HoloLens For Developers Available For Pre-Order (thestack.com) 58
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's HoloLens, touted as the world's 'first and only fully untethered holographic computer' is available today for pre-order and will ship on March 30. The HoloLens Development Edition is available for purchase to qualified developer applicants and will cost $3,000. While the augmented-reality headset is still far from a commercial release to consumers, Microsoft will release six applications that run on the holographic platform – a mix of development tools, games, and user programs. From today, developers can access documentation, guides and tutorials for HoloLens. Additional development tools will be made available when the first HoloLens ship at the end of March, including Visual Studio projects and a HoloLens emulator, which will allow testing of holographic apps on a PC without a physical HoloLens.
This platform... (Score:3, Insightful)
is not "holographic"...
But hey, asking Microsoft to stop abusing something is a lost fight, right?
Re:This platform... (Score:4, Insightful)
You know, in fairness, marketing people all over the world are prone to bullshit exaggeration and a fundamental lack of understanding that words have actual meanings
Marketing hype will always be marketing hype.
Re: (Score:1)
Also in fairness, describing this as "holographic" really isn't very far from the meaning of that word in the eyes of your typical person.
That it also has a technical meaning is not particularly relevant. It's a good, descriptive name. The average person doesn't care how something works, they care about what experience they have.
(One might also note that the "holodeck" in ST:TNG is also not truly "holographic". But the term conveys the right meaning to the average person, which is what such terms are ult
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What, you don't refer to the device you view slashdot on as a "Liquid Crystal Computer"?
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Wait, we have liquid crystal computers these days?
Woah. :-P
Re:This platform... (Score:4, Interesting)
Baby steps. Not one VR provider will nail it first go especially if they aren't willing to wait for the right moment like Apple did.
Most new products are like this. (Score:2)
Baby steps. Not one VR provider will nail it first go especially if they aren't willing to wait for the right moment like Apple did.
Most new products are like this.
Until Apple yells "You're doing it WRONG! You're doing it WRONG! Give me the damn mouse and let me drive for a minute... there! THAT'S how you get past that level to the next level!".
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Baby steps. Not one VR provider will nail it first go especially if they aren't willing to wait for the right moment like Apple did.
Most new products are like this.
Until Apple yells "You're doing it WRONG! You're doing it WRONG! Give me the damn mouse and let me drive for a minute... there! THAT'S how you get past that level to the next level!".
BTW, I read somewhere recently that Apple is on a VR/AR hiring spree...
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Keep in mind that HoloLens is not targeting VR gaming as its primary market segment. It is targeting AR applications, moving computer operations off the screen and putting them into our world. So the visual field and opacity may be meaningful design choices, to keep you grounded in reality.
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Keep in mind that HoloLens is not targeting VR gaming as its primary market segment. It is targeting AR applications, moving computer operations off the screen and putting them into our world. So the visual field and opacity may be meaningful design choices, to keep you grounded in reality.
Then it makes more sense for the Alpha channel bleed through to be adjustable from partial to full opacity, and then just default to partial.
I know that people who like semi-transparent terminal windows, and then ask me to come over and look at their code floating on top of their pet cat tend to drive me nuts, since it makes it harder to concentrate on the code instead of the cat, unless the terminal window is 100% opaque, and the irrelevant information (i.e. the cat) is removed from the field of view.
I cer
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I certainly hope the "...moving computer operations off the screen and putting them into our world" you claim they are targeting are not terminal windows
I'm talking about three dimensional applications. Things like creating annotations on real-world objects, visualizing the internal parts of equipment, visual feedback from telepresence systems, architecting a house while standing "inside it" on the vacant lot, GPS navigation overlays in the real world... and, I suppose if you really wanted you could probably get it to bring up a terminal window (from what I understand, non-holographic universal Windows apps can be moved into the 3D AR space).
Interacting with the real world (Score:1)
I'm talking about three dimensional applications. Things like creating annotations on real-world objects, visualizing the internal parts of equipment, visual feedback from telepresence systems, architecting a house while standing "inside it" on the vacant lot, GPS navigation overlays in the real world...
Exactly.
There is a lot of MS hate on slashdot, and now people who haven't tried a product, much less tried all of the potential applications for it, are belittling it out of that juvenile hatred. If they don't like it they shouldn't buy it, but they're still going to bash it.
We're nerds. It's a cool technology. Let's play with it and see what we can do with it.
The technology has a huge potential for a wide array of uses, initially in the business space and then the luxury market, and over time it will im
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The product is crap anyway.
Thankfully they're putting the Microsoft logo on it, to warn the consumer.
Such a fussbudget. (Score:2)
This platform is not "holographic"...
Neither were the Star Trek's holodecks, if you want to be pedantic about the thing. The point is that words take on new meanings in popular usage - casual usage - that won't always be found in the dictionary. The HoloLens places virtual objects in real environments in a way that is persuasive to the viewer, which is the most you can ask of a real holographic projection.
But hey, asking Microsoft to stop abusing something is a lost fight, right?
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is not "holographic"... But hey, asking Microsoft to stop abusing something is a lost fight, right?
I have a hard time getting worked up over Microsoft's marketing hyperbole. Did they call it "magic?" Yawn.
Re:This platform... (Score:5, Interesting)
And Googles Android platform isnt an ... Android.
So please, do fuck off.
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Apple devices aren't apples.
Amazon doesn't sell forests or rivers.
Home Depot doesn't sell homes.
Southwest Airlines flies outside of the southwest.
Facebook doesn't sell faces or books.
And Best Buy isn't best at anything.
You can see the money leave your bank in 3D now! (Score:5, Funny)
It comes with a cool animation of 3000 dollars leaving your wallet that can overlay the real-world image of your accountant telling you you're broke.
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And we should feel sympathy for early adopters of technology ... why?
I applaud the people who have money to piss away on new technology which is as yet unproven, they pave the way for the rest of us to get a version which actually works.
If you spent your last $3k on this technology thinking it was going to make you rich, well, sucks to be you.
Those guys who splash out $20K on the latest TV technology? Thanks for allowing the failure rate of new technology to keep going so we don't have to be the suckers wh
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And we should feel sympathy for early adopters of technology ... why?
I'm curious - who asked you to feel sympathy for early adopters of technology? Somebody down at the library? John, from account management? A little bird?
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If you're not strong enough to attack real monsters then you invent straw men and attack those. We're humans, it's what we do.
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$3000 dollars to be first one to develop for a platform that may become popular is a small price to pay.
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/oblg. "Be the first to invest now in a bridge joining two communities. Huge opportunity!!!"
Evaluation of HoloLens:
[x] Fad
[x] Device
[x] Hype train
[x] Lacks apps
[x] Consumers (generally) don't give a fuck
[ ] Overpriced Consumer Kit
[x] Overpriced Dev Kit
[ ] Ship it!
--
"A sucker and his money are soon parted"
Re: (Score:2)
Evaluation of HoloLens:
[x] Fad
[x] Device
[x] Hype train
[x] Lacks apps
[x] Consumers (generally) don't give a fuck
[ ] Overpriced Consumer Kit
[x] Overpriced Dev Kit
[ ] Ship it!
I'm not sure if your ditching the tech as a whole or just Hololen. If your ditching the tech as a whole I hate to tell you this but you're in for a surprise. The current state of the tech is crap but it's potential is huge. If you get onboard early and become good at developing for it, it's the key to unlocking large opportunities down the road. As a software business it's just a smart move in anticipation for what's coming especially if you offering can benefit from it. If you're just an employee looking t
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$3000 dollars to be first one to develop for a platform that may become popular is a small price to pay.
Maybe you should ask all those early adopter Glassholes that dumped thousands in to a product that's now vanished with only rumors of a new and improved replacement version that doesn't draw public contempt.
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$3,000 broke, huh?
Funny. I remember spending something like $3,300 for a PowerMac G4. It was the first hardware on the market that shipped with a DVD-R burner, and I was the first guy on my block to start using DeCSS to burn DVD-Rs.
I would have been in my mid/late 20s, and I didn't even bother to talk to an accountant about it.
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The $3000 isn't what killed him. It was the Google Glass, the 3DTV's, the various VR headsets, and a million other fads that just added up.
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If you're a developer hopefully you can afford more than one devkit...
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Immersive experience (Score:1)
Three grand... that's kind of ouchy (Score:5, Funny)
But as someone who owns a Newton, an N-Gage, a Google Glass, and an Apple Watch, I feel it is my duty to buy one of these. My collection won't be complete without it.
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You could probably sell the Newton on eBay for more than you originally paid for it.
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Maybe not. Looks like "working" Newton MessagePad 120 and 130 models are nearly all going for well under $100.
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I have a developer version of the Oculus I'd be willing to sell you for $700.
Hands On? (Score:1)
Anyone have any hands on experience with this or other "holographic headsets"? I'm wondering if they have decent resolution, frame rate, color, etc or are they like comparing old green screens to today's 30" monitors? It would be neat if you could simply wear a headset that would allow you to slap virtual monitors, calendars, reminders, tv's etc throughout your home/work environment but I'm having a hard time believing that the consumer grade equipment is anywhere near that capable yet. Not that it is ne
Re:Hands On? (Score:5, Informative)
I've spent a decent amount of time with HoloLens including trying out the included apps and I can say this is very impressive. The small FOV makes it hard to use as an extra (infinite) set of monitors. But you can definitely get the feel for how this future will work from this device--it's surprisingly fast, lightweight, and produces some great looking graphics.
You can indeed slap windows in the real world and they'll stay there forever. And, people/objects in the real world will occlude your windows when they move in front of it.
It's really kind of awesome.
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Great stuff. Do you still have a copy of the NDA you signed?
Microsoft
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Heh--no NDA with the public demo! They had invite only demo events all around the country. I wrote up a review of it here:
http://ralphbarbagallo.com/201... [ralphbarbagallo.com]
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What about augmented reality virtual anime wifu?
Specs link? (Score:1)
Are there any facts out there? Something like pixel resolution to compare with htc playstatio rv and occulus? And if you are in a pitch black room is there no image becuase no ambient light?
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I don't know if the stuff they're shipping to developers is the same as the stuff that I demoed in the last Build conference, but I was fairly underwhelmed by what I saw. It had a lot of promise. I'll give Microsoft credit for figuring out how to (for the most part) make the "holograms" stay put. If something was supposed to be sitting on a real-world table, you could walk all around the table and the object would still look like it was sitting there. But it was far from being something that a consumer woul