Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) unveiled its new Model S 70D Wednesday, an all-wheel drive electric car with a 0-60 time of 5.2 seconds and a 240 mile range at 65 mph.

This marks the removal of the Tesla Motors Model S as the company’s lowest end car, further enticing potential buyers. The car will mark a new chapter for the American car maker, ensuring its solid position as the leader in EV market is kept intact.

The new model comes with independently operational front and rear motors, allowing for superb traction and performance, combined with additional extras like the Autopilot hardware, navigation, blind spot detection and many other features. As with every Model S, the 70D will receive free over-the-air updates that add functionality and improve the driving experience for years to come. The updates received by Tesla Motors, available to current and future owners, may help providing additional range, potential new features and other items.

The new model will start at $75,000. In certain cases the Model S 70D will include additional fuel savings and incentives, which make the actual cost of owning Model S 70D about $55k over five years according to Tesla’s numbers (the average length of new car ownership). This is partly achievable, thanks to the Supercharging option included at no additional cost since the option is available included in the base price of this model shown.

The Tesla Model S 70D is available starting today. It is available in three new colors: Ocean Blue, Obsidian Black, and Warm Silver. The current color finishes are also available for ordering with this vehicle, giving would-be owners a nice selection overall.

The post Tesla Motors Releases The All-Wheel Drive Model S 70D appeared first on VR World.

Android is in a tricky spot within China. While the OS is run by practically every smartphone in China that’s not an iPhone, including of course handsets from domestic champions such as Xiaomi, the Chinese government maintains a near state of war against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Google, with its libertarian ethos, antagonized the Chinese government when it operated in the country by refusing to comply with censorship requests. When Google left China, the Chinese government began traffic shaping its packets before outright blocking Google late last year. Now trying to use Google or things like Gmail or Google Apps is impossible in China without a VPN (and the majority of which no longer work inside the country). The majority of Android platforms used by Chinese vendors are heavily forked. While this presents its own security problems, it’s the best vendors can do to still use Android without relying on Google.

China’s government recognizes the problem and is developing its own indigenous mobile OS as a way to remove the dependence Chinese companies have on Google.

For Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) part, the company says that it will assist China in developing this platform to ensure compatibility with the Intel platform (a must considering the investments Intel is making in Chinese smartphone vendors).

“We have and continue to collaborate on indigenous platforms. We have thousands of software engineers and leadership here in China,” Intel’s Doug Fisher, the company’s Vice President General Manager, Software and Services Group, said at IDF Shenzhen 2015. “We will work with China’s government industries to ensure that we participate in the creation of an indigenous operating environment here in China.”

He said that Intel’s role with the China OS Association, the industry group working with China’s government, will be to “enable” the OS.

It will be interesting to see how close China lets Intel get to the development process of the indigenous OS. On one hand China would need to consult with Intel to ensure compatibility with its platform. On the other hand, China might not want to let Intel get too close to the platform for fear that it would lose face letting a foreign firm in to help with the heavy lifting development work – or worse plant a backdoor.

The post Intel Onboard to Support Indigenous China Mobile OS appeared first on VR World.

Just as Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) CEO Brian Krzanich opens the regular staff meetings before a dramatically reduced IDF2015 Shenzhen conference, it is a good time to review how government and enterprises don’t see eye to eye when it comes to strategic business.

China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer is world’s fastest supercomputer, at 33 PFLOPS demonstrated and 55 PFLOPS theoretical performance.

Remember the Tianhe-2 machine at Guangzhou Supercomputer Center, the current World’s number one according to Top 500 Supercomputer list? Unlike some other China supercomputers – Tianhe-2 is fully Intel based machine,  the world’s largest assembly of Intel Xeon CPUs and Xeon Phi accelerators.

Even after Intel ‘opened the kimono’ and gave a nearly 70%  discount on its processors and accelerators, it has given Intel, and therefore US technology sector a major foothold in China and Asian region as such. Over the course of past two years, we were involved in a lot of discussions with Intel staff who were not privy to see the financial impact of the deal — and even argued our undoubtedly solid information. We’re not here to report how things should be, or are in marketing and investor presentations to its numerous staff, but how things really are.

During 2015, the Tianhe-2 supercomputer was supposed to be doubled in its size, up to 110 PFLOPs peak, again using the very same Intel processors and accelerators. Since now these are mature products with lower real manufacturing cost for Intel, they could finally make some real money.

Well, it was not to be: our tweety bird from the window chirped to us that Uncle Sam has put this supercomputer centre, together with National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, the system’s creators, and Tianjin centre, among others, on so a so-called “Denial List”, which prevents any high technology from the USA to be sold to these sites. Our sources used even harsher words.

Knowing that these several sites alone are expected to order some 250+ PFLOPS of compute in the next few years (around 500,000 top-end Broadwell-EP Xeon E5v4 processors, or  approximately $1 billion high margin list price) and they were THE Intel friendly ones, this is quite a loss to Intel, thanks to Uncle Sam.

But, what’s worse strategic loss in time is that, based on this decision as an excuse, indigenous China high end processor architectures can now push the government to gradually remove any dependence on US. This means just one thing: an AMD or Intel x86 processor technology is increasingly becoming errata non grata. Should the Chinese government react in force, it will give the Chinese vendors the blank check support to go all the way a developing their Alpha, POWER and MIPS processors for both the government and the mainstream commercial use.

You may think they are not up to the mark, but remember how fast British ARM architecture became the dominant processing architecture in the world. And this group doesn’t need to worry about the antiquated x86 ISA, worry about satisfying the dumbed down shareholder masses, or overpaying their marketing and sales staff, as well as the fat check, golden parachute-protected CxOs.

They have taken the best that the USA has developed (some of key Alpha, GPGPU and MIPS architects left US over the course of past four years, a lot of them due to non-renewed visas) and discarded due to corporate shenanigans, and the continued developing it much farther than anyone expected both on hardware and software side.

Five years ago, ShenWei showed a CPU that performed faster than the fastest GPUs of the time. Now, fifth generation is approaching, slotting between Tesla and FirePro GPGPUs and next-gen Xeon Phi accelerators. However, this is not an accelerator or a GPGPU – this is a CPU.

So, thanks to Uncle Sam, China might not have a 110 PFLOPS Intel based supercomputer but it definitely will launch a 100 PFLOPS system based on upcoming 64-core, TFLOPS-class ShenWei Alpha, with true blue CPUs possibly faster per socket then even the next generation Xeon Phi or Volta/Pascal-based Teslas.  Next, of course 100 PFLOPS Chinese POWER8 or 9 — (thank you IBM) and then possibly even Loongson MIPS – -it may come back into the high end field with renewed government support because of this Uncle Sam move. All are clean, elegant, scalable high end RISC architectures.

So who are the winners and losers from this?

NUDT and Tianhe may be the losers for now, but only short term. They will simply speed up their HPC ARM plan.

Intel comes out the big loser from this and a lot: who will want to do a phased deployment large x86 machine in China now, and worry about future phases? Then comes Uncle Sam himself: they lost even that little bit of influence on the high end China HPC. How is that for “cutting your nose to spite your face?”.

VR WORLD’s  Analysis: US government moves accelerate the Chinese CPU roadmap while curtailing juiciest sales for Intel and other US vendors.

The post Uncle Sam Shocks Intel With a Ban on Xeon Supercomputers in China appeared first on VR World.

Without a doubt the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) of today is very much a different firm than the Microsoft of 40, or even 20, years ago. While the company’s flagship Windows business is going nowhere fast, in the last decade new divisions within Microsoft have seen rapid growth as the demands of the market shift.

It wouldn’t be a huge stretch to imagine that the Microsoft in 40 years would be a very different company than the Microsoft of today. The way we interact with computers is changing; the HoloLens might be the new paradigm for the computing input of the future much like how the mouse and touchscreen were the disruptive forces of the past.

As Microsoft celebrated its 40th anniversary on Saturday, its founder, former CEO, and now technology adviser Bill Gates sent out a memo to the company’s 100,00 employees letting them know where the company is headed. Naturally the email got leaked, and it’s a worthwhile read. Check it out in its entirety below:

Tomorrow is a special day: Microsoft’s 40th anniversary.

Early on, Paul Allen and I set the goal of a computer on every desk and in every home. It was a bold idea and a lot of people thought we were out of our minds to imagine it was possible. It is amazing to think about how far computing has come since then, and we can all be proud of the role Microsoft played in that revolution.

Today though, I am thinking much more about Microsoft’s future than its past. I believe computing will evolve faster in the next 10 years than it ever has before. We already live in a multi-platform world, and computing will become even more pervasive. We are nearing the point where computers and robots will be able to see, move, and interact naturally, unlocking many new applications and empowering people even more.

Under Satya’s leadership, Microsoft is better positioned than ever to lead these advances. We have the resources and drive to solve tough problems. We are engaged in every facet of modern computing and have the deepest commitment to research in the industry. In my role as technical advisor to Satya, I get to join product reviews and am impressed by the vision and talent I see. The result is evident in products like Cortana, Skype Translator, and HoloLens — and those are just a few of the many innovations that are on the way.

In the coming years, Microsoft has the opportunity to reach even more people and organizations around the world. Technology is still out of reach for many people, because it is complex or expensive, or they simply do not have access. So I hope you will think about what you can do to make the power of technology accessible to everyone, to connect people to each other, and make personal computing available everywhere even as the very notion of what a PC delivers makes its way into all devices.

We have accomplished a lot together during our first 40 years and empowered countless businesses and people to realize their full potential. But what matters most now is what we do next. Thank you for helping make Microsoft a fantastic company now and for decades to come.

What the Microsoft — or even computing — of 40 years in the future looks like is anyone’s guess. But with Microsoft’s enormous R&D budgets and the exceptional innovation it has shown in the last few years, its future will no doubt be exciting.

The post Read Bill Gates’ Memo to Microsoft’s Employees On its 40th Anniversary appeared first on VR World.

It’s not uncommon for big AAA games to have enormous budgets that are often bigger than blockbuster movies. Consider the budgets for Destiny, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Grand Theft Auto V. Respectively these games have budgets of $500 million, $275 million and $268 million.

With budgets like this these games have to be big hits that appeal to mass audiences. They need to be flashy, action-packed adventures that appeal to anyone. In essence, they need to be the summer blockbuster material.

But games like this do not appeal to everyone. Just as some have tired of the endless supply of Marvel Comics movies that dominate summer release schedules, many want games that appeal that take risks with both the narrative and gameplay. Convincing a big studio to take a risk and fund a game like this isn’t the easiest of tasks — impossible if you don’t already have the right connections — which has given rise to the Kickstarter gaming economy.

Rise of the indies

The perception that big studios are drowning out creativity and leaving the industry with a creative deficit has led to a strong Kickstarter-backed gaming community pushing out indie games. These are games that aren’t pushing to have the cutting-edge graphics, or multi-platform releases. These are games that push the envelope of narrative and interaction creativity.

“Working in independent games right now, it feels like there’s infinite potential in any direction,” indie game designer Robin Arnott is quoted as saying in the trailer to new video game documentary GameLoading: Rise of the Indies.

Kickstarter developers are not constrained by the need for their projects to become massive commercial successes. While some games utilize cutting-edge engines such as the Unreal Engine 4 or the CryTek engine (made possible by the indie-friendly license fees both have), others take a step back and incorporate retro-style 8-bit graphics.

Big studios taking notice

The rise of indie gaming has not gone unnoticed by big game studios. While initially some indie developers were ‘refugees’ from creativity-starved studios, now studios are developing publishing brands to give indies a wider release. In many ways this is like how major studios such as Fox (NASDAQ: FOX) have developed spin-off brands for indie films like Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Consider the case of Valiant Hearts, a 2D-side scroller set in the trenches of the First World War with a strong anti-war message. Neither the First World War nor side scrollers are very marketable when compared to Call of Duty style first-person shooters, but the game’s developers, who work at Ubisoft (EPA: UBI), got the publishing giant to greenlight the game and release it earlier this year.

Yoan Fanise, the game’s Content Director, explained to Kotaku, explained he got the game approved by Ubisoft’s CEO after a successful pitch meeting.

“Our luck was that Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft himself, was emotionally touched by the story. He was a constant support for us,” Fanise explained to Kotaku. “The First World War itself is not a theme with a very wide appeal. It’s even less appealing in 2D, and even less again with no gun in your hands, so we had to constantly be knocking on doors to even exist alongside Ubisoft’s blockbusters.”

Fansie believes that eventually the game industry will evolve to incorporate more challenging, indie title as gamers’ tastes mature.

“The movie industry has the exact same problem, but is more mature and is often willing to take bigger risks. I think it’s time for our industry to grew up and be less scary about original ideas, or trying new things,” he explained.

The future of the industry

While examples like Valiant Hearts show that big studios are taking note of the rise of indie games, in many ways the indie game industry is fine without them. It used to be that big publishers played a key role in game development: you needed access to their capital to develop the game, and without their distribution network you couldn’t get your product to customers.

But Kickstarter and digital distribution platforms such as Steam have changed that; they have democratized the industry and leveled the playing field so that merit — not connections — matter when getting an idea for an indie game off the ground.

There will always be cases such a Valiant Hearts where a big studio steps in, but there are too many cases of successful game developers doing just fine without them to say that big studios play a pivotal role in the future of indie gaming. Now, it’s all about artists and developers.

The post The Rise and Rise of Kickstarter Indie Games appeared first on VR World.

Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announcement of the new $149 Chromebook as well as the Chromebit included details of a partnership with Indian vendor Xolo, Thai communications leader True and Indonesia’s Nexian, with all three brands set to offer devices running Chrome OS in the near future.

Currently, HP (NYSE:HPQ), LG (KRX:066575), Acer (TPE:2353) and Samsung (KRX:005930) offer Chromebooks in India, with the offerings getting a lot of visibility in retail as well as e-commerce stores. However, the segment itself has failed to take off in the country, mostly due to the lack of advertising. The pricing, which starts at the equivalent of $400 for devices such as the HP chromebook 14 also played a part in poor sales, with products such as the Lenovo G50 offering a full-fledged Windows experience for just a $100 more.

But with Google aggressively pushing Chrome OS devices, that is set to change in the coming months. Once limited in functionality, Chromebooks now offer a robust set of services, with the hardware also receiving a hefty upgrade in the form of full-HD multi-touch displays.

Google has announced that it is working on a touch-centric user interface for Chrome OS, and that it will be making it easier for developers to port Android apps to the platform. A total of ten new devices from the likes of HP, LG, Lenovo (HKG:0992) and Dell are set to launch over the coming months as well, which will considerably expand the Chrome OS ecosystem.

The post Vendors Get Ready To Launch Chromebooks In India appeared first on VR World.

The Zenfone 4 and Zenfone 5 have sold considerably well in India, and Asus (TPE:2357) is now looking to continue that momentum this year with the launch of its latest handset, the Zenfone 2. Announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the Zenfone 2 grabbed headlines in the tech community as being the first device to feature an astounding 4GB RAM.

Launched in Taiwan in the month of March for what amounts to $295, the 4GB variant (ZE551ML) features great hardware for the price, including a 5.5-inch full-HD display, Intel’s quad-core 2.3GHz Atom Z3580 CPU, 64GB internal memory, microSD slot, dual SIM and LTE connectivity and a 13MP camera at the back along with a 5MP front camera and 3,000mAh battery. Software-wise, the Zenfone 2 features the latest version of Android 5.0 with Asus’ Zen UI rounding off the customizations.

While devices such as the Zenfone 2 are highly anticipated in Western countries, in India, the handset will encounter fierce competition from the likes of Lenovo (HKG:0992), Xiaomi and Huawei, all of whom offer stellar hardware at an affordable price. The differentiator for Asus, at least in India, will be the 4GB ZE551ML variant, which will make it the first device to offer that much memory.

In terms of hardware, the Zenfone 2 is up there with the likes of Xiaomi’s Mi Note, which the Chinese vendor has dubbed the “best smartphone available today.” Xiaomi has become a force to reckon with in India, but Asus has also enjoyed a healthy dose of attention from consumers with its budget offerings. Furthermore, the brushed metal design of the Zenfone 2 looks far more polished than the glass back on offer with the Mi Note. Pricing may also turn out to be a factor that determines the fate of either device in the country, with Xiaomi already showing that it can offer its products for as low as what they are available in China.

There isn’t an exact launch date mentioned for the Zenfone 2 in India, but it should be making its debut sometime before the end of the month. Along with the 4GB model, there will be several affordable options that offer 2GB RAM and a lower resolution screen.

The post Asus Zenfone 2 To Launch In India By The End Of April appeared first on VR World.

Slides from AMD’s (NASDAQ:AMD) event at the PC Cluster Consortium event in Osaka, Japan offer up details regarding the chip vendor’s roadmap for its GPUs and CPUs, with the takeaways including the launch of a 300W APU targeted at the HPC segment along with the launch of new CPU cores.

At the event, Junji Hayashi, Consumer and Commercial Business Lead at AMD Japan, shared details on the vendor’s K12 ARM as well as the x86 Zen CPU cores. AMD is looking to introduce both ARM as well as traditional x86 cores in a pin compatible platform that is codenamed SkyBridge. Aimed at the server, embedded, semi-custom and client markets, both the ARMv8 and the x86-powered cores will offer 64-bit computing and will be manufactured using a 14-nm FinFET process. SkyBridge will be launching before the end of the year, although an exact launch window was not provided.

The K12 core will feature Simultaneous Multi-Threading, which is a departure from the Clustered Multi-Thread technology that is currently utilized in AMD’s offerings. SMT will offer larger CPU cores the ability to achieve a higher throughput by allocating underutilized resources to an additional, slower, execution thread.

As for GPUs, Hayashi mentioned that AMD would be moving to a two-year release cadence cycle for updating the GPU architecture of APUs. There was also a mention of a High Performance Computing APU, which is said to be radically different from existing designs in that is features the Stacked HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) memory standard. The HPC APUs will slot in between the standard server cores and the FirePro line of cards.

The current generation HBM is nine times faster than GDDR5 memory and 128 times faster than DDR3. AMD is said to be utilizing the same standard in its Radeon 300 series, with the technology itself developed in collaboration with SK Hynix.

The post AMD Reveals Five-Year Roadmap For GPUs and CPUs appeared first on VR World.

The wearables market launched to a rocky start, but IDC sees nothing but growth over the next few years.

According to a recent report by IDC, a combination of new vendors, new devices, and greater awareness among potential consumers will lead to year-over-year growth that leads to 126 million of the devices shipped by 2019. IDC forecasts that the wearables market will see 45.7 million unit shipments in 2015, up from the 133.4% from the 19.6 million units shipped in 2014. Until 2019, IDC believes that every year the market will have a year-over-year growth rate of 45%.

“Smart wearables are about to take a major step forward with the launch of the Apple Watch this year,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Wearables team. “The Apple Watch raises the profile of wearables in general and there are many vendors and devices that are eager to share the spotlight. Basic wearables, meanwhile, will not disappear. In fact, we anticipate continued growth here as many segments of the market seek out simple, single-use wearable devices.”

What’s causing the growth?

The obvious reason why the market is poised for growth is the 900-pound gorilla known as the Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) Watch. When the Apple Watch launches many competing vendors will no doubt use its launch and first year on the market as a case study to adjust their own strategies accordingly.

There’s also the issue of the overall quality of the wearable market. When wearables first entered the mainstream public consciousness they were heavily fitness oriented. This appealed to a niche market, but to the not-so fitness inclined they were a questionable investment. Then the first smartwatch, Samsung’s (KRX: 005930) Galaxy Gear, came on the market to a chilly reception and ultimately had a sky-high return rate.

In a contrast, a maturing market shows that there’s nothing but demand for wearables. This is because the overall quality of device has improved, and consumers have taken note and responded positively. IDC’s numbers are realistic and definitely attainable if vendors keep building quality devices.

The post IDC: The Wearables Market is Expanding appeared first on VR World.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is confident that one day it will offer a delivery service by air even if its has to convince hostile regulators and a skeptical otherwise. In order to prove that its Prime Air service will one day be possible, Amazon is currently testing its courier drones in a British Columbia, Canada border town to eventually demonstrate to US authorities that the technology is viable.

According to a Guardian feature on the test site, Amazon engineers are conducting experiments with the drones to make sure that they can operate safely and autonomously. Amazon proposes that these drones operate between 200-500 feet and carry packages up to 5 lbs. The drones will have collision avoidance features, and will be able to operate without a direct link to its base. These critical features need to have every bug ironed out before Amazon appeals to the FAA to get the green light to fly.

“We think that this new technology will provide huge benefits for our customers, who we think will love it, and for society more broadly,” Amazon’s Paul Misener, the company’s vice-president for global public policy, told the Guardian. “Why would we wait?”

Safety first for Amazon Prime Air

While the FAA should have granted Amazon a license to perform testing in isolated, rural areas its concerns about the safety of wide scale drone delivery are valid. There are simply too many things that could go wrong to have the skies above a major city filled with autonomous drones. Each drone would have to have redundant mechanical and software systems to ensure that an engine failure or software malfunction doesn’t mean that it would drop from the sky.

Range anxiety

There is also the problem of range. A high-end consumer drone, such as the DJI Phantom, only lasts for 25 minutes in the sky with its 5200 mAh battery. Given current battery technology that’s affordable, drone manufacturers have a dilemma: batteries with a higher milliampere-hour and voltage to let the drone fly faster and longer are heavier, which require more energy to get off the ground. Bearing big jumps in battery or engine efficiency, don’t expect drones to go much further than this on one charge.

In many US cities, famous for their urban sprawl, 25 minutes is simply not enough for a return trip. In order for this to be viable, Amazon would have to build small warehouses throughout the cities and use predictive algorithms to stock them accordingly.

All this considered, wouldn’t it be more efficient to just deliver product by truck?

The post Amazon Testing Drone Delivery in Canada appeared first on VR World.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) has announced that the long-awaited Spotify app will launch on PS3 and PS4 later today, and that the app will be exclusive to PlayStation systems “for the foreseeable future”.

The PlayStation Music app, which taps the power of the music-streaming service Spotify, is free on both PlayStation consoles.

An active PlayStation Plus isn’t required and it’s free to listen to music, however a premium subscription is offered for $9.99 a month that blocks out ads and improves stream quality. Sony is offering a free 30-day trial for the service.

The app will be available to download on the PlayStation Store, but most users will find it already on their console, replacing the Music Unlimited app on the main menu.

Using PlayStation’s new Spotify app, users can easily listen to customized playlists and music tracks without going through the hassle of switching between the pesky Music Unlimited and the game session.

Sony has locked down exclusivity rights for Spotify as well, signalling that app software has joined as a major contributor of the timed exclusivity console wars.

“PlayStation [consoles] have gaming exclusivity,” Sony Computer Entertainment Europe UK marketing director Murray Pannell told Eurogamer.

But how long with the timed exclusivity last? “That’s to be decided exactly, but certainly for the foreseeable [future].”

While Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox One won’t get access to Spotify, it does have its own premium console-based music streaming service called Xbox Music Pass. The service is priced at $9.99 a month and features cross-platform streaming across various devices, and even supports offline streaming.

The Spotify PS4 and PS3 is a win for Sony because it replaces their awful Music Unlimited service and lets users actually listen to music while playing a game. But in terms of competition, it isn’t a big deal to Microsoft, considering it has its own unique multi-platform music service.

Along with the live TV streaming service PlayStation Vue, this move into a more consolidated music streaming service fits in with Sony’s major new rebranding focus.

It’ll be interesting to see how app software is leveraged in the future to bolster each console brand, and how it fits in with each company’s growing ecosystem.

Also before you hand over your credit card information to Sony, be aware that the company doesn’t have the best track record in regards to protecting your info, and is constantly hit by hackers. Buyer beware!

The post Spotify PS4 And PS3 App Launches Today, Is Timed Exclusive appeared first on VR World.

Gogoro, the Taiwan-based electric scooter startup that counts HTC’s (TPE: 2498) Cher Wang as investor, has generated a lot of buzz since its unveiling at CES in January. Now those interested in buying one of Gogoro’s electric scooters will have the chance to demo one at a retail experience zone opening up later this week in Taipei’s Xinyi shopping district.

Gogoro is targeting a summer launch in Metro Taipei, which consists of Taipei and New Taipei City. Gogoro’s scooters differ from traditional electric scooters: you can’t plug them in. Instead, riders take the scooters to a battery swapping center when they need a fresh battery. Gogoro owners need to subscribe to a monthly plan, and the company promises that there will be dozens of stations around the city and each station is said to be roughly the size of an ATM.

Battery swapping plans for electric vehicles are in many ways the ultimate cure for range anxiety, but they have been met with challenges due to the complexity of replacing a battery in most electric vehicles. However, this isn’t the case with Gogoro as the 20-pound battery can be replaced in a matter of seconds.

To ensure that its scooters arrive bug-free, Gogoro is launching a pilot program in April. 100 riders will be given the chance to try out the scooters over the course of two months. The company is hoping that the beta testers will log 100,000 collective hours during the pilot program.

Pricing has yet to be announced.

The problem with electric scooters

The Metro Taipei area has the highest density of scooters in the world, and scooters are the biggest single contributor to air pollution in the city.

But as VR World reported in February a combination of bad public policy and misplaced subsidy programs have stopped the hindered the adoption rate of the electric two-wheeled vehicles.

But all of this can change with Gogoro. While the Taiwanese government might have failed to put in place proper subsidy programs to encourage adoption, the local Taipei city government might fill this vacuum and do it instead. But if Gogoro can launch this scooter at a competitive price, and convince consumer that its battery swapping network is solid, it might not need the help of the government in the first place.  

The post Gogoro Opening Retail Store in Taipei Ahead of Summer Launch appeared first on VR World.

Uber has been no friend of authorities since its launch. The ride-sharing company has always billed itself as a technology or information company, not a Taxi firm, in order to bypass regulations regarding commercial driver licensing. But according to a report from German language publication Wirtschafts Woche, this will soon be changing.

According to the report, Uber will be providing its drivers in Europe with commercial driver licenses and will be going through the proper steps to license itself as a taxi and chauffeur service.

“We will also pay the €150 to €200 it would cost our partners to have the Chamber of Commerce license them as taxi companies,” Fabien Nestmann, Uber’s chief in Germany is quoted as saying.

It’s not clear if the costs will be passed on to riders.

Uber’s new strategy

For a company of its valuation (which is said to be near $40 billion), Uber’s compliance with local laws regarding taxis and chauffeur services is practically non-existent. One would be hard-pressed to find a company of similar, or any size, that takes the same approach with regulators.  Uber’s libertarian approach to ride sharing and taxi services has its fans, but will ultimately fall on deaf ears with authorities. Though the law may be imperfect, Uber needs to comply with it — it can then lobby lawmakers to perfect it.

No doubt Uber is under pressure from its investors to become compliant with local laws. Investors don’t want to see their $40 billion company become outlawed in major markets around the world, and Uber’s lack of compliance is hindering it from raising its next $40 billion.

While the company will ultimately lose face given its disruptive nature, throughout the year it’s expected that it will take steps to be compliant in the markets where it operates around the world. Uber drivers — the little guys — are the ones that are under the most pressure. They are the ones given the tickets for operating an unlawful taxi service. If Uber wants to keep its personnel and hire new ones it will have to take steps to work with authorities to become compliant.

The post A Whole New Uber? Company Says It Will Comply With Taxi Laws in Germany appeared first on VR World.

UPDATE: Nintendo has confirmed that the Legend of Zelda Wii U port won’t be showcased at E3 2015.

Original story is as follows.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U port has been delayed, and won’t be releasing in 2015 after all.

The news comes straight from game producer Eiji Aonuma who announced the push back in a recent video update.

Aonuma cites the reason for the delay is that the development team has “discovered new possibilities for the game”, and the timeframe constricts on the new content they could add to make Zelda on Wii U the “complete and ultimate Zelda game”.

“Since I declared at The Game Awards in December that the game would launch in 2015, the directors and the many members of the development team have been working hard developing the game to make it the best it can be.

“In the last three months, as the team has experienced firsthand the freedom of exploration that hasn’t existed in any Zelda game to date,we have discovered several new possibilities for this game.

“As we have worked to turn these possibilities into realities, new ideas have continued to spring forth, and it now feels like we have the potential to create something that exceeds even my own expectations.

“As I have watched our development progress, I have come to think that rather than work with meeting a specific schedule as our main objective, and releasing a game that reflects only what we can create within that scheduled time…

“I feel strongly that our focus should be to bring all these ideas to life in a way that will best make The Legend of zelda on Wii U to be the best game it can possibly be.

“So, I must apologize to you all that were expecting the game by year’s end, but we are no longer making a 2015 release our number one priority.

“Instead, our priority is to make the most complete and ultimate Zelda game.

“I hope to use the added time to make The Legend of Zelda for Wii U into a game that will reward you for your patience, so thank you for your continued support.”

The news comes as a big disappointment to Wii U fans that were looking forward to the game this year, myself included. Some fans even rushed to buy the console after seeing the footage, and will undoubtedly be let down with the news.

The new open-world Legend of Zelda on Wii U represents a huge leap forward for the franchise, and Aonuma showcased an playthrough at The Game Awards 2014 that delved into the game’s expansive feel.

Seeing how huge the scope is for the game, it’s not surprising to see it get delayed. Creating and shaping such a substantial game world is no easy feat, and hopefully Aonuma can provided more

Many are speculating that the delay signifies that the new Zelda port will see a release on Nintendo’s mysterious new NX console, but the Japanese company hasn’t revealed anything yet and probably won’t until 2016.

At least Xenoblade Chronicles X is still on schedule for a 2015 release, and we’ll have Splatoon in May, but the new Zelda was one of this year’s premiere Wii U titles.

The post Zelda Wii U Delayed, Isn’t Coming in 2015 appeared first on VR World.

It appears that Taiwan’s HTC (TPE: 2498) is going through something of a transition.

Last week the company announced that its’ CEO Peter Chou had stepped down to lead the company’s innovation lab, being replaced by founder Cheryl Wang. On Friday in Taipei the company announced that HTC’s design chief Jonah Becker was departing the company.

“We can confirm that Jonah Becker has left HTC; he had been with the Company since HTC acquired One & Co over six years ago,” a statement from the company read. “We would like to thank Jonah for his work with HTC, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. He has been succeeded by Daniel Hundt, based in our San Francisco design office.”

This announcement comes just under a year after the Scott Croyle, who held the position of design chief for quite some time, was moving on.

It’s been an amazing seventeen year journey with One & Co and HTC, but it’s time for a new adventure. Stay tuned for details of what’s next.

— Jonah Becker (@JonahABecker) March 26, 2015

Why the departure?

There is no clear reason Becker  chose to depart the company at this time. While HTC’s new One M9 was criticized for its boring design, the company had a series of design wins with its Periscope and VR headset revealed at the 2015 Mobile World Congress.

It could be that the company’s new CEO would like a clean slate as she hopes to reboot the company. With any large firm there are more political alliances than Frank Underwood could deal with and a successful corporate reboot might mean installing new faces.

If HTC wants to properly compete, it needs a new, fresh and compelling design language. Perhaps CEO Wang thinks the only way to effectively do this is through a new team.

The post Another HTC Designer Calls it Quits appeared first on VR World.

While 4K certainly has its uses and benefits on larger displays, the potential use cases on such a small smartphone screen are negligible at best. On an average smartphone screen, which is usually around 5.5-6 inches, the resolution of QHD — let alone 4K — is too great for the eye to appreciate. Apple’s Retina display has a pixel-per inch density of 326. A QHD display on a smartphone would equal something in the range of 538.

A PPI of 538 is far beyond the maximum resolution that the human eye can recognize. There is a bit of controversy as to what the highest practical PPI is for a 5.5 inch screen held 12-18 inches away from the eye, but the consensus holds that it’s 477 PPI at 12 inches and 318 PPI at 18 inches. Of course, holding it closer than 12 inches away from your face would make it difficult to properly focus.

So this means that the iPhone’s Retina resolution introduced in 2010 is the highest practical resolution for a smartphone sized screen. Of course with bigger screens found on phablets and full-on tablets this figure jumps.

QHD and 4K smartphones are impractical

The other issue with QHD and 4K displays on smartphones is the substantial battery drain that comes as a result. Battery technology has reached a ceiling, yet the demands keep on increasing. A QHD or 4K screen requires substantially more push from the SoC to drive a screen of that resolution, which means the SoC will require more battery power for all tasks.

Before the 2015 Mobile World Congress kicked off, Huawei (SHE:002502) announced that it would not be producing 4K smartphones because it simply is not worth the battery drain.

“4K needs a lot of power, so if you use it you have to make compromises. A 4K display on a smartphone may give you half a day of battery life but a 2K display can give you maybe one day or more,” President of the Handset Product Line Kevin Ho is quoted as saying. “4K has four times the pixels of Full HD so the power consumption is maybe 4 or 8 times as much as Full HD so the smartphone has to have compromises with battery life.”

All about competition

Pushing up the resolution of smartphone displays  is not the only way to improve the quality of the screen. There’s much to be done to improve color depth, backlight quality, and the ability for the screen to display in bright conditions.

But the resolution race is a way for vendors to compete with each other. The screen resolution of a device is an easy and digestible metric to understand. But for consumers this resolution race isn’t, in the end, a value add as it does little to increase productivity or performance.   

The post Resolution Overkill: Why QHD and 4K are Too Much for Smartphones appeared first on VR World.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) has shed further details on its second-generation Xeon Phi CPU, known as Knights Landing.

The processor features several technical achievements, starting with a 14nm manufacturing process, which is a first in this series. Designed to offer high-performance computing, Knights Landing differs from other server-based CPUs in that it uses lots of low-energy cores to run parallel tasks, whereas offerings from IBM (NYSE:IBM) or Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) use fewer but more powerful cores.

Built on Intel’s MIC (Many Integrated Core) architecture with a total of 8 billion transistors, Knights Landing runs a modified version of the Atom Silvermont x86 core in a tile configuration, with a single tile featuring two cores and vector execution units along with shared L2 cache as well as a circuitry that connects the tile to the rest of the mesh network. Intel has mentioned that each Knights Landing package would include a processor with 30 or more tiles and eight on-chip memory modules. Another major highlight with Knights Landing is that it would be able to function as a host processor, meaning that it can boot and run x86 operating systems and application code without any need for recompilation. It can also act as a co-processor.

Talking about memory, the chip vendor has announced that Knights Landing would feature eight 2GB stacks of memory, totaling up to 16GB. The chip is manufactured at Micron, and looks to be a variant of the manufacturer’s Hybrid Memory Cube, which involves stacking memory and using an embedded logic chip to deliver higher bandwidth at a lower power. Micron has mentioned that its HMC modules will be able to transfer data 15 times faster than a standard DDR3 module, while utilizing 70% less energy. Along with on-chip memory, Knights Landing will come with six memory channels that can connect a total of 384GB DDR4 memory.

The result of the new manufacturing process, core design and memory is that Knights Landing will offer three times the performance as the current-gen Knights Corner, with Intel claiming 3 teraflops double-precision and 6 teraflops single-precision performance. That number is close to the 7 teraflops figure Nvidia (NASDAQ:INTC) touted during the launch of its latest video card, the Titan X.

It is no wonder, then, that Intel is aiming for the same use-cases as Nvidia for Knights Landing, with the chip vendor stating that the CPU can be used for deep learning and data analytics. Nvidia, however, has invested significant resources in its platform, and is offering tools such as the Digits software framework. Even if Intel does not manage to successfully challenge Nvidia in the Knights Landing, it is witnessing a great amount of demand, with over 50 companies set to sell server systems with the CPU as the host.

The post Intel Gunning To Challenge Nvidia At HPC With ‘Knights Landing’ Xeon Phi Processor appeared first on VR World.

EVGA has launched the first GeForce GTX 980 with an all-in-one liquid and air cooler, with the card dubbed the GTX 980 Hybrid. The custom cooling option is claimed to reduce temperatures by a full 25 degrees Celsius when compared to a reference GTX 980, allowing EVGA to substantially overclock the card out of the gate.

The GTX 980 Hybrid features a base clock of 1291MHz and a boost clock of 1393MHz, with the vendor stating that there will be plenty headroom left for further overclocking. The card comes with 4GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit interface and a bandwidth of 7010MHz. The liquid-cooled portion directs heat away from the GPU, while the included air cooler is used to cool the memory and VRM sections of the video card.

This isn’t the first AIO liquid-cooled video card, as that distinction goes to AMD’s Radeon R9 295X2, but this is the first time we’re seeing this system used on the GTX 980. Based on Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) new Maxwell architecture, the GTX 980 features the GM2014 GPU with 2048 CUDA cores.

The GTX 980 is listed on EVGA’s website for US $649.99/€779,00. If you’re interested in just getting the cooler, EVGA is offering it for $99.99.

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A new trailer for Halo Online gives us a brief look at the game’s built-in microtransactions, revealing an extensive pay-to-win style structure.

While the footage for 343 Industries’ brand new free-to-play PC shooter does indeed look pretty, it showcases something quite troubling that manifests as a cheap cash grab. Halo Online pay to win microtransactions are a thing, and its something I predicted in my recent editorial.

Halo Online is set up like Halo: Reach, where you earn credits from matches to spend on armor permutations and such.

But in the Russian PC shooter, players will get to customize every little thing about their Spartan: weapon loadouts, armor sets, and even equip a number of extra attachments to make your weapons stronger.

Check the upper right hand corner to see the Gold and Silver currency, and it looks like all the armor will be priced in different tiers in terms of its effectiveness in battle.

And you’ll have to pay for every little bit of it–every scope augmentation, every armor set, every little change to your Spartan will be monetized. The real balance is how much silver you can earn per match, and if that’s handled just right, the skewed ratio won’t be so bad.

But if you earn hardly any silver? You’ll be pushed and pushed to just snag the gear for cash. Plus the game has weapon rentals.

That’s right, you can rent your weapons for 30 minutes, 6 hours, or 24 hour periods.

Anyway, let’s take a look at the microtransactions and their rates.

It looks like Halo Online will have Silver, which can be earned by free players, and Gold, which is the game’s premium currency. Some of the ratios are pretty exorbitant, sometimes ranging to 50,000Silver to 50 Gold.

The trailer didn’t show us how much the premium currency will cost, but it’s a bit unsettling to know that the game embraces such an obvious pay-to-win structure.

The main Spartan hub screen showcases a variety of different sections that act as their own different marketplaces:

• Bundles
• Weapons
• Tactical Packages
• Armory
• Restock

In the footage we only ever get to see the Weapons and Armory section. The Bundles section is probably straight-forward, having a variety of pre-sorted bundles that come with weapons, tactical packages, and armor sets.

Strangely enough you can rent weapons, as well as attach a number of different upgrades to them–all of which can be bought with premium Gold currency.

The Weapons section is a tailored marketplace for all the destructive weaponry in Halo, and to the game’s benefit, there is an amazing array of guns. There’s Primary and Secondary slots that include just about every gun in the franchise, along with a slew of different grenades

But you have the opportunity to pay cash for all of them, as well as a number of different accessories. You can, of course, earn them the hard way, but you’ll be grinding for quite some time I’m sure.

The Tactical Packages is a bit worrying, considering Halo 4 had a considerable RPG structure that let gamers customize their Spartan with a number of passive abilities.

Considering the game uses the Halo 3 engine, and we see instances of Bubble Shields and the like used in-game, this might be a marketplace for Halo 3 equipment (Rengerators, Bubble Shield, Trip Mines, etc) rather than actual Halo 4-style passives, but we really don’t know.

The Armory is where you buy your stylized armor. It looks like the armor will have passive bonuses like increased melee damage or boosted shield recovery, further incentivizing the pay-to-win structure.

Restock might be where you can buy grenades, ammo and such, but again we weren’t shown this screen so there’s no telling.

Halo Online has primary, secondary and grenade slots–all of which will probably cost silver or the premium gold currency.

So far this is like Halo from hell, where combat is just abysmally skewed towards players who are willing to shell out cash for victory.

This isn’t the Halo I grew up with. Although there’s a substantial RPG presence going on here, the whole game looks like it was optimized to get you to spend as much money as possible in order to win–a concept that should be abolished in any competitive PVP space.

The Halo Online beta is scheduled to start this Spring exclusively in Russia, but 343 Industries hasn’t ruled out an expansion across the globe.

So we might see this pay-to-win shooter make its way to North America and Europe, but at this point I’m glad it’s an overseas exclusive.

The post Halo Online Pay To Win Microtransactions Revealed appeared first on VR World.

With the recent news of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Jaws of Hakkon DLC being timed exclusive for Xbox One and PC, gamers are once again at the mercy of the strategic business tactic.

And it’s seriously aggravating the community whose paid good money for their games only to be denied content because they don’t own the competitor’s console.

If you play Dragon Age: Inquisition on PS4, then you’ll have to wait an undetermined amount of time before you get the DLC. EA’s (NASDAQ: EA) signed agreement prevents them from even delivering a timeframe, showing just how far these exclusivity deals can go.

We can not discuss when Jaws of Hakkon will be coming on other platforms

— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) March 23, 2015

Instead of creating their own exclusive games for their respective systems, gaming titans like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) have taken to a new game: buying out the rights to have multi-platform games and content come to their consoles first.

The unfortunate future of gaming

Timed exclusivity first manifested itself with Bungie’s huge multi-platform hit Destiny. Sony signed a major deal with Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI) that ensured specific content would be exclusive to PlayStation platforms up until a certain timeframe, punishing Xbox gamers to no end.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a Xbox One timed exclusive, and no one’s sure when it’ll come to PS4.

Microsoft did the same thing with Rise of the Tomb Raider, snagging a deal with Square Enix (TYO: 9684) and Crystal Dynamics that ensured the game would release first on Xbox consoles. We still don’t know when Rise of the Tomb Raider will release on PlayStation 4.

Sony even went so far as to snag a timed-exclusivity deal over No Man’s Sky once it realized how popular the game is in the gaming community.

Then there’s Titanfall 2, which is coming to the PS4 now that Respawn Entertianment is free of the exclusivity deal it signed with Microsoft for the original Titanfall.

It’s a bad and confusing business tactic in terms of consumer relations, as timed exclusivity ultimately alienates your constituency while also building shaky brand loyalty.

So why do it at all?

No Man’s Sky has gained incredible momentum, and remains one of the most anticipated Sony timed exclusives.

Why embrace timed exclusivity?

Console game exclusives don’t have the big payoff they once did. Back in the days of the original Xbox and PlayStation 2, Microsoft and Sony were both able to fire off a ton of first-party exclusives that helped define their brands. And since the games couldn’t be played anywhere else, it worked.

But in today’s industry, multi-platform games reign supreme and exclusives have taken a backseat. The big AAA hits are more accessible than ever, and you often don’t have to have any one system to play them.

Now that multi-platform is a secure bet, publishers are less-inclined to take the risk of developing a game on a single platform, considering they’d be missing out on the revenue streams from sales across all systems.

Sony and Microsoft’s first-party publishers are reticent as well, as they recognize the dynamic shift for cross-platform consumption as a clear threat to their respective regimes.

Every new exclusive is a gamble, and sometimes they can be multi-million dollar bets that don’t pay off, leading to crumbling sales and over-extending projections.

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