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Asus Unveils ZenFone AR With Google's Daydream and Tango Support, Coming In Q2 (venturebeat.com)
Krystalo quotes a report from VentureBeat: Probably the most-leaked device at CES 2017 so far has been the Asus ZenFone AR, through no fault of the Taiwanese company. Partner Qualcomm revealed much of the details in a blog post touting the use of its Snapdragon 821 chipset, and infamous leaker Evan Blass (evleaks) added front and back press renders of the phone. The key part that was missing was a release timeframe, which we now have: Q2 2017. The ZenFone AR stands out as the first smartphone that will support both of Google's Daydream and Tango platforms, and is only the second to support the latter (Lenovo's Phab 2 Pro was the first). Daydream is a virtual reality (VR) platform built into Android 7.0 Nougat and above. Tango is an augmented reality (AR) platform that detects users' positions relative to places and objects around them without using GPS or other external signals.
Let's be honest, it's an open secret that the Linux kernel contains large sections of copyrighted code from SCO UNIX. For those familiar with both collections of source code, it was generally assumed that SCO would win their lawsuit, and simply a question of what the fallout would be. Although dismissed out of hand by IBM and members of the open source community who were constantly moving the goalposts, SCO did provide a comprehensive list of source files and line numbers in Linux that matched portions of SCO UNIX. The fact is, SCO's claims of copyright violations by Linux developers and users were valid, factual, and completely legal. To this day, the Linux kernel contains large sections of copyrighted code that came straight from SCO UNIX. The open source community generally is vocal in favoring the "little guy" against large corporations like Microsoft and Google, whose motives and actions are frequently called into question. It's bemoaned that the so-called little guy is unlikely to stand a chance against the massive and well-funded legal teams retained by large corporations. This is for good reason, that everyone should be entitled to the same rights, regardless of their ability to afford top notch legal teams. SCO was the little guy compared to IBM, a small company with limited resources simply trying to ensure their copyrights were protected. IBM squashed them like a bug, not because the lawsuit was invalid. In fact, SCO's claims of copyright infringement are generally accepted as mostly correct. Rather, IBM had the legal resources to draw out legal battles and win a war of attrition against SCO, no matter the validity of the claims. If the open source community truly cares about ensuring the little guy has the same rights as large corporations, they should have been supporting SCO against a behemoth like IBM. To this day, I fail to understand the hypocrisy in supporting the little guy against giants like Apple and Microsoft, but rooting for another giant, IBM, to decimate SCO.
Does it have a headphone jack?
can it make phone calls?
New to Android... what U.S. carriers can the Zenfone work on? T-Mobile and AT&T?
Looks like decent specs, and ASUS phones are always reasonably priced. I'm surprised they didn't go full 4K resolution on the screen though, given it's supposed to be an "augmented reality" device.
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
Had a ZenFone. Had really nice hardware but it was waaaaaaaaaaay too bloated. It was showing ads in the pull down menu and all kinds of other nonsense.
I would buy the hardware again if (and only if) there was an open source, strip down Android OS.
AMD releases a new line of high-end CPUs called "Zen." ASUS releases multiple new product lines all called "Zen[Something]," relying on various Intel and Qualcomm CPUs. Seriously, fuck you guys.
>Asus states the phone “was developed in close cooperation with Google to deliver the best user experience” using both AR and VR technologies.
Will it come with a glasshole?
>The ZenFone AR also has a vapor cooling system to prevent overheating, a common issue when powering AR and VR experiences.
Vapourware needs vapour cooling
I don't see a link to make money from fakenews.
AR is neat, but I'd really love to use the 3d scanning technique as... well, a 3d scanner, to be able to use my phone to to create 3d models of my environment that I can subsequently load into Blender and the like. Does Tango support this, or is the 3d data only available internally? And when it comes to AR, the ability to insert my own models into the environment would be key to me, not just whatever Google or some app developer happened to think of. For example, if I design a greenhouse, I'd like to be able to put that on my phone tied to GPS coordinates to that I could walk around outside/inside it as if it were already built; that would be amazing for getting a sense of it.
So dang much potential for what can come when you have 3d environment mapping embedded in phones. Imagine what photo/video sharing transforms into when it becomes 3d environment sharing and they're seamlessly merged into each other. You map the world as it really is/was, rather than just pictures of it.
Hmm... I really should check to see if my company's phone budget will provide me a new phone this year.... ;)
For the love of Crom, am I the only one here who wants to keep the U.S. technologically competitive?
Hi BeauHD,
Thanks for giving brief descriptions of Daydream and Tango. I had no idea what they were, and their names are totally nondescript.
Thanks again!