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D-Wave has its first customer for a $15 million quantum computer
The last time we reported on Canadian quantum computing company D-Wave, it'd extended a contract for its 500-qubit D-Wave Two machine. Now, the firm has announced a major step forward: commercial availability of the D-Wave 2000Q, which it says has 2,000 qubits and costs a whopping $15 million. More than that, D-Wave has its first customer lined up for the pricey machine. "Cutting-edge cyber security firm" Temporal Defense Systems. There, the computer will be used for chipping away at problems that are far more complex and previously thought to be unsolvable.
Xbox 360 price cuts official... in Australia
It's not the Stateside discount we've been waiting for, but at least Australia and New Zealand are looking at discounted Xbox 360 pricing across the board. No press release, just an update to the Aussie Xbox site indicating a new starting price of AU$349 Australian dollars for the Xbox 360 Arcade -- the same console which sold for AU$399 just yesterday. That makes it AU$50 cheaper than the Wii locally. Gamespot spoke to local Xbox exec, Jeremy Hilton, who confirmed that the Xbox 360 Pro bundle has been slashed to AU$499 (was AU$579) and the Elite is now AU$649 (down from AU$729). More importantly perhaps, is this quote about Microsoft's pricing strategy:"One of the big changes Microsoft has made is that with price drops, you'd see the US would drop, and pretty much within two weeks we would drop as well. Now, it's very much the individual countries who manage what they feel would be best for their respective regions. In March we had a price drop in Europe, and in April we had a price drop in Asia. So we're definitely moving away from that big global strategy." So no guaranteed followup drop in the US regardless of the mounting evidence. [Via Gamespot, thanks Adam L.]
