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It’s pretty clear that Oculus is working to make the Oculus Quest a full-fledged computing device that you can use wherever, whenever, and however you’d like. While it, of course, is marketed primarily as a way to experience VR games with a freedom of movement that most VR HMDs cannot offer, a recent slew of updates is proving that the Oculus Quest is more than meets the eye. This latest announcement doesn’t come from Oculus, but it works perfectly hand-in-hand with other recent updates for the system.
Firefox Reality, the virtual reality browser that launched last September for PC VR HMDs and Google Daydream headsets, has just made its first appearance on the Oculus Quest as well. This gives users the full freedom of browsing the web without restriction, all without having to take off their headsets first. Firefox Reality isn’t just some dinky old browser either, it’s an experience that’s built from the ground-up for virtual reality headsets and presents both the best of classic “2D” websites as well as a slew of new websites built with the WebVR standard in mind.
You can find Firefox Reality on the Oculus Store.
Most of the time, WebVR content will come in the form of native VR or 3D videos that can play in the browser without having to open an external application but, just as we’ve seen from HTML5’s amazing rollout over the years, is designed to offer more than just basic functionality of viewing videos.
As we’ve seen from other new versions of Firefox, Mozilla, the creator of Firefox, is focused both on speed and security. Since Firefox Reality is built around the idea that most users won’t have a keyboard hooked up to their headsets, even though the most recent Oculus update allows for Bluetooth keyboards to be paired to their Oculus Quest headsets. As such, Firefox Reality works either around voice dictation, in the form of a virtual assistant-type setup, or through the intuitively designed in-screen keyboard which can be hunt-and-pecked with the handy Touch controllers that ship with the Oculus Quest.
Aside from speed and intuitive design, Firefox Reality also includes Mozilla’s many privacy protection capabilities including Enhanced Tracking Protection, which blocks third-party cookies from ad networks that track your web usage.
All this goes perfectly with the Quest’s growing abilities and capabilities, which have seen constant improvement and additions in the mere two months it’s been on the shelf, as well as a solid response from consumers and critics alike. Even Amazon has jumped on board lately, offering up Prime Video VR on the Oculus Quest, which gives users the ability to sit in a giant virtual theater and watch everything available on Amazon’s Prime Video service, all without having to head to a physical theater or spend extra money.
The Oculus Quest is quickly proving to be the best possible way to experience anything on VR, from the latest games to the latest videos and movies, live experiences, and even hanging out with friends in a fully-customizable virtual space.