Truespeed
Member
Facebook owns GearVR - a product made by Samsung?
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GearVR apparently won't work if you "block facebook"
- Thread starter Krejlooc
- Start date
Facebook owns GearVR - a product made by Samsung?
It's not a collaboration?
diablos991
Can’t stump the diablos
Terrible practice. Glad I am not going to get invested in oculus. This kind of stuff happens when companies like Facebook get involved.
So it should be easy to replicate this then?
Going off one developer post with vague hardware, software or location details seems like a mistake to me.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
I'm really thinking this needs to be verified before the witch-hunt starts, we're extrapolating from a vague tech support email that hasn't been verified in a real world scenario yet.
The last post from that image advises him to connect to Wifi and check for updates. How do you read that and not think he is talking about connecting to an update server?
Hidden One
Member
Just make a fake facebook?
CyberReality is an oculus employee, this is what he does. He's the one, as an example, who will break down SDK and API updates on the developer boards.
Crayon
Member
It could be a false alarm, but my mind reels at the thought.
Truespeed
Member
Oculus owns the software that GearVR runs on.
And their phones are powered by Android.
diablos991
Can’t stump the diablos
Which helps their stock out by providing a new "user". There really isn't any reason for VR hardware to be tied to a social network.
DaxMedFlax
Member
For what it's worth, I have a Gear VR and I don't have a facebook account. Never had any issue.
I already killed any VR projects I had over it. I have zero interest in participating in being someone's soldier for platform/lock-in wars.
I think VR is cool and believe in it, but I'm not going to invest any damn time in it until it gets to a 100% neutral SDK and API point. I went from almost paying for an Oculus on the spot to going "meh" after they dropped Mac/Linux. They're desperately trying to smother VR in it's own crib.
Rodney McKay
Member
Yeah, I have the Gear VR for my Note 4 and I have Facebook disabled (app takes too much battery from my experience) and I've never had any issue with it.
This already exists, it's called OpenVR.
Dreamwriter
Member
The problem that this person was having was a bug with the store in the newest update, which is part of Oculus Home (the GearVR's "home screen"). I wouldn't be surprised if the store's data is kept on Facebook's servers, which means if you blocked access to Facebook's servers it could give you problems. This might be what Cyber was talking about.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I think this just means that if you're on a network that blocks FaceBook (Like a restaurant or work or college or something that has a public internet) it won't work because it tries to phone home to FaceBook whether you have an account or not.
Not that you need to have an account.
Just make sure you're not on a terrible network that blocks sites for no reason and it should be fine.
Or if you specifically block FaceBook at your personal house, then well, that's just silly. Unless you don't own the internet and your parents are mad at you and you're a kid.
Not that you need to have an account.
Just make sure you're not on a terrible network that blocks sites for no reason and it should be fine.
Or if you specifically block FaceBook at your personal house, then well, that's just silly. Unless you don't own the internet and your parents are mad at you and you're a kid.
Outrun
Member
Will Morpheus only work on Bravias?
That analogy isn't the best because as you well remember there was a time when your windows PC would not work correctly if you uninstalled IE!
Sword Of Doom
Member
That's why it's a good analogy
And they were successfully sued by the European Commission for it.
Nostremitus
Member
...and Microsoft got in trouble for trying to create a monopoly because of it.
Auto-Reply
Member
I hope they don't pull similar shit with the Oculus CV.
This, for sure.
However lately i was thinking of getting Oculus over Vive, but since i don't have a Facebook account, i guess i should go back to the idea of getting a Vive.
Either way, i'll wait for more clarifications.
Pretty obvious that Oculus will have Facebook login to their store, the question will be if there is a separate sign up (which is highly doubtful).
Graphics Horse
Member
More ammunition against people who claim VR isn't a social experience.
Auto-Reply
Member
I'd have to ignore the Oculus then and go exclusively with the Vive (if that still is a thing after the latest HTC news)
slavesnyder
Member
Well, better than the other way round.
The Facebook application is pre-installed in most territories on the Galaxy Note 4. On Android if an app is pre-installed and marked as a system file (so it survives reinstallation) it can't be deleted unless the device has been rooted. People may not want to root (for example, rooted devices are often denied service by banking or video providers).
However, if you don't want that app taking up RAM or doing other things in the background when you don't use it, you can use the Android Device Bridge software for a PC to block an application from running, without needing root permission. As such, more technical users often use ABD to block software they can't delete from running on their device to speed them up/be more privacy conscious.
So having blocked the Facebook app from running, this appears to be breaking Gear VR, except there's really no reason that should happen unless there's a level of staggeringly, implausibly bad coding, or the Facebook app is doing something naughty in terms of data collection which creates such a dependency.
And yes, this is exactly what people said would happen and got called tin-foil hat wearing nutters. I can't wait to see the shitstorm when the first government complains about VR porn and Facebook blocks it from running on the device.
Theanine3D
Member
When I read this it sounded to me like cybereality was referring to Facebook's domain. As in, blocking www.facebook.com in the system's hosts file, or whatever is the equivalent on mobile.
This is still phoning home obviously, which is expected (it's Facebook lol). But the fact that you can't use the device if the phoning home fails is silly. It shouldn't be required to have an internet connection to use the hardware.
But - it doesn't sound to me like what some people here are overreacting and claiming, that now you're suddenly being forced to use the Facebook app. There's no mention of app anywhere..
This is still phoning home obviously, which is expected (it's Facebook lol). But the fact that you can't use the device if the phoning home fails is silly. It shouldn't be required to have an internet connection to use the hardware.
But - it doesn't sound to me like what some people here are overreacting and claiming, that now you're suddenly being forced to use the Facebook app. There's no mention of app anywhere..
family_guy
Member
They could do Linux but probably not worth the effort right now and there's no Mac on the market that meets the system requirements.
mrdeiz
Member
it's not going to be released any time soon
mrdeiz
Member
or one day fb will block you
BibiMaghoo
Member
This has confused me. What does Facebook have to do with GearVR? They own Oculus, so why is this a thing? What did I miss?
Actually wasn't this the case for the longest time? That windows was supposedly built around IE?
Similarly, does your iPhone keep working if you completely remove iTunes? Android with Google Play?
I'm not at all surprised you have to be connected to Facebook to use Oculus. It's the way they're going to make money, through the Oculus store.
Turin Turambar
Member
GearVR is a collab between Oculus and Samsung.