Oculus VR Publishing aims for developer influx

In a power move by the creators of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, the team has hired on former senior vice president of EA, David DeMartini. The exec will be starting a publishing arm for Oculus VR, a piece of the puzzle that's thus far been all but missing, with DeMartini hoping to attract developers to the virtual reality universe.

For those of you that have an Oculus Rift headset, this means you'll be finding more apps and software in the near future. You'll be able to play in new realms and work with non-gaming software before too long as well. DeMartini spoke with Gamasutra this week on what it means to be a developer working with Oculus, pointing out that there's more than just 3D play that the device is good for.

For instance, DeMartini name-checked IMAX movies, educational programs, and live concerts as potential avenues where an immersive-display wearable might be useful. The new division will focus on how to encourage non-traditional partners to work with Oculus; persuading a company working in the travel business, for instance, to install cameras that "let us create a Rift experience of being in, say Barcelona?" he explained.

At the moment there's a lot of cool software out in the wild for the Oculus Rift headset. This platform is essentially at the center of the gaming universe at the moment for interesting conversation on the re-emerging environment. What's missing - and what DeMartini hopes to grow - is the app ecosystem.

Oculus VR will be rolling with everything from immersive movies to streaming live concert events in the future. It's all up to the developers - and people like yourself, even if you're a new onlooker. Like the many (successful for the most part, it seems) such programs that've popped up over the past several years, it looks like the Oculus Rift headset's developer program is about to light up. Stay tuned as the virtual reality app universe expands at a great rate.


SOURCE: Slashgear

[Continue reading...]

Samsung Developers Conference aims to join big guns as cross-platform yearly event

In what’s fairly clear to be the spirit of such developer events as Apple’s WWDC and Google I/O, Samsung has this week announced the creation of their own Developers Conference. Starting October 27th and lasting two days, ending on the 29th, this event takes place right in the heart of San Francisco, aiming to bring in both developers and industry leaders to a software-centric series of events living in the Samsung universe.

At the moment, Samsung has only suggested that registration and full details for the event will be going live later this summer. Here in the early summer of 2013, Samsung’s full plans for their own attempt at joining the likes of Microsoft’s BUILD – aka their own yearly developer-centered conference – stay simple.

    “Engage with industry leaders. Collaborate with fellow developers. Learn about new Samsung tools and SDKs. Create what’s next.” – Samsung Dev Con

Over at SamsungDevCon’s initial web presence, the company brings a similarly scant set of details. It is known at this early stage that this event will include more than just mobile products. It’s not just going to be about Samsung smartphones and tablets. This will be, according to Samsung, a “major, Samsung-side, cross-product (multi-screen) developer event.”

Sound like a good time to you? Have a peek at our Google I/O tag portal for one direction this multi-day event series might take, and our WWDC tag portal for another.

[Continue reading...]

Apple Developer portal: We’ll be back soon

According to a brand new update to Apple’s official developer portal, downtime occurring this past Thursday was due to an attempted intruder attack. While Apple suggests that “sensitive personal information” had no chance of being accessed, downtime occurred due to Apple itself taking the portal down to make certain of the extent of the attack, front to back.

The possibility of “developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses” being accessed spurned Apple to take the entire portal out of commission until a full report could be made. Apple notes that they’re currently in the process of rebuilding their entire database and updating their server software.

In short: hold tight.

    “We’ll be back soon.

    Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

    In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.

    If your program membership was set to expire during this period, it has been extended and your app will remain on the App Store. If you have any other concerns about your account, please contact us.

    Thank you for your patience.” – Apple for Apple Developer Portal

Meanwhile Apple continues pushing new iterations of both mobile and desktop software in OS X Mavericks and iOS 7, both of which hit the road in earnest later this year. The public saw iWork iCloud integration in the most recent beta release, while iOS 7 and Mavericks remain developers-only.

[Continue reading...]