What are Reddit's favorite android apps in the category libraries and demo?

The Nvidia VR viewer is up on the google playstore. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nvidia.vrviewer

I tried it and the Witcher screenshots are phenomenal. I recommend anybody with a google cardboard or gear vr to try this app now. Even if you don't have a VR headset you can still just use your phone to see these 360 images.

By the way these screenshots are in insanely high resolution in 3d 360.

Nice, helpful summary. For devs just starting to think about VR, I'd also highly recommend checking out Google's free Cardboard Design Lab app which has flown totally under the radar of most people. It's a surprisingly useful set of basic considerations for designing in VR and only takes 10 or 15 minutes to go through. You actually see each point in action through the lenses which can demonstrate much better than text or pictures (especially stuff like 'Don't put the interface too close or it will be uncomfortable). Very good for beginners, it introduces these topics:

1. Using a Reticle
2. UI Depth & Eye Strain
3. Using Constant Velocity
4. Keeping the User Grounded
5. Maintaining Head Tracking
6. Guiding with Light
7. Leveraging Scale
8. Spatial Audio
9. Gaze Cues
10. Make it Beautiful

This is a great Jarvis voice..

Using Tasker you could easily read out whatever speech you want into a wave file. Then it's just the work of naming/importing into the Taranis...it's on my list of things to do...eventually...when I have lots of time.

It would be easier to do in windows but the voice license is quite a bit more expensive.

The Cardboard demo app is a great place to start. It has a cool but limited version of Google Earth, and also a list of recommended apps

After that, I'd recommend Tuscany, checking out a stereoscopic YouTube video, and Cardboard Camera. Have fun!

That's like counting every smartphone user as a VR user, because in theory they could use it for VR. In reality almost nobody even knows about the VR mode in Maps on Android, so it is not really a good measurement.

But just a few weeks ago the Google Cardboard app passed the one million installations milestone, seven months after it was released. It is safe to assume that everybody who installed it knew that this was a VR app and installed it for exactly that reason, making them actual VR users. Even if future growth will be only linear (which so far it wasn't), by the end of 2016 there would be 4.3 million installations.

I don't think you mean a QR code. A QR Code is just a specific type of barcode, and functions like any other barcode. The image carries encoded information, such as a website url or meta-data about the product it's printed on, which is read when the image is scanned. QR codes are just printed images, and can't be "linked" to hardware.

I think what you meant is whether or not there is a program that would let you use the crosshair to activate buttons. To answer that question, no, not universally. Some VR programs, for example Google's Cardboard App allow you to hold the crosshairs to select menu options. However, it varies from program to program.

That being said, there are a lot of cheap headsets that have buttons if you're using your smartphone as your headset. For example, Google's cheapest cardboard viewer

Edit: Rewording a couple sentences.

There is an Earth demo in the Cardboard demo app.

It's got only a few bookmarks, but you can "fly" to any other locations the hard way.

As with other cardboard apps, you either need to have a mouse plugged in (if using Daydream headset) or a cardboard viewer with a button to properly use it.

It's already possible with Google Cardboard (official Google Carboard app) :

• https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo

I don't think there is a version for HTC Vive or Oculus Rift (yet?).

I think it requires iOS. On iOS, Explorer is the compass icon second from the left (after Tutorial). On Android it looks like Google replaced Explorer with the Tour Guide demo that takes you around Versailles like you mentioned. (Google kept the former Explorer compass icon for Tour Guide.)

On iOS in the Explorer demo the first photosphere is a dinosaur skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History. Tapping the button brings you to a Frontiers of Flight museum exhibit, followed by an Endeavour space shuttle exhibit, Gueva del Indio in Puerto Rico, Gunnuhver Hot Springs in Iceland, and the Mars Spirit Rover.

• Apple App Store
• Google Play store

I use Google's Test DPC. It does the cloning thing.

Edit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc&hl=en&rdid=com.afwsamples.testdpc Install the app, configure work account, it can be same Gmail account as your primary account. This will enable some default work apps. You don't have to keep them all. I have Play Store and Play Services enabled. Now open work Play Store and install any app. It'll install separate from the already existing installation

If you have your own cardboard, you can test "Cardboard Design Lab" by Google, which introduce VR best practices:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.cardboard.apps.designlab

Uhm, ~~haven't gotten around to trying it yet~~ it does seem to be gone, but in the screenshot on the Play Store page for the Cardboard app, the Earth icon is still shown, and it's also listed as an included demo in the description...

It's still present in version 1.8, and I guess one place that should be legitimate to get it from is its ApkMirror page.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc

I remember playing with this a while back and should really have a look into playing with it simply because it's nerdy.

Work Vs Play time thou sucks.

GSMArena says yep. Like the other commenter says, try to download the official Cardboard demo app. Its a good first thing to try anyway, and it won’t be available if your phone specs aren’t supported.

Hey all. Well if you're a developer this app here is pretty damn useful

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desarrollodroide.repos&hl=en

Has a list of android libraries on github and a sample you can immediately try

I've used this before and really liked the output - but as of late, it isn't getting used by my reading app despite being the default TTS engine:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cereproc.William&hl=en

Which reading app do you use?

So I played around with it a little and everything works just fine.

Except I can't change the resolution in photo-mode, only in 360 mode. I wonder why that is?

EDIT: So yeah turns out "Super Resolution" is not enabled in Mirrors Edge. That's a shame because that's the feature I am most interested in and would mesh well with the games clean look, oh well. It will however be enabled in the Witcher 3.

My first First 360 image

You can also view the 360 images in the new NVIDIA VIEWER on your phone (doesn't have to be in cardboard)

What exactly do you expect to happen? The QR code just changes the settings the Cardboard SDK uses to render the two images, so if you start e.g. the Cardboard demo app after you have scanned the code, it will render the images at a distance that matches the lens distance in Cardboard v2. The QR code isn't a link, so it doesn't start any app, instead it influences the behavior of the Cardboard apps you start yourself.

Do you (or does he) have access to an Android Phone? If so, you can download the Cardboard App or simply use Google Maps' VR option to see a quick demo of what VR can do with everyday information. VR is beyond beneficial for architecture, it is a required tool. :-)

No. But try Google Cardboard apk. You can use your headset without Daydream for 360 VR stuff like pics and videos.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo

Did you install the codec? I also had a black screen once with one specific video file, probably something to do with the specific encoding options used. Usually it works fine though, did you try any other files?

Phonearena doesn't mention a gyro, so no. Easiest way to see if a phone will run Cardboard is to download the Cardboard app from Google Play. If you can't download the app, or if it doesn't respond to rotating your phone correctly, then your phone won't work with any other Cardboard SDK app (most of them).

Well there's your answer, unfortunately. It's also possible that MX Player's HEVC support is simply not sufficiently mature to run on SD805 even though it's supported.

You should consider installing these plug-ins for ARMv7: NEON and ffmpeg.

The Google Cardboard app is a good place to start: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo

It has some good demos, and it suggests other Cardboard compatible apps, such as the Caaaaardboard! game ($1.99): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dejobaangames.caaaaardboard

There's also a Google Cardboard subreddit: /r/GoogleCardboard

There's actually a cardboard app that's a VR instruction (with demos) on how to develop for VR. More best practises than a full development guide, but a pretty cool idea (as it demonstrates how things are bad as it tells you). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.cardboard.apps.designlab

It's been working for me well enough. The only problems are that the skip forward and back functionality is poor and if my wireless signal drops out I have to restart the video on my phone if I want to be able to control playback later on. You have to make sure you have this plugin installed as well as es file explorer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.chromecast

I'd rate this functionality for this app a 4/5 but would definitely switch if videostream provided this function since as yet es file explorer is the only app I know of which will allow chromecasting of files stored on an android phone.

Smelled like … victory.

Below one of the first reviews for the Cardboard app on the Play store from An Nguyen, written when no clones were available and Google suggested to order a large pizza to use the box for the thin, but strong cardboard required to build one yourself. Now I finally have a reason to quote it.

> The most misleading VR experience I've ever had

> After I read about the Cardboard app, I immediately went to the best pizza place in LA (Little Ceasars), and bought the biggest pizza that was packed in the highest quality cardboard material that is known to mankind. I also acquired the best kind of rubber band and magnets on the market for the project. The hardest component to get was the lenses, but I was able to obtain a pair from the beer bottles in my fridge. The explanation and instruction was extremely clear and easy to follow. I was able to get my Cardboard VR ready within about 30 mins. My cardboard VR worked flawlessly, for about 5 minutes. After that, I kept smelling pizza, and couldn't find where the source was. After using the goggle for a while, the area surrounding my eyes and nose get very greasy. That's right! Greasy! I hope my review gives you a little insight of the experience.

This video doesn't show the VR street view mode in the Google maps app, but the street view demo that was part of older versions of the Cardboard.app. It presented a ride through some streets in Paris, but you couldn't deviate from the path or pick another location, only start, stop and look around. This demo is no longer part of Cardboard.app, but the Google Earth part still is.

> Solid explorer also has a plugin that lets you chromecast movies from the phone itself.

So does ES:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.chromecast

So if drag and drop is the main difference, then I'll stick with ES I think. The Solid GUI looks a little over-designed for my tastes.

Thank you sir. I actually stumbled upon this app's demo after downloading this demo app for devs - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desarrollodroide.repos

Kind of off topic but this thing is fu**ing awesome. Can try tons of different layouts/skins before committing to build.

It usually only occurs when you stop l setup an account from your company. They have to have a managed device setup. It's not just a second account.

If you want to do a second https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc on your own, you could try

The barcode on the back just encodes the data from the front. You can download a barcode scanning app for your phone and read it if you want to know what it says.

Something like these for Apple an Android.

Go in to the settings and make sure PDF 417 is enabled.

Work profiles on Android have been a god-send. You can set it up for yourself, define profiles, etc with Test DPC from Google. I'm pretty sure iPhones have a similar feature on the latest IOS.

Your coworkers figure out you're not reachable after-hours eventually. It's such a sanity saver not having those damned notifications going off on your own time.

Fairly old post which I found by looking for something else completely, but if you want more control than JUST blocking fingerprint... You can use the Test DPC app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc https://github.com/googlesamples/android-testdpc

It's for testing admin restrictions, and can be a pain to set up if you don't know what you are doing, but you can do things like enforcing 'work' policies such as (depending on android version):

• Force password complexity requirements
• Force lockscreen timeouts
• Disable Secure Camera
• Disable Secure Notifications
• Disable Trust Agents (Bluetooth unlock for example)
• Disable Face / Fingerprint / Iris unlock
• Install custom CA certificates
• Disable screenshots
• Set up app restrictions (blocking certain apps)
• Force accessibility services settings
• Set an always-on VPN
• Manage app permissions by policy
• Require a separate password to launch the settings control app

Note this works by installing itself as a Device Policy Controller (commonly used for work phones to disable the camera for example): If you forget the password if you lock it, and did something like disallow VPN config + enable always-on VPN, then changed VPN settings on your server... you'll have to factory reset the phone.

There's a workaround you can try using the app Test DPC, though beware that it's made for dev testing so make sure you have backups and whatnot.

You can use Google's Test DPC demo app to setup your own work profile.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc

Or use something like the Island app which provides a nice UI for creating/managing the work profile.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.island

I use the Cognex app because I've had great experiences with their hardware scanners, and the app is super simple on the front end while also having a crazy amount of tweaking available in the settings.

I used the Cognex Barcode Scanner [Andoid | iOS], though I'm sure most others are capable.

Try Cognex Barcode Scanner!

Then after installing it, go to 'Result Settings', toggle 'Open URL Automatically' to True, and change 'Search and URL' to 'Dedicated App'.

Once you have saved your details in your browser, the workflow is the same as iPhone where you scan the QR code and just click 'Check-In'.

As a bonus, you can see all the previous URLs that have been scanned in the 'History' and even add frequent places to 'Favorites' so you can check in directly without joining the crowd of people holding up their phones to the QR code!

wym you dont have a multipurpose optical scanner phone app for machine readable linear information encoding??
if ur on android try this one its the best ive tried so far

I used to use IVONA until it stopped being maintained. I now use Heather Scottish Text to Speech Voice from CereProc. The demo video on Google Play is out of date, you can hear the latest version, as well as other regional English voices and a few non-English ones, on their website.

Google Earth was the first demo Google released when they released google Cardboard, it was google earth VR running on mobileVR. It do works take a look at google cardboard demo. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo

> And I use them the most, when that is not possible, closest to them. So I don't think I could be of much help. Maybe try miui 9 :P

u ded 2 mi lad

> HTC does, pixel don't.

Oh, good. -_-

> Otoh, you can do remap it with adb.

Pfft... and then Magisk to hide the root...

> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc&hl=enuse above if you want to do on a stockish rom.

This is actually the least of my problems. Google's handling of sync of anything which is not a Google account is completely broken. If I delete an event on PC, it won't go away. I need to open Outlook (the Office 365 paid software app), go to all folders, deleted, find the deleted event, delete it from there, so that it doesn't appear in my phone. Even in that case, a local cache doesn't get overwritten, and it appears eventually.

The only app which has its own Exchange is Outlook for Android. Literally the only issue with that app is that its widget is a bit meh and I prefer the Digical app because it's closer to Windows 10 (PC/Phone/Xbox whatever) app with more layout and easy navigation. But Digical uses Google Sync.

Once upon a time, K9 Mail used to do its own sync, but now it uses Google EAS. I think now only Aqua Mail (paid) and Samsung Mail do this. (Blue Mail claims to do so but sucks arse).

>What? Android is not Samsung's.

Never said it is. But we are talking about Android's success and that has to be attributed to the OEMs. They are the ones who tried things both in software and hardware without native support. They made android interesting.

>I have come to realise PA and Lineage aren't for me.

And I use them the most, when that is not possible, closest to them. So I don't think I could be of much help. Maybe try miui 9 :P

>It is a 100% guaranteed product of non stock(+) ROMs which is not the case otherwise.

And yet AOSP roms are not that rage either.

>Doesn't Pixel allow you to assign commands to it? IIRC, HTC 11 allowed mapping to commands.

HTC does, pixel don't.

>Just that Samsung sent an update that specifically blocked remapping of the Bixby button is what is a bit irksome.

Because it was just an hack. Hacks uses loopholes which might be problematic later. Otoh, you can do remap it with adb.

>There's the ability to pin 3 different email accounts from the same app to the home screen and the app only shows up with that account.

You can do that on android too, natively in most of the heavily themed roms. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc&hl=en use above if you want to do on a stockish rom.

So, it seems like you can never know enough about these little spying devices.

Here's an alternative produced by Google(open source) in order to 'test' your application. But as far as I know it doesn't have the 'God Mode' of 'Island' which allows disabling(freezing) system applications on the main profile.

TestDPC (Play Store)

Sure, here's the Google Play Store link and here's the iTunes link. Enjoy!

I use the Virtual Reality goggles of a generic brand, and a Samsung Galaxy S7 (not the edge one). Admittedly the goggles are cheap but it's basically very similar to the cardboard app.

Also, I should mention that the default cardboard vr demo app (with the flat polygons, seagulls etc.) works very good on this setup. The images in the demo are aligned well, no double vision or eye strain. So maybe the issue is with the YouTube videos?

Just install a barcode scanner app and scan the QR code OP has posted. All the info like the passenger's full name, Aadhaar number, PNR etc will be displayed.

You can try the Google Cardboard app. When it wants you to scan a QR code on a headset you can skip that step. When you move the phone around, the view shown on the screen should update with almost no lag, and shouldn't move if you're not moving the phone. Thanks for checking!

Actually it seems like it's not the gyroscope that's the problem, it's something related to Google VR Services maybe. See my edit in the post above.

For real 3D geometry there should only be double vision for things that are close up, like very roughly 2' or closer. Cardboard Design Lab has some examples of what should be comfortable and what isn't in VR. Good VR design avoids having things get close enough that it'd cause a problem.

Stereo video has a fixed IPD that might not match yours, so double vision is often more of a problem there, but still it should only be for close up things.

Google has a small interactive course on making a good Google Cardboard VR app. The principles can apply to any VR though really.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.cardboard.apps.designlab

you can download different voice engines, some are much better than the default and not robotic.

this one sounds the most natural while reading ebooks

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cereproc.William

Try installing the codec pack https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mxtech.ffmpeg.v7_neon&hl=en

I'm able to play x265/1080p content without any problems using MX Player that way. VLC stutters like you mentioned.

I think that the 5 million number is from Google Play installs of the google cardboard app, which currently suggests between 5,000,000 - 10,000,000 installs. I think the assumption is that it is referencing all types of players, so yes it includes gear VR if it requires the google cardboard app.

Barcode Scanners by Manatee Works is significantly faster and has zero bloat, it reads barcodes and that's it.

It's also on Windows Phone, iOS, Blackberry and Android.

Could You check if after update during using google cardboard the image is still so shaky? issue To check this, you don't need to have cardboard viewer. Just install the software Google Cardboard and please check if it still shake. It would be very helpful.

Cardboard Design Lab is the app I use to showcase Cardboard to first timers. It uses spatial sound so you need to use ear buds to fully appreciate it.

Cardboard Design Lab is intended to provide UI guidelines to developers but the second section, Immersion, is also just a cool experience. It's really fun watching people ooh and ahh over it.

This is clearly a 3d virtual reality best viewed with the Oculus Rift or other VR device. Which I do not posses. So unless there's Cardboard for Windows Phone, I'm shit out of luck.

Grab the official Cardboard app, go to the menu -> Settings - Switch Viewer. That'll open your camera and look for a QR code. Open the ViewMaster, find the QR at the bottom center. The Cardboard app should now say 'configured for View-Master', and all apps should now have the correct FOV and IPD for the VM.

Actually, we've implemented this feature according to Google's UX guidelines for VR apps. You can check Google's demo app and see that they propose to use similar "light" navigation markers. We decided that map pins will look better in our environment (they have somewhat cartoon-ish look).

From [Tinydeal Cardbord basics, tips and modifications (magnets, centering, grease protection)](/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/2ivsls/tinydeal_cardbord_basics_tips_and_modifications/):

> Google recommends neodymium magnets, while those from Tinydeal are regular and much weaker magnets. The magnets aren't particularly useful anyway, since almost no apps support them, but if you want to use them, you may have to modify your Cardboard. I use one of the officially supported phones and had tried it with different magnets before. From this I knew that the position of the magnets has to be very precise to work as a trigger. The Tinydeal magnets were too weak and too far away, but worked if I placed the phone slightly higher. So I extended the holes for both magnets by about 5mm/0.2inch downwards and everything worked fine. You have to extend both holes, because the magnets hold each other in position, and if the are pulled too far apart, one of them will flip over. As a side effect the magnet became easier to grab due to the extra space above it. The Tutorial part of the Cardboard app can be used to try the magnets. Try first without Cardboard by moving the magnet across your phone with your fingers to determine if it works at all. If not, you can simply double tap the screen instead of pulling the magnet to trigger something in the Cardboard app.

Very good info, thanks for the detailed write up.

So with the Cardboard.app and the "exhibit" 3d model viewer demo, I have a nearly perfect dual image, I see two clean, crisp 2d floating models side by side, almost as if I was looking at my phone without the cardboard viewer. If I close either eye, one of the 2 models disappears, but I don't lose clarity.

If I use the "tour guide" demo I end up with some serious overlap of the two images, which looks like im cross eyed even when im not. Everything kindof blurs together.

I believe the IPD on my cardboard is the standard 60mm.. I'm headed home now and I'll check out that profile generator, I'll let you know how that goes. I'm glad you mentioned changing the IPD setting, or I would have just been modifying random fields and hoping for the best.

If that fails I'll try moving the lenses - at which point I might just make a new viewer rather than chopping up mine any more... however I measured my IPD with a ruler in the mirror, and im almost exactly matched up with the center of my lenses, so I don't think that is the problem.. we'll see though!

Thanks again - will report back shortly.

EDIT: If anyone else stumbles across this post and has a d-scope pro cardboard, I'll save you the trouble of doing this step: ILD Test Sheet

ES File Explorer has a chromecast plugin. You can browse an SMB share and cast videos straight to the chromecast. It's basic, but gives you pause and rewind/fastforward controls.

Also, I know synology has an app to play videos straight from their NAS to the chromecast, other vendors may as well.

I am partial to the Cereproc engines. I'm currently using the "Heather" Scottish engine, and I think it's probably one of the best I have heard. The only issues Ihave is the pronunciations of some of the words, but other than that the flow is pretty nice.

It is a pay-for one though, you can find it Here

Thanks for the suggestion. Snackbars are not as backwards compatible as I'm aiming for the app but are definitely a better option for what I'm looking for. Might build out both and make the Snackbars the default for higher OS devices.

Sidenote- I stumble upon this library in this Devloper Demo app - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desarrollodroide.repos Kind of off topic but this might be the single greatest demo tool I've ever used. Tons of open source libraries/layouts on demand

I have the same router as the [OP](/u/MeditatedMind) and just to let you both know (I actually don't use this and have smb mounts/BubbleUPnP server), there's a Chromecast plugin for EStrongs

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.chromecast

I am aware that you focus on the current state of the "Oculus VR platform", but to give you a few numbers: Oculus just reported they sold 100K DK2, so by now a total of about 200K Rifts are out there. A few weeks ago the official Cardboard app passed the one million installations milestone, about seven months after it's initial release. I will not seriously compare the experience you get from Cardboard with anything that has the name Oculus written on it, but if you look at the "not just Oculus VR platform", five times the number of all Rifts is not "barely squeaks in". And this completely ignores China that doesn't have access to the play store, but where 3D goggles are sold in numbers that currently pale all Oculus sales.

Your argument still stands if Oculus never opens their SDK to other phones or operating systems. But that is not very likely, if they are actually aiming for "VR platform".