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.

Comments

Re:SCO got screwed

[Applehu Akbar]

In other news, perhaps we were too hasty in condemning Pol Pot. He was only trying to make Pnom Penh a sustainable city.

Looks good, but no 4K?

[naasking]

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.

Zen this.

[Narcocide]

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.

Does it comes with a glasshole?

[fubarrr]

>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?

Re:Does it comes with a glasshole?

[mrchaotica]

I suspect not. Google Glass was about contextual computing and (to some extent) computer vision, but not AR or VR.

Water cooled smartphone

[fubarrr]

>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

Tango mapping?

[Rei]

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.... ;)