Google’s new Daydream View is designed for your couch, not your bag

In the original View, all plastic parts were beige or gray, even if you got the model

wrapped with rich crimson fabric. Now, they’re coordinated: if you buy the colorful “Coral” edition, you’ll get a coral remote, too. It’s not a big change, but it’s emblematic of Google’s overall goal: re-creating last year’s carefully engineered mobile headset, undoing a few mistakes, and making its individual parts a little nicer. Google announced the second-generation Daydream View at today’s Pixel 2 event, where it opened preorders for an October 19th launch at $99. Like its predecessor, the View will work with any phone that supports Google’s Daydream platform, including the Samsung Galaxy S8, S8 Plus, and Note 8. The overall design hasn’t changed, and neither has the laser pointer-like remote. You still sandwich your phone between the View’s front flap and a pair of lenses, which automatically launches a special Daydream Home interface. And the experience is still a compromise between Google’s ultra-cheap Cardboard and an array of high-end standalone VR headsets, which feature more processing power and full motion tracking. But Google says it’s boosting the new View (unlike the new Pixel, Google never calls it the “View 2”) just a little higher on the VR ladder, with better optics and new materials. The smooth, dappled jersey of the old View has been replaced with a solid, more textured fabric; instead of Slate, Snow, and Crimson, you can pick from “Charcoal,” “Fog,” and “Coral.” The fabric change is symbolic as well as aesthetic. Google talked with fashion and wearable companies for the first Daydream View, looking to build something that felt like clothing. This time around, VR product manager Andrew Nartker says it’s supposed to evoke furniture upholstery.                                                                              https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/4/16405224/new-google-daydream-vr-headset-controllers-video-photos-hands-on