PlayStation Home Enters Open BETA

At last! Sony's eagerly awaited virtual world for the PlayStation 3 finally enters into Open BETA today. PlayStation Home allows you to create your own personalized avatar and interact with other PS3 users in online environments. The concept of a virtual meeting space for PlayStation owners has been in development for several years. PlayStation Home was officially announced at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, initially scheduled for release in October 2007. Home has been delayed, twice, while the virtual world has been refined and vastly expanded... Now, more than a year later than originally planned, PlayStation Home is available for free download via the PlayStation Network...

Official PlayStation Home site

Vuzix VR920 Software Update v2.3

Winner of the 2007 CES Innovation Award, the VR920 is the world’s first consumer Virtual Reality glasses with built-in head-tracking and 3D video technology. The latest software update v2.3 for the Virtual Reality headset delivers an improved user interface and 64-bit support for XP and Vista. The list of supported games is also further expanded (new titles include: Age of Conan, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Madden NFL 2008, etc.) and there's now native support for 3D and head-tracking controls in the virtual world of Second Life

Related News: Virtual Reality Headset for PC

PlayStation Home - Asia site online

New details of Sony's virtual world community for the PlayStation 3 Console have been added to the official PlayStation Asia site: includes screenshots and information about Avatars, Communication, your personal Home Space apartment, the Game Space, Home Theatre, and the heart of PlayStation Home: Home Square. Hopefully this means the delayed public BETA is getting nearer...

Home at PlayStation Asia (English)

Avatars Arrive on XBOX 360 Console

E3 2008: Microsoft's Press Conference today showcased an incoming update to the Microsoft XBOX 360 Console user interface. This "New Xbox Experience" gives you a cartoon avatar, which you can customize. (Looks similar to the Nintendo Wii's Mii avatar, but higher-definition!) Xbox LIVE Avatars can meet and chat at LIVE Parties, and compete against each other on a new LIVE Primetime channel featuring multiplayer Game Shows

PlayStation Home stays in BETA

Sony announced today that the BETA testing of its Virtual World community for the PlayStation 3 will continue through Summer 2008... Revealed at GDC 2007, the public BETA for up to 15,000 users was planned to start in the following months, with the free service due to launch on the Sony PlayStation Network in October 2007... Still in an invite-only closed BETA, the launch was then pushed back from October to "Spring 2008"... Kazuo Hirai, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment: "...we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience..." The Open BETA of Home is now scheduled to commence "Fall 2008"

Official PlayStation Home details

New Features in Google Earth 4.3

Today, an updated version of Google Earth was released. New features in Version 4.3 include an option to display the Sun and see shadows move across the landscape. There are many new photo-realistic 3D buildings in major cities. And, imported from Google Maps, Street View's 360° panoramic photographs have now been integrated...

Guide to Google Earth Version 4.3

Google Earth's Flight Simulator

With the release of last August's Google Earth 4.2, a Flight Simulator mode was hidden in the Virtual Earth application, activated by pressing a "secret" combination of keys. With the latest Version 4.3 of Google's Earth, the Flight Simulator mode is now automatically available under the Tools menu. Fly a Cirrus SR-22 aircraft or the F-16 Fighting Falcon

Guide to Google Earth Flight Simulator

Vuzix VR920 Software Upgrade v2.0

Vuzix launched its Virtual Reality technology for PCs and Apple Macs last September. Today, Vuzix releases a major software upgrade for their iWear VR920 Virtual Reality headset: with Windows Vista compatibility, improved motion-tracking support, enhanced 3D video quality, and expanded support for Vuzix 3D Stereoscopic video drivers. The new VR920 v2.0 software now offers 3D video support for 40 games and simulations using virtually any make of graphics card (previously limited to titles supporting Nvidia 3D Stereo on computers with Nvidia graphics cards). Supported titles include: Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Half-Life 2, Quake 4, etc.

Related News: Virtual Reality Headset for PC

Sony PlayStation Home Delayed

At the Tokyo Game Show today, Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Executive, Kazuo Hirai, had some bad news for PlayStation 3 Console owners regarding the console's highly-anticipated virtual world community. Still in a invite-only closed BETA, PlayStation Home has had its launch pushed back from October to "Spring 2008". Hirai explained the delay: "We aim to launch this as something that can meet expectations of people all over the world..."

Related News: PlayStation 3's Virtual World

Virtual Reality Headset for PC

The Vuzix Corporation finally launches its PC and Mac compatible Virtual Reality technology today.

Winner of the 2007 CES Innovations Award, the VR920 headset creates the illusion of viewing a 62-inch screen from 9 feet away via two LCD screens. Designed with computer games, simulations and virtual worlds in mind, this immersive Virtual Reality system also features built-in stereo earphones, a microphone, and head-tracking motion-sensors

Related News: Virtual Reality Gaming Glasses

Icuiti Changes Name to Vuzix

The leading innovator in Video Eyewear technology, Icuiti Corporation, has announced today that it has officially changed its name to Vuzix Corporation.

Since 1997, Icuiti Corporation has developed head-mounted video displays for the U.S. Military, medical professionals, and the video gaming community. Their iWear range of virtual theater headsets are available worldwide. Vuzix iWear AV headsets are compatible with DVD players, game consoles, iPods and iPhones, camcorders, portable media players, and almost any other device with video output...

At the Game Developers Conference 2007, Icuiti revealed the latest addition to their iWear range: a Virtual Reality headset designed for use with PCs, which includes a built-in microphone and motion-tracking. See: Virtual Reality Gaming Glasses

Google Earth 4.2 with Google Sky

Google Sky is a new feature in the just released 4.2 version of Google Earth. Google Sky allows Google Earth users to explore the universe and zoom in on galaxies and stars. In partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute, Google Sky provides many images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, from the Crab Nebula supernova remnant to the first galaxies forming in the depths of space...

Video: Explore the Sky with Google Earth

Shadowrun for Vista & XBOX 360

PC and console gaming changes forever today with the release of Shadowrun, an online cross-platform multiplayer game. Up to sixteen players can take part together in this sci-fi / fantasy "first-person shooter". PC gamers with Windows Vista can now interact & enter into combat with XBOX 360 players within Shadowrun's dangerous virtual world...

Home - PlayStation 3's Virtual World

Sony just posted a video preview of PlayStation Home, a new service recently announced at the Game Developers Conference. PlayStation Home is a virtual reality / online community for PlayStation 3 Console owners: where you can design your own avatar & living-space, then explore the rest of the virtual world & interact with other PS3 users. Home will be open for a public BETA soon (up to 15,000 users), and is due to go live on the PlayStation Network as a free service in October 2007

Official PlayStation Home BETA Site

Virtual Reality Gaming Glasses

At the Game Developers Conference 2007 in San Francisco, PC World have previewed Icuiti's iWear VR920: a Virtual Reality headset for PCs. These new light-weight Virtual Reality glasses have twin hi-res LCD screens, earphones, a microphone, and head-tracking motion-sensors all built-in the headset.

Plug them into the video output and USB port of a computer, and you will be able to immerse yourself in games and online virtual worlds: includes 3D and motion-tracking support for World of Warcraft, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Second Life, etc.

Video: Virtual Reality Gaming Glasses