 Hi, I'm Addie with The Verge, and I'm here with the very beginning of Google Daydream. What is Daydream, you might ask? It's Google's VR platform that's supposed to be much more advanced than Google Cardboard, which it introduced a couple of years ago. It's mobile virtual reality that actually comes with a motion controller. So Daydream isn't actually coming out until this fall when we start seeing all the hardware that's going to come with it. Daydream compatible phones, the actual headset, the actual controller. But the latest Android and developer preview does have some virtual reality features that are meant for people to just get a taste of what Daydream can do so they can develop their own apps. So let's take a look at this. So what we've got here is a painting app that Google is suggesting you use to see sort of how Daydream will function. And what you can do is launch this on the Nexus 6P phone, which again is the only phone that Google actually considers a development kit. It's saying it's not a Daydream phone, you're not going to be able to use it for the final Daydream, and it's going to be a little bit substandard in terms of performance. It's going to start throttling when it gets too hot. But for now, it's good enough. So obviously this doesn't look very much like an actual controller, and Google doesn't quite have a solution for this, but it has something kind of clever. It has an overlay that you can print out and put over your phone. So it looks less like a phone, I guess, and more like a controller, and you can just focus on these buttons. So we're going to tape this on right now, and we're going to start painting. You start painting with the controller. You double tap the trackpad to start drawing a line, and it actually will use the accelerometer and gyroscope to detect motion and do a pretty good job of emulating motion control. So this is really different from what you'd see on the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift, because there's no camera tracking this stuff. It's not actually telling you where this is in space. What it can do is tell, okay, how far is this moving? What direction is it moving? And it can actually do a really good job of predicting where it is based on that. So there's actually a much more popular Google app called Tilt Brush, which is for the HTC Vive. It's a really sophisticated painting tool. This is a little bit like Tilt Brush, but it actually highlights one of the big differences between Daydream and something like the Vive, which is that when you're painting in Tilt Brush, you can actually walk around the room and see your painting in three dimensions. Now Daydream isn't going to have this positional tracking. What it has is it can tell which way your head is turning. So you can't actually see these things that you're drawing in three dimensions. It's sort of like you're painting flat on a cylinder. It looks really cool, but it's not quite the same thing, and this is sort of why it might be hard to bring something like Tilt Brush over to Daydream. So obviously, I'm not trying Daydream. This isn't really what Daydream's going to be like, but it does give me some hope that these trackers could be pretty good. If the final controller is as precise as this, then it's actually very accurate. It's a little bit slow and a little bit laggy if I move very quickly in weird directions right now, but I think that you could easily use it for painting or for selecting things or for playing simple games. It actually makes me really excited about later this year.
 Hi, I'm Addie with The Verge, and I'm here with the very beginning of Google Daydream.
 What is Daydream, you might ask?
 It's Google's VR platform that's supposed to be much more advanced than Google Cardboard,
 which it introduced a couple of years ago.
 It's mobile virtual reality that actually comes with a motion controller.
 So Daydream isn't actually coming out until this fall when we start seeing all the hardware
 that's going to come with it.
 Daydream compatible phones, the actual headset, the actual controller.
 But the latest Android and developer preview does have some virtual reality features that
 are meant for people to just get a taste of what Daydream can do so they can develop their
 own apps.
 So let's take a look at this.
 So what we've got here is a painting app that Google is suggesting you use to see sort of
 how Daydream will function.
 And what you can do is launch this on the Nexus 6P phone, which again is the only phone
 that Google actually considers a development kit.
 It's saying it's not a Daydream phone, you're not going to be able to use it for the final
 Daydream, and it's going to be a little bit substandard in terms of performance.
 It's going to start throttling when it gets too hot.
 But for now, it's good enough.
 So obviously this doesn't look very much like an actual controller, and Google doesn't quite
 have a solution for this, but it has something kind of clever.
 It has an overlay that you can print out and put over your phone.
 So it looks less like a phone, I guess, and more like a controller, and you can just focus
 on these buttons.
 So we're going to tape this on right now, and we're going to start painting.
 You start painting with the controller.
 You double tap the trackpad to start drawing a line, and it actually will use the accelerometer
 and gyroscope to detect motion and do a pretty good job of emulating motion control.
 So this is really different from what you'd see on the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift, because
 there's no camera tracking this stuff.
 It's not actually telling you where this is in space.
 What it can do is tell, okay, how far is this moving?
 What direction is it moving?
 And it can actually do a really good job of predicting where it is based on that.
 So there's actually a much more popular Google app called Tilt Brush, which is for the HTC
 Vive.
 It's a really sophisticated painting tool.
 This is a little bit like Tilt Brush, but it actually highlights one of the big differences
 between Daydream and something like the Vive, which is that when you're painting in Tilt
 Brush, you can actually walk around the room and see your painting in three dimensions.
 Now Daydream isn't going to have this positional tracking.
 What it has is it can tell which way your head is turning.
 So you can't actually see these things that you're drawing in three dimensions.
 It's sort of like you're painting flat on a cylinder.
 It looks really cool, but it's not quite the same thing, and this is sort of why it might
 be hard to bring something like Tilt Brush over to Daydream.
 So obviously, I'm not trying Daydream.
 This isn't really what Daydream's going to be like, but it does give me some hope that
 these trackers could be pretty good.
 If the final controller is as precise as this, then it's actually very accurate.
 It's a little bit slow and a little bit laggy if I move very quickly in weird directions
 right now, but I think that you could easily use it for painting or for selecting things
 or for playing simple games.
 It actually makes me really excited about later this year.