Many companies are working on virtual reality headsets and while some of them might cost fortunes, there are some that are cheap enough to be in the range of the masses. Google has a completely different approach to virtual reality. Last year it launched Cardboard, a virtual reality viewer and this year at I/O 2015 it has unveiled a new version of Google Cardboard that also has support for the iPhone.
The new Google Cardboard does away with the magnetic controller found on its predecessor, the design has also been tweaked to support smartphones with displays of up to 6 inches. Instead of the magnetic button the VR viewer has a cardboard button.
Now that it can work with iPhones, Google has released the Cardboard virtual reality app for iOS. iPhone users can use this app with their device in Cardboard to check out city environments and view 3D objects from a collection within the app.
It allows developers to create their own applications that are compatible with Cardboard, the SDK now includes support for iOS so developers can create such apps for the iPhone as well.
Google Cardboard has brought about a wave of cheap virtual reality headsets since it’s more of a reference design anyway, Google’s partners can build their own headsets based on Cardboard’s design. The new Google Cardboard viewers will be handed out to all Google I/O 2015 attendees.
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