Ep. 1410: Where we tour the Crystal Cove with Scott Stein
Ep. 1410: Where we tour the Crystal Cove with Scott Stein
32:55

Ep. 1410: Where we tour the Crystal Cove with Scott Stein

Culture
-Hey. What's up? It's January 16th, 2014. This is The 404 Show on CNET. Thanks for listening or watching. I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Scott Stein. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -This is not The 404 Show. This is my show this week because Jeff's not here. So, this is my show. -It's the J04. -Yeah. I-- whoa! What? -The J04. -Oh. -I don't know. -I thought JO [unk] something else for me. -What is that? What is-- -Did I say something weird? -Yeah, you did but we'll cut that out in post. -Oh, my God. Okay. -You're not-- you never heard of the acronym JO-- -No. I never had. -Urban Dictionary that after the show. -Yeah. -Thanks for joining us again, Scott. -Good to know. This is good. -On that note, awkward beginning. -He seems so innocent. Just replacing that with a letter J. -Yeah. -And yet so many pit bulls. -Yeah. You can't imagine what that would stand for? Anyway, I don't even know the letters-- -Okay. -It's good that you can't think of it but regardless, we got me, Scott Stein, -It's good to know. -who's our laptops, wearable tech, gaming, catch-all editor. -I'm not a catch-all editor but I'm a wearable tech and then I'm also helping with laptops and tablets. -Yeah. -And then I also, yeah, help with-- okay, so I do a lot of different things. -Yeah. You're a Jack of all trades. -Yeah. -Speak. -Very common theme on today's show. -I'm still blushing about whatever we think. I might have said a few moments ago. I have no idea. I have no idea. -You have no idea? -I don't. -I just said Jack of all trades. -Yeah, yeah. -That does include you into a JO [unk]. -You're a J of all trades. Can we get a zoom in on Scott's face? -Say what. -What? -Okay. -I know. -And of course, Ariel Nuñez. What's up, dude? Thanks for helping us out on the board again. -No problem. -Today. -Always a pleasure. -A couple of quick programming notes before we jump into today's episode. So, obviously we're shooting today. Tomorrow, no show. So, no Friday show, no Monday show for Martin Luther King's birthday. -Right. -All for my birthday because it's tomorrow, 30th birthday. -Tomorrow. -Yay! -Yeah, on the 17th. -Wow. Happy birthday. -Yeah. Buy me a gun please. -I will not. I will not. I'll buy you some encouragement. You could be my age. So, there you go. Just look across. -I'm like a very different age bracket then. -Are you? -I hide it. Yeah. -You're not that much older than me. -I'm 63 years old. -Wow. Really? -Yes. -You really hide it well. That dyed beard of yours. -No but I am older than you and I would say 30 is a good age to be at in New York. -Yes. -That's good. This is a magical time for you. -There's a lot of very you know, there's a lot of well-established 30-year olds, you know, you're no longer looking for who you are. Sort of you know, just a little bit more mature. Just a tiny bit. -It's good to be in the city on your 30's. -Yeah. Maybe not other cities you know. -Uh-hmm. -But this one is good. -Yeah. I think, yeah, I was seeing this yesterday before the show. We are talking about this but I think I'm much more well-suited to be in my 30's than I am in my 20's. You know, I'm sort of a [unk]. I don't drink. I'm not a big party guy, sort of a home buddy. Kind of makes sense for me to be in my 30's. Maybe not in New York. -You're already there. -Yeah. -Just on yourself 30. -Yeah. -Yeah, exactly. That's-- I think it's a wise idea. I-- yeah, I feel like I've always been of that mentality too, although now, I do get the-- oh, I didn't realize you were that old when I seem like I might be younger. -Yeah. -That' a horrible face to be in. So, don't get there. -Okay. -Stay your age. -Yeah. -You'll never get old. -Forever 30. -Just freeze. -I think it's good because now I'm turning 30 but I'm not in my 30's. I think that starts when you're like 32, 33, you're officially into your 30's. -Uh-hmm. -Well, it's like year. It's like we're in 2014. That's like deep into the 21st century. -Right, right. -Something like, oh wow, this is not-- I feel like it was the other day and we were just like, you know, we're not really in the 21st century. -Uh-hmm. -Now it's like thigh deep in the 21st century. -So, that's how you, you know, you're just beginning. -Yeah. -But there will be a time when you are definitely deep in the 30's, -Uh-hmm. -like I got married when I was 34. -Okay. -I was in a 34 or 35 period. When we get there, that's 36 is going to be a tough one though. -Then it's time to worry. -Yeah. -Yeah, I'll tell you the whole story of your decade. -Yeah. I wanna hear it. What do I have to look forward to? -This coming year. -It's good. Is it like going to be an exploratory year or is it all downhill from there? -No. I actually think the first five years of your 30's are great but once you hit like 35, 36, you do hit the point where you go, "I'm in the last five years of my 30's." -Oh. -And that's the part that becomes like kind of a bit of a sad parade but then you-- you can't be whatever you wanna be. -Yeah. And you're also going to see that New York is sort of a vacuum when it comes to age too. It's like Never Land here and no one cares. -Nobody. You age but nobody cares. -Yeah. -Well, also like, I mean, I feel like with life extension, like you might be at the point where like you're going to live to like 300 years old. -Oh, right. -Maybe you're hitting that cutoff point. Someone at some decade is getting that cutoff point. -Yeah. -It won't be me. -There's going to be a hyperbaric chamber or some kind suspended animation-- -Yeah. Isn't that exciting? That could be you. -For a long time. -Yeah. I also feel like psychologically I am perpetually 25 or 26 years old. Do you have an age, both of you guys that are sort of, are you like living in that one specific year? Because I always feel like that. Like, oh, 25 was a great year. I'm going to be that forever. -I think 28. -Twenty-eight was a good one for you? -Yeah. -Yeah. I'm permanently 28. -What about you? -I think as far as like maturity level, I'm always 6 years younger than my actual age. -Okay. -That's the way I've always calculated it. My wife is 6 years younger. I hang out with a bunch of people 6 years younger. -Uh-hmm. -Do the same thing. That's weird. -Six is better than ten years younger than you actually are. -Yeah. -You don't act like a 20-year-old. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -We have [unk] trap of time at our age because I realize that no matter what age you talk about, nobody likes to hear about this my theory because-- -Yeah. -if you talk about-- I listen to people who were younger. -Uh-huh. -Like in our company too. I've been at bars. You will talk about how they're so old and it's like nauseating because they're really, really young. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Just like almost at a college. -Yeah. -Yeah. -There's always someone older that you that doesn't care what you're saying. -Right. -You know. -And there are people older than me whom maybe listening to this and going, "Stop it." -Yeah. Exactly. -Like you know, this is disgusting. You're having obnoxious conversation. -Right. -And then there are people who might be younger listening to me talk about being older who are like, "This person is older." -Yeah, exactly. -Like this is kind of a weird old person. -Yeah. -Uh-hmm. -And I think nobody likes to hear about distances in age. We don't want to think about death. -No. -Because one you turned 30, it doesn't matter if you're 30, 40 or 50. It's all basically the same age, right? I mean, -Yeah. -twenty is the bigger year or the bigger decade to celebrate. No one celebrates with 35, 36-year-old birthday. -Yeah. -I know people who do but it is not that common. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -It begins to become something you have to spearhead yourself. -Yeah. -Nobody is going to go out of their way to celebrate that birthday. -Yeah. -Those parties are pretty boring and then-- -Yeah. -And family members stop calling to go like, "How are we going to celebrate your birthday?" -Yeah. -They're sort of like, "Happy birthday." -Yeah, yeah. -We know it was today. -How do birthday parties change in your 30's? Do people just clean up a lot more after themselves? Is there like-- yeah, to clean up at the end of the day. It's done by 8. -Gets to sleep. -Yeah. -We-- yeah, we-- I mean the 30's started without me being married and the 30's now for me -Uh-huh. -are like I have two kids. -Yeah, yeah. -And I'm married. So, it was like a-- there's a lot of stuff that happened. -Uh-hmm. -Now, it's like, good, that was nice. We watched a little movie at home. -Yeah. -And the kids were asleep. -Uh-hmm. -And we gotta wake up early because we got a big day of laundry. -And Home Depot. -And Home Depot and stuff like that. So, yeah. I think putting kids to bed is a big thing. Everything else in life when you're married doesn't make a difference. -Yeah. -The same thing as before. -You know what's funny? My mom and my step-- dad, they're 59 and 60. They're going to hate me for saying that on the show, but every year for New Year's, they actually celebrate East Coast New Year's. They're in California. And so, they'd go to this bar that does this specifically for old people that want to be in bed by 10 o'clock. And so, they'll celebrate East Coast New Year at 9 o'clock. -Yeah. -That's hilarious. -And everybody will-- they'll actually turn on like a New York 1 Channel or something that's on the East Coast. -Okay. -And they'll celebrate at 9 and then everyone's back home in bed at 10. -Wow. -That's awesome. -That happened in 2014. -Geriatric New Year, whoa! Kiss each other good night. It's 2014. It's not 2014, it's 2013 when they're going to bed -Exactly. -in their minds. -Somewhere 2014. They should celebrate Australian New Year and they could really go early. -I celebrated New Year's in England now and that's five hours ahead of here but we don't wait for-- that's very selfish, like English New Year's is like English New Year's. -Uh-hmm. -It's not-- nobody waits 'til 5 AM and gets up and goes that's-- you know. -Yeah. I'm going to start celebrating Chinese New Year. Just do it two months earlier to get a jump on everybody. All right. So, that's enough of how old all of us are. -Time conversation. -Yeah, yeah. Let's go back in time, talk about CES a little bit more. -Yeah. -Because yesterday, we got to talk about wearable tech and now there's a big winner for this year's show. But also gaming with sort of a sleeper hit, which I thought was kind of interesting because Jeff normally has nothing to do at CES. This year, he was running around into a bunch of different meetings. I barely got to see him aside from 404 episodes. What do you think was the biggest story from gaming at CES? -Yeah, there's a lot of stuff and I think it was all probably much more interesting to average person than any of the wearable tech. -Uh-hmm. -Because that stuff is all, you know, evolutionary. I think PlayStation Now. -Yeah. -Because I definitely think PlayStation Now. We already knew that these consoles that came out last year, we're going to be evolving. -Uh-hmm. -Different ways. Xbox One there's a whole bunch of features that haven't come out yet. PlayStation 4 has this streaming powered by this company Gaikai that we-- that they said that they're going to be able to stream games. But all of a sudden at CES, they really outlined the name of it and they had the games they're to play. -Uh-hmm. -And they talked about what is going to be available on. And it's cool. I mean, we've seen this before because there is even a company called OnLive, -Uh-hmm. -that did this and stopped, but you could play PC games streaming. -Right. -Basically, I mean, you know, doing what Netflix does for movies we'll do with games and in the demos that we saw at CES, very little lag. -Uh-hmm. -But everything is a little bit softer. It's not-- I mean, it's depending on your bandwidth. You have to have some pretty good bandwidth to do it. Not crazily good but better than not good. You know, I think 5 megabits, you know, and that's-- and it works on the PS3, the Vita, the PS4, 2014 Bravia televisions. -Uh-hmm. -And they wanna expand other things too and it may cover TV and games and so a whole bunch of things. -Uh-hmm. -That will make it a little more and work with PlayStation 3 games that the PS4 can't play. -Yes. So, do you think that-- I mean, yourself and other gaming journalists, I can't believe that I'm actually having a gaming discussion with you right now without Jeff next to me. -That's okay. -It's great. -Yeah, I love this. This is sort of like a Reddit's Explain it Like I'm Five segment. -Yeah. -But you know, for PlayStation now, do you think people were surprised that that came out? Especially because a lot of people were so upset that there was no backward compatibility once PlayStation 4 was announced. You know, based on all those technologies, was it a big surprise for you? And it would offer sort of that back catalog. -Now, I'm starting to miss Jeff Bakalar, because you said that and I started thinking like, man, I wish Jeff was sitting right here. -Yeah. -Everyone's probably saying, why are these guys talking-- -Well, you're a gamer, right? -I know but Jeff, you know, you know, I'm not going to speak on behalf of Jeff. I think I'm disappointed that the PS4 and the Xbox One are not backwards compatible. -Uh-hmm. -I think this helps but it doesn't answer for it and I still feel like until I can play you know, you're buying these new consoles and particularly PlayStation are great games that came out last year. -Right. -And Last of Us was one of the best games that out the entire year and there were number of other games. The "Beyond: Two Souls" is interesting. And then you have the games like Grand Theft Auto V. And you want to just play with them. -Uh-hmm. -You want to have-- you play them on the PlayStation 4. The problem with the streaming is that, you know, these games will probably look the worse, -Uh-hmm. -Than they would on a PlayStation 3 because they're streaming and you would expect that you play these games on a new console they look better. -Right. -So, I just feel eventually we'll get over that like I'm sure that you'll get PS4 or 5 editions of some of those great games. -Uh-hmm. -You know, they'll re-master them and release them and a year or two you won't be having this problem but I think it will help-- I'm just concerned about what happens during those times when your broadband is not working well. -Right. -You know, I have these times when Netflix fuzzes out at night. You know, -Yeah. -and I'm like, why is Breaking Bad looking all fuzzy and-- -Or you'll go down to the next lowest resolution. That's terrible. -Right. -Yeah, it pull-- it drops back a little. -Yeah. -And so, you know, that's annoying with a TV show. That's going to be really annoying in a game. -Uh-hmm. -That's going to be a point where you turn it off I think and say, I can't play this game anymore. -Uh-hmm. -That's going to suck. So, hopefully it doesn't have that happen but I can't help but think about that. I like the idea of the streaming. I just-- we haven't seen it in a big console or any sort of big effort like that. -Uh-hmm. -So, we don't know what's going to happen. -I'm also curious to know about the pricing model too because they haven't announced how much that's going to cost or even how many games from the PS3 platform will be on PS4. -Yeah. -Today, I already say that PS2 and PS1 games won't be offered at all. Or is that still up in the air? -It's still up in the air. There hasn't been and you talked about that, just PlayStation 3. We gotta think that they're going to open it up to that. Although, you know, some of those PlayStation 1 games in particular you can buy through the-- through PS1 and things like that Vita. -Oh, right. -But that goes to like Nintendo. That's the point that we have Nintendo, Sony. All these companies have to come up with a way to get the back catalog games and make them all available. -Yeah. -Yes. -You know, I just want them to open it all up. But whatever all games you want, play them, it shouldn't be that hard, same thing with Nintendo. But PS3 only, for now, and just those systems and who knows how much it cost. -Yeah. -And we don't even know if it ties into the PlayStation Plus but there'll probably a whole separate subscription. -Uh-hmm. -It can't be the same because the PlayStation Plus is already a-- I think a really good deal. You're paying that money and you're getting free games and you're getting free games and you're getting it for all the platforms. So, if you're in the PlayStation, I don't think-- there's no way that you won't be paying more money for the service. -Right, right. Especially if you want to own the actual games too and maybe you want to try them out, do the subscription service and then buy the physical disc. -Yeah. -Get pricey. -Yeah, it can and I'm just wondering like, you know, what you will use it for. I think it will be good. It could be really great if they start opening up to things like tablets where you, you know, if you're able to sit down and hook up like maybe a PS3 controller and play in your iPad. -Uh-hmm. -Or play on a, you know, Android tablet. That will be great. You know, and then you could sort of play anywhere. -I wonder if they're going to see sales of the Vita starts spiking for people that want to play mobile games and they can play so many more now just by downloading them if they subscribe to the service. -I think so. I mean, I think the Vita is really underrated and I think that it's you know, it's going to help and they need to make more games for the Vita but the hardware has always been great. -Uh-hmm. -One thing I think you need to change maybe in the next version of the Vitas, it's like old game nerdy but they don't have this-- actually, technically the same number of buttons as a PlayStation controller. -No. It's different. -It doesn't have the dual back buttons. It just has hard shoulder buttons who doesn't have trigger buttons. So, I keep wondering when you're playing-- plus it doesn't have-- you can't click down on the analog sticks. So, I feel like that kind of matters. You're playing games like mad and rather complicated games, -Right. -that use some of those features. I wonder if they're going to have a better version of the Vita that would have like the entire button set. -Yeah. -Because [unk] you know, you have to remap things a little bit. -Uh-hmm. -But I think the Vita's you know, it's great that they're folding that stuff and they should have been doing that from the beginning. -I think now we're starting to see it all sort of come together so I'm kind of excited what the next year will hold for gamers. -Yeah. -Also for mobile gaming too, you mentioned in pre-show that there were some advancements in accessories for iOS gamers. -Yeah, finally. Well, we've waited since last year for this. Android gamers have controllers. -Uh-hmm. -And you know, that you can buy, a bunch of companies make them. And with iOS 7, there's the ability [unk] controllers. We saw controllers came out last year. Logitech has the PowerShell and there's also the Moga Ace Power. These plug into your iPhone. -Uh-hmm. -It has to be a lightning connector one. So, iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5th gen, and you know, adds button. So, there are a lot of games that use that but they're storing enough. But that should be using it. They're slowly rolling that out and then there was one that came out during CES. This SteelSeries Stratus. -Okay, yeah, you reviewed that for CNET. I think that review went up yesterday. -Yeah, and the final review is hitting today. -Okay. -And then-- but yeah, we have the video up and everything. So, it's a great little controller and it's actually much like an Android one that's already been out. -Uh-hmm. -But just works with Bluetoth with you know, take you iPad, prop it up, play games and it works like you would hope it would. And the Grand Theft Auto San Andres is probably the best one. -Uh-hmm. -It looks-- it's great using it. But there aren't enough games. There are some good games but it doesn't work with every single game that's out there. So hopefully, maybe E3, I feel like you're going to see a lot of game companies launching games for iOS and Android, now that here's full controller support. -Very cool. -Yeah and making like, you know, just announce these things all across the board and not create as much of like a mobile gap. -So, we're taking a look at the video that you shot for the SteelSeries Stratus right now. -Yeah. -This thing is a $100. -That's-- -You can buy a lot of iOS games for $100. -That's the other big problem. There's no way there should be 100 bucks. There should be like 40 bucks -Yeah. -maximum and you hold this thing up and you would be like, what? Why is that $100? And there's no god answer. But it's good. If somebody gave it to you as a stocking stuffer, -Uh-hmm. -in January, you'd say-- I forget that it's January. You would say cool. -Yeah. -That's fun. I don't regret having that but yeah, the price is too high and again, how do you find these games? Apple does not list where these controller supported games are -Uh-hmm. -on the app store. So, you have to go to like, well, we're going to have a slideshow up of some of the games that I've been using. I go to like other gaming sites. You have to haunt it down. -Uh-hmm. -It's a big pain in the ass and it shouldn't be that way. Hopefully, I think by the middle of this year, it will start getting better. -Uh-hmm. -Because you want every retro game to have this, right? I mean, there are ton of retro games on the app store. There's like our type, crazy old school shooters, -Uh-hmm. -Street Fighter, but they don't all support this yet. They all have to-- it's very easy. Once they support controllers, any of those controllers can work. -Uh-hmm. -So, it's interesting to see that they're finally slowly getting into that world whereas like, it took a long time for iOS to do this. -I also like seeing controllers that are external that you hook up by Bluetooth as oppose to the Logitech controller that sort of looks like a case for your iPhone, -Yeah. -but then has the controllers on the side, because you know, you don't always want to be holding a controller up to your face when you want him to take a phone call, right? -I know. -No, I do not. -It's nice to have it separated. -It's a lot better idea. Although I think, if you-- I could just-- people liking the case if you want to use your iPhone or iPad like a Nintendo, you know, DS, 3DS or Vita. -Uh-hmm. -But again, those are 100 bucks too and they're pretty big. -Yeah. -I think they have to make them a little more cleverly. So that they pack and fold away-- -Right, right. Make it modular. -Or do both. Like, why don't you have a case and then you fold up the case and it becomes a controller? -Oh, that'd be cool. -Yeah. Like that-- I'm waiting for that thing to come out. -Patent that idea, man. Speaking of really expensive gaming accessories, but this one might actually be worth it and you gotta walk through of the Oculus Rift, Crystal Cove Prototype that was at CES. And you are one of the lucky few because I really wanted to check it out but there's a long line of editors waiting to get that demo. -Yes. -But you got to see it. This is the second version I believe of the Oculus Rift. This is that VR headset that we've seen, you know, plenty of prototypes for over the years. But now, this is actually sort of up to par, right? It's 1080p this time around. -It is. Although it's-- yeah, so there are a lot of things have changed. Little things. -Uh-hmm. -And this is-- a lot of people thought this is the cool segment at the entire show. -Yeah. -I thought it was really great and it's clearly, you know, the way for the future here. This thing is extremely immersive. It's awesome. It even works with my glasses. -Yeah. -And it's a 1080p display but it's actually broken into two halves. I think it's 960 by 1080. -Uh-hmm. -So, actually what you're seeing is really that resolution. So, and plus because it's magnified, when you put it on your head, it looks more pixelated than like a big 1080p screen. -Huh, okay. -So, the first thing you think like, why is this-- how can this be 1080? And you know, Oculus, the founder and their whole team, they know that too. And so like, to get to what you think looks really great -Uh-hmm. -in an Oculus headset. They're looking at beyond 4K. Maybe being like 12K, 16-- this sounds crazy. There's nothing right now that can push that. -Uh-hmm. -But 4K will be an interesting goal. You can see it when you put it on because you're splitting it that like 4K would be a nice thing to get to. -Right. -But that's a tiny-- the screen they're using they say it's somewhere between a phone and a tablet. -Wow. -It's probably like you know, like this size or smaller. -Uh-hmm. -As you can see by the googles. So, to get 4K in that, but right now, even if it does look a little bit pixelated, it looks amazing. We played and they have improved the head tracking. -Uh-hmm. -Which, you know, it's almost using movie type technology. They have little LED dots all the way on the outside of the goggles and a camera. So, you have very advanced position tracking. -Uh-hmm. -So, you can tell-- it can tell how you're moving not just left or right or up and down. -Yeah, you're telling me you're leaning now. -Yeah, [unk] leaning so the two-- the first time that we have, we were sitting in this big-- like this type of table. -Yeah. -In a throne room. And there was this tower defense game with these old goblins and this is the coolest demo because I could lean down and poke my head around. -Yeah. -Look down like, "Oh, hey little guy." And then you could move over here and go here. You could look down and check out what's his lover doing and once you're looking at that in controlling this world over here, -Right. -Like in the real world, I could just turn around and now there's a whole other world over here. -Yeah. -And like, wow, you could have like-- -That's so cool. -multiple worlds. And the second one was a space dogfighting game called EVE: Valkyrie. -Uh-hmm. -Which is a great example of how you don't want to vomit anymore with this. They improved their-- the lag time. So, which is all like display tech nerdy. David Katzmaier and I were, you know, he was, you know, telling me a lot of the ins and outs on you know, why this is so interesting and what's going on. But it's really is about trying to prevent blur, motion blur. -So, when you move your head really quickly sometimes it will take maybe like a fraction of a second to catch up and that's where the nausea comes in. -It used to happen and yeah, and it would really impact you where you'd use it for a bit and go, "Oh, that's okay." -Yeah. -And then about a minute later you're like, "I want to throw up." -Give me the trash can. -Yeah, exactly. I'm going to put my lunch there. But this time, I played the space fighting game where it was like Star Wars. [unk] looking around, -Right. -and I deliberately tried to make myself nauseous. I spun around, barrel rolls, flipping and simultaneously turning my head and using home again to shoot missiles. -That's so cool. -So, it was incredible and when I finished all of that, they'll find. -So, you're using-- -With no blur. -You're using your head to sort of position the aiming system when you're shooting? -Yes, so that's crazy. You're holding an Xbox controller. -Right. -So, you're doing all the things that you can normally do in a fighting game. So, you're controlling a ship with one. You're maneuvering back and forth with the other and helping aim. -Uh-hmm. -But the same time I'm turning my head so I can actually choose to look at whatever I want to look at as that all that is going on. -Right. -So, you know, I could be looking over here off to the side and still controlling the ship, just like you would, like in the real world. -Wow. -I guess if you're doing it. So, it's crazy. It just feels like an extra dimension -Uh-hmm. -of it. and you're like-- if you're following the ship that's like spinning around you, it's incredible. -Is it heavy? I'm looking-- this photo is the best by the way. I can't wait 'til like a bunch of these types of series photos. And so, with people using the Oculus Rift but have no idea they're getting their photos taken, here you are sort of looking up at something in the sky. Your mouth's gape, it's great. But that might be how I'm buried. That will be like my final-- -With the Oculus Rift on. -Yeah, my tombstone and orgasmic bliss of Oculus Rift on me. -Is it heavy though? Is it-- does it making your head sort of snap back a little bit? -No. -Do you notice that after a while or is it just completely immersive? -Compared to other glasses gear that I've worn, you know, and there are a bit of bunch of them, -Yeah. -it's pretty good. But really is because it's very light weight and it's like putting a big pair of opaque ski goggles on. -Oh, I got you. -You're strapping these, I mean, they really are tight. So, when I put my glasses on, I felt fine with my glasses but it was like Preston. -Right. -And they even say it's not meant for glasses but it worked fine. -Uh-hmm. And this looks pretty elegant compared to some of the other headset displays that we've seen. You and Bridget did a video podcast from-- -They did. -at CES and I don't remember what the name of it was but there was one white device and it sort of made you look like-- -The Avegant Glyph. -Yeah, the Avegant Glyph. It was crazy. -Yeah. -It was this giant display that-- it looked like Bridget's head was about to snap off, -Yeah. -because it was so heavy. -Well, it was like old school like a '90s Cyberpunk VR. Like it's-- they're like headphones that slide down and become-- -Yeah. -It's like Johnny Mnemonic. -Yeah, it is. Those are cool but they need to-- they said they're going to reduce the size of that. -Uh-hmm. -The difference there is that the display technology is pretty different. -Right. -They're using like a-- they were literally projecting it onto your retina with this DLP technology. -Uh-hmm. -It's very weird. So, that's a little different and yeah, that rested a lot heavier on my nose like uncomfortably. Oculus though, they're really like strapping that on tight, so you can't see around. -Uh-huh. -And just you know, I think if I wear that for half an hour, I'd have rings. -Right. But you can't watch TV on the Oculus Rift, right? Is it just for gaming? -I mean, you could. Right now it's really just for gaming. They're not-- yeah, they're not displaying anything that's a true like regular display. Everything patches in right now to like VR equipped software in games. -Right. -That are made to take advantage of it, because yeah, I think the Avegant Glyph was really just taking us like a 720p display. -Uh-hmm. -And so, it could do 3D but it really-- you just watch like a movie. -Right. -And it just looks like a little movie and a little movie screen in your eyes but this is like kind of all around you when you look at-- -I'll try that. The last question is, of course, when are you going to buy this thing? Because if you're a developer you could have purchased, -Yeah. -you know, like all the versions of it but for the averaged consumer, when is this thing going to be available to market? Because it doesn't seem like that we have a date for that yet either. -No and hopefully it will be some more news on that this year. -Yeah. -It's unclear. I respected they're ready to sort of come out with different versions of it before they're, you know, you're going to put it to market. -Yeah. -I want them to, you know, finally put out something that they're happy with before they're officially done. -I mean, if you're really hungry to get it, I think you can always get a devkit. -Yeah. -So, you could always get something people who have done that and play it around with them. -That's really typically an expensive too. Was that like-- -It's 300 bucks-- -Three hundred bucks for the first one, yeah. I mean it's very affordable. The you know, the problem here I could see is that first of all, they want the resolution to get better. -Uh-hmm. -There's an idea that this could eventually be something you could carry with you, like connects to your phone. -Oh, awesome. -Or something. -That's cool. -But then you have to have a phone that's powerful enough to like push the type of 3D graphics that you need on this. -Yeah. -Which I feel like is quite there yet. And then you know, the position tracking, because right now, that new position tracking needs a camera. -Oh, right. -That's like a little webcam. It's like a little connect-- you know, it's like sitting next to the TV. -Uh-hmm. -So, you have to have that unless it lets you hang a boom with the camera off your head. -Right. -Like cracks. What you doing? -Right, right. Just dangling from a stick in front of your head as you're playing it. -Yes. -That sounds depressing. -Yeah. -So, they promised that the final version, -Uh-huh. -will have at least that quality were better. I would think that there's going to be an attempt to-- well, if it goes mobile. But I think before it goes mobile, you're going to have to think about this in a living room. -Yeah. -And then maybe hopefully you have you know, if you're doing in a console, then all those have cameras anyhow. -Yeah. -So, hopefully that would be, you know, taken care of. -I think the compelling part of this story too is that other people or companies are using Oculus Rift for their own uses. Like I read a story about how NASA actually purchased one of the original devkits of the Oculus Rift to give people a 360-degree panoramic view of Mars, using those shots from the curiosity rover. -Wow. -So cool. That and then I think on 404 we actually talked about Tenga, which is-- this is the best way I can put it, a male massager product. And they've paired that up with some adult movies to short of give you a more realistic experience with that product. So, it's sort of on both sides. The high and the low brows. -Yeah. -It's perfect cannon fodder for The 404. -It is and you're going to see a lot more. You've already seen it everywhere. Ton of-- yeah, a ton of small companies, -Yeah. -and museum type uses and you know, it's shame AVN doesn't happen in the same time with CES now [unk] with those guys. I'm sure those guys-- -It's cross-helping tons of Oculus Rift. -Yeah. It's all happening. They're rubbing their hands together. -Yeah. -Or other things. So, that's Oculus Rift. It's called Crystal Cove, right? If you're a developer, can you buy that now? -No. I don't think you can. So, that's coming-- it's just basically showing the latest working prototype -Got you. -of it. So, yeah, called-- and this one just code named Crystal Cove Prototype. -Uh-hmm. -And that's like the latest-- you know, I don't know actually, if you can get it right now. I have to check. But you know, that's just-- that's the current phase they're at. You get in through a lot of phases for this, -Uh-hmm. -as they keep trying to improve and also get to the game developers on board. -Uh-hmm. -Because now you see a lot of game developers that are now creating the stuff for Oculus. -Uh-hmm. -I mean, like the EVE: Valkyrie game and you're also looking at you know, everything with like, you know, John Carmack and that's-- that takes time. So, I think that you probably will see like a simultaneous effort. -Yeah. -They'll probably start working. I bet the next time you see Oculus Rift, they'll be showing some sort of really amazing game that will be even more about how the experience is incredible, as well as the headset. Do you know what I mean? -Yeah. -So, it's like it's all going to become part of that experience because the games that I saw this time, -Yeah. -were so much more amazing that what we saw last year at CES. -Uh-hmm. -Because you know, last year, you were looking at basically walking through a town. And it was cool that you're walking to the town. There was nothing to do there. -Right. -Whereas now, I was like playing like a space game. -Right. -I was playing a space warfare game and a tower defense game. It's just you know, it was like a light year head, -Yeah. -after what had happened in one year. -I'm excited. I can't wait. I'm tired of this world. I want to go to a different world. -You wanna strap in. -Yeah. -Well, we also need like-- what was it? On the first day of the show they have these you know, connected-- I didn't play with it but there was a you know, a connected sort of motion gear that was made to work with Oculus. -Uh-hmm. -Which like even the Oculus team didn't seem to know-- -Oh, I saw that. It was like an Exoskeleton that you could strap into. -Yeah. You look like you're out of you know, lyceum or something. -Right. -And you got this like metal arm spider bandages. -Right. -I'm sure there's going to be a ton of stuff like that. -Yeah. -Yeah, especially in the adult industry. -Uh-hmm. -I can imagine. -This is where I become interested in the Oculus Rift. -Really? Tell me more. -We will see. I'm excited for that road map. In terms of this road map though, I think we're coming to a close. Gotta end the show a little bit early today but-- -We didn't even talk about Razer but that's for another time. -We didn't. Go and check that out online. Yeah, we should have you in next so we can talk about that. -Yeah. That's just to build your own PC idea, like you know-- -It's awesome. -Just plug in various parts, mineral oil, cool. That was crazy. -Uh-hmm. Yes. -That's a-- that was like a small part of a huge gaming show. Just shows how many things they work. -Yeah, that was really cool. So, you're going to be going to E3 again this year with Jeff I assume? -That's the plan. -Okay. Maybe we'll hear more about it then. -Yeah, I think there'll be a lot of cool tech there. We'll be looking all the stuff and next-gen consoles. They've gotta come up with the games now. -Yeah. I'm excited. Maybe you can give me a demo of the Oculus Rift if we ever get that in-house. -We need to get that in-house. -Yeah. We don't have that. -I don't know. We just never set it up but I feel like we need to do that and then we need to start making our own virtual world. -Yeah. I'll see you in there. -Yeah. -All right, guys. That's gonna do it for us today. You've been sending us a lot of voicemails and e-mails. We'll get to those all next week I promise but keep sending them in over the weekend. The e-mail address is the404@cnet.com. You can always leave us a voicemail as well, it's 1-866-404-CNET or you can tweet us @the404, that's our handle. All that stuff, get in touch and say what's up. For us though, that's gonna do it for today. Again, we won't be here tomorrow. No show Friday, no show Monday or Tuesday and we will be back on Wednesday with Jeff. So, thanks for tuning in. I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Scott Stein. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -We will see you guys next week. It's The 404. High tech, low brow. Thanks for watching.

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