The release of Google Cardboard last year gave a lot of us an early taste of the "nearly here" world of virtual reality. But early content offerings were, to be blunt, pretty underwhelming.
To be fair, Google Cardboard (GC) was only ever meant for developers and was not released as a consumer product. That hasn’t stopped developers, and manufacturers, from getting on board early and producing and distributing content. And for those who gave up on the scant early offerings, or haven't tried it yet, the news is good. VR content suitable for GC has expanded, and there is now some content genuinely worthy of downloading. The headsets have improved too. No longer are you stuck with just a cardboard option that you need to hold to your face.
Even more, Google announced in early November that not only can you use your headset and phone to view specific VR content, but by using the new theatre mode, you can watch YouTube content in your virtual theatre. Exciting times indeed!
Elsewhere, though, wading through available GC content can be a bit hit and miss. So we’ve done the hard yards to pick out some of our favorite – free – VR experiences for GC. Because it’s an early development platform, it’s hard to recommend shelling out your hard earned cash for these kind of apps, but the freebies can be fun.
None of these are likely to be a patch on what some of the emerging headsets are offering (Oculus Rift, Samsung, Sony, HTC, Microsoft etc.), but they're free, available now and accessible to a pretty broad spectrum of smart phone owners. They’re also mostly demos or teasers with the promise of more to come, but many work on multiple VR platforms, including GC. So let’s get started.
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