EU probing Valve and five publishers for geo-blocking games

The legislative body of the European Union is launching an antitrust investigation into regional pricing and geo-blocking practices on Valve’s Steam store. In a statement, the European Commission says it’s investigating “bilateral agreements” between Valve and five publishers: Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax.

The investigation is focused on activation keys, whose primary function is as an anti-piracy tool. After buying a physical copy of a game, users need to submit an activation key to prove they own it and add it to their Steam library. Once done, the game is then available on any device that the user is logged into.

Although that’s an accurate description of what activation keys are supposed to be for, in reality, they serve another, arguably damaging purpose: enabling a giant third-party market. Companies like G2A and Kinguin resell activation keys at discounted rates, which is great for getting games on the cheap but not so great for keeping smaller developers in business.

While games bought directly through Steam are almost entirely region-free, the same cannot be said for activation keys. The Commission believes that Valve has agreements with the five publishers that may require the use of activation keys “for the purpose of geo-blocking.” The example it gives in its statement is that a key bought in certain countries (it lists the Czech Republic and Poland) may only work within those countries. These regional restrictions are made clear on the Steam Support site.

The European Union, although a single market, contains diverse economies and currencies, with GDP per capita varying from around $95,000 down to $7,000, depending on the country. As such, video game publishers price their retail games differently in, for example, the UK and the Czech Republic. While this makes business sense, by geo-blocking these games publishers may be breaking EU competition rules, as they’re preventing parallel trade within the single market.

Valve, for its part, is being investigated for facilitating that rule-breaking. There is no indication that the Steam store itself is in any trouble, as geo-blocked games are rare there, and Valve makes it easy for users to change their location to look at different prices.

The five publishers, for the uninitiated, are all big names in video games. ZeniMax owns Bethesda, Arkane, id, and other developers, typically publishing under the Bethesda brand. Capcom develops series like Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Dead Rising. Bandai Namco was a huge name in arcade gaming, and currently publishes the Dark Souls games internationally. Focus Home is mostly focused on publishing indie titles regionally, while Koch Media owns Deep Silver, which develops its own games as well as handling regional distribution for companies like Atlus (its big release for 2017 will be Persona 5).

At the time of writing, none of the companies involved have commented on the investigation, but we’ll update this article once they do.

Source: European Commission

ASUS is being investigated for price manipulation in Europe

In one of several antitrust investigations launched today, the European Commission has begun probing tech brands ASUS, Denon & Marantz, Philips and Pioneer for suspected price manipulation. As the press release explains, the Commission believes the companies may have broken competition rules by stopping online retailers in Europe from setting their own prices for products including household appliances, laptops and hi-fi equipment. The companies also stand accused of potentially influencing price tags on a broader scale, since many retailers use software that automatically changes product pricing based on what competitors are offering.

The European Commission isn’t able to share any more information on the investigations at this time, but for Philips at least, it wasn’t unexpected. A company spokesperson tells us a preliminary probe into alleged pricing restrictions began in 2013 and “we continue to engage and cooperate fully with the European Commission” as it becomes a more formal enquiry. We’ve reached out to all the other companies named for their take on the antitrust investigation, and will update you when we hear back.

Source: European Commission

YouTube App Gets iPhone Lock Screen Controls for Chromecast Streaming

Chromecast users can now control YouTube streaming to their TV from the lock screen of their iPhone, thanks to the latest update to the YouTube app.

Like YouTube for Android devices, version 12.03 of the iOS app adds play, pause, previous, next, and volume controls to the iPhone’s lock screen whenever YouTube is casting to Chromecast devices, smart TVs, game consoles, and other living room devices. The same controls can also now be found in the iOS Control Center.

In addition, the update enables iPhone owners with a paired Apple Watch to access the same controls from their wrist. YouTube is available to download for free from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tags: YouTube, Chromecast
Discuss this article in our forums

‘Fire Emblem Heroes’ Launches on iOS App Store

Nintendo’s newest mobile smartphone game, Fire Emblem Heroes, is officially rolling out globally on the iOS App Store [Direct Link], with players in Japan, Australia, and Europe already able to download it. Announced last spring, Fire Emblem on smartphones adopts the tactical role-playing gameplay of the popular franchise, with a few mobile-optimized tweaks. These changes mainly center around battle maps that have been designed to specifically fit smartphone screens.

To attack, players tap and drag their allies over the enemy forces, while paying attention to a rock-paper-scissors weapon types system that greatly affects attack power in the heat of battle. The main game lies in the “Story Maps,” where players will fight through enemy defenses to complete objectives, eventually earning Orbs that summon classic Fire Emblem characters to fight for them in battle.

Orbs will be one of the monetization points of Fire Emblem Heroes, as players can also choose to skip earning them through Story Maps and pay for the booster item in the game’s shop. Nintendo hasn’t yet detailed what else will be available as an in-app purchase in the game, but it did confirm Fire Emblem Heroes will be free-to-download with IAPs as its main revenue model.

Also included in the game will be an Arena mode where players can fight against rivals around the world to earn high scores, increase rankings, and get exclusive rewards to increase the abilities of each hero. Additionally, Training Tower will let players hone their Fire Emblem skills with randomly generated maps, and Hero Battles will pit players against new Heroes during limited events — winning will convince them to become an ally.

The official website for Fire Emblem Heroes has more information about gameplay, including its Home screen where players will check notifications, view their friend list, and peruse various other front-end features each time they log in. Fire Emblem Heroes is launching simultaneously on the iOS App Store and Google Play, similar to Miitomo but unlike Super Mario Run, which remains exclusive to Apple devices with a planned launch on Android in March.

For those keeping count, that makes Fire Emblem Heroes the third official release for Nintendo’s original smartphone gaming plan it detailed back in 2015. We now know that Animal Crossing and the unknown fifth game won’t launch before March, and Nintendo recently reported that its future on mobile devices won’t end after the launch of the fifth game made through its partnership with DeNA. This week, the company confirmed its intention to release two to three smartphone games every year.

The game will be available in over 30 countries by the end of today, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, and more. The full list of launch countries can be found within a link in the top right section on the official Fire Emblem Heroes website.

Fire Emblem Heroes is available as a free download on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]

Tags: Nintendo, Fire Emblem
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Invents Wearable Battery Charging Module for Apple Watch

Apple is weighing up the possibility of developing a wearable battery module to charge an Apple Watch while it’s being worn, according to a patent published on Thursday (via AppleInsider).

Details of the invention were released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, under the title “Charging apparatus for wearable electronic device”. The module uses an inductive element to transmit power to the smartwatch, similar to the one used in the existing Apple Watch magnetic charging cable.

Two embodiments are described in the patent. The first shows the charger embedded in the wristband – an idea similar to previous inventions – while the second depicts a separate module that sits underneath the watch chassis and attaches to an existing band.

The induction component in the portable module is capable of both transmitting and receiving power, and aligns itself with the smartwatch or an external charging source using magnets. Apple proposes the use of heat-dissipating circuitry to ensure the module is comfortable to wear against the skin, while various wired solutions are also described for charging the device itself when not in use.

It’s impossible to say whether the patent will see use in a future product, but Apple is clearly investigating various battery life solutions that don’t sacrificing the thinness of the Series 2 design, which is already slightly thicker than the first generation. Improving the battery life of the next Apple Watch is also reportedly the “main task” of Quanta, the Taiwan-based company responsible for manufacturing the wearable.

Extending the time between charges would allow users to wear their watch to sleep over consecutive days, which would give Apple the opportunity to introduce sleep tracking features into the next WatchOS, as well as potentially introduce resting heart-rate tracking – a primary indicator of overall health. Extended battery life could even potentially usher in a future Apple Watch with an always-on display.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Tag: patent
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
Discuss this article in our forums

Electric shock risk forces Barnes & Noble to recall faulty Nook Tablet 7 adapters

Why it matters to you

If you have one of these adapters, stop using it and send it back for a free replacement.

It’s been a rough ride for Barnes & Noble’s new Nook Tablet 7. Just weeks after it suspended sales of the $50 device in response to reports of the power adapter’s casing breaking off, the company has now issued a total recall of those adapters.

The budget 7-inch tablet launched at the end of November 2016 to go up against Amazon’s cheapest Fire tablet. When the fault with the adapter was discovered last month, Barnes & Noble told owners to stop using it until a replacement could be provided.

However, it appears the company has since concluded that the adapter is, in fact, a little on the dangerous side, prompting it to post a recall page on its website.

The company more famous for selling books than tablets fails to mention the reason for the recall on its Help Center page. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), however, has been good enough to furnish owners with a little more information, explaining that the adapter, which doubles as the device’s charger, could potentially cause an electric shock.

“The power adapter casing can break when plugged into an electrical outlet, exposing its metal prongs, posing an electric shock hazard,” the CPSC says on its site. It adds, “Barnes & Noble has received four reports of the power adapter breaking or pulling apart exposing the metal prongs. No injuries have been reported.”

More: DT’s pick of the best tablets

Just under 150,000 of the China-made adapters are included in the recall, which Nook Tablet 7 owners are told to “immediately stop using.”

If you have one, hop over to the company’s special webpage to take the first step toward obtaining a free replacement. You’ll also receive a $5 Barnes & Noble gift card for your troubles.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be prompted to print a pre-paid UPS label to return your adapter to Barnes & Noble, after which you’ll receive a replacement in the mail.

The good news is that while you’re waiting, your Nook Tablet 7 needn’t become a paperweight, table mat, or indeed a projectile in a fiery family dispute, as you can still charge it through your computer using a USB cable.

The guys who made smartphone photography possible just picked up a huge cash prize

Why it matters to you

The incredible achievements of these talented inventors paved the way for smartphone cameras, selfies, Instagram, and plenty more besides.

Next time you whip out your smartphone to snap a selfie, spare a thought for the guys that made it all possible.

For without the groundbreaking research of Eric Fossum, George Smith, Nobukazu Teranishi, Michael Tompsett, and the late Willard Boyle, your smartphone camera might not even exist.

This week, the four surviving engineers were rewarded for their work in digital imaging technology across three decades, work that besides smartphones has also had a huge impact in other fields such as medicine and space research.

The prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which celebrates world-changing innovations in engineering, awarded the four inventors a £1 million (about $1.25m) cash prize at a special event in London on Wednesday night.

Three of the four winners: Michael Tompsett (U.K.), Nobukazu Teranishi (Japan), and Eric Fossum (U.S.)

This from the judging panel:

Together, this image sensor technology has transformed medical treatments, science, personal communication, and entertainment – from Skyping, selfies, computer games, and feature length digital movies to reporting live from wars using the small camera on a smartphone. It saves lives by using non-surgical pill cameras and endoscopes inside our bodies to diagnose medical problems, as well as helping to reduce X-ray doses to patients and improving dental care.

Image sensors inside cars increase driver safety, enhance security on the streets, and expand our knowledge of the universe through images from the surface of Mars or a comet, from spacecraft in orbit around other planets, and the breathtaking pictures of some of the billions of galaxies surrounding the Milky Way.

More: DT’s pick of the best digital cameras for any price range

The engineers are responsible for three digital imaging breakthroughs: the charge coupled device (CCD) found in early digital cameras; the pinned photodiode (PPD) that helped to scale down the size of light-capturing pixels and enhance image quality; and the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor used by most of today’s digital cameras and imaging equipment.

Mike Tomsett, who invented the first color digital camera, joked that he sometimes has mixed feelings about the technology he created, telling the BBC, “I have a sense of pride but I’m also somewhat frustrated by all the people that have cameras taking pictures of everything in sight, selfies on sticks … you’re walking along and the stick suddenly appears in front of you. I sometimes think, ‘Whoever invented this imaging technology should be dealt with.’”

Recycled smartphones will be used to make medals for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics

Why it matters to you

It’s a great reminder to have a rummage through your closet and recycle any long-forgotten tech gadgets.

Winning athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be presented with medals made from metals recovered from discarded smartphones.

The idea was first mooted last summer as a way to deal with all the e-waste created by the tech-loving country. Or, as Japan’s three-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Kohei Uchimura put it this week: “Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be made out of people’s thoughts and appreciation for avoiding waste. I think there is an important message in this for future generations.”

Keen to move ahead with the plan, the organizing committee announced Wednesday the official launch of a campaign to encourage people to recycle their old smartphones so they can make medals using the metals inside the devices. Many tech gadgets contain small amounts of precious and rare earth metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and nickel.

Partnering with Japanese cellular giant NTT Docomo and the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center, the aim is to gather at least eight tons of metal from discarded mobile phones, the Japan Times reported, with “millions” of mobile devices needed in order to gather enough material for the 5,000 medals due to be presented at the sporting extravaganza.

While a number of recent Olympics used recycled e-waste for medals, Tokyo 2020 claims it’ll be the first where all of the gold medals are made entirely with recovered metal.

To make it as easy as possible for people to offload their old devices, the organizers are installing drop-off points at NTT Docmo’s nationwide network of more than 2,400 stores, among other places.

More: Tokyo 2020’s opening ceremony may include a man-made meteor shower

“A project that allows the people of Japan to take part in creating the medals is really good,” Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi said. “There’s a limit on the resources of our earth, so recycling these things will make us think about the environment.”

Japan itself doesn’t have many natural resources to speak of, though the gold and silver found inside its consumer electronics “is equivalent to 16 percent and 22 percent of the world’s total reserves, respectively – surpassing the reserves of any natural resources-abundant nation,” Nikkei noted in a report last year.

And with Japanese consumers’ love affair with tech showing no signs of easing up, it shouldn’t take long for the 2020 Olympics’ e-waste initiative to hit its target.

Recycled smartphones will be used to make medals for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics

Why it matters to you

It’s a great reminder to have a rummage through your closet and recycle any long-forgotten tech gadgets.

Winning athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be presented with medals made from metals recovered from discarded smartphones.

The idea was first mooted last summer as a way to deal with all the e-waste created by the tech-loving country. Or, as Japan’s three-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Kohei Uchimura put it this week: “Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be made out of people’s thoughts and appreciation for avoiding waste. I think there is an important message in this for future generations.”

Keen to move ahead with the plan, the organizing committee announced Wednesday the official launch of a campaign to encourage people to recycle their old smartphones so they can make medals using the metals inside the devices. Many tech gadgets contain small amounts of precious and rare earth metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and nickel.

Partnering with Japanese cellular giant NTT Docomo and the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center, the aim is to gather at least eight tons of metal from discarded mobile phones, the Japan Times reported, with “millions” of mobile devices needed in order to gather enough material for the 5,000 medals due to be presented at the sporting extravaganza.

While a number of recent Olympics used recycled e-waste for medals, Tokyo 2020 claims it’ll be the first where all of the gold medals are made entirely with recovered metal.

To make it as easy as possible for people to offload their old devices, the organizers are installing drop-off points at NTT Docmo’s nationwide network of more than 2,400 stores, among other places.

More: Tokyo 2020’s opening ceremony may include a man-made meteor shower

“A project that allows the people of Japan to take part in creating the medals is really good,” Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi said. “There’s a limit on the resources of our earth, so recycling these things will make us think about the environment.”

Japan itself doesn’t have many natural resources to speak of, though the gold and silver found inside its consumer electronics “is equivalent to 16 percent and 22 percent of the world’s total reserves, respectively – surpassing the reserves of any natural resources-abundant nation,” Nikkei noted in a report last year.

And with Japanese consumers’ love affair with tech showing no signs of easing up, it shouldn’t take long for the 2020 Olympics’ e-waste initiative to hit its target.

YouTube for iOS gets Chromecast lock screen controls

It can be annoying having to unlock your phone screen and sift through all the open apps to pause, forward or rewind what you’re casting on TV. Good thing YouTube has finally made things easier for iOS users. The latest version of the app for iPhones and iPads adds lock screen controls not just for Chromecast, but also for smart TVs and other devices. If you have an Apple Watch, you’ll now be able to access play, pause, prev, next and volume controls on your wearable, as well. The upgrade is now available from iTunes, just in time for this weekend’s YouTube binge watch session.

Source: iTunes