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Oculus VR hires Valve’s virtual reality expert Michael Abrash as chief scientist

Mar28
by on March 28, 2014 at 6:03 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Just days after its acquisition by Facebook, Oculus VR has hired former Valve developer Michael Abrash as its chief scientist. Abrash was involved in Valve’s own virtual reality projects, but is also known for his work on the game Quake and Microsoft’s Natural Language Group. In a blog post, Abrash supported Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR. He said virtual reality was a catch-22, in that it required a large level of investment to prove its potential – but to attract that sort of funding, someone needed to show what was possible. Facebook is solving that problem by giving Oculus VR…

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Pay-by-bundle: Curing subscription fatigue

Mar28
by on March 28, 2014 at 5:32 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, FTMedia2014, Insider, Profiles and Interviews

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It’s the perennial problem faced by companies across the media spectrum, from music-streaming platforms to eons-old newspapers. How do you make money in an age where so many people have become accustomed to consuming content for free? Advertising is the obvious conduit to monetizing digital content, but a more ideal situation is to have people willing to put their hands in their own pockets to pay for services. Yes, we’re talking about subscriptions, folks. At the FT’s Digital Media 2014 event in London this week, this dilemma made it to the top of the agenda for a panel that included…

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Sony is sending out new beta invites for its PlayStation Now game streaming service

Mar28
by on March 28, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Posted In: Around the Web

Sony is sending out a fresh batch of beta invites for PlayStation Now, its highly-anticipated game streaming service unveiled at CES a few months back. A flurry of players started tweeting about the early access several hours ago. As Game Informer reports, a Sony email recommends that gamers connect their PS3 with an Ethernet cable and ensure their Internet connection is 5Mbps or higher. PlayStation Now will give beta testers access to “a library of PS3 titles,” but the email stops short of detailing which games will be available. At CES, Sony showed off The Last of Us and God of War:…

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Voice-powered virtual assistant WonderVoice now has Pocket and Glympse integration

Mar28
by on March 28, 2014 at 3:05 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider

Remember WonderVoice, the app that wants to be Siri for Facebook? Well, it’s recently been given a bit of a spit-shine in the App Store. To recap, WonderVoice lets you ‘speak’ a command to like a post, listen to comments, save for later and more. And it’s not just Facebook it works with, you can also ask the app to tell you the best parking spots in your locale, and send messages by saying, for example, “Send message to Billy”. With the latest release, it not only sports a brand-spanking new design, but also integration with Glympse (previous coverage), meaning…

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What does the future of Bitcoin look like for e-commerce?

Mar28
by on March 28, 2014 at 2:25 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Entrepreneur, Insider, Rackspace

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Garrett Heath is a technology storyteller with Rackspace. The meteoric rise of Bitcoin’s value—from a low of $13 to upwards of $1000 in 2013—caused the general public to take notice of this cryptocurrency. Once relegated to tech circles, last year saw major economists discussing the digital currency, international governments questioning its legitimacy and speculation on well-known hedge funds acquiring it in their portfolios. Last year was truly the coming out party for Bitcoin. But is the time right for businesses and e-commerce sites to begin accepting it as a method of payment? “We see a range of emotions towards Bitcoin adoption in the…

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