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Google Cardboard Is Going Global

 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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Google's Cardboard app is now available in 39 languages and more than 100 countries on iOS and Android.

The Cardboard developer documents are also now available in 10 languages to help even more developers around the world build for VR.

"With more than 15 million installs of Cardboard apps from Google Play, we're excited to bring VR to even more people around the world," Google Software Engineer Brandon Wuest wrote in a blog post.

Google also updated its Cardboard software development kits for Android and Unity with two highly requested changes: drift correction and Unity performance.

"This update includes a major overhaul of the sensor fusion algorithms that integrate the signals from the gyroscope and accelerometer," Wuest wrote. "These improvements substantially decrease drift, especially on phones with lower-quality sensors."

The Cardboard SDK for Unity, meanwhile, now supports a "fully Unity-native distortion pass," which improves performance by avoiding all major plugin overhead and lets Cardboard apps work with Metal rendering on iOS and multi-threaded rendering on Android.

"All of this adds up to better VR experiences for your users," Wuest wrote.

You can also now explore Google Street View in Cardboard with the Street View app for Android and iOS.

Anyone can make their own Cardboard viewer from scratch with open designs that are available for download. If you're not into the whole DIY thing, you can also pick up a certified viewer like the Mattel View-Master and Zeiss VR One GX, which are available now.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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