Back when I had a Note 4 I also bought the Gear VR, and it was one of the most amazing experiences ever. It felt amazing to be up close to whales and sharks, or to explore the cosmos with planets rotating right in front of me. I knew what I was seeing was fake, but it’s difficult to explain how almost-real it felt. Later, I moved onto iPhones and like many others, I haven’t been willing to shell out $500+ to experience VR once again, but I think that’s about to change.

Earlier today, Oculus had their Connect presentation in San Jose and Mark Zuckerberg was on stage to announce the Oculus Go, a standalone VR headset that (finally) comes in at a reasonable $199. Its specs seem most equivalent to using a Gear VR, utilizing ‘fast-switching’ WQHD LCD screens and spatial audio, including a small controller that similar to what ships with the current Gear VR, as well as being compatible with all Gear VR software.

There’s no word on battery, and there’s little in the way of specifications, such as screen resolution or refresh rate. Both of which are very important in the virtual reality experience.

They will go sale sometime early next year, and I’ll definitely be buying one. And if you’ve never experienced VR, the Oculus Go looks like it’ll be a good place to start.

[ TechCrunch ]

With Star Wars mania picking up again with the upcoming release of The Last Jedi, Samsung has announced a self-piloting vacuum (I call them all Roombas), in the style of Darth Vader and Stormtroopers.

The Limited Edition POWERBot, works like any other auto-piloting vacuum and has countless sensors to detect furniture and walls. It even has an app that lets you control the droids and are compatible with Google Assistant and Alexa. But of course, being a limited edition Star Wars version you expect it to do something neat. Both models can play music from the iconic series, and will make sounds according to their model. So the Vader vacuum will breath like the Sith Lord.

It’s available for pre-order now and the Vader one is $799, while the stormtrooper is $699 as it doesn’t include wi-fi.

I’m more a movie poster on my wall kind of guy, but If you want to clean your house with a Vader vacuum, then grab a beer out of your carbonite Han Solo refrigerator and open it with your Lightsaber bottle opener after eating waffles made in your Death Star waffle iron, than hey, by all means, it’s your money.

[ Samsung ]

It’s been well over a decade since Yashica made their last camera and they’re back with the Y35, a camera that is trying to win over modern analogue camera-lovers. At the heart of the Y35 is a system that Yashica is calling digiFilm. It’s a small cartridge that resembles a film cannister that allows you to shoot in widely differing modes similar to using different types of film.

By swapping out the different digiFilm cartridges you can achieve different looks, such as high ISO, low ISO, black and white, and even square photos that are great for Instagram. And the camera is still digital, so sharing your photos is much easier than using an actual film camera. Plus, there’s something nice about the predetermined settings of the cartridges, just pick one that may best fit your shot and start shooting, no messing around with settings.

It’s a neat little idea, letting you feel the history of photography without too much burden. It even makes you pull a lever to advance the film despite being totally unnecessary, something which makes you appreciate each great shot you manage to get.

The camera has a 35mm f2.8 aperture lens as well as a built in viewfinder. And while the specs are nothing special, boasting a 14 Megapixel 1/3.2-inch CMOS sensor, it comes in at about $150 including 4 different digiFilms cartridges and that’s really not too much for a fun throwback digital camera.

[ KickStarter ] VIA [ TheVerge ]

2017’s hottest craze and fastest crash has been the fidget spinner. Those things were so popular at one point that districts started banning them schools, that’s an honor usually reserved for Pokémon or Tamagotchi, yea remember those? Well like any good trend, now that it’s quickly becoming uncool to walk around playing with a fidget spinner, we’re seeing more ways to spend money on the fading fad.

Let me introduce, the Fidget Spinner Cell Phone made by Chili. It’s a real functioning cell phone with a bearing in the middle that let’s you use it like any other spinner. It’s also impressively small, with a tiny screen that’s no bigger than a postage stamp. It’s a very basic phone with barely any features including no camera, but it does have room for dual sim cards, Bluetooth and a web browser for some reason.

It’s available for $20, but before you run out and buy it, because obviously who wouldn’t? It’s only available for sale in India. There are other fidget spinner phones on Amazon though, so if you’re really dying to get your hands on one, it can be found.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to look up airline tickets to New Delhi.

[ Amazon ]

What started as an effort to compete against giants iOS and Android in the smartphone marketplace has concluded with Microsoft announcing that they’re done working on new Windows Phone hardware. It’s sad, well a little sad. Windows Phone could’ve been great but never quite made much of a splash. Let’s take a look back at the forgotten phone OS and what could’ve been.

The Nokia Lumia 920 was the closest I ever came to owning one of the ill-fated phones. It had good specs that finally let it compete with the latest android phones as well as a great design, but it just never felt as solid as an Android or iOS phone. There just wasn’t much of an app ecosystem and that really hurt sales. With an iPhone you can download any app to do just about anything, while Windows Phone users were lucky to have the most basic apps available.

No matter what, plenty of Windows Phones were built well and had really nice features, but sometimes, really nice just doesn’t cut it. Goodnight Windows Phone, we hardly knew you.

Also, that godawful Metro UI.

[ TechCrunch ]

We all know Tinder is great, I mean who doesn’t want to swipe though hundreds of people trying to find the one reasonable needle in a haystack of crazy? But all that swiping can be a drain, especially if you plan to swipe at least a thousand people a day.

Well now, you can kiss your troubles goodbye with Tinda Finger. It’s a stupid little peripheral that plugs into your phone and spins a capacitive head clockwise that can generate 6,000 right swipes per hour. Did I say stupid? I meant brilliant.

It comes in Micro-USB as well as Lightning so everyone can join in the fun. But It’s really great for people for without standards, as you’ll be right-swiping everyone. Hate neck tattoos? Right-swiped. Obviously fake profiles? Right-swiped. Did your cousin just pop-up? Eww, right-swiped. Even the occasional opposite gender profile that pops up once in a while? Guess what, right-swiped.

It’s being funded on Kickstarter and while it’s pretty cheap at $8, it also costs your dignity. And that something that can’t be refunded.

And they say finding love isn’t easy.

[ KickStarter ]