/Office Max chain by 2016, and 340 Dollar Tree/Family Dollar stores.

The growing list of stores getting shuttered coincides with the decline in discretionary consumer spending over the past six months.

“Expect to see more storefronts closed at malls across the country,” one retail watcher told WND. “It’s getting ugly out there.”

Another factor, the source said, is that Americans’ credit is maxed out – a problem that will impact holiday season sales later this year.""

http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/retail-apocalypse-6000-chains-closing-stores/