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Qualcomm will power 5G devices from LG, Sony and more in 2019
Since the first 5G standard was approved two months ago, the industry has been racing to deliver next-generation mobile data to the world. Qualcomm made two announcements today that show us real-world 5G is almost here. First, it revealed a slew of consumer electronics companies that have committed to making 5G-ready mobile devices starting in 2019, using Qualcomm's X50 5G modem. This list includes LG, Sony Mobile, HTC, ASUS, Xiaomi, ZTE, Netgear and more. Don't forget, Samsung also announced a partnership with Qualcomm last month to work on 5G technology through the next few years.
You can’t buy an ethical smartphone today
Any ethical, non-🍏 📱 recommendations? It all started with a WhatsApp message from my friend, an environmental campaigner who runs a large government sustainability project. She's the most ethical person I know and has always worked hard to push me, and others, into making a more positive impact on the world. Always ahead of the curve, she steered me clear of products containing palm oil, as well as carbon-intensive manufacturing and sweatshop labor. That day, she wanted my opinion on what smartphone she should buy, but this time requested an ethical device. Until now, she's been an HTC loyalist, but wanted to explore the options for something better and more respectable. My default response was the Fairphone 2, which is produced in small quantities by a Dutch startup, but I began to wonder -- that can't be the only phone you can buy with a clear conscience, can it?
After Math: The state of the 'uniom'
It was a week of taking stock as the President meandered his way through the State of the Union address and a number of tech firms reviewed their Q4 earnings. Alphabet and Amazon both had something to crow about, while Apple and GoPro both posted less than stellar holiday sales. Numbers, because how else would we realized that, at this point, the rules are made up and the points don't matter?
Google completes its $1.1 billion HTC deal
Google's billion-dollar deal to acquire a part of HTC (along with a non-exclusive license for its intellectual property) is done. The two companies announced its completion tonight, and the details appear to be the same as originally announced. While the team behind the Pixel phones is joining Google, HTC says it will continue to make mobile devices under its own brand name while using Vive products to compete in VR. It won't stop there either, as the company says it will pursue innovations in AR, AI and IoT technology. In a blog post, Google hardware SVP Rick Osterloh said: "Today, we start digging in with our new teammates, guided by the mission to create radically helpful experiences for people around the world, by combining the best of Google's AI, software and hardware." According to Osterloh, after this deal, Taipei will become the largest Google engineering site in the Asia-Pacific region. It's the company's third year in hardware, and this is apparently just part of digging in "for the long run."
Step inside the Unabomber investigation in VR
In 1996, law enforcement officials arrested Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, after nearly two decades of investigation. But it wasn't until the Washington Post and the New York Times published Kaczynski's anonymous 35,000-word manifesto that a tip from his brother David led officials to Kaczynski and his isolated cabin in Montana. The massive nationwide hunt for the Unabomber, whose seemingly random attacks with lack of traceable evidence stumped law enforcement officials for years, is an interesting case and one that the Newseum in Washington DC has hosted an exhibit on for the past few years -- a display that includes Kaczynski's actual cabin. The exhibit has also featured a VR experience that let visitors explore the cabin from the perspective of an FBI agent, decide whether to publish the manifesto and even disarm the live bomb found in Kaczynski's cabin. Now, Variety reports, Unabomber: The Virtual Reality Experience is available for anyone to explore.
The auto industry is head over heels for VR
Virtual reality and augmented reality are all over the North American International Auto Show floor. Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen are all using the tech to show off their latest cars and concepts. During the industry preview days (the show is open to the public through Sunday, January 28th) lines to try the experiences stretched around each booth. The value to prospective customers is directly tied to the quality of each experience, though, and that quality shifts dramatically from one automaker to the next. Instead of thoughtful experiences that work within VR's current limitations and are simultaneously informative and entertaining, more often than not, the VR implementations felt like cheap amusement park gimmicks with little regard for the user's comfort.
HTC Vive Pro's dual cameras can apparently track hand motion
When HTC unveiled its higher-end Vive Pro VR system back at CES, the company was suspiciously quiet about the dual cameras on this VR headset: there were no related demos, and the company reps remained tight-lipped. The smart-ass in me assumed that based on the similar looks, this module was probably a variant of the inside-out tracking sensor on the standalone Vive Focus, while others speculated that it would bring AR capability. Well, today we finally have an answer: it's actually a depth sensor, and it'll apparently enable basic hand tracking without additional hardware.
HTC U11 Eyes' dual cameras bring bokeh to your selfies
Well, that was quick: HTC's promised return to a dual-camera smartphone is already here. Meet the U11 Eyes which, as the name implies, is a selfie-centric smartphone featuring a pair of cameras on the front. These deliver live bokeh effect which supports re-focus after capture -- just like the good old days with previous dual-camera HTC phones. And yes, the U11 Eyes reuses the same shiny "Liquid Design" as the flagship U11+, but swapping out a few flagship-level features for a more affordable price. You'll find an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 chipset (which is approaching two years old), a 2,160 x 1,080 LCD instead of QHD, just three microphones instead of four (so no acoustic focus when using zoom in video recording) and no BoomSound speakers (so no stereo nor "Hi-Fi" output).
How will VR and AR affect the future of entertainment?
It's been almost two years since consumer VR arrived with the launch of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. And we've also seen great mobile VR options like Samsung's Gear VR and Google's Daydream View. While we've seen plenty of compelling games and experiences since then, the medium still has a long way to go. To help figure out exactly where VR and AR are headed, especially when it comes to entertainment, we chatted with three executives in the field on stage: Tom Harding, director of immersive products and VR at Samsung; Oscar Werner, Tobii's technology president; and Rikard Steiber, president of Viveport and senior VP of virtual reality at HTC Vive.
Take a good look at the HTC Vive Pro and VR wireless adapter
The Vive Pro is a beefed-up version of HTC's original VR headset, adding integrated 3D audio and high-res OLED screens displaying 2880 x 1600 combined, with a pixel density of 615 pixels per inch, an upgrade from 448ppi. The headset also addresses some of the first iteration's fit issues, adding a new headstrap with a sizing dial that helps redistribute weight, so it's not all collected at the front of the headset.
HTC unveils a wireless adapter for Vive VR headsets
The dream of a wire-free HTC Vive is close to becoming a practical reality. HTC has unveiled a Vive Wireless Adapter that uses Intel's WiGig to eliminate the corded connection for both the original Vive and the Vive Pro while keeping lag and interference to a minimum. There's no word on price, but you will have to wait -- the compact add-on won't ship until sometime this summer.
HTC has a new high-res Vive Pro VR headset
HTC has a few upgrades in store for its virtual reality headset, the Vive. First up, the Vive Pro, which features a pair of higher-resolution OLED screens (2,880 x 1,600 versus the original's 1,080 x 1,200) and built-in headphones. The Oculus Rift headset had attached headphones when it launched in early 2016.
Live from the HTC Vive press event at CES 2018!
HTC Vive is one of the most promising virtual reality platforms at the moment, and today at CES 2018 we'll get to see what the company has planned for the future. It's not clear if there will be any new hardware unveiled, but we'll definitely learn more details about HTC Vive's latest headset, the Focus. Of course, that means there will be a bunch of never-before-seen VR experiences, so let's hope there are some good, mind-blowing ones. We'll be liveblogging the event at 1PM PT/4PM ET -- bookmark this page to keep up with the action as it happens.
Live from CES 2018!
We're on the ground in warm and sunny Las Vegas for CES 2018 and ready to get this party started. We'll be stuffing your eyes and ears this week with all the latest news from the world's biggest tech conference. Google is already the talk of the show, but it won't be hosting a press event of its own. Still, there are plenty of big-name companies taking the stage to tell you about their latest gadgets. We'll definitely see tons of laptops and TVs, for sure. But don't be surprised if there's a few oddball smart home products and more than few car unveilings. We'll of course be covering the big press conferences live, so make to come back for all our liveblogs starting bright and early Monday morning. Check out the full liveblog schedule below.
Facebook brings its social VR 'Spaces' to the HTC Vive
Earlier this year, Facebook unveiled Spaces, its inaugural attempt at bringing the social network to VR. And, seeing as Facebook also owns Oculus, it's no surprise that Spaces was a Rift-exclusive at launch. But, just as Facebook is on every platform and device imaginable, the plan for Spaces was always to have it spread far and wide as well. That's why starting today, Facebook is making Spaces available for the HTC Vive, marking the first time the app is going cross-platform.
'L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files' is available now for HTC Vive
We were excited to hear that 2011 detective simulator L.A. Noire was headed to modern consoles and the HTC Vive for some VR action. The title received some visual upgrades, too, making the jump to PS4, Xbox One and the Switch a bit more graphically appealing. The Vive version is now available as a set of seven self-contained cases from the original game, remade for virtual reality and titled L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files.
I can finally do cartwheels in VR with HTC's Vive Focus
After fully unveiling the Vive Focus, HTC finally allowed lucky folks like myself to properly test out the six-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) standalone VR headset. For the first time, I can actually walk around in VR without being tethered to a PC nor confined to a fixed space. It's a truly mobile VR solution -- more so than smartphone-based VR headsets, which only let you look around on the spot (3DoF). Naturally, I used this opportunity to test this 6DoF tracking to its limits, even if it meant doing cartwheels while wearing the Vive Focus.
After Math: Game On
This has been a celebratory week for video games, what with the industry coming together at the the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday to honor 2017's standout titles. Celebrities were spotted and hobs were knobbed but that's not the only news! Overwatch players are in for a holiday treat on December 12th, Bayonetta's third installment is coming to the Switch and HTC showed off its $600 standalone Vive for the Chinese market. Numbers because how else are we going to determine the high score?
HTC's standalone Vive Focus launches in China for $600
While we've already taken a good look at the Vive Focus standalone VR headset with 6DoF "world-scale" tracking, HTC had yet to reveal its detailed specs nor price, but almost a month later, we finally have some answers. First of all, as of December 12th, the device will be available for pre-ordering in China starting from 3,999 yuan or about $600, with shipment commencing in January next year. The base price isn't far off from the original PC-tethered Vive which is priced at $599 before tax in the US (in China it costs 5,488 yuan which is about $830). Better yet, that price applies to a new white version which, in my opinion, is much better looking than the original "electric blue" -- that's now a limited edition priced at 4,299 yuan (about $650).
The best VR headsets
It's crazy to think how far VR has come over the past few years. While the technology made its big consumer debut in 2016, with the launch of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, we also spent plenty of time anticipating its arrival. It promised to be the biggest technological shift since the rise of smartphones -- and potentially since the dawn of the internet. This year, VR headsets got cheaper, simpler (especially with Microsoft's new Mixed Reality platform) and more worthwhile, thanks to the launch of new immersive titles like Rez Infinite. We've gone from having too few VR options to having too many. These are the best.
