Get the details on all of today’s stories right here. The Oculus Rift will go on sale at the beginning of 2016, the fight over whether or not to renew section 215 of the Patriot Act heats up and the Samsung sources camera components for the Galaxy S6 from a variety of sources. Head past the break for more info on these stories and more in today’s Daily Roundup.
Oculus Rift goes mainstream early 2016
Quarter one 2016. It’s the answer to a question we’ve asked basically every time we’ve spoken with Oculus VR since 2012: “When does the consumer version of the Rift come out?” Aside from that revelation, we’re also getting our first look at the final design of the headset, but that’s it! No word on price or launch games, experiences or Facebook apps, either. Come to think of it, “no” probably fits as an answer to any other question you might have at this point. Oculus teased that it’ll have more to share soon, specifically hinting at June’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), but for now we’ll just have to make do with these morsels.
Racing to June 1: The fight to control the Patriot Act
If Defcon is the cultural Comic-Con of security conferences, then RSA is more like the business-focused Game Developers Conference (GDC), though largely packed with government-corporate attendees. At the midpoint of a long day during last month’s RSA San Francisco 2015, the largest security conference in the United States (with a record-breaking 33,000 in attendance), Congressman Mike Rogers took the stage to debate in favor of renewing the Patriot Act’s Section 215.
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 uses ‘several’ different camera sensors
When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S6, you might have noticed that the company stopped touting its in-house ISOCELL camera tech. Was it relying on someone else’s sensor instead? As it turns out, the answer is yes… sort of. The Korean firm has confirmed owners’ discoveries that the rear sensor is alternately made by Samsung or Sony. There are “several different vendors” making S6 cameras, a spokesperson says, although there’s no mention of how Samsung distributes those components.
Google’s cellular service makes you ditch key Voice features
Are you a long-time Google Voice user? You might not want to sign up for Google’s Project Fi service, then. Early adopters who’ve received an invitation report that you’re required to give up important Voice features, including calls, texting and voicemail from within Google Talk, Google Voice and Obihai devices. You’ll still get texts and voicemails in Hangouts (if you turned on support) as well as call forwarding and voicemail transcripts, but you’ll otherwise end up with a pale shadow of the phone services you knew before.
Hugo Barra on why Xiaomi is against microSD cards in phones
If you were to compare iOS and Android, the latter’s storage expansion option via microSD – up to a whopping 200GB these days – is often regarded as an advantage, though not all devices come with such offer. For instance, while HTC and LG have made the microSD slot a standard feature on their recent flagship devices, Samsung oddly decided to remove it from its Galaxy S6 series (ironically, the company has just announced new microSD cards). Xiaomi, on the other hand, seems to be on the fence: its flagship line has long ditched the microSD slot after its first-gen device, yet its affordable Redmi line uses said feature as a selling point.
The first self-driving big rig licensed to operate in the US
A Daimler-built autonomous truck can now legally operate on the highways of Nevada. Gov. Brian Sandoval has officially granted the “Freightliner Inspiration Truck” a license for road use in the state, making it the first of its kind to navigate public roads in the US. The Inspiration’s “Highway Pilot system” is loaded with cameras, radars, other sensors and computer hardware like most autonomous vehicles. However, it’s not completely self-driving – it still needs a human driver behind the wheel.
The clone that won’t disappear: ‘Threes’ vs. ‘2048’ on Google Play
Google removed the quirky puzzle game Threes from the Play store on Tuesday. Its removal was unceremonious and sudden, but that’s not exactly why Threes creator Asher Vollmer found the situation frustrating. That came down to two reasons: A robot informed Vollmer that his game was removed from Google Play in a cold, automated message and Threes was removed from Google Play because it used “2048” as a keyword – and 2048 is a blatant, known clone of Threes.
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