Lost my Oculus: Finding VR with Tile
2016 will undoubtedly be the year where VR starts to take off. While VR handsets have been around forever, the quality and price point of these new headsets and a content marketplace has allowed for it to finally be mainstream. Personally, the Tile team is looking forward to watching 360 degree movies, new games, and people getting lost in experiences never possible in reality.
That’s where Tile comes in. One of the wonderful things about this VR ecosystem is that they all work off of a smartphone. Whether you are using google cardboard and an iPhone, or the new Samsung Gear 2, you can install the Life360 app on the phone you use for VR experiences. While, this seems quite simple, it’s an easy way to keep track of your Oculus headset / phone. And it absolutely free with our Find your Phone feature. While it will not work while you are in a VR experience as to not interrupt the UX, it will work the moments before & after you have it in the headset. So, tell your friends to download the Life360 app so they can keep track of their headset! They literally have nothing to lose except for their “gear” of course.
If you want to keep track of your headset hardware, you can also attach a physical Tile to your headset & keep track of that too! It’s not about the cost of the device itself, it’s about the value of that portal that unlocks new worlds.
And if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, we highly encourage it. VR is different, but if you allow some suspension of disbelief and some flexibility on your high resolution standards, it’s still very memorable. We are not sure it will replace tourism, or movie watching all together, but it’s a step towards something new. And we applaud innovation and people willing to try something new. As with all new technologies, this will fragment the market and allow for new form factors to thrive in content, rather than replacing a legacy concept of filmmaking. 360 degree cameras, and new games will be an option for artists going forward. And as we have learned with all new content platforms, the hardware is just the 1st step towards something bigger with the only limitations being our imagination. And perhaps, Tile can help people choose when they want to get lost in something new.