And it makes me wonder if that's where the WWW is headed or how Dead Internet actually happened; a porn purge leading to reversion of media into progressively older forms. Perhaps we'd be scrolling books on a TV by 2050s.
VRChat: Furries OK!
Meta: Nope
While meta follows in the direction of uhh... AOL and.. Miiverse? Not so promising.
Also I agree with Adsoitis. VR apps have an opportunity to go beyond traditional UX. This is a missed opportunity, but understandable given the backlash to VR and to a lesser degree AR
The frustrating thing is, back when computers were "silly" and "not ready", the type of person you'd now find on Hacker News saw it as an exciting impetus to build a new world. With virtual reality, all I see is a collective eyeroll. It's honestly tragic. This is a burgeoning medium, a new form of art. For most of human history, people didn't get to experience that even once in their entire lifetime. And the response is cynicism.
The only explanation I have is that we are so inundated with stimulus, so overwhelmed with entertainment, that we no longer feel a drive to build a new form of it. We're all drugged up on social media, and can't see the potential of a new medium even when it's literally right in front of our faces.
andsoitis•3mo ago
Only issue is all the TV apps that will run on this virtual smart TV assume LRUD, so I don't have high hopes for a transcendent advancement in usability. Not even Apple, who introduced a touch remote, control the Apple TV (hardware) and the Apple TV app attempted to supersede LRUD.
LG's pointer-based input devices (you can think of it as a mouse) have been with us for many years now, but hasn't caught on with more device manufacturers.
Some people hold out hope for Voice UI, but it has a number of downsides that make it worse than LRUD.
Once you rethink the vending machine interface, maybe a different modality reveals it self.
dmonitor•3mo ago
pimlottc•3mo ago
andsoitis•3mo ago
CharlesW•3mo ago
I can't recall the last time I've used LRUD controls with Apple TV. The hardware and software remotes both do trackpad-style control, which in my experience works just fine in that I've never had to think about it.
gdulli•3mo ago
You haven't said why one should. The screen is 2d, the LRUD interface is 2d. It's simple and works well. What are we leaving on the table?
The article says this "represents a monetization opportunity for Meta". What does it represent for me? Other than an opportunity to have new types of screens to buy.
> “Instead of a $500 TV sitting in front of us, what’s to keep us from one day having it be a $1 app,”
I'm already at my peak being online and attached to screens. If I make any change it's going to be in the direction of being less online, not more. I don't want smart glasses keeping me online at all times. I don't want TV glasses enabling me to watch TV at all times. My $500 TV serves its purpose perfectly already and I don't need to bring it with me.
Even if I wanted a permanent TV in my glasses and the app was only $1. The app will track the shit out of me. My TV is kept off the network. Going from cable to streaming added the adtech industry's surveillance and unskippable ads. There's no way Meta won't shit out something worse than I can still cling to with my offline TV.
Surely I lack the imagination to see how cool VR TV apps could be, but it doesn't take imagination to know how this is going to be consumer-hostile.
andsoitis•3mo ago
Gestural input with a touch interface can give you a wider range of interesting UI and interaction.