eBay Virtual Reality Department Store Shows Futureworld Shopping.

For some time, small business owners have been pondering how virtual reality might change the way they serve customers. Now one of the world’s largest online retailers may be pointing the way. Sure, shopping from a mobile gadget is already convenient enough, but eBay thinks the shopping experience can be improved further with the use of virtual reality. Say hello to what the Internet-based retailer is calling the world’s first Virtual Reality Department Store. The store allows customers to browse through collections like home goods, clothes and electronics as though they were actually in the store. The new store is the product of a partnership with Australian retailer Myer and you can now catch a glimpse of the store by downloading the app. eBay Virtual Reality Department Store The Android and iOS eBay Virtual Reality Department Store app works with headsets like Google Cardboard or Samsung’s Gear.To celebrate the launch of the eBay Virtual Reality Department Store, eBay and Myer are giving away 20,000 “shopticals” to shoppers, but if you don’t get to snag these for free, don’t worry as the headset only costs around $5.95. The brand new VR store boasts more than 12,500 products from Myer, which shoppers can checkout using eBay’s Sight Search technology. Instead of getting inundated by all of the store’s goods all at once, you can create your own unique shopping experience by choosing only categories of products that you are interested in. The shopping experience also gets better as you continue using the service. Sight Search also learns consumers’ shopping preferences and this might in the near future make it possible for business owners to know their customers’ spending habits. “It’s been important to us that we don’t just replicate the ecommerce experience in a virtual environment,” Managing Director of eBay Australia and New Zealand Jooman Park said in a post. “We are taking the best elements of traditional retail and expanding on them to improve browsing, selection, personalization and efficiency.” The eBay Virtual Reality Department Store allows customers to place items that they like in a virtual shopping basket, but in order to make a payment, users have to step out of the virtual reality world and head back to their eBay app. The online retailing giant might be the first eCommerce company to open a VR store, but this technology might soon take off as more shopping tools become available. culled from Small Business Trends.

Brian May launches Owl VR viewer that works with any smartphone.

Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May has designed and launched his own VR smartphone viewer. The plastic Owl VR kit allows users to view 3D images and footage from any smartphone while also giving them full access to their handset's controls at all times. May's £25 viewer consists of a flat-packed plastic frame that snaps into shape, with a pair of optical lenses at one end and a cardboard-backed magnetic strip at the other. A sticky magnetic card allows any smartphone to be mounted into the viewer while leaving the phone's audio output free for connection with headphones or a home stereo to complement the 3D visuals.This magnetic card can also be removed and used with other devices. The high-grade polypropylene frame is fully collapsible and a slider allows users to adjust the focus to suit their preferred viewing angle. May said: "The reason I created the Owl was to recreate Victorian stereoscopy. People get fatigued very quickly with [other] VR devices, they get frustrated that they can't reach their phone to get to their controls and they get sweaty with the eyepieces so I quickly realised that, in some ways, this was a better way of viewing virtual reality. "The great thing is that any smartphone will work in Owl. Most devices on the market only accept certain types of smartphone, so this is unique." read more @ wired.co.uk

GOOGLE CARDBOARD VR HEADSET

Virtual reality has taken over in various fields such as medicine, tourism,entertainment,military and education, creating a totally new experience. The fun has begun,join in get your headsets. It's taken almost two years for Google's low-cost VR headset to arrive in the UK, having launched in the US in June 2014. It can be purchased from the Google Store with an estimated dispatch time of 1-2 business days. Anyone who wants to buy two Google Cardboards can order a bundle for £25. Announced in 2014, Google Cardboard has shipped over five million units to date. The idea is simple: it's a no-frills enclosure that transforms a phone into a basic VR headset. Since the launch of Cardboard, Google has focused on releasing more VR content and there are thousands of VR apps and games to download from the Android store. YouTube also now hosts a selection of 360-degree videos. Having set up a virtual reality division in January 2016, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that beyond "early efforts" there would be "a lot more from us and our partners in 2016". read more Wired.com