Looking cool has never been Google’s strong suit. This is the engineer-led company that brought us Google Glass, after all. Yet some beanie-clad Mountain View designer seems to have had a vinyl-fueled revelation.
Google is late to the game of non-cardboard virtual reality headsets. Oculus, Samsung, HTC, and others have popularized sci-fi looking VR masks. So to standout, Google needed to put as much focus on the outside aesthetics of its new $79 Daydream headset as the inside specs.
Daydream launches with a slate grey woolen exterior, soft and cosy, so strapping it on feels more like settling into your living room than arriving at a laboratory. It’s perhaps the first VR headset to come in different colors, with snow-white and crimson options coming soon.
It all might seem a bit silly. You can’t actually see the outside of the headset when you’re inside it exploring outer space or teleporting around the globe. But alongside the chic new Google Home voice controller and Google Wifi routers, it starts to make sense. Google wants its devices to fit where you relax and play, not just where you work.
The Internet Of Things will be as much about lifestyle as computing power. The first step to getting you to embed its devices where you live is making them pretty enough to enhance, not detract from your decor.
