re: VirZOOM

[jk]

Re: VirZOOM

i think part of difficulty with market penetration is that people think they know what vr is going to feel like. and they don't. or at least i didn't. although of course i understood intellectually how the process worked, when i first put on a headset and got on the bike it was way beyond my imaginings.

[Ellen Z]

VirZOOM -- is it for people like me?

Is it for people like me?


Recently EJ sent an email to people who support VirZOOM on wefunder. I thought about it, and decided to send some additional cash (a small amount) but not to request any “perks.”


The current version of VirZOOM isn’t quite aimed at people like me. I have no previous experience with virtual-reality or online game-playing. I have no desire at all to drive a tank, or compete in speed races. I see the VirZOOM experience can include virtual visits to beautiful and historic places around the world. EJ, if you had offered a small library of those materials as your “perk,” I would have been interested!


On the other hand, I’m definitely someone who would benefit from using VirZOOM. I have an exercise bike in the living room, but the seat isn’t comfortable. I keep it because it rolls easily into another room when I have company. Shopping for a better exercise bike is quite challenging – I don’t know any way to conveniently test one before I bring it home.


Some day VirZOOM may come to my local gym, or even my local hospital or health plan. Some day it may be possible for me to visit a bicycle store and test VirZOOM on a specific exercise bike before I take it home. However, I think that time is a few years down the road.


It was inspiring to read about the hospitalized guy who found that VirZOOM actually got him exercising. I hope eventually you’ll expand the product to benefit lots of unathletic people like myself. But right now.... seems like it’s not quite a fit.

[Ellen Z]

Learning to Love a Google Smart Speaker

I want to tell you a story. Recently I learned to love a smart speaker – and I think this story perhaps exemplifies the different ways people will probably discover VirZOOM.


A few months ago my son showed me his smart speaker – a small round tube. He explained the music is streamed from the cloud, and music choices were managed through his smart phone.


I went, “meh.”

I own a Google fi smart phone, but I use it only while traveling. His description went in one ear and out the other – I wasn’t interested in anything that’s going to make me pick up a smart phone several times a day.


Meanwhile, my son urged me to install new safety features in my home. (I live alone.) My computer guy said Google had small round speakers on sale for $35, so we put one in the bathroom. I didn’t need to program it with phone numbers – I just said “Okay google, please call JohnX” (my next door neighbor) and the device did so. It thanked me for saying please.


My computer guy loves these little speakers. He wakes up and asks about the weather and his schedule for the day while still in bed. Actually, I partly disapproved of this. In general, I want to keep on doing things the way I’ve been doing them. I write my daily list of things to do with pen and paper. I keep a longer-term list in my word processor. I look up the weather on my desktop computer. I was very glad to have this speaker in the bathroom, but just for one limited purpose.


Then I learned these devices can play music. For a reasonable amount I could buy a larger Google speaker with far better sound than any of the speakers in my office. Done.


I found I could ask the device to play any song whatsoever and 95% of the time it would do so. If I only recall a few words from a song, it’s pretty easy to look that up online.


I began dancing at my desk. Medical people have been telling me for years that I need to take breaks from the computer every hour or so. Now I’m doing it!


Now I have four of these devices. When I spoke to my 94-year-old aunt a few days ago, I started explaining how a smart speaker could make her life so much easier. A month ago I didn’t quite approve of these smart speakers – now they are a valuable addition to my life. They have completely changed my relationship to music, talk shows, and news.


You’re starting to grow VirZOOM from the most stable base – people who are already athletic, people who are somewhat used to virtual reality. As you expand, people will experience the same emotional hesitations and withdrawals and re-definitions I’ve experienced during the past month. Eventually, some percentage of unathletic people will discover that VirZOOM has completely changed their relationship to movement.


Good luck!

[Mega]

Re: Learning to Love a Google Smart Speaker

You got a hell of a lot of people here in the UK ride bikes now, but British weather is a bastard.........can you "link" riders to each other so they can go a "group ride" in Cyber space?

Mike

[Ellen Z]

Re: VirZOOM

Privileged humans are looking for entertainment and self improvement that offer personal opportunity and disconnection from the rest of humanity while everyone else is trying to understand how they will survive and possibly get ahead. I find VR to be the new entertainment conceit of the privileged. One can make money supporting it, but is it the best use of one's talent? I'm more interested agriculture. Food security. Like every other aspect of our lives, technology is moving food production forward at an amazing rate.

I understand that this is my own conceit but I'd rather work to offer working class folks excellent organic food than VR entertainment.

I share your feelings about "how will we survive?" In my own life, this means I grow a fair amount of food in my back yard, and I've learned quite a bit about how to save seeds, reproduce plants vegetatively, etc. I share packets of home-saved sweet pea seeds (incredibly fragrant) partly because I love them, but also because the more people who understand the basic process of growing things, the better. When I have too much lettuce or kale or tomatoes (which inevitably happens at the height of the season) I share them with the local homeless shelter.

BUT I just invested in VirZOOM, and just bought a modern exercise bike on Amazon for about $150. I hope VirZOOM will help me exercise more consistently. I appreciate the opportunity to invest in a start-up company.

I end up being a both/and person on this one.

PS
You might be interested in the Seed Ambassadors Seed Saving Guide, available for download here:
https://www.seedambassadors.org/seed-saving-guide/

Their sister website, Adaptive Seeds, features heirloom varieties, some discovered during travels in Europe, or tested in their own trials.
https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/seed-tag/new-returning/

[Mega]

Re: VirZOOM

May be you could do a sort of dating thing with it?
Just a thought
Mike

[bungee]

Re: VirZOOM

There is a major dichotomy brewing in the 21st Century. Privileged humans are looking for entertainment and self improvement that offer personal opportunity and disconnection from the rest of humanity while everyone else is trying to understand how they will survive and possibly get ahead. I find VR to be the new entertainment conceit of the privileged.

I think the exact opposite will be true. VR will be for the masses. Reality will be for the privileged. You want to go see Paris or Sydney? Do you have 1000000 million carbon credits? No? Tough, no flight for you. Off you go to the VR suite / holiday resort down the road with you friends / family, put on your VR sets and walk around some concrete place where the VR overlays a 5* hotel and the sights you want to see. Stay there for a day or a week if you want a long holiday. Want to go shopping? Do you have carbon credits to drive your car to the mall or next city? Nope? Sit back on your sofa, put on your VR set and virtually visit the shops.

For the privilaged they will get in their private jets and fly and drive to whereever, enjoy Paris and Sydney free of tourists.

VR addiction will be a future disease. Some people will spend so long in VR that they will forget to eat, start to believe the VR and the people in it are the real world.

If you think people are crazy to rent stuff now (a designer handbag for a week etc) wait until they start renting VR stuff. Look at what people pay now for stuff in games (1's and 0's recorded on a harddisk on a server somewhere). Obviously only the brand owner would be able to rent out VR stuff with their logo on it. The rich would not need a VR handbag, they could buy the real thing on their real trip to Paris and proably get a free VR handbag with the real one to keep it exclusive.

What to do with prisioners 24h a day, stick a VR hedset on them. Schoolchildren, stick a VR headset on them.

There will be a NetFlix of VR. Buy a subscription and get all the VR shows/trips they produce to enjoy with you friends/family.

Just like older people now understand there was a world before the mobile phone this generation will understand there is a world before VR. Younger people will never understand what people did before VR. Went outside in the hot or cold? Stood at airports for hours to get a flight?

VR will be as cheap as a cheap mobile phone/headset and netflix subscription.

[DSpencer]

Re: VirZOOM

I think the exact opposite will be true. VR will be for the masses. Reality will be for the privileged. You want to go see Paris or Sydney? Do you have 1000000 million carbon credits? No? Tough, no flight for you. Off you go to the VR suite / holiday resort down the road with you friends / family, put on your VR sets and walk around some concrete place where the VR overlays a 5* hotel and the sights you want to see. Stay there for a day or a week if you want a long holiday. Want to go shopping? Do you have carbon credits to drive your car to the mall or next city? Nope? Sit back on your sofa, put on your VR set and virtually visit the shops.

For the privilaged they will get in their private jets and fly and drive to whereever, enjoy Paris and Sydney free of tourists.

VR addiction will be a future disease. Some people will spend so long in VR that they will forget to eat, start to believe the VR and the people in it are the real world.

If you think people are crazy to rent stuff now (a designer handbag for a week etc) wait until they start renting VR stuff. Look at what people pay now for stuff in games (1's and 0's recorded on a harddisk on a server somewhere). Obviously only the brand owner would be able to rent out VR stuff with their logo on it. The rich would not need a VR handbag, they could buy the real thing on their real trip to Paris and proably get a free VR handbag with the real one to keep it exclusive.

What to do with prisioners 24h a day, stick a VR hedset on them. Schoolchildren, stick a VR headset on them.

There will be a NetFlix of VR. Buy a subscription and get all the VR shows/trips they produce to enjoy with you friends/family.

Just like older people now understand there was a world before the mobile phone this generation will understand there is a world before VR. Younger people will never understand what people did before VR. Went outside in the hot or cold? Stood at airports for hours to get a flight?

VR will be as cheap as a cheap mobile phone/headset and netflix subscription.

Father John Misty - "Total Entertainment Forever"

Bedding Taylor Swift
Every night inside the Oculus Rift
After mister and the missus finish dinner and the dishes
And now the future's definition is so much higher than it was last year
It's like the images have all become real
Someone's living my life for me out in the mirror
No, can you believe how far we've come
In the New Age?
Freedom to have what you want
In the New Age we'll all be entertained
Rich or poor, the channels are all the same
You're a star now, baby, so dry your tears
You're just like them
Wake on up from the nightmare

Na na na na na na come on
Oh ho oh
Oh
Oh oh oh

No gods to rule us
No drugs to soothe us
No myths to prove stuff
No love to confuse us
Not bad for a race of demented monkeys
From a cave to a city to a permanent party
Come on oh ho oh
Oh
Oh ho oh
When the historians find us we'll be in our homes
Plugged into our hubs
Skin and bones
A frozen smile on every face
As the stories replay
This must have been a wonderful place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHpV08wI-bw

[Bundi]

Re: VirZOOM

I think the exact opposite will be true. VR will be for the masses. Reality will be for the privileged. You want to go see Paris or Sydney? Do you have 1000000 million carbon credits? No? Tough, no flight for you. Off you go to the VR suite / holiday resort down the road with you friends / family, put on your VR sets and walk around some concrete place where the VR overlays a 5* hotel and the sights you want to see. Stay there for a day or a week if you want a long holiday. Want to go shopping? Do you have carbon credits to drive your car to the mall or next city? Nope? Sit back on your sofa, put on your VR set and virtually visit the shops.

For the privilaged they will get in their private jets and fly and drive to whereever, enjoy Paris and Sydney free of tourists.

VR addiction will be a future disease. Some people will spend so long in VR that they will forget to eat, start to believe the VR and the people in it are the real world.

If you think people are crazy to rent stuff now (a designer handbag for a week etc) wait until they start renting VR stuff. Look at what people pay now for stuff in games (1's and 0's recorded on a harddisk on a server somewhere). Obviously only the brand owner would be able to rent out VR stuff with their logo on it. The rich would not need a VR handbag, they could buy the real thing on their real trip to Paris and proably get a free VR handbag with the real one to keep it exclusive.

What to do with prisioners 24h a day, stick a VR hedset on them. Schoolchildren, stick a VR headset on them.

There will be a NetFlix of VR. Buy a subscription and get all the VR shows/trips they produce to enjoy with you friends/family.

Just like older people now understand there was a world before the mobile phone this generation will understand there is a world before VR. Younger people will never understand what people did before VR. Went outside in the hot or cold? Stood at airports for hours to get a flight?

VR will be as cheap as a cheap mobile phone/headset and netflix subscription.

Sorry for duplicate post.

[Bundi]

Re: VirZOOM

I think the exact opposite will be true. VR will be for the masses. Reality will be for the privileged. You want to go see Paris or Sydney? Do you have 1000000 million carbon credits? No? Tough, no flight for you. Off you go to the VR suite / holiday resort down the road with you friends / family, put on your VR sets and walk around some concrete place where the VR overlays a 5* hotel and the sights you want to see. Stay there for a day or a week if you want a long holiday. Want to go shopping? Do you have carbon credits to drive your car to the mall or next city? Nope? Sit back on your sofa, put on your VR set and virtually visit the shops.

For the privilaged they will get in their private jets and fly and drive to whereever, enjoy Paris and Sydney free of tourists.

VR addiction will be a future disease. Some people will spend so long in VR that they will forget to eat, start to believe the VR and the people in it are the real world.

If you think people are crazy to rent stuff now (a designer handbag for a week etc) wait until they start renting VR stuff. Look at what people pay now for stuff in games (1's and 0's recorded on a harddisk on a server somewhere). Obviously only the brand owner would be able to rent out VR stuff with their logo on it. The rich would not need a VR handbag, they could buy the real thing on their real trip to Paris and proably get a free VR handbag with the real one to keep it exclusive.

What to do with prisioners 24h a day, stick a VR hedset on them. Schoolchildren, stick a VR headset on them.

There will be a NetFlix of VR. Buy a subscription and get all the VR shows/trips they produce to enjoy with you friends/family.

Just like older people now understand there was a world before the mobile phone this generation will understand there is a world before VR. Younger people will never understand what people did before VR. Went outside in the hot or cold? Stood at airports for hours to get a flight?

VR will be as cheap as a cheap mobile phone/headset and netflix subscription.

Yesterday I noticed that Peloton filed with the SEC to begin an Initial Public Offering process. I don’t know a ton about Peloton, have never tried the platform, but I know a couple guys that have put the sizeable upfront dollars into purchasing a Peloton bike and have spoken highly of the experience. Each of them by the way is fairly well to do. I have tried VirZOOM and am thoroughly enjoying that experience. For a fraction of the price of buying a Peloton bike, at that.

Most folks I come across are initially resistant to new things, many just don’t want the hassle or don’t understand it so can’t be bothered. As VR becomes more everyday and applicable to different things, I suspect the willingness and desire to use it will follow and the best most valuable applications will enjoy tremendous adoption.

Peloton was most recently valued at $4 Billion (yes with a B) and VirZOOM, to me anyway, seems to be a better and lower priced platform with far more diversity and adaptability for future cycle fitness applications.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/pel...re-51559763917