???? – 2021retired
Android Oreo
“A sweet little OS that kept your battery alive longer than most of us keep New Years resolutions.”
“Folded flat, opened worlds, and cost less than lunch.”
Google Cardboard was a virtual reality platform built around a fold-out cardboard viewer into which you slid your smartphone — a gloriously low-cost trick to get everyone interested in VR. You could buy one pre-made or build your own from Google's published specs, then run Cardboard apps, drop the phone in, and gaze through the lenses. Born from the 20% time of two French engineers at the Google Cultural Institute in
The little viewer that could shipped over 15 million units by November 2019, and Cardboard-enabled apps had been downloaded more than 160 million times by March 2017. By 2021 it was discontinued — not murdered, just gently set down after proving its point that VR belonged to everyone. It leaves behind an SDK that reached Android and iOS, and VR View, which let developers weave VR content into the web itself.
Spotted something wrong? Every fact on this page traces to a dated source. Fixes make the graveyard better for everyone.
“A sweet little OS that kept your battery alive longer than most of us keep New Years resolutions.”
“Rode cheaper than a coffee and never once blamed traffic on the schedule.”
“Born for a birthday, gone by spring: Mario never overstayed a party.”