Living With Lumia Google+ Hangout: Can an iPhone User Switch?

Want to find out what switching from the iPhone to Windows Phone 8 is really like? Join our Google+ Hangout at 3:00 p.m. EST today and ask away!

When I started the Living With Lumia challenge earlier this week, I wanted to answer a fundamental question, "Can an iPhone user switch to Windows Phone 8?" I'm only three days into the experiment and the truth is, I don't know. There are aspects of Windows Phone 8 that I really like and there are other aspects that are driving me up the wall.

The most interesting part of this process for me, as a reporter, is the feedback from the community. There are lots of smartphone users on other platforms (not just iOS) that are interested in trying Windows Phone 8. The hold-up: knowing if their apps will work and if they can fit the system around their lives.

That's part of why we wanted to have a Google+ hangout so that we can have a discussion about the pros and cons of switching, I can get suggestions on the best apps to try and so I can answer your questions about the Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8.

Facebook Will Pay Up If You Find Bugs in the Oculus Rift

For years, Facebook has maintained a bug bounty program to reward those who find problems with its platform. Now, it's expanding that program to Oculus Rift, which it acquired as part of Oculus VR for $2 billion in March.

The company is offering money for identifying issues in any major part of Oculus Rift’s code, from the development software to the website — with a minimum payout of $500 for bugs and software vulnerabilities. There's no upper limit, so the more critical or inventive the find, the more it could be worth.

Facebook isn’t reserved in its crowdsourced approach. The program, which covers a wide range of Facebook’s software properties, has paid out more than $2 million since its inception in 2011.

Facebook security engineer Neal Poole told The Verge that it’s focusing first on developer communication tools in the software, but Facebook won’t rule out bug rewards for the headset itself.

"A lot of the issues that come up with Oculus are not necessarily in the hardware yet," he said. "Potentially in the future, if people were to go explore and find issues in the SDK or the hardware, that is definitely of interest to us."

That hardware, meanwhile, is currently in its second generation of development, but Facebook has remained mum about when we can expect the Rift to hit the open market.