Oculus Quest 2 Preorders: Where To Buy, Release Date, And More

@basketballfan: No it's not, don't spread misinformation. The LCD screen in the Quest 2 is a MUCH better screen than what the Quest 1 had. Significantly higher resolution, as well as higher refresh rate.

The OLED screens used in Oculus headsets DO NOT run at the true-black levels OLED usually run at. They have to run it a little above black, to fix issues like black smear. So it might have been slightly darker than LCD, but not enough to care about. The LCD they're using for Quest 2 has other advantages, but neither of us are technical enough to go into details on that. Certain reviewers even say the colors on the original Quest were too over-saturated, and that the Quest 2's LCD is more realistic colors.

A Facebook login is a small price to pay, you don't even have to use Facebook, just set it all to private and don't use it for anything other than vr games.

@amaneuvering: oops

@warmblur: So what? This isn't anything new, or unusual, even in the gaming industry. Everything needs login accounts, and every company is collecting statistics on it's users.

If people who want Quest don't wanna use FB, they can create a bare-minimum account, and set everything to private, and not post or install FB apps on other devices. Other than gaming habits, there's not much else Facebook can get from users who do that.

@warmblur: Yea, I was just reading some of the stuff they can do, pretty shocking.

"Should the latter happen, Facebook is clear: You can kiss your purchased software goodbye. The same goes for anyone who enters a Facebook-branded VR social zone, like Facebook Horizons or Facebook Venues, and breaks a Facebook ToS in those spaces. (Facebook says it's still working out the kinks in these policies, in terms of whether offending users will face "30-day suspensions" and what kind of software restrictions those may entail.)

On top of those issues, my Quest 2 tests have expanded upon what Facebook previously announced in terms of how they'll moderate their Facebook-branded social spaces. Facebook Venues' beta includes a notice that the app, at all times for all users, performs a "rolling recording" of everything you see, say, and do within VR, so that you can tap a button to upload that footage and report other users' behavior. (Facebook insists this recording happens entirely locally on your device.)

Should you ever tap the "report" button, the app's terms confirm that Facebook is well within its rights to retain any data you upload for as long as they deem necessary, with no statute of limitations. A similar data-retention scenario emerges every single time you block or mute someone within VR. If a stranger approaches you and does something unwelcome, and you choose to proactively push back with built-in block or mute functions, Facebook may silently and invisibly sic a moderator upon the situation to see what happened and how you may have reacted or what you might have said or done in response.

Even worse, if someone "near" you in an official Facebook VR space blocks or reports a user, even if you're just minding your own business, your behavior (including motions and speech) may be tracked by these same silent, invisible Facebook moderators. That data can be stored on Facebook's servers indefinitely without you being notified.

If you'd like to learn whether anyone on Facebook's staff watched you within any of these apps and for how long, Facebook advises you to take off your headset and visit the catch-all URL of facebook.com/support for more information. From there, you have to figure out where exactly to file such a request. (So far, searches for Facebook Venues at that site turn up zero results.)

As we at Ars Technica know, that kind of constant data collection is a bonafide recipe for disaster. If you're looking to reduce stress on your VR apps' servers, Facebook, policies like these are a good start, because I certainly won't be using that app again."

I mean, holy shit.

@warmblur: It’s not