inflation
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Amazon's Prime subscription is getting more expensive across Europe
After hiking US Prime prices earlier this year, Amazon is doing the same across Europe.
Intel price hikes could make PCs more expensive
Intel has told customers that it will raises prices on most of its processors and other chips by up to 10-20 percent later this year.
Tesla hikes prices across all of its models by up to $6,000
Tesla has significantly boosted prices across its EV lineup, according to changes in its online configurator.
Elon Musk is reportedly looking to cut the Tesla workforce by 10 percent
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly wants to cut around 10 percent of jobs at Tesla.
Smart speakers are being used to help measure inflation in the UK
Smart speakers are so popular the UK is using them to help calculate inflation. Every year, the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) adds top consumer products to its "basket of goods," a collection of goods and services that indicates how people are spending their money. Annually, popular items are added, and passé products tossed. So while smart speakers made the cut, hi-fi speaker systems got the axe.
Dumb phone prices are no longer used to measure inflation
The UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) measures inflation by looking at price increases among products the majority of consumers are spending their hard-earned on. And every year, the lists of stuff the ONS cares about keeping track of, called the "baskets of goods and services," are revised to reflect changes in our spending habits. Over the past few years, music and video streaming services, set-top boxes, digital game downloads and PS Plus and Xbox subscriptions have all been added to reflect their broad popularity, while sat navs and rewritable CDs/DVDs have been bumped due to their dwindling relevance. This year there's only one notable change, with dumb phones being dropped from the list of influential tech products.
Video game downloads now help the UK measure inflation
Helped by the rise of console and PC marketplaces, game downloads are now popular enough that the UK is using them to help calculate inflation rates. Office of National Statistics (ONS) announced today that it's added digital game sales and computer software, like Microsoft Office, to its "basket of goods" -- a list of products and services that helps it measure what consumers are spending their money on.
The Bank of England is using Facebook and Twitter to help set interest rates
When you're the central bank in charge of determining interest rates for millions of UK inhabitants, being able to predict economic trends is of paramount importance. To do this, the Bank of England has numerous tools at its disposal, but research often depends on assessing trends from the past. In an attempt to become a little more timely, the Bank has set up a special taskforce that will begin scraping internet searches and social networks like Facebook and Twitter for clues about the state of Britain's economy at any given time.
Cosmic dust definitely clouded Big Bang researchers' findings
Earlier this year, researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the BICEP2 telescope in Antarctica were thought to have found evidence of gravitational waves produced during the first moments of the big bang. The discovery was heralded as one of the most important discoveries of our era -- unfortunately, the results were contaminated. While going through peer-review, astronomers began to wonder if cosmic dust may have skewed the results. Now the verdict is in: it did, but that doesn't necessarily mean the theory is false.
Big Bang researchers aren't so sure they have proof of cosmic ripples
Remember that evidence of the early gravitational waves formed by the Big Bang? Apparently, it's not as surefire as scientists once thought. The newly peer-reviewed findings note that there's "unquantifiable uncertainty" in the source data; cosmic dust in the astronomers' map of the universe may have skewed the results. More recent mapping efforts also suggest that there might have been a false signal.
EE, Orange and T-Mobile phone bills set to rise on May 28th
If you missed the postman this morning, then we hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you might be returning home to a letter detailing an imminent increase to your monthly mobile phone bill. As of May 28th, customers on EE's 4G network or the 3G sub-brands Orange and T-Mobile will be expected to fork out another 2.7 percent on top of what they're already paying each month -- the charges for anything beyond your allowance will go up slightly, too. We'll leave you to crunch the numbers, but basically the price hike is in line with inflation, meaning you kind of agreed you'd be cool with it when signing those T&Cs you read so thoroughly. If you want to cancel your contract, then, we're afraid you'll be paying early termination fees. If you signed a new contract or upgraded after January 23rd this year, however, then nothing's going to change for you. Under Ofcom's rules -- the ones O2 ain't following -- anyone in that situation could exit their contract scot-free, and EE'd likely prefer the business. If only our data caps rose with inflation, too.
Astronomers find evidence of cosmic inflation, gravitational waves and the Big Bang
In the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang it's believed the universe grew at an exponential rate in what is known as cosmic inflation. Well, the first solid evidence of this growth, which would explain the uniform structure of the universe, has been discovered in the form of a curl in the cosmic background radiation left by the Big Bang itself. The "curl," known as B-mode polarization, is believed to be caused by gravitational waves produced during the first fractions of a second of existence. As it expanded and nothingness filled with extremely high-energy particles, waves of gravitational forces would have propagated, not unlike ripples on a pond, leaving behind scars.
Netflix is now being used to measure inflation in the UK
Video streaming has grown so much in the UK that authorities are now using it to help calculate inflation rates. The Office of National Statistics announced today that it has added Netflix and Amazon Instant Video to the UK's "basket of goods," measuring consumers' love for House of Cards to get a better idea of what people are spending their money on. Recognizing the shift away from discs, the UK body has also dropped DVD recorders and replaced them with digital TV recorders (DVRs), including Sky+, Virgin Media TiVo and YouView boxes. Interestingly, interchangeable lens cameras have been added for the first time, driving home just how much of an effect the smartphone has had on sales of point-and-shoots. Smartphones and tablet sales are already being tracked, of course, as are ebooks, but now demand for Frank Underwood and co. (as well as hundreds of other products and services) will be used to help shape UK interest rates, pensions and even train ticket prices.
EVE Evolved: Ghost Sites and PvE goals
PvE in most MMOs revolves around killing hordes of NPCs for currency, XP, tokens, or loot, and EVE Online is no exception. Players can hunt for rare pirate ships in nullsec asteroid belts, farm Sansha incursions for ISK and loyalty points, or team up against Sleeper ships in dangerous wormhole space, but most prefer the safe and steady income of mission-running. Missions are essentially repeatable quests that can be spawned on request, providing an endless stream of bad guys to blow up in the comfort of high-security space. Completing a mission will earn you some ISK and a few hundred or thousand loyalty points, but most of the ISK in mission-running comes from the bounties on the NPCs spawned in the mission sites. Similar deadspace sites with better loot are also distributed randomly throughout the galaxy and can be tracked down using scanner probes. But what would happen if the NPCs in these sites were a dangerous and unexpected interference that could get you killed, rather than space piñatas ready to explode in a shower of ISK? This is a question CCP plans to test with the Rubicon expansion's upcoming Ghost Sites feature, which promises to introduce a whole new form of high-risk, high-reward PvE. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at EVE's upcoming ghost sites and explain why I think its goal-oriented approach to PvE should be adopted in other areas of the game.
Chaos Theory: Follow the Filth as TSW's Whispering Tide Event moves on
Remember when we mentioned that The Secret World's latest event would be a long-term one? Well, we weren't fooling; it's been a month, and The Whispering Tide Event is just now hitting its fourth phase. So what does that mean for us? It means that the slow plod towards Tokyo is showing progress, just not nearly as quickly as excited TSW fans may like. If you've already been in-game, you've noticed that the latest two phases have been very similar to the first two. In fact, they follow the same pattern: start with powering up a generator using crafting materials then move into an instance to clear out the filth. However, even though they are similar and some phases are moving slowly, there's a chance folks might miss out. And if there's one thing I don't want to see, it's others missing out! To prevent that and to keep my fellow TSW fans from floundering in the dark, here's phase two of The Whispering Tide Event guide, with tips and tricks for grabbing the lore, getting the goodies, and even preparing for forthcoming phases.
Xbox One, PS4 launch prices compared to inflation-adjusted launches of old
The Xbox One and PlayStation 4's $500 and $400 launch price points (respectively) aren't necessarily what we'd call "svelt," but they're also not as expensive as consoles have been in the past. Even ignoring last generation's $600 PlayStation 3 launch, the annals of video game history are riddled with consoles that, when adjusted for inflation, make this holiday season seem like a bargain in comparison. The Intellivision cost $300 when it originally launched in 1979, which doesn't sound all that out of the ordinary – adjust for inflation, however, and that's the equivalent of $849 in 2013 dollars, according to Ars Technica's breakdown of console launch prices and their respective histories. The Panasonic R.E.A.L. 3DO was far and away the most expensive console in history with its $700 launch in 1993, which translates to $1,127 in today's skrilla. Hit up the source link below for more graphs comparing the cost of each console over its lifetime, both as a percentage change and a dollar figure adjusted for modern inflation.
EVE devs struggle with factional warfare stagnation
CCP Games isn't completely happy with the results brought on by EVE Online's most recent expansion, Inferno. In a frank dev blog, CCP Fozzie admits that its factional warfare system has fizzled in places and caused inflation in the market. So the team is preparing a new patch for tomorrow to combat these undesirable elements. "These are the problems that our retribution changes were designed to alleviate, but players have been telling us that the situation is degrading faster than we had expected," Fozzie writes. "Faced with the dual problems of factional warfare stagnation and PLEX inflation, we saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone." Inferno 1.3.2 will make significant changes to loyalty point acquisition and expenditure rates. The team's also patching in a fix to combat AFK plexing while continuing to work on improved NPCs for the factional warfare system for the future.
Wii U launch price compared against history
In Japan, the Wii U is an expensive prospects, but that price didn't translate directly here in the States. With a lower-end SKUs, Nintendo is able to hit that $300 spot while catering to a more hardcore fan base.Gamasutra looked back at all of the previous console launches and documented their initial prices, adjusting for inflation. If the Sega Genesis launched today, it would cost $352; the original PlayStation would be $450. Just, uh, don't ask us what the Neo-Geo or 3DO would cost. ($1,138 and $1,113!)With the projected price inflation in mind, it's suggested that the Xbox 360 would be priced at $387 and the base model PS3 (it launched with two SKUs, remember?) would fetch $570.
The Daily Grind: Do you pay retail prices for digital downloads?
Let me say up front that I'm not averse to digital downloads. I used to be, but I've finally been suckered in by the convenience factor, not to mention the (relatively) instant gratification. One thing I won't do is pay $59.99 for a digital download, though. You see, brand-new physical game packages can also be had for $59.99, and that gets you a box, a manual, and a disc. More importantly, it cost the game-maker a certain amount of money to put that package together, and that cost is not there when a digital download is purchased. What about you, folks? Do you support premium prices for downloads, or do you opt for the physical package or wait for a digital sale? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
WoW Archivist: An expensive history of gold sinks
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? If you had asked me six months ago what I imagined would be the most expensive mount in WoW's history, I would have imagined some kind of giant rock elemental where you rode around on its shoulder, possibly a 10-headed hydra that breathed green fire, or maybe a goblin shredder that transformed into a jet. As it turns out, the most expensive mount in WoW is now ... a cat. Granted, it's a very shiny cat. It also happens to be five cats. It can fly. But why does it cost so darn much? And what other ludicrously priced items has Blizzard offered us over the years? Read on to find out!
