The site is expected the be launched officially by mid/ultimo May 2018 – the current 4 articles are only small examples for testing design and website functionality.
A little background from the founder and current solo editor & article contributor @ betrVR.com: Born in 1972 (long before any VR headset was developed) – have been interested in digital technology, entertainment & art since the late 1970s when I was introduced to the Swedish home computer ABC 80 – later in the 1980s it was the Commodore 64 which fascinated (still love the chiptunes from this classic, they recall good memories and still have my favorites…) – and finally in the 1990s the magical Commodore Amiga with an extremely capable and stunning multitasking OS – and at that time also state-of-the-art graphics and audio – it totally sat the standard for what could be dreamed of in the future, but we had to wait a few decades before the first generation of consumer VR was ready for prime time…
I’m an early Virtual Reality adopter and technology enthusiast so decided to launch a complete website dedicated to VR. With this site I hope to guide VR users and enthusiasts like myself through the jungle of VR with focus on great virtual reality experiences and as good immersion as possible; the last factor can’t be fully achieved yet – but there are quite a few things which can be added to trick the brain into immersion and generally give more complex and more comprehensive VR experiences, this include audio and tactile feedback via bass shakers etc. – which in fact is part of the background for this site – it seems that not many yet are aware of these possibilities and how much impact they can have on good and convincing immersion; expect more articles about this! Finally, the site will from time to time also focus on similar great technology, including well-thought-out design which can improve our daily life – both aesthetically and functionally.
Disclaimer: English is not my native language so be prepared to a few language hiccups here and there. Secondly this is the first time I launch a tech-site completely from scratch, probably still have a few things to learn about this; including social media management – finally I can only dedicate a minor part of my time to this project since expected very small revenue from advertising probably won’t pay all bills in the foreseeable future – so ordinary work is still necessary to keep this and other projects alive; even though I would prefer it the other way around…
Q&A
- So what’s all the fuss about a smiling bear with horns wearing a red VR headset? Well, beside technology I’ve been interested in the stock market and investing for several years (made my first investment in 1986 prior the Black Monday crash in 1987) – in 2000 I co-founded a small independent website for private investors and was also quite active in local forums; haven’t been posting much in the last few years, but when I do my avatar is a BullBear which can be both bearish and bullish – and I think it’s appropriate that a BullBear wear some sort of VR headset on this website; red because it’s part of the design choice here – secondly because it reminds me of my red 3D View-Master as a kid.
- Why do you use a footprint on Mars as background on this site, no humans have sat foot on Mars – the photo must be complete fake? Well, everything is possible in VR – also bears with horns or bears who believe they have horns… 😉 As it’s the case with tech & investing I also have a bit of a passion for space exploration, so I guess a Mars-related background of what might be possible (at least in VR) in the not so distant futures was appropriate as well – and btw: one of my favorite VR experiences so far is no doubt The Apollo 11 VR Experience – backed this project, proud to be on the credits!
- Why can’t you spell to better? Well, some chinese domain adventurer had already taken bettervr.com and I didn’t want to pay the sum he asked for – I was lucky to get hold of betrVR.com instead for the hefty sum of $1 (thanks GoDaddy!) – and in fact I think it’s “betr” this way; short and good looking imo – just like the stock ticker for Nvidia – NVDA. I like AMD as well – they’ve both had a fantastic run up here in 2016, especially AMD with a gain around 300% in less than 6 months – recommended the stock in some local forums but not many saw or understood the potential…
- So what’s the point with these { } around the tagline in your logo? Well, if you’re a bit into coding you’ll know that they sometimes create magic – and this site is among other things about maximising immersion and creating magical moments, so guess it’s okay to immerse the tagline in { } – if you’re a bit visual too they can also be interpreted as headphones – again as mentioned earlier; good audio can improve immersion.
- What other projects are you involved in besides betrVR.com? All web projects I’m involved in at the moment are pure solo projects – some of them pretty timeworn and pretty old-school – a few no doubt need radical makeovers – will probably focus on some of these again when I’ve achieved some of the goals I’ve set for betrVR.com. I’ve listed some of the old websites on my LinkedIn Profile – not all sites are planned to be solo projects forever, for instance, CrowdImprove.com – what I have in mind for this site and the whole idea behind it can never be achieved without involving people with skills and experience far above what I’m able to achieve on my own hand.
