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End Of Year Round Up: The Best VR Headsets Of 2024

The rise in popularity of Virtual Reality (VR) has been considerably slow. Still, it has had a significant influence in various industries, including gaming, education, entertainment, and even health care. However, with many models in the market, it’s difficult to determine which one offers the best virtual experience. That’s why I’m here to guide you on some of the best VR headsets of 2024.

By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly which headset will best meet your particular preferences and needs. 

Best VR Headsets of 2024

Here is a list of the best VR headsets of 2024:

1. Best Bang For Buck: The Pimax Crystal Light

For those seeking a high-quality VR without the trouble of a steep cost, the Pimax Crystal Light is your go-to set-up. It features an ultra-sharp resolution of 2880×2880 pixels per eye, with an impressive 35 pixels per degree. The display also uses QLED technology that offers vibrant colors and contrast compared to traditional LCD panels.

It’s also worth noting that the Crystal Light uses the exact same display as its more expensive sibling, the Pimax Crystal. Other significant improvements over the original Crystal include a 200-gram reduction in weight and a redesigned head strap. This means you’re getting the same top-tier display quality and added comfort at a cheaper price.

Pros

Wide field-of-view (FOV) that contributes to a more immersive experience

Uses inside-out tracking, which simplifies the setup and makes the headset more user-friendly

Employs high-quality glass aspheric lenses that contribute to a large sweet spot

Cons

There’s no eye-tracking feature

Has a very large and clunky design

2. Best For Budget: Meta Quest 3S

The Meta Quest 3S is the best budget-friendly VR headset, offering impressive performance for its price. Most people would consider this setup to be a watered-down version of its well-received predecessor, the Meta Quest 3. However, Meta Quest 3S still carries more similarities than differences at a much lower price. 

The Meta Quest 3S consists of a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip along with 8GB of RAM. The combination of both helps deliver twice-as-fast GPU performance, thus catering to faster loading times and overall smoother gameplay. Additionally, the 3S has a dual RGB camera system, allowing for full-color passthrough during mixed-reality games. 

Pros

Rated for a higher battery life than the Quest 3

Has an “Action Button” to easily switch between passthrough and immersive modes

A smoother and less jagged visual experience due to that extra processing power

Cons

Consists of fresnel lenses, which lead to lower resolution and less sharp visuals

Lacks the fine-tuning PD (Pupillary Distance) adjustments

3. Overall Best: Somnium VR1

The Somnium VR1 emerges as one of the best VR headsets due to its acute attention to quality. One of the standout features of this headset is its crystal-clear visuals and exceptional brightness, which help add to the immersive experience. Users are able to explore virtual worlds with such stunning details and vivid colors that other headsets dim in comparison. 

Another feature that contributes to VR1’s experience is its expansive FOV. Most high-end headsets feature an FOV of about 130 degrees. So, you’ll be glad to know that the Somnium VR1’s FOV is more than 120 degrees horizontally and 105 degrees vertically. This means you’ll be able to view more of your virtual surroundings at once and feel fully present in the environment. 

Pros

Accommodates PDs of 58 mm – 76 mm through manual adjustment

Headset can be fully opened and customized by expert users

Can enjoy the content without technical glitches or interruptions

Cons

Does not have built-in audio speakers

Front-heavy design that weighs on the user’s neck after a while

Conclusion

The VR headset you choose to invest in can make or break your overall virtual experience. So, we’ve narrowed down your search to some of the best VR headsets. To get the most out of your money, go for the Pimax Crystal Light or Meta Quest 3S. If not, you can also consider the Somnium VR1 for overall quality.

Besides this, VR technology can also help improve the quality of life of dementia patients. If you want to help a loved one and learn more about this service, contact me today. I’m Alex Smale, and proud owner of the award-winning VR application, Immersicare.

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The 3 Biggest AI Video Tools Shaking Up The Content Creation Market — Remaker AI, Viggle AI, and Krea AI — by Alex Smale

Video content creation, being one of the most lucrative markets today, has been the key to success for many businesses. Whether for affiliate marketing, ads, training tutorials, or simply entertainment, videos are consumers’ preferred medium. However, the creation and editing process can be quite a hassle. Luckily, AI video tools have streamlined this process, making video editing easy and less time-consuming.

Read on as I cover the top 3 AI video tools that can assist in boosting your digital marketing videos.

Top 3 AI Video Tools for Content Creation

With over 200 million content creators worldwide, making content that stands out can be difficult. That’s why I recommend the following  AI tools to raise the quality of your videos:

Remaker AI

Remaker AI is a tool popular among consumers for its seamless face-swapping features. The outcome is so realistic that most videos made by the tool go viral. It’s best used for making gifs and humorous videos for ads and social media reels. 

Another great thing about the tool is its ability to enhance the quality of pre-existing videos. Simply upload any low-resolution video, and AI technology will work its magic in just a few minutes. In the end, you’ll get a high-quality, professional-level video that was originally unusable.

Pros:

Easy to learn and use, making it great for beginner content creators.

Supports multiple video formats.

You get free credits in the beginning to test the features without investing.

Cons:

The face-swapping feature isn’t as seamless with cluttered backgrounds.

The loading can be occasionally slow.

Some basic features cannot be accessed without a VIP membership.

Viggle AI

Viggle AI is designed to be your handy video assistant that creates content according to your text prompts. This helps turn your vision into reality without knowing any complicated editing skills. In fact, you can even use the tool’s pre-existing templates if you’re not sure where to start.

The AI tool also stands out from competitors because of its animation features. You can make unique characters and have them do your desired movements. Then, you can integrate them into your video to make original content.

Pros:

Has an intuitive interface that can be steered by easy dragging and dropping.

The tool uses a JST-1 3D physics model to make animation movements look real.

Multiple users can collaborate on a project.

Cons:

Some advanced features will take time to learn.

Text-to-video text prompts may get misinterpreted by the tool.

Krea AI

Krea AI has a video generation feature called Beta Video. Using this feature, you can create your video using text prompts. You can even use negative text prompts if you want to remove something from the generated outcome.

Besides that, the tool also lets you create videos through images. Simply upload the image of your choice and then add animations. Additionally, Krea AI uses deep learning algorithms to enhance the resolution, stability, color, and frame rate of pre-existing videos.

Pros:

Impressive processing speed.

Allows you to generate videos from still pictures.

Users can train personalized AI models to meet their particular style requirements.

Cons:

You can’t do much with the free plan of the tool.

The paid plans can be more costly than those of competitor tools.

Conclusion

To grow your business or be a top influencer, video content creation is an essential digital marketing skill to have. All you need to do is experiment with the above-mentioned AI video tools to see which one meets your needs best. Once you find the right one, let your creativity flow to make different styles of video content.

For more digital marketing skills that can bring your business success, contact me, Alex Smale, today. My years of digital marketing experience in various industries are just what you need to put your business on the map.

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What is Faceless Digital Marketing? by Alex Smale

What Is Faceless Digital Marketing?

Every successful digital marketing strategy is centered on driving engagement and building connections with audiences. One such strategy includes faceless digital marketing, which is in complete contrast to standard marketing methods. But what does it mean when social media marketing is faceless? How can it benefit your marketing efforts?

To answer your queries, this article explores faceless marketing and offers several reasons why you should implement it in your marketing strategy.

What is Faceless Digital Marketing?

Faceless digital marketing is a strategy that forgoes personal identities and figureheads when representing a brand. Instead, it focuses on the brand’s voice, aesthetic content, and messaging in order to relate with the audience.

The goal of this marketing strategy is to influence potential customers solely through the brand’s benefits and values. While influencer marketing may be effective, it relies entirely on the audience’s attachment to the personality. This can sometimes overshadow the purpose of the brand.

Why Choose Faceless Digital Marketing?

Here are some reasons faceless marketing is actually an effective marketing strategy:

1. Privacy and Anonymity

Not many people are comfortable with exposing themselves to the public eye, even if it’s to promote their business. There are various factors that discourage them from doing so, such as insecurity about their appearance, concerns about personal privacy, etc. For such cases, the best alternative is to do without a public personality and present your brand directly.

With faceless marketing, your content can center around the product or service, relieving you of public scrutiny. It also maintains a sense of professionalism, keeping your work life separate from your personal life.

2. Directs Focus on Your Product

As mentioned before, customers mainly engage with a brand because of their love for an influencer or an employee working there. However, having a figurehead can oftentimes overshadow any possible interest in your product or service.

By removing public personalities from your content, faceless digital marketing places the spotlight on your brand. It encourages the audience to focus on what your brand has to offer rather than who represents it.

3. More Cost-Effective

If you haven’t worked with influencers before, you should know the average cost of hiring one is quite expensive. However, even if you’re willing to pay for a big-name influencer, it might not guarantee a strong return on investment.

Many consumers are put off by influencer posts, with 51% of them simply scrolling past them. In addition, production costs with influencers sometimes exceed too much, taking up all of the brand’s marketing budget. This is especially problematic for startups or relatively smaller businesses.

In that case, you’re better off opting for a more cost-effective option like faceless marketing. That way, you can spend your budget on more effective digital marketing efforts like content creation, advertising, and brand development.

4. Scalability

Implementing a faceless marketing strategy can prove to be easily scalable. Since your brand won’t center around a single figurehead, you won’t be tied to a specific image or reputation. Instead, you can create diverse content that resonates with a larger target audience and adapts to changing market demands.

Overall, this strategy allows your brand to grow and adapt to different formats without being limited to individual capacities or contractual obligations.

Conclusion

With a faceless marketing strategy, you’ll be able to successfully sever your reliance on public personalities. Furthermore, it’ll allow you to focus only on the brand, maintain privacy, adapt to changing markets, and much more.

If you want to learn more about digital marketing, contact me at Alex Smale for further consultation. With my help, we can unlock your business potential and help it thrive.

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Halloween is coming... https://www.alexsmale.co.uk

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Will A.I. Replace Digital Marketers?

Recently, artificial intelligence has made itself a prominent role in digital marketing. This technology has been incredibly useful in streamlining various processes and providing valuable insights into market trends. However, with all AI has to offer, is it truly capable of usurping digital marketers? Or is digital marketing a job that just can’t be replaced by AI?

To answer your questions, this article explores the influence of AI in digital marketing and whether it’s sufficient enough to get the job done.

How AI is Used in Digital Marketing

Here are some different ways artificial intelligence is used in digital marketing:

Creating Content: AI is increasingly being used to write marketing content, including product descriptions, social media posts, emails, etc. It also assists in generating multimedia like images, audio, and video.

Performing Data Analytics: AI also excels at analyzing large data sets and extracting meaningful information from them. It quickly uncovers trends and customer behavior patterns that can help improve your marketing plan.

Customer Service: Artificial intelligence can also contribute to customer support through AI-powered chatbots. They can answer frequently asked questions, handle complaints, and guide users through their purchases.

Can Digital Marketing Be Replaced By A.I.?

Despite advancements in AI, it hasn’t been able to replace digital marketers. This is because there are a few attributes of marketing jobs that AI just can’t replicate. Like, AI can’t create original ideas and lacks critical thinking and emotional intelligence. Let’s go into particular examples of these points to understand it properly:

1. Can’t Create Original Ideas

The success of your digital marketing strategy relies on creating innovative and original ideas that also resonate with your audience. Unfortunately, most AI tools solely generate content from already existing data. So, while AI can develop decent-quality content, it won’t help set you apart from the competition.

The creativity to drive your strategy can only come from human-based marketing, as it’s not limited to current trends. Instead, humans take inspiration from personal experience and cultural context to create wholly original content.

2. Lacks Critical Thinking

As mentioned before, artificial intelligence excels at deriving information from large sets of data to improve your marketing strategy. However, AI lacks the critical thinking to properly use this information. It’s incapable of understanding complex situations, weighing the pros and cons, or predicting potential outcomes.

That’s why data analytics rely on human intelligence to judge and draw conclusions from the given information. Human marketers have the intuition, contextual understanding, and decision-making skills to navigate the digital market.

3. Lacks Emotional Intelligence

Another driving force of a successful marketing strategy is having the ability to understand and recognize your customer’s needs. It helps foster genuine relationships with your customers and build brand loyalty. However, artificial intelligence is unable to empathize and understand the emotional nuances of customer behavior.

This is one of the major reasons 88% of customers would rather speak to a person than a chatbox. They have the emotional intelligence to interpret a customer’s needs, consider their preferences, and relate to their concerns.

Conclusion

Although artificial intelligence plays a significant role in digital marketing, it can only ever be used as a supportive tool rather than a replacement. AI can never replicate the originality, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence needed to run digital marketing strategies. These are qualities you’ll only find human marketers are equipped with.

If you’re interested in learning more about digital marketing, contact me at Alex Smale to discover how I can help scale your business. My skills as a digital marketer can help your business thrive and grow.

Let’s shake hands and make it worth it for you.

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Alex Smale — 3 Great Ways To Use Zapier Automations To Beef Up Your Business And Make It More Profitable

Zapier is an automation tool that has become almost ubiquitous in recent years.

And the reason for that, is that it pretty much connects any popular online tool or software platform.

Not only does it connect them, but it enables you to create actions that happen in-between those connections.

For example, you can connect ClickFunnels to Google Sheets, and then add new lines in the spreadsheet for every new lead that comes in.

But! Before the data is written into the spreadsheet, you can do really cool things like reformat the date, or even have ChatGPT write some copy based on the data.

So in this article, what I wanted to do was to inspire you with three big ideas on how you can use Zapier to beef up your business and make it more profitable.

Lead Management

Many businesses have a plethora of software tools to run their online business; funnel builders, CRM’s, form tools, email marketing software etc. etc. etc. And while many of them have basic API’s (Application Programming Interface) which connect some of them together on a basic level. They often won’t give you any ability to process the data in between.

Zapier can more accurately and more controllably connect and automate these vital data points. From your lead capture to your CRM, you can migrate each field, tidy the information by checking the capitalisation, and carefully put the right info into the right CRM fields.

Then, you can forward that same data straight into your email marketing software, trigger a campaign and start them on a particular sequence of emails based on what information they entered in the first step.

And if they enter more information in subsequent steps, such as through an application. You can update and overwrite that data in the CRM. Take them out of that first email sequence, and then start them off in a new sequence that again, is relevant to the new information they’ve just given.

Sales Process

Of course, one of the most, if not the most important area of your business is your sales process. Because if your sales aren’t dialled in, your business will run out of cash and die.

Time is of the essence with sales, because people can go cold quickly.

Which means that good automations built throughout your sales process can close gaps quickly, notify team members, and reconnect warm leads.

Any good sales team will have a sales pipeline in place, with various stages setup for different steps on the sales journey. e.g. lead, application, follow up booked, sale etc. etc.

With Zapier, you can connect your pipeline software such as Close.com, Pipedrive or GoHighLevel so that as a prospect moves from one stage of the pipeline to another, the automations are triggered.

Or vice versa, Zapier can move a prospect from one pipeline stage to another based on other factors.

Good ways to use this would be if a prospect fills in a form to download a free lead magnet. Zapier can alert the sales team to give that person a call.

Or, if a sale is made, the t-shirt and book can be ordered and sent to them automatically.

Onboarding New Clients

I talk about onboarding a LOT with my own consulting clients. Because it’s an area that almost every business gets terribly WRONG and it costs them a lot of pain, and a lot of money.

Time is absolutely critical when it comes to onboarding because as soon as someone pays the sales person for the high-ticket product. They are immediately in freak-out mode until the product is delivered to them.

They worry that they’ve been scammed, or that the product won’t live up to their expectations, and so on.

The longer they’re in this state, the higher the chance they’ll get cold feet and ask for their money back.

Many businesses think onboarding a new client the day after the sale is ok, but it’s NOT!!! 12–24 hours to wait for an onboarding to begin is an eternity.

Think more like ten minutes to get them all setup and logged in straight after the sale, and believe me, half of your customer service problems will go away instantly.

If you’re a million miles away from that, don’t worry, Zapier is here to save you.

You can connect it to your Stripe account, so that as soon as that payment is received, you’re instantly sending the new client a welcome email, their login details, their group invite and their goodies are already on the way in the mail.

Giving you an amazing opportunity to surprise and delight them from their very first seconds as a client.

There are many, many more ways you can use automations to streamline and simplify your business. If you’d like to find out how, book in a call with me and I can walk you through how I can help you to get them setup.

You can read the original article on my website blog here: 3 Great Ways To Use Zapier Automations To Beef Up Your Business And Make It More Profitable — Alex Smale

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Where Artificial Intelligence And Mixed Reality Collide: The Frontier Of Digital Convergence

How close are we to having a ‘Holodeck’ experience?

Find out by reading my new blog post here: Where Artificial Intelligence And Mixed Reality Collide: The Frontier Of Digital Convergence | Alex Smale

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See more at https://www.alexsmale.co.uk

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I’m helping Dartmoor Zoo to secure its future & set the standard for conservation. Join me! #CrowdfundDartmoorZoo http://thndr.it/1u6TKqa

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Part of the campaign for Tulleys Shocktober Fest. Check out the Instagram channel at shocktober_fest

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Amazing animated gif art by Erdal Inci. Incredible.

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Lovely times at Rhythms of the World 2014 in #hitchin #rotw2014 #festival

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It's important to remember in customer service that you're not in the business of making money. You're in the business of making people happy. Money is just the reward.

Alex Smale

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“You’re not going to believe this. Some guy is taking my picture right now, says he’s gonna put it on some website. I swear to God. I swear to God!”

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Glorious sunny day in #Hitchin town.

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My dream of being able to talk into my watch and then my car come screaming around the corner to get me is but a few months away...

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If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.

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