T-Mobile drops the HTC 10 after less than three months
HTC just can’t catch a break. The company’s smartphone sales are down, fuelling consecutive quarterly losses. To bounce back, HTC needs its latest flagship, the HTC 10, to pick up steam — and fast. But that’s unlikely to happen now that T-Mobile, one of the biggest carriers in the US, has quietly dropped the Android handset. It’s not clear exactly when the smartphone disappeared from store shelves, but a Reddit post has it pegged at July 21st. That’s only two months since the phone went on sale at the so-called “un-carrier.” The more worrying part is that barely anyone seemed to notice.
The HTC 10 is a phone the company can be proud of. The aluminium shell (one we’ve grown fond of since the M7) is supported with a fairly clean Android experience and some decent hardware under the hood. The camera is greatly improved too, although it doesn’t offer quite the same picture quality as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Still, it’s a phone that stands shoulder to shoulder with the LG G5 and other Android flagships. But, it would seem, a solid all-rounder just isn’t enough. Especially when OnePlus has a similar offering for almost a third cheaper.
Look hard enough and you might find a HTC 10 gathering dust in a T-Mobile store. These “limited quantities” are just that, however, and won’t be replenished in the weeks or months ahead. It’s a blow for the Taiwanese manufacturer — to survive, it’ll need to bank on sales coming from other carriers and countries. Otherwise, there’s always the next phone (maybe a new One A9?) provided HTC has the financial reserves to make it.
Via: Reddit, Android Police
HTC’s Viveport is an app store for VR experiences
In a bid to highlight immersive virtual reality experiences outside of games, HTC has announced Viveport, a new app store for its Vive headset. While Steam will remain the place to go for Vive VR games, Viveport will serve as your one-stop shop for things like education, travel, news and a wide variety of other experiences. It’ll be available on the web, mobile, Windows and, of course, right from within the Vive. HTC is launching a developer beta for Viveport soon (sign up for access here), and it plans to release it to consumers later this fall.
“We strongly believe VR is going to change the world for the better, for both consumers and businesses alike,” said Rikard Steiber, HTC’s senior VP of virtual reality. “We believe it’ll democratize access to experiences, now anyone can travel anywhere and learn anything in any way.”
While many of the apps in Viveport are already available on Steam, they’re a bit tough to find among all of the games on that platform. The new app store also has a cleaner, more consumer-friendly interface than Steam. Based on a few screenshots, it looks vaguely reminiscent of the Oculus Store app, which is a good thing. Viveport has already soft-launched in China, Steiber says, and it currently features around 100 apps.
Valve is open-sourcing HTC Vive’s room-scale tracking tech
Much like Valve open-sourced its Steam controller gamepad, it’s doing the same for the Vive VR headset’s stand-out feature. The company has recently opened up SteamVR’s room-scale 3D tracking system to anyone, as spotted by The Verge. Development kits include a pair of HTC Vive base stations; a “full complement of EVM circuit boards to enable rapid prototyping of your own tracked object” and 40 sensors for your tracked object that could be applied to a VR golf club or indoor drone, among other options.
On the FAQ page, Valve writes that there isn’t a catch for the company not charging licensing fees. And while that’s technically true, you do need to attend a $3,000 in-person training session in Seattle as part of the process. Valve hopes to allay that in the future, but for now, classes start in September, with Gabe Newell and Co. recommending that groups of industrial designers, and mechanical-and-electrical engineers attend rather than individuals. Those sessions start in September.
Honestly, they sound a bit like a college class and will have lecture and lab sessions covering SteamVR integration, troubleshooting and designing your own trackable objects. Are you ready to go back to school? Then maybe use Intel’s recent advancement in VR tracking for inspiration.
Via: The Verge
Source: Valve (1), (2)
HTC’s 10 and Vive boost sales, but the future still looks grim
HTC’s Vive VR headset and HTC 10 smartphone sold briskly in Q2 2016, boosting revenue 27 percent over last quarter to 18.9 billion Taiwanese dollars ($598 million). The bad news is that compared to the same period last year, sales are down 42.7 percent — not quite as bad as the 64 percent tumble last quarter, but still a precipitous drop. The company had an operating loss of 4.2 billion Taiwanese dollars ($133 million), making five straight quarters of futility.
HTC realized it had a hit on its hands with the Vive, and created a wholly-owned subsidiary called the HTC Vive Tech Corporation to manage it. It also created a $100 million fund to expand the ecosystem. Sales from the division still count toward overall company earnings, but HTC hasn’t said how many of the $800 headsets it has moved so far. It did get a piece of good news when Oculus removed DRM constraints from games, meaning they’ll work with the Vive and not just the Rift headset.
The well-received HTC 10 apparently sold well and the company is counting on that to continue. CFO Chialin Chang unofficially predicted a return to profitability by next quarter, but the company will need a Hail Mary to meet that goal.
Source: HTC
HTC Vive price rises to £759 after Brexit
Ready to take the plunge with a high-end VR headset? Bad news. If you live in the UK, the price of admission is now a little more expensive. At least if you want the HTC Vive, anyway. Starting today, the hardware — which includes two wand controllers and room-scale tracking — will set you back £759, rather than £689 in Britain. HTC has blamed “recent currency valuation changes” and “the current value of the GBP” for the price hike, which is basically code for Brexit. OnePlus made a similar decision last month, upping the price of its “3” smartphone by £20 in the UK.
A PC-reliant VR rig has always been expensive. But the new cost of the HTC Vive puts it further into “early adopters only” territory. That could spell trouble for HTC, which is already struggling to sell smartphones, and the larger VR development community, which needs new users to buy their experiences. The price increase also creates an opportunity for Sony, as it prepares to launch the cheaper but less powerful PlayStation VR this autumn. With a stack of exclusive games like Resident Evil VII and Driveclub VR, the company has a better shot now at mass adoption.
Via: PCGamesN
Source: HTC
Steam’s latest weekend sale slashes VR game prices
Steam tossed some VR experiences into last month’s summer sale, but this time, it’s throwing a party exclusively for virtual reality enthusiasts. The gaming platform has just announced a VR weekend sale, where it’s selling 175 titles for up to 80 percent off. Sure, the selection isn’t as extensive, but don’t forget that we’ve only just begun exploring the world of virtual reality. The games and experiences in the list will work with the the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, which, if you’ll recall, was a collaboration between the Taiwanese company and Steam’s creator Valve.
You’ll find a diverse offering when you browse the event page, from first person horror games to space simulators. Steam bundled some of the best its library can offer as a single package, though, so you can grab them all in one go. The VR Weekend Sale is already live, so you can head over to the platform and see what’s available until Monday, August 1st, 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern.
Source: Steam
HTC Vive owners can finally face the void in ‘Adr1ft’
It may be a few months late, but the day is finally here: Adr1ft, Adam Orth’s VR orbital survival simulator, is now available for the HTC Vive. The Oculus Rift launch exclusive was originally planned to launch on SteamVR back in May, but was delayed to build an experience unique to the HTC Vive and its motion controllers. The wait may have been worth it — the game’s creator says Vive’s motion controls have changed the game in dramatic and unexpected ways.
Orth says the general control scheme, such as player movement and menu navigation, hasn’t changed much — but thanks to the Vive’s motion controls, object interaction is an all new experience. “Reaching out for oxygen canisters, audio logs, terminals, collectibles, debris etc. with your arms while simultaneously micro-tuning your movement on the Wand pads and managing your oxygen adds an incredible new layer to the game that changes it fundamentally,” Orth said on the ThreeOneZero blog, “For many of us on the team, it’s our favorite way to play.”
The game didn’t get the full roomscale VR treatment, though — Adr1ft on HTC Vive supports sitting and standing experience only. That actually makes a lot of sense, considering the zero-gravity gameplay. The developer also left in the original gamepad control scheme, for players that prefer a more casual experience. Don’t want VR, but still want to get lost in space? You’re covered too: the game is also available on PlayStation 4, and launch on Xbox One later this summer.
Source: ThreeOneZero, Steam
New in our buyer’s guide: All the phones (just the good ones)
It took us a while, but now that we’ve reviewed the Moto Z, we think we’re done testing flagship phones until the iPhone 7 or next Galaxy Note come out (whichever arrives first). With that in mind, we can now confidently say that the following phones belong in our buyer’s guide: the Samsung Galaxy S7, the HTC 10 and the iPhone SE. (Sorry, LG, maybe next year.) While we were at it, we also inducted the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets, since we likely them more or less equally. And, in the less-expensive realm, we added the Roku Streaming Stick in the A/V category. Head over to our buyer’s guide hub for all the details on these and many more. That’s it for now, but stay tuned — who knows what we’ll add after the next gadget-reviewing frenzy.
Source: Engadget Buyer’s Guide
‘Star Wars’ VR experiment comes to HTC Vive on July 18th
You don’t have to wait much longer to live out you dreams of wielding a lightsaber in virtual reality. HTC and Lucasfilm have revealed that Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine, their VR gaming experiment, will be available on July 18th through Steam. And it’s free as long as you have an HTC Vive, so it won’t cost more to role-play a Padawan. The no-cost move isn’t surprising (this isn’t an in-depth game), but it’s welcome if you’ve been hoping to find a new showcase for your headset.
HTC is spinning off Vive into a separate company
HTC has seen its share of ups and downs and CEO shuffles in the past few years. Now, with its virtual reality division looking strong on the back of the HTC Vive release, the Taiwanese company is looking to spin off that lucrative business into its own wholly-owned subsidiary called “HTC Vive Tech Corporation.”
Earlier reports indicated the move was possible, but HTC confirmed the reorganization to The Verge today. The company’s brief, one-sentence statement:
HTC can confirm that it has established a wholly-owned subsidiary, HTC Vive Tech Corporation, as a vehicle for developing strategic alliances to help build the global VR ecosystem.
While the shuffle doesn’t change much in the near term — and Vive is still completely under HTC’s larger umbrella — the shift does give the Vive group some extra protection should the rest of the company start to go belly-up.
During yesterday’s Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, HTC and Vive made a few other other VR-related announcements. Namely, Vive is launching an app store called “Vive Port” as well as something called the VR Venture Capital Alliance meant to “to foster long-term growth in the VR industry” through strategic investments. The VRVCA claims to have $10 billion in deployable funds, ready to invest in the next big VR thing.
#HTCvive announce global VR Venture Capital Alliance #VRVCA (https://t.co/1d4nEx4P27) to invest $10BN in #VR 🙂 pic.twitter.com/jJtKZ2ogZj
— Rikard Steiber (@rikardsteiber) June 29, 2016
AIVAnet 