Gadgets

Category: Gadgets

Developer version of HoloLens will start shipping this month

Denny | March 3, 2016

The virtual reality headset from Microsoft will be $3,000 and is being made available for pre-order.

Microsoft has now announced that the developer version of its HoloLens virtual reality headset is going to start to ship on March 30, and that it will be sold at a launch price of $3,000.

This will be occurring at a very similar time to the launch of the Oculus VR device from Facebook.

The major difference is that it will be the consumer version of the Oculus that will be released, whereas the HoloLens will be exclusively for developers. The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset will be shipping for $600. That said, while they are both meant to provide users with a VR experience, these two headsets are designed to be quite different. For example, the HoloLens is meant to allow for a more augmented reality experience, where the user will continue to see the real world surrounding him or her and will see three dimensional digital objects overtop of what is already there.

The Oculus Rift is meant to provide a more virtual reality experience compared to the HoloLens augmented reality.

Augmented Reality Technology - Microsoft HoloLens The Oculus Rift has been designed to block out the view of the surrounding environment so that an entirely digital, 360 degree three dimensional universe can replace it. The Rift, however, must be tethered to a separate computer, whereas the HoloLens operates on its own, based on Windows 10.

Microsoft’s version runs with a custom-built chip that was created for use on an Intel platform. It will also provide users with the ability to record HD video that will not only include the image of the real world, but that will also allow for a digital overlay of holographs. In this way, the user’s view can be shared with other people who don’t actually have the device.

These two major players will clearly become fast rivals in the augmented and virtual reality markets, which remains in its infancy. It will be interesting to watch the progress they make as consumers first get their hands on one device and as developers start to tinker with the other.

Single women banned from using mobile phones in certain Indian villages

Julie Campbell | March 2, 2016

Certain places in the western state of Gujarat have said that these devices are too “distracting” for girls and single women.

A number of villages in Gujarat, a state in the western part of India, have now banned single women and girls from owning and using mobile phones, as the village leaders claim that these devices will distract them from being able to focus on their studies.

The bans have gone into effects over recent weeks and have drawn the attention of the international community.

The banning of mobile phones for girls and single women is most prevalent in the villages located in Gujarat’s Mehsana and Banaskantha districts. That said, it appears as though additional villages will also be joining this campaign, according to the president of the district council of Mehsana, Ranjit Singh Thakor. This ban stops unmarried women and girls under the age of 18 from being able to own and use the mobile devices.

Thakor stated that “The girls don’t study properly if they have mobile phones, and they can get into all sorts of bad situations.”

Mobile Phones - Woman Holding Phone This was quoted during a phone interview with the Thompson Reuters Foundation. Thakor also added, “Let them study, get married, then they can get their own phones. Until then, they can use their fathers’ phones at home, if necessary.”

Other villages in India had already taken this kind of step in banning mobile devices among female users , though it didn’t capture as much attention as is the case with this latest addition. On the eastern side of the country in the state of Bihar, a similar ban had been put into place a few years ago. In that case, they explained that the use of the mobile devices was encouraging women to elope and was therefore “debasing the social atmosphere.”

Activists have been protesting the decisions made by the towns, saying that banning females of any age or social status from using mobile phones is an assault on their freedom and it could potentially deny those women and girls the access they need access to protection, potentially placing them in harm’s way.