Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg dropped into Barcelona’s Mobile World Conference on Thursday, Feb 18—a surprise guest at a conference full of the tech industry’s biggest names. Zuckerberg, who has been an active voice in the attempt to spread Internet to the masses, says there’s still work to be done.
“It’s kind of crazy that we’re sitting here in 2016 and still four billion people in the world don’t have access to the Internet,” Zuckerberg said, later announcing a partnership with industry giant Samsung. The pair will work together on projects relating to virtual reality and 360 video. In fact, they’ve already begun.
Zuckerberg appeared as part of the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, where he also offered support for Samsung Gear VR. The Samsung headset is powered in part by Facebook-owned Oculus, whom they acquired in 2014. A more advanced version will hit the market in the next few months.
Seeking to explore social interactions in virtual reality, the Facebook CEO announced the creation of a new team dedicated to studying potential for people to connect and share content with one another using virtual reality. He also confirmed that the ever-popular Minecraft is on its way to the virtual reality platform, set to hit the Oculus store later this year.
Zuckerberg paints an exciting picture for the future—the opportunity to connect to colleagues around the world via virtual reality, the chance to watch a movie in a private movie theater filled with your friends at your leisure. He is optimistic (as usual) about the future of virtual reality, and rightfully so.
Industry experts recognize Zuckerberg’s attendance at the Mobile World Conference and subsequent appearance at Samsung’s press conference as proof that both are wholly dedicated to exploring what virtual reality is capable of. And, while Zuckerberg was also in attendance to address his company’s attempts to bring affordable Internet to areas entrenched in poverty (opposed because of concerns about net neutrality), his appearance was certainly noteworthy.
Zuckerberg, who is something of a celebrity in the tech world, left conference attendees a bit starstruck when he took the stage, despite recent opinion on Facebook’s privacy regulations and reaction to anti-immigrant posts on the social media site.
While the site prohibits bullying, threatening language, and other forms of harassment, these rules are difficult to enforce. Germany has taken matters into their own hands, hiring a business services unit to monitor potentially harmful content and delete it from the German platform.
The conference maintained a clear focus on the Internet of Things, particularly in the consumer world. Facebook, Zuckerberg, and Samsung aren’t alone in their quest to make virtual reality more available and present—HTC and Valve are beginning a preorder process for their Vive VR headset, while LG has 360 cameras and headsets on the horizon.
Things like wearables and smartphone unsurprisingly took center stage at the Mobile World Conference, and the message seemed to be a universal one of connection.
Source: The Verge
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