Do you know who won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1941? Can you guess how many times the Boston Celtics have won the NBA championships?

I couldn't until I started playing QuizUp.

This incredibly fun app, with 3.5 million users according New York Magazine's Kevin Roose, generates hundreds of topics a day for endless playthrough. It's the fastest growing iPhone game of all time.

Questions relating to business, technology, movies and TV. Players can even request a new topic for Quizup to add.

The setup process is easy and and you won't be able to put it down. You can download QuizUp from the App Store here and immediately forget about Candy Crush.

Here's the start screen for Quiz Up. Start playing by syncing with your Facebook account or email.

This is the welcome area. Pick a category to start playing.

Once you pick a category, QuizUp picks an opponent for you. Competitors can be friends of gamers from around the world.

Is the stock market a bubble?

Liz Ann Sonders doesn't think so.

"The growing cries that we've reached sentiment or valuation extreme worthy of past tops, or a bubble at its bursting point, seems a bit premature,"wrote Sonders recently.

While there are warning signs for the economy and the markets, most signs actually suggest that fears of a bubble are way overblown.

Sonders, the chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, gave her brief Market Snapshot presentation earlier this week charting both the good and bad things about the market today.

While her message can't be characterized as a "raging bull," her evenhanded message is nevertheless likely to leave you feeling more sanguine about the current state of the markets.

Thanks to Charles Schwab for giving us permission to feature this presentation.

Here's everything going that's relatively bad today.

Here's everything that's relatively good.

Spending cuts are holding back the economy.

If you're looking to up your Twitter game, TrackMaven just released a study that may be able to help you.

According to the study, researchers scoured over 1,423 Twitter accounts and 1.7 million tweets to determine how users can get their tweets retweeted.

A retweet means someone took your tweet and then pressed a button that sends out your tweet on their timeline so that their followers can see it.

Have you ever wondered if tweeting in ALL CAPS would help you get more attention? How about using exclamation points?! Should you use the word 'retweet' instead of its abbreviated 'RT'? What's the best time of day to tweet?

All of these questions and more are answered here. You're in for a surprise.

The Retweet Report from TrackMaven

Here's a short history of the retweet.

And what's coming up...

Before British photographer Luke Casey settled in Hong Kong, he spent three and a half months traveling by boat. It was only later that he realized how much faster he could see the world — sort of — by visiting one theme park in nearby Shenzhen.

Window of the World features incredibly detailed reproductions of 130 major tourist attractions, some life-size and some much smaller, squeezed into 118 acres.

Created in 1994, the park has become a popular destination in itself.

“I have always found tourist destinations interesting in that for the majority of visitors, it is simply about getting your photo with that landmark, buying a souvenir and then getting back on the bus,” Casey told Business Insider. “Why visit those places for real when you can get all those photos and souvenirs in one place?”

There are approximately 150 replicas of world sights in Window Of The World. Here you can see Basilica Di San Marco in the park's replica of Venice's Piazza San Marco.

Part of the allure is seeing all of the landmarks in one place. Here you can see the riverside view of Piazza San Marco, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

At 354 feet, the park's version of the Eiffel Tower is one third the size of the real thing.

Forget about who makes the best smartphone. What company is innovating the most? 

While there were dozens of new smartphone launches this year, a handful of devices experimented with new features that might actually be useful.

Here's a ranking of the most innovative phones to launch in 2013.

#10 The iPhone 5S was an incremental improvement over last year's model.

The iPhone 5S is the best smartphone for most people, but it didn't exactly push the envelope over last year's iPhone 5. The iPhone 5S looks and feels the same as the iPhone 5, but has a faster processor and a fingerprint sensor that lets you unlock the device without a passcode. 

Those are two nice features, but they're not profoundly innovative.

#9 The BlackBerry Q10 is the best keyboard phone you can buy.

Some tech snoots might laugh when confronted with a keyboard-equipped phone, but there are still plenty of people who want one. BlackBerry is the best at making keyboard phones, and the one on the BlackBerry Q10 is its best yet. 

#8 The Sony Xperia Z won't break if you drop it in the toilet.

For those of you prone to destroying your phones, the Xperia Z from Sony might be a good choice. It's not shatterproof, but it can withstand being submerged in liquid for several minutes.

Have you ever noticed how everyone you know has "Candy Crush Saga" and at least one variation of "Angry Birds" on their phone?

The rise of free apps supported by in-app purchases has led to a seemingly exponential growth in the number and reach of games made for Android, iPhone, and other smartphone platforms.

This year, app developers will bring in $26 billion in revenue from app stores. In 2017, that number is expected to hit $77 billion.

It turns out that the addicting games everyone is downloading are capturing a pretty big portion of that — the biggest players are making over $1 billion in revenue from individual games. We looked at PocketGamer and companies' individual financial disclosures to identify the firms that have surpassed the $100 million revenue mark from games that people can't get enough of.

Gameloft brought in over $100 million in revenue in the first half of 2013 with a combination of games based on movie licenses and original games inspired by console hits like "Grand Theft Auto" and "Call of Duty."

Notable games:

Thor: The Dark World

Price: Free

Available on: Android, iOS

Gangstar Vegas

Price: $2.99

Available on: Android, iOS

Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation

Price: $4.99

Available on: Android, iOS

Rovio keeps cranking out successful variations of its now-classic "Angry Birds" series, whose popularity have turned the company's iconic birds and pigs into a merchandising goldmine. It's expected to grow from last year's revenue base of $195 million.

Notable games:

Angry Birds Star Wars II

Price: $0.99 (free on Android)

Available on: Android, iOS, Windows Phone

The Croods

Price: Free

Available on: Android, iOS, Kindle

Disney's "Where's My Water?" series has brought in over 240 million downloads (with an estimated revenue of $1.66 per user) and spawned a line of merchandise, much like Rovio's "Angry Birds." With games like "Tiny Death Star" also doing well in the App Store, Disney should easily bring in over $300 million from mobile games in 2013.

Notable games:

Where's My Water? 2

Price: Free

Available on: Android, iOS

Star Wars: Tiny Death Star

Price: Free

Available on: Android, iOS, Windows Phone

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse

Price: $9.99

Available on: iOS

Even the world's most famous leaders had to start somewhere.

In high school, many of today's top CEOs were athletes. Others were known for being nerdy and incredibly bright. Not surprisingly, most were considered hard workers and many were already laying the foundations for their future businesses.

We combed through old high school yearbooks to find photos of some of the most respected CEOs in business. You might recognize some of them, but others are disguised by long hair or a lack thereof.

And if you guessed Steve Jobs for the image above — good job. You're right.

Bill Ackman circa 1984

Pershing Square Capital Management's CEO attended Horace Greeley High School in his wealthy hometown of Chappaqua, N.Y.

Ackman was a member of the National Honor Society and a self admitted "cocky kid." During his junior year, Ackman bet his father $2,000 (all of his Bar Mitzvah money) that he would get a perfect 800 on the verbal portion of the S.A.T.

Steve Ballmer circa 1972

In his freshman year of high school, Ballmer won a scholarship to Detroit Country Day School, a private and rigorous high school. When he first arrived at the new school, the future Microsoft CEO was a full year behind in math coursework, the New York Times reported.

It didn't take Ballmer long to catch up, though. He soon exceeded his peers, and enrolled in college-level math classes at night. He also was a member of the track team, mainly competing in shot put while also running an occasional quarter-mile.

Lloyd Blankfein circa 1971

Goldman Sach's chairman and CEO grew up in Brooklyn, where he attended Thomas Jefferson High School. He graduated in 1971 as the class valedictorian.

According to the school's 1971 yearbook, Blankfein was a member of the varsity swimming team (he swam the 400-yard freestyle for the relay team) and captain of the "It's Academic" team for two years.

The average person living in a city is estimated to see more than 5,000 advertising messages each day. In order for a brand's message to be effective amidst all that noise, its advertising needs to be not only clever and visually appealing, but memorable and unique in its approach, as well.

But while consumers know this sort of advertising when they see it, the thought and strategy that brands and their agencies use to strike the right emotional chord might not be immediately obvious. That's why the Interactive Advertising Bureau took a closer look at the most successful digital campaigns of 2013, which it rewarded with its IAB Mixx awards.

To do so, the IAB asked a group of industry experts to help figure out just what it was that made such an impression on the people who saw stellar 2013 campaigns like the Coke video chat machines that connected Pakistanis with Indians and Axe body spray's Susan Glenn ads that followed a man's pursuit of "the one who got away."

While the ads succeeded for different reasons, they all had two things in common: great storytelling and strong visuals.

"Susan Glenn," Axe

In an effort to reverse its well-earned reputation as a brand for misogynist men who hope to control women, Axe created a campaign aimed at flipping the script by showing the power women have over men. To do this, Axe and its agency, BBH New York, surreptitiously went around the internet planting the seeds for a viral meme by the name of "Susan Glenn."

On Tumblrs, slang dictionaries, and message boards, Axe representatives described "Susan Glenn" as the one super attractive, cool woman every man has lusted after but never had the courage to ask out on a date. The Unilever brand ultimately revealed it was behind the meme with a commercial starring Kiefer Sutherland as a forlorn adult wishing he'd had the guts to approach his Susan Glenn, depicted as an otherworldly high-school girl who sent everyone she encountered into a daze. The commercial encouraged men to wear Axe body spray and "Fear no Susan Glenn."

Why It Worked

The Axe ad was successful because the brand listened to its customer base of frustrated adolescents and young men and found a fundamental truth: most of the brand's desired customers seemed to know (or had at least seen) a woman they desperately wanted, but didn't know how to approach. In creating "Susan Glenn," Axe was able to use this truth to present itself as a brand that both understands and provides the antidote to the anxieties of its customers in the 15-21 year-old male demographic.

"Susan Glenn is a fantastic example of modern storytelling across different media," said Susan Credle, chief creative officer at the advertising agency Leo Burnett. "The team created a conversation that was just waiting to be had through a simple creative idea: who is or was your Susan Glenn? A breathtaking piece of film took this conversation to the masses."

"The Beauty Inside," Intel and Toshiba

"The Beauty Inside" was a six-part, 30-minute online film made by Intel, Toshiba, and their agency, Pereira O'Dell, to stress the importance of inner beauty — not just with regard to human beings, but the Intel chips inside every Toshiba laptop. 

The story centered on a character named Alex, who wakes up every morning in a different body, and falls in love with a woman named Leah. Because Alex was a different person every day, Intel and Toshiba invited the public to try out for roles in the series and to film themselves saying certain lines of dialogue, which were then included in the series.

The videos, which included beautiful cinematography and a touching, happy ending, generated more than 70 million views worldwide and an approval rate of 97% on YouTube.

This year we found the coolest small businesses in New York, Austin, New Orleans, Detroit, Seattle, and D.C., but small businesses in many other American cities are continuing to innovate like never before.

These up-and-comers—like a floating island restaurant, a vegan strip club, and a pirate supply shop— are shaking up the food and retail industries.

Here's our year-end roundup of the 50 hottest small businesses around the U.S.

Bearded Bastard

Online, based in Austin, Tex.

What it is: A new brand of mustache wax.

What makes it cool: The man known as Jeremiah Newton, who also sports an impressive face full of hair, started Bearded Bastard to help soften the burliest of beards and tame the unruliest of mustaches.

Products include the Woodsman mustache wax, Woodsman beard oil, and a natural shave oil, but the new Austin-based company is developing many new man-inspired oils and tonics, which will be available soon.

Big Gay Ice Cream

125 E. 7th Street and 61 Grove Street, New York, N.Y.

What it is: A gay ice cream parlor.

What makes it cool: Big Gay Ice Cream started in 2009 as the Big Gay Ice Cream truck—a concept that became so popular that the founders put down permanent roots in both the East and West Village.

BGIC, which is known for its soft-serve and shakes, whips up cool flavor combos with ingredients like crushed Nilla wafers, pumpkin butter, and key lime curd, but even cooler are the names they give their concoctions. Nothing's more fun than ordering a "Mexican Affo'gay'to" with extra whip.

Blacksmith

1018 Westheimer Road, Houston, Tex.

What it is: A renegade coffeehouse.

What makes it cool: Blacksmith is a coffeehouse with a rock star attitude. It pays homage to Queen, and has a photo of lead singer Freddie Mercury on the wall. Any time a Queen song plays in the shop, the first customer in line gets their drink for free. As they say, “When Queen plays, Freddie pays!”

According to a new survey by online beauty retailer escentual.com, men and women have different ideas about what features make a woman beautiful.

1,000 men and women in the UK were asked to choose the best features of famously beautiful actresses, singers, and models to build the perfect female face.

The men surveyed prefer blonde hair with full lips, strong cheekbones, and a petite nose, taking Shakira's blonde hair, Miranda Kerr's nose, and Angelina Jolie's cheekbones and full lips to build their ideal woman.

Women, on the other hand, preferred a stronger nose and forehead with strong brows and narrow bone structure. They picked Keira Knightley's cheekbones, Cara Delevingne's eyebrows, Blake Lively's nose, Natalie Portman's forehead, as well as Freida Pinto's dark hair. Women also went with full lips, but chose Scarlett Johansson's pout over Angelina Jolie's.

Both genders agreed that actress Mila Kunis had the most alluring eyes (52% of men and 51% of women), and that Megan Fox had the most attractive, defined chin.

"Interestingly, the faces are made up of a mix of different ages — 38-year-old Angelina Jolie was men's preferred choice for cheekbones and pout while 21-year-old Cara Delevingne was the women's top choice for eyebrows," Emma Leslie, the beauty editor at escentual.com, said of the research. "Meanwhile, Shakira, 36, had the men's preferred hairstyle and a 44-year-old Jennifer Aniston’s was their preferred forehead shape."

Of course, both faces chosen by UK participants were extremely similar in that all of the chosen features were from white women and showed very little diversity, with the exception of both Shakira and Frieda Pinto's hair.

SEE ALSO: Men In The Philippines Will Go To Great Lengths For Beauty

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In what sounds like the craziest party ever, a bunch of California teens allegedly broke into a multi-million dollar mansion, invited all their friends, and stole $1 million worth of stuff after trashing the home, according to KTLA 5 News.

The break-in reportedly took place in November, when the homeowner was out of town. High  school students supposedly noticed that the home, which was for sale, was empty and announced a party in the mansion's backyard on Twitter, Lt. Arthur Scott of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Industry Station said in a press conference yesterday.

The teens allegedly trashed the house and stole more than $1 million in property, including a stuffed snow leopard, suit of armor, scuba gear, and multiple Versace suits, KTLA 5 News reports.

So far, 14 minors and one 18-year-old adult have been arrested for allegedly breaking into the gated home last month.

The five bedroom home in the La Habra Heights neighborhood is currently listed on real estate website Redfin for just under $7 million, where it's described as a "European inspired masterpiece." It definitely looks like the perfect place to throw an illegal party.

And for those curious, here's the stuffed snow leopard the teens allegedly stole:

SEE ALSO: Eccentric Billionaire David Murdock Is Selling His Bel Air Mansion For $30 Million

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Instagram has a new messaging feature called Instagram Direct.

Instagram Direct lets you send photos and videos directly to up to 15 of your followers. You can then send text messages to each other and see in real time if someone in the group likes it.

Want to see how it works? Here's a quick tour of Instagram Direct.

Here is the main page of the Instagram app. You can see incoming messages from Instagram Direct by tapping the icon on the top right of your screen.

After clicking it, the app will take you this page. Pick a picture to send.

Find the person you want to send the photo to. Tap the right side once to check it. Then tap the green "Send to" bar at the bottom.

A couple weeks ago, I flew to Beijing on a Saturday to speak at conference.  

I'd never been to China or even Asia before, so I decided to use the opportunity to see some other parts of the other side of the world.

So, Monday morning, I woke up at 4:30 A.M. and headed to Beijing Capital airport (PEK) for an early morning flight 800 miles south to a city near Shanghai called Hangzhou.

To get there, I flew Hainan Airlines – a domestic carrier.

In many ways, the experience was just like flying a US carrier from New York to Chicago, also an 800 mile flight. But there were some key differences.

I got to the airport before having breakfast. So I stopped at this place for a dumpling filled with mystery meat. I regretted it.

My gate looked like La Guardia during the holidays.

I got to the airport so early because, according to Flight Stats, 80% of all flights in China leave late. I heard only the first flights out leave on time.

Most people would rather stub their toe than get into a tub of ice. But it's worth it. We all know ice can reduce inflammation and lessen joint pain, and that it feels good on sore muscles. But extreme drops in body temperature – in an ice bath or a cold shower – are like another form of exercise that burns calories and fat, gives focus, and can lower your heart rate.

Starting Out

I like to make ice baths part of an exercise circuit. First, I'll lift or swim at a rate of high exertion, then I go straight into the ice, up to the neck. I go right back to the activity, then into the ice, and repeat a few times. Thermal regulation is an extremely energy-consuming process in our body, meaning this circuit requires an enormous amount of effort – and will leave you exhausted. If you don't have an ice tub in your gym, look for an outside body of water in cold months, or fill an ice bath and get in immediately following your workout.

Running Cold

It'll take some time to build up the stamina for a full-body ice bath. You should start with cold showers. I always take one after a workout to stop sweating. Once you're able to handle a really cold shower, dump a bag of ice in the bathtub and get in. As you build up tolerance, focus on your breath, distract yourself with music, and keep a clock nearby to watch your progress. If you're still struggling to stay in, try it in the morning – your tolerance is a lot lower later in the day because your body is tired and not prepared for the shock.

The Other Benefits of Ice

People have the big misconception that if you are exposed to cold, you store fat, but you actually burn fat unbelievably well at lower temperatures. Studies have shown that prolonged exposure to cold can activate brown fat, which will help burn the white fat in your body, helping to keep you slim.

Related:

• Why You Should Skip the Ice Bath
• The Best Juice for Sore Muscles
• Find Out How Caffeine Can Fuel Your Muscles
• 17 Stretches to Prevent Injuries
• 5 Ways to Get Fit Without Leaving Your House

SEE ALSO: Take A Cold Shower: It's Good For You

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The blog "Prison Photography" recently reported on a phenomenal Facebook album of colorful photos of American prisoners in the '80s taken by photographer Stephen Milanowski.

Milanowski — whose work is in the permanent collections of MoMA and other museums — gave us permission to publish the images. He took the photos between 1982 and 1986 in prisons in Walpole, Mass.,Ionia, Mich., and Jackson, Mich.

The early and mid-1980s were a time when prison populations were exploding. Milanowski's photos, some of which appear in the book "Duplicity" he worked on with Bob Tarte, provide a vivid look into an experience that has become all too common in America.

"Americans very much ignore prisons and prison life — unless they live near a prison where the prison is the source of some level of local employment. Americans seem to only take notice of prisons when there is a problem, an escape, a prison disturbance (that receives national media attention), or when there is some breakdown in the system,"Milanowski told the Prison Photography blog.

Milanowski added: "I think photography can help — and be an effective tool in informing the public about prisons and who inhabits American prisons; but, I’m not sure at all that our society wants to look at prisons and prison life … it's too easy to ignore."

SEE ALSO: What Life Is Like For The 2 Million People Behind Bars In America

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The eccentric producer-director behind "Transformers" and "Armageddon" is selling his three-story contemporary home at a $13.5 million listing price, real estate blogger The Real Estalker reports.

The house has four bedrooms, six bathrooms, and four stone fireplaces, and it's located in the coveted Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.

There's also a private screening room, wine cellar, and a pool with stunning skyline views. It's an ideal Tinseltown escape, with high ceilings, beautiful details, and big windows that will let in plenty of that California sunshine. 

The house is located on nearly an acre of property in the in-demand lower section of Bel Air.

This small dining area opens directly onto the backyard area.

The kitchen is sleek and modern, and the bamboo forest adds a touch of zen.

Cover is a new Android app that can intelligently manage the rest of your apps, intelligently bubbling up the ones you're most likely to use based on your location.

We first heard about the app on TechCrunch.

The app is a contextual lock screen that manages all the apps found on your Android phone. For example, if you're home, you can tell cover to show you fun apps like Facebook and Candy Crush on your main home screen. If you're at work, you can have it show you apps like Evernote and Gmail. If you're in the car, you might want something like Google Maps. And so on.

Also, the peek feature and drop down menu make it easy to switch between apps when you need them with a quick swipe. This new productivity program aims to give Android owners the most comfort relating to their devices.

Warning: the app is still labeled beta, so there could be some issues that need to be worked on. You can download it from the Google Play Store.

See what else this app can do in the demo below.

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Another year in the books! (Almost).

As such, we're taking a look back at the biggest flops in consumer technology for the year. 

We've done this annually. It's interesting to see which companies are getting better at reigning in poor products, and which aren't. 

This year, Google had practically no flops. And Apple had just a few minor errors.

Compared to years past, this is really good. Google in particular seems like a much more disciplined, more focused company today than ever before. 

Then again, in sports there's a saying that goes, "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying."

The tech equivalent would be, "If you ain't failing, you ain't tryin." A few flops here and there are good, it means you're trying something new. Not everything is going to work, and you can't be scared to test out new ideas. 

15. Microsoft's CEO succession planning

We're not quite sure how to frame this one, but there was something weird about Steve Ballmer's retirement. He says he's leaving of his own accord, yet he put plans in place for a radical reorg of the company just a few weeks before he announced his retirement. And, Microsoft didn't have his replacement lined up, so it's been out there trying to figure out who is going to run the company next. This process has been odd, and stilted. 

14. The Google Barge

Google was working on a mysterious barge in the San Francisco Bay. Initial speculation said it was going to be a floating data center. Later reports said it would be a store front for Google Glass. Now, it looks like it might not be anything because Google failed to get the proper permits for the barge. The multi-million dollar project is now under investigation.

13. The iPhone 5C

Sales of the iPhone 5C appear to be weaker than expected. There have been multiple reports of Apple cutting 5C production in favor of the iPhone 5S. For Apple's business, this is a good thing. But, it's perplexing. We're not sure why Apple did the 5C. Maybe it becomes clearer in the future.

One of the most important people in the world of robotics isn't a conventional roboticist at all, but a science fiction author.

Go straight to the story of Isaac Asimov >

Isaac Asimov grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., reading pulp sci-fi magazines in his father's candy store. Because the magazines had "science" in the title, he was able to convince his father that it was educational. It was the 1930s, and the popular perception of robots (if and when they became real) was that they were more monster than assistant. It was a perception that Asimov would unwittingly change forever.

Asimov's imagination was completely captured by robots. He began writing and publishing speculative fiction in the late 1930s in which robots featured prominently. The short version of the story is that he simply never stopped after that, writing up a storm until his death in 1992.

Asimov wrote and edited a combined total of some 500 books in his lifetime (that's right, five-hundred). And he didn't stop at science fiction. His bibliography of published work famously spans nine of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal System. Check out this description of his body of work from Wikipedia:

The prolific Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Most of his popular science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include Guide to Science, the three volume set Understanding Physics, Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery, as well as works on astronomy, mathematics, the Bible, William Shakespeare's writing and chemistry.

He was a member of Mensa, a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, and even has an asteroid named after him. It's no wonder that he was one of the subjects of a Science Channel miniseries called "Prophets of Science Fiction." In it, authors, roboticists, and scientists from a variety of disciplines take you through Asimov's life and work, pointing out all the modern implementations of robots that he foresaw decades ahead of time.

Asimov is one of the most beloved science fiction authors of all time. Let's take a look at how he got there.

Asimov grew up in Brooklyn when his parents moved there from Russia. He passed the time reading sci-fi magazines in his father's candy store.

Robots were frequently portrayed as Frankenstein's-monster-type creations. But Asimov looked at them another way, more like intelligent appliances than monsters.

Virtual reality just got a huge boost towards becoming a reality.

Sean Hollister at The Verge reports that Oculus, the maker of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, just raised $75 million in funding in a large Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The Oculus Rift puts you inside the screen, with an enormous field of view expanding so that it fills your vision. With stereoscopic 3D built in too, its level of immersion is unparalleled.

Head-tracking technology allows the Rift to "keep up" as you turn your head to look around the virtual environment. The best way to describe it: You feel completely immersed in a virtual world. Your real-world surroundings disappear. It can even make you dizzy.

For now, the Rift is still only available to developers who want to create video games compatible with the headset. An HD consumer version with extra features to be released sometime next year.

We tested out the Oculus Rift development kit earlier this year, making sure to put it through the paces. We didn't have a single person try it who wasn't blown away.

The Rift Development Kit comes in this sturdy plastic box.

You wear the Rift just like a pair of ski goggles.

The Oculus Rift attaches to a relay box, which then hooks up to your computer. This allows the headset to be lighter. The relay box can be plugged in by either an HDMI or DVI cable.