back to article Upchuck nation: Half a million CHUMPS now own Google Cardboard VR gear

Google's virtual reality headset Cardboard has now been shipped to 500,000 customers, after the ad giant unveiled the gadget earlier this year. Mountain View's VR gear landed at its I/O event in San Francisco in June, when some wondered if Google was taking a playful dig at Facebook's hefty $2bn buyout of Oculus Rift by …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The toilet theme was apt, but...

    The young lady should have been sat down and straining to relieve herself of a big pile of shit, then you would've had synergy.

    6 out of 10

  2. sisk

    A sucker and his money are soon parted. Or half a million suckers as it turns out.

    $20 for a bit of cardboard and a $5 pair of lenses? What are these people thinking?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What are these people thinking?

      perhaps "I don't mind paying a bit over the odds if it makes trying this out much easier"?

    2. Grease Monkey Silver badge

      You are aware aren't you that the cardboard website has instructions to make your own? So these people who've forked out twenty bucks have clearly made a choice. Twenty dollars or half an hour of their time. Fair dos, that's their choice.

      I've made all sorts of things for the price of raw materials, rather than forking out several times the amount for the finished article, but I don't deride people who choose to buy rather than build. I'm sure you own a few things that somebody else has made their own for much less money, but I doubt any of those people would be quite so patronizing towards you as you are to others. Some would consider that you have made foolish and expensive choices, but hey, they're your choices. If somebody wants to chuck a few quid at this gadget then that's their choice too.

    3. Richard Cranium

      No. I made a choice. A UK computer mag published a DIY kit: buy lenses from one place, magnets from another, velcro, (and maybe buy and program an NFC tag but commonly sold in packs of 10) source suitable cardboard, and cut it all out and assemble. I started to investigate, download the PDF plan, etc then tripped over the option of "send $20 and get the full kit of parts" probably saving a couple of hours faffing about and postage from 2 or 3 different suppliers. But if you object to paying $20 go for the DIY option (BTW, don't bother with the NFC tag). It's your choice.

      And for anyone who's not tried it - well everyone I've shown it to has been blown away - to the extent that a couple of them have decided it's time to upgrade their mobile phone to one that works with google cardboard.

      Sure there's limited content just now and some of it is a bit quirky but as a technology demo its a success. More content has already arrived and I'm sure there'll be plenty more on the way.

      The cardboard implementation is intended to be cheap and simple. Users will be looking for a more robust and versatile upgrade, will gladly pay more and those are coming along too.

    4. rchop

      Actually ....

      There are way more than 500,000 of these things out there. I did mine for 10$ and

      it can be done even cheaper.

    5. NumptyScrub

      A sucker and his money are soon parted. Or half a million suckers as it turns out.

      $20 for a bit of cardboard and a $5 pair of lenses? What are these people thinking?

      "Fuck me, that's a shitload cheaper than $300 plus shipping and taxes for an Oculus Rift? (which is still a development kit and comes with no support)"

      BTW I paid $300 plus shipping and taxes for the Rift, and have also tried the Cardboard at a friends, and while the far more expensive Oculus is certainly "better" in a subjective sense, I can't fault Cardboard at the price. If you want to piss about with some VR (and you have an Android device that supports Cardboard) it's definitely worth either $25 to the lazy person, or your time measuring and cutting and gluing cardboard together.

      Just be aware, Google Cardboard will probably function as a gateway drug to the much more expensive Oculus Rift. You have been warned ^^;

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Want where this is going

    There is not much I want to try, or buy right now, decent 3D FPV racing is the exception.

    If general 3D triggers the hurld response just think 3D + put your coffee down

  4. htq

    Got mine for under £2

    Plenty of websites out there offering them for £2 or less. I ordered 4 pairs and gave 3 away to people really interested in trying them out.

    I'm really impressed with what the whole setup can do. Now seriously thinking of buying a "proper" pair that costs £50 or more.

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