YouTube to support virtual reality video on its app

By Deborah M. Todd SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – YouTube announced two new features Thursday for its Android app that expand the video site's use of virtual reality, giving the new technology its biggest platform yet. The app now supports VR video – a format that gives viewers what the company says are more realistic 360-degree perspectives of films.

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Virtual reality film aims to raise funds by giving Nepal quake experience

By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A virtual reality film aims to help raise funds for survivors of last month’s earthquake in Nepal by giving viewers a first-hand experience of the disaster’s aftermath, the director said on Friday. Los Angeles-based company RYOT – which produces news stories for audiences to act on – shot the footage in the days following the 7.8 magnitude quake which struck the impoverished nation on April 25, killing more than 8,000 people.

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Exclusive: Facebook hiring spree hints at ambitions in virtual reality and beyond

By Alexei Oreskovic and Bill Rigby SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE (Reuters) – Virtual reality goggles, drones and data centers are all driving a hiring spree at Facebook Inc that is set to swell its ranks as much as 14 percent in the near term, according to a review of job listings on the company's website. Oculus Rift, the maker of virtual reality headsets that Facebook acquired in a $2 billion deal last year, is among the key areas slated for growth, with 54 jobs listed on its website, according to a review by Reuters of listings. Among the roles that Facebook needs to fill for the Oculus business are managers to oversee logistics, procurement and global supply chain planning – a sign, some analysts say, that the product is nearing its commercial release

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