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Recently, Sony Computer Entertainment filed a patent with the USPTO to integrate a camera into a wearer’s contact lens, complete with the imaging sensor as well as data storage and a wireless communication module. The technology, powered wirelessly and controlled by blinking, also offers the possibility of auto-focus, zooming and image stabilization.
Sony is the second to file a patent for integrating a wearable camera into a contact lens, after it was discovered that Samsung filed a patent in South Korea for a similar concept on April 5th. Sony’s patent is filed under the name “Contact Lens and Storage Medium” and is slated to become a full-fledged camera device, complete with a lens, main CPU, imaging sensor, storage area, and a wireless communication module. The camera unit also includes support for autofocus, zooming, and image stabilization.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen wireless sensor technology integrated into a contact lens. In January 2014, Google announced its ambitions to create a glucose-level monitoring contact lens for the diagnosis and monitoring of blood sugar levels for diabetic patients. Google’s project integrates several miniscule sensors loaded with tens of thousands of transistors that measure glucose levels from a wearer’s tear drops, along with a low-power wireless transmitter to send results to other wearable devices along with smartphones and PCs.
More recently on April 7, it was discovered that Samsung could be working on mass-marketing a CMOS imaging sensor into a contact lens thanks to a new patent discovered by SamMobile and GalaxyClub.nl. The patent application, filed in South Korea, includes a display that projects images directly into a wearer’s field of view and includes a camera, an antenna, and several sensors for detecting movement and eye blinks.
Sony’s contact lens patent could be successor to its HMZ 3D displays
Rather than placing focus solely as a healthcare solution, Sony’s patent appears to become a more biologically integrated implementation of the company’s early head-mounted displays (HMDs) with wireless video streaming. The big difference this time, however, will be the inclusion of a camera lens and near-undetectable appearance, depending on how well Sony manages to camoflauge any chips and modules into its first-generation contact lens units.
In November 2011, Sony introduced its first-generation HMZ-T1 head mounted 3D display, complete with dual 1280x720p OLED displays, support for 5.1 channel surround via earbuds and signal input from an HDMI 1.4a cable. This model weighed 420g / 0.93lbs with a launch price of $799.
In October 2012, Sony introduced the second-generation HMZ-T2 follow up in Japan. This model reduced weight by nearly 20 percent (330g / 0.73lbs) and replaced earbuds with a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack, complete with near-latency free wireless HD viewing (dual 1280x720p displays), 24p cinema picture support, and signal input via HDMI 1.4a cable.
In November 2013, Sony introduced the HMZ-T3W, the third-generation of its head mounted 3D viewer with near-latency free, wireless HD viewing (dual 1280x720p displays) with a 32-bit DAC delivering 7.1 channel audio (5Hz – 24KHz), and signal input via MHL cable and HDMI 1.4a. This device was not available in the United States and launched in Europe for a stunning £1,300 ($2,035) and is alternatively available as an import from Japan for $1090.
Will not come cheap
Based on the initial launch prices of Sony’s previous HMZ headsets ($799 and above) and the Google Glass launch price of $1499, and depending on the company’s target market, we might expect Sony’s first-generation contact lenses to be somewhere in between these two price points when they begin mass-production within the next couple years.
Acer’s boss Jason Chen says his company will not make its own VR devices and will focus on getting its gaming products to work with the existing VR platforms.
Eyebrows were raised when Acer released its new Predator series products which support virtual reality devices. The thought was that Acer might have a device of its own in the works. However Acer CEO Jason Chen said there were no plans and the goal was to get everythink working with the four current major VR platforms Oculus, HTC’s Vive, OSVR and StarVR.
He said that VR was still at a rather early stage and so far still has not yet had any killer apps or software. Although that never stopped the development of tablet which to this day has not got itself a killer app. But Chen said that its demand for high-performance hardware will be a good opportunity for Acer.
Acer is planning to add support for VR devices into all of its future Predator series products and some of its high-end PC products.
Chen told Digitimes that said Acer was investing in two robot projects, the home-care Jibo and the robot arm Kubi in the US, and the company internally has also been developing robot technologies and should achieve some results within two years. Acer’s robot products will target mainly the enterprise market.
Virtual reality is, without a doubt, the most exciting thing that’s going to happen to videogames in 2016 – but it’s becoming increasingly clear, in the cold light of day, that it’s only going to be providing thrills to a relatively limited number of consumers. Market research firm Superdata has downgraded its forecast for the size of the VR market this year once more, taking it from a dizzying $5.1 billion projection at the start of the year to a more reasonable sounding $2.9 billion; though I’d argue that even this figure is optimistic, assuming as it does supply-constrained purchases of 7.2 million VR headsets by American consumers alone in 2016.
Yes, supply-constrained; Superdata reckons that some 13 million Americans will want a VR headset this year, but only 7.2 million will ship, of which half will be Samsung’s Gear VR – which is an interesting gadget in some regards, but I can’t help but feel that its toy-like nature and the low-powered hardware which drives it isn’t quite what most proponents of VR have in mind for their revolution. Perhaps the limited selection of content consumers can access on Gear VR will whet their appetite for the real thing; pessimistically, though, there’s also every chance that it will queer the pitch entirely, with 3.5 million low-powered VR gadgets being a pretty likely source of negative word of mouth regarding nausea or headaches, for example.
This is a problem VR needs to tackle; for a great many consumers, without proactive moves from the industry, word of mouth is all they’re going to get regarding VR. It’s a transformative technology, when the experience is good – as it generally is on PSVR, Rift and Vive – but it’s not one you can explain easily in a video, or on a billboard, because the whole point is that it’s a new way of seeing 3D worlds that isn’t possible on existing screens. Worse, when you see someone else using a VR headset in a video or in real life, it just looks weird and a bit silly. The technology only starts to shine for most consumers when they either experience it, or speak to a friend evangelising it on the basis of their own experience; either way, it all comes down to experience.
That’s why it was interesting to hear GameStop talk up its role as a place where consumers can come and try out PlayStation VR headsets this year. That’s precisely what the technology needs; where at the moment, there are a handful of places you can go to try out VR, but it’s utterly insufficient. VR’s objective for 2016 isn’t just to get into the hands of a few million consumers – it’s to become desired, deeply desired, by tens of millions more. The only way that will happen is to create that army of evangelists by creating a large number of easily accessible opportunities to experience VR – and GameStop is right to position itself as the industry’s best chance of doing so in the USA. Pop-up VR booths in trendy spots might excite bloggers, but what this new sector needs in the latter half of 2016 is much more down to earth – it needs as many of America’s malls as possible to be places where shoppers can drop in and try out VR for themselves.
In a sense, what’s happening here is deeply ironic; after years of digital distribution and online shopping making retail all but irrelevant, to the point where it’s practically disappeared in some countries, the industry suddenly needs retail stores again – not to sell games, because those are, in truth, better sold online, but to sell hardware, to sell an experience. How exactly you structure a long-term business model around that – the games retailer as showroom – is something I’m honestly not sure about, but it’s something GameStop and its industry partners need to figure out, because what VR makes clear is that games do sometimes need a way to reach consumers physically, in the real world, and right now only games retail chains are positioned to do that.
This isn’t a one-time thing, either – we know that, because this has happened before, in the not-so-distant past. Nintendo’s Wii enjoyed an extraordinary sales trajectory from its first Christmas post-launch into its first full year on the market, not least because the company did a good job of putting demo units (mostly running Wii Sports, of course) into not only every games store in the world, but also into countless other popular shopping areas. It was nigh-on impossible, in the early months of the Wii, to go out shopping without encountering the brand, seeing people playing the games and having the opportunity to do so yourself – an enormously important thing for a device which, like VR, really needed to be experienced in person for its worth to become apparent. VR, if anything, magnifies that problem; at least with Wii Sports, observers could see people having fun with it. Observing someone using VR, as mentioned above, just looks daft and a bit uncomfortable.
GameStop has weathered the storm rather better than some of its peers in other countries. The United Kingdom has seen its games retail devastated; it’s all but impossible to actually walk into a specialist store and buy a game in many UK city centres, including London. Would a modern-day version of the Wii be able to thrive in an environment lacking these ready-made showrooms for its capabilities on every high street and in every shopping mall? Perhaps, but it would take enormous effort and investment; something that VR firms, especially Sony, are going to have to take very seriously as they plan how to get the broader public interested in their device, and how to break out beyond the early adopter market.
Much of the VR industry’s performance in 2016 is going to be measured in raw sales figures, which is a bit of a shame; Vive and Rift are enormously supply constrained and having fulfillment difficulties, and the numbers we’ve seen floating around for Sony’s intentions suggest that PSVR will also be supply constrained through Christmas. The VR industry – ignoring the slightly worrying, premature offshoot that is mobile VR – is going to sell every headset it can manufacture in 2016. If it doesn’t, then there’s a very serious problem, but every indication says that this year’s key limiter will be supply, not demand.
The real measurement of how VR has performed in 2016, then, should be something else – the purchasing intent and interest level of the rest of the population. If by the time the world is mumbling through the second line of Auld Lang Syne and welcoming in 2017, consumer awareness of VR is low and purchasing intent isn’t skyrocketing – or worse, if the media’s dominant narratives about the technology are all about vomiting and migraines – then the industry will have done itself a grievous disservice. This is the year of VR, but not for the vast majority of consumers – which means that the real task of VR firms in 2016 is to convince the world that a VR headset is something it simply must own in 2017.
Troubled camera brand GoPro is going for broke and getting into the emerging VR market.
The outfit has GoPro has announced a new channel dedicated to 360-degree or VR content, which it calls GoPro VR. It has also unveiled a new version of its HeroCast wireless streaming tool, LiveVR, that’s dedicated to VR content. It seems to think that this effort will bail it out of its financial woes.
Meanwhile it has been talking up its VR camera rig. This is a six-camera Omni VR which will cost $5,000 for a complete bundle which can create extreme 360-degree content. It is even offering a $1,500 discount for those who already have a stack of GoPro cameras.
Pre-orders for the Omni VR camera will be opening up today, which is when the GoPro VR platform will also be launching. Today will also see the launch of GoPro VR apps for iOS and Android. Much of GloPro’s VR work is based around Kolor Eyes which was a 360-degree software specialist GoPro acquired around this time last year.
We expect to see the rest of the VR product line-up at the NAB show that starts in Las Vegas later today.
Software giant Microsoft has moved to deny a daft internet rumor that it was responsible for the ongoing Oculus Rift supply issues.
Oculus Rift customers were kept in the dark about the delays following the 28 March release date. Oculus confirmed that a component shortage was to blame for the long delays in supplying its VR headset to those who had pre-ordered. Then a rumour started that the mysterious “missing component” was actually the Xbox One control pad.
The rumour got a fair bit of traffic among the IT press which did not check the facts and liked making Microsoft the villian for all its woes. A moment engaging brain would have knocked the rumor stone dead. The source of the rumor came from a Reddit post from a bloke who claimed to have an inside source who told him. In journalism this is called a “man you met down the pub” source. You get around it by naming the source or using the information to stand the story up.
Someone finally did the right thing and asked Redmond, they were promptly told that the rumor was totally false and if anyone had any question about Rift delays they should ask Oculus VR.
This morning Reddit marked the post as a “confirmed fake.” An Oculus customer support worker, whose identity was verified, also dismissed the claim.
“Totally fake, but super-entertaining,” he said. “Thanks for this! Keep the fanatic coming!”
Clearly who ever fabricated the leak did not know what a supply issue really is. It is when there is not enough bits ordered to make up the final machine. Sometimes it is caused by a batch of faulty components, but normally it is because someone did not order enough.
Oculus has assured customers that it is working to overcome its supply issues. “We’ve taken steps to address the component shortage, and we’ll continue shipping in higher volumes each week,” reads its statement.
“We’ve also increased our manufacturing capacity to allow us to deliver in higher quantities, faster. Many Rifts will ship less than four weeks from original estimates, and we hope to beat the new estimates we’ve provided.”
When was the last time you played as a black character in a game who wasn’t either a) the sidekick to a strapping white dude or b) a stereotypical gang member? We Are Chicago, from Indie studio Culture Shock, offers something different: a realistic representation of the life of a person of color in Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods.
“It was interesting to think about how you make a game about something that’s actually happened, a true story, and still give the player agency,” explains studio founder Michael Block.
“So we were talking about those ideas. We’re from Chicago and at the time we had started doing some volunteer stuff and talking to some people on the South Side, a very racially-segregated section of the city, very poor and has a lot of issues with gangs and violence. We realized it’s a really interesting story and nobody is talking about this stuff.”
This was the moment that led to the game I played a few weeks ago at GDC, which Block calls a documentary game, a game which gives players an insight into the world of high school student Aaron. During the very first scene, Aaron’s family sits down to dinner, only to hear the sound of gunshots. It’s shocking not because I’ve never heard a gunshot in a game before, but because the family carries on with dinner, discussing their situation but accepting the violence as part of the background to their lives.
“We brought on a writer from one of the neighborhoods to write the actual dialogue”
Scenes like this aren’t just based on Culture Shock’s preconceived ideas about the South Side, but on the sort of research that would make any journalist proud.
The growth of narrative games
“Part of it comes to down to places like Telltale, I think what they were able to do which has been super helpful, and they’ve been paving the way for everyone else to do all this stuff, is because they had this tie-in to an IP that people really liked and then they were able to tell a really compelling story with that IP. I think that got people into that genre.
“That has benefited us in unimaginable ways because it allows people to come into it with an open mind and know what they’re getting.”
“At the beginning we did interviews. We actually got really lucky: there was a non-profit group that we were volunteering with that basically blanketed the city with volunteers and they had a survey that could have been written for our game. Things like, what are you seeing in your neighbourhood that could be problematic? What are the things that you’re seeing are really good? Are you seeing any solutions that are working well? What do you wish was there?”
“From that we were doing interviews with people at bus stops on the South Side and we just asked a bunch of people all these questions and then gave that all back to the non-profit. Then we met a whole bunch of people who we were volunteering and people that they knew and put us in touch with and we did more in-depth interviews.”
As well as researching their subject matter, We Are Chicago took their commitment to representing the stories into the studio via recruitment.
“We brought on a writer from one of the neighborhoods to write the actual dialogue. So we had the outline in place, we had the ideas that we wanted to talk about and we went to him and said ‘let’s figure out how to make this into a narrative arc’. Then we brought on environment artists as well from the neighborhoods that we were looking at to work on the content of the game and they’ve also looked over the script and made sure everything makes sense to them as well.”
Block and his team also plan to continue working with the non-profits of Chicago, taking a build of the game to a couple of schools in Chicago to do play-testing with young kids and to make sure that the game is true to their experiences. He also reveals that he plans to do a revenue share with some of the non-profits, as a way of giving back.
That’s Block’s motivation here, and it’s a noble one. We Are Chicago is a difficult game to make and difficult game to sell, but its importance to its creators goes beyond simple profit and loss.
“I’m working on this project because for all of my career – I’ve worked on Organ Trail and I’ve worked at mid-sized studios before and released other games – I didn’t really feel like they were having the impact I wanted to have. I wanted to do something that was positive for our society and our community and so this feels very important to me personally because it feels like I’m able to achieve that,” says Block.
“We’ve had some really great responses from people. Seeing some people express more racist sentiments and ideas and then after playing the game actually not express those things is really validating and really satisfying, to think that we might actually be able to have that impact. It’s a very strong connection for me because I’m hoping that we can prove that this is possible with games and that we’re doing it.”
We Are Chicago will be released this year on PC, Mac and Linux.
In an age of viral media and ubiquitous social networks, it’s rare to encounter a major AAA release surrounded by so much uncertainty. Quantum Break has likely been in full development since 2012, when Remedy Entertainment launched Alan Wake: American Nightmare, and it has been a shining beacon in the Xbox One’s line-up since Microsoft unveiled the console a year later. Was Microsoft bankrolling an exclusive answer to Uncharted’s slick, story-driven adventure? Was its furtive marriage of live-action TV series and third-person action the result of unrevealed brilliance, or the unfortunate by-product of a now defunct product strategy? Or was it all just a logical evolution of the slick production and metatextual noodling found in all of Remedy’s previous games?
Reading through the myriad reviews that are now setting the record straight, the answer may be that Quantum Break is all of these things. Unfortunately for Remedy and Microsoft, there’s no consensus on just how capably it delivers on any one.
With a score of 8.5 out of 10, Polygon is among Quantum Break’s more ardent admirers, praising Remedy for mostly fulfilling what seemed to be the loftiest of the game’s many promises: a marriage of action game and TV series that both works and satisfies.
“The way Quantum Break handles story is, easily, the most interesting, successful thing about it… Remedy accomplishes something no one has really tried, much less successfully executed on: The studio has integrated the game of Quantum Break with a fully live-action episodic component.
“This is no half-measure: Four out of five of Quantum Break’s in-game acts are followed by half-hour live-action episodes using the same actors cast within the game proper. Other narrative-heavy games that take the reins from the player for minutes or even hours at a time have often jokingly been criticized with the suggestion that their creators should “go make a movie” – I’m looking at you, Mr. Kojima – but Remedy has actually done it.
“Even more surprisingly … it’s pretty good? There’s a question mark there because I’m still surprised to be saying it.”
While the player spends the majority of the game controlling a conventional hero character, Jack Joyce, it also allows them to influence the actions of the antagonist, Paul Serene, in a series of playable bookends. Choices made in these sections influence the content of the story told through both the live-action episodes and the remaining game.
“These present an interesting conceit that I’ve never seen in any choice-driven game,” Polygon notes. “You’re making decisions as a villain, and are given the option to see the direct consequences of your actions – but the events that unfold after that are impossible to know. Some characters may vanish from the story entirely, or take on new roles or sides depending on these choices. They also managed to humanize Paul in a way that the game otherwise doesn’t accomplish, adding a tragic spin to the story.”
And it does this with no shortage of style. Indeed, Eurogamer’s review – which does not find Quantum Break to be good enough for Recommended or Essential, nor bad enough to be Avoided – reserves most of its praise for the game’s splendidly polished surface, particularly the impressive way the game, “shares the look and feel of the TV series.”
“Quantum Break is primarily a shooter with little depth or nuance. What it boasts instead is an impeccable sense of style… An explosion in a university grounds, say, or a cruiser ship crashing noisily into a bridge; at these points there’s a deliciously perverse fetishisation of twisting metal and shattered glass that would have done dear Ballard proud, and a phenomenal visualisation of it all, told in countless particles and streaks of expressive light.
“It’s as a spectacle that Quantum Break really triumphs, a showcase of excellence on Remedy’s behalf as it creates an experience that’s aggressively handsome, delivered with great visual flair. When those firefights break out into noisy showers of sparks, pockets of fractured time and splinters of scenery, Quantum Break shows the magic that can happen when you give a handful of demoscene veterans a Hollywood budget.”
All of which sounds promising, but one cannot simply gloss over Eurogamer’s comment that, “Quantum Break is primarily a shooter with little depth or nuance.” Though other outlets might disagree on the use of the word “primarily” in that context, the criticism that Remedy has prioritised style over substance is relatively common. Indeed, Quantum Break’s staunchest critics seem to be those who lacked enthusiasm for its game/TV hybrid elements, leaving its mechanical weaknesses all the more exposed. Giant Bomb, for example, which will settle somewhere towards the bottom of Quantum Break’s Metacritic page with its two star review.
“Actually playing Quantum Break means you’ll engage in a lot of third-person cover shooting and some ill-conceived platforming,” Giant Bomb states, before describing a set of player abilities that are tied to the plot’s time manipulation conceit in name alone. “It feels like the developers just came up with a set of abilities and slapped the word ‘time’ on the front of each one.
“The gun handling in Quantum Break is pretty underwhelming and the powers at your disposal don’t feel as cool as they probably should. In some alternate timeline, this game has abilities that work together and chain off of each other, creating a more satisfying feeling of flow in combat. Instead it’s simple cooldown management as each of your powers is just about as good as every other one at taking down one or two enemies at a time… Remedy has delivered fantastic action games with exciting shooting components in the past, and it’s a real shame that Quantum Break doesn’t follow in those footsteps.
“Overall, the gameplay feels like it needs more variety, which makes the TV show side of things frustrating, since it features a car chase and other things that probably would’ve been more engaging if they were in the video game portion of the product.”
And that leads into the single most divisive aspect of Quantum Break, the apparent reason why its review percentages roam from 40 per cent all the way up to 90: the live-action episodes, and not the concept, but the reality. For Wired, they are “well-acted and tightly paced” enough to save Remedy’s, “radical concept from total disaster… They look and feel exactly like… well, like a mid-season replacement on the USA Network, if we’re being honest. But the action is just intriguing enough that you won’t mind being asked to watch a 20-minute cut scene before beginning the next level.
“[Quantum Break] will be remembered for blending game and live-action in a formula that actually kinda worked, not for its gameplay, which feels unambitious, half-baked.”
Ars Technica, on the other hand, takes a very different view, lambasting the, “excruciatingly average live-action TV show” for interfering with the “many strong elements” elsewhere. Ultimately, that could just be evidence that one person’s Breaking Bad is another’s Brady Bunch, but with a package as lavishly and expensively assembled as Quantum Break, it’s worth contemplating whether it’s a result Remedy and Microsoft will be happy to accept.
“Rather than make room in the live-action show for…character development, that show’s director wastes our time with overlong, poorly shot action sequences,” Ars Technica states. “Microsoft and Remedy’s experiment with live-action TV in a game is a horrible failure of management and execution. It’s as if someone let Xzibit into an Xbox conference room so that he could shout, ‘Yo dawg, I heard you like Netflix on your Xbox’-and totally missed the point of why and how we consume stories within our favorite games. Press Y to skip.”
The dark satanic rumor mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn which claims that the outfit which nearly killed off VR gaming with its “Virtual Boy” wants to get back into the industry.
More than 20 years ago Nintendo came up with its $179.95 Virtual Boy it was marketed as the first “portable” video game console capable of displaying “true 3D graphics.” It failed because it was too pricey, was not really portable and made users sick. It was pulled within a year and was cited as proof as to why VR was not ready yet.
Not surprisingly Nintendo didn’t want to go back to that AI place. Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime even claimed it “just isn’t fun” enough. Now that appears to have changed and Nintendo saying it was “looking at VR” but wouldn’t be in a position to give more details any time soon.
Carnegie Mellon University professor and game designer Jesse Schell outlined his 40 predictions for VR and and Augmented Reality on the list was Schell’s belief that the Japanese company is already working on a headset, and that it could be the one which takes the industry in a new direction.
Schell feels that by 2022, most of the cash spent on VR will be related to portable, self-contained systems that are not dependant on other mobile tech (like Samsung’s Gear VR, which needs a Samsung smartphone to function) or require a PC or console, and are free from cables and wires which restriction movement and immersion.
Sony’s entry into the virtual reality market may be just a few short months away, thanks to an interview segment with GameStop CEO Paul Raines with Fox Business on Monday.
According to the interview segment, Raines told the network that GameStop is being centrally positioned for the launch of several major virtual reality (VR) projects, which he claims will be a “lucrative business.”
“We are right now preparing for the launches of the major VR products,” Raines told Fox Business. “So we’re now in discussions with Oculus, with HTC Vive, and with Sony. The market size is really hard to measure right now, but there are a lot of different measurements — all of them start with a [billion]. In fact, I saw a Goldman Sachs report the other day that said that the virtual reality segment will be worth about $80 billion by 2025. So it’s a big launch. We’re getting ready for it. We will launch the Sony product this fall, and we are in discussions with the other two players.”
Although the GameStop CEO did not refer to the headset by name, there is not much doubt that he was referring to Sony’s PlayStation VR, previously known by the codename “Project Morpheus.”
The first time the public learned about Sony’s Project Morpheus was during the 2015 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco last spring, where a prototype was revealed using a 5.7-inch 1920x1080p OLED display (960x1080p per eye) with an RGB sub-pixel matrix running at 120 frames per second. The headset uses custom curved lenses to magnify and stretch the display across a wearer’s field of vision.
The stereoscopic 3D headset features a 100-degree field of view (FOV), six degrees of freedom (up, down, back, forward, right, left, yaw), and unwrapped (flat) output to a TV for use with a separate display or for viewing by others. Sony claims this is to prevent the unit from becoming a solitary experience, as it sees VR as a multi-user technology. The unit is controlled with a standard DualShock 4 game controller for most games, a PlayStation Camera to track physical movements, and can also be used with PlayStation Move wand controllers to simulate hand interactions in virtual game environments.
There are currently 82 games listed for the PlayStation VR, only sixteen of which have been announced so far with a 2016 release date. Some notable titles include Ace Combat 7 (Namco Bandai), Battlezone (Rebellion Developments), Eagle Flight (Ubisoft), Earthlight (Opaque Media), EVE: Valkyrie (CCP Games), Job Simulator (Owlchemy Labs), The London Heist (Sony Computer Entertainment), Robinson: The Journey (Crytek), Tekken 7 (Namco Bandai) and Vector 36 (Red River Studio), among others.
Software giant Microsoft is planning to get its Xbox business back in gear by making it follow the same sort of business model which worked for it on Microsoft office.
CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft has shifted its focus away from trying to strong-arm competitors out of the market, and towards a future of providing apps and services on the iPhones, Android phones, and Macs.
For example Microsoft Office is already on a subscription-based service available via the Internet. With the Office 365 service, customers pay their $10/month (or more if they’re a business) and get access to all the Office apps they can eat.
Redmond recently announced that it had 48 million monthly active users of its Xbox Live gaming service, across both the last-generation (but still popular) Xbox 360 console and the newer Xbox One.
Redmond sells this in two subscription tiers: Silver, which is free, and Gold, which is $60 per year. Silver subscribers can buy games, movies, and TV shows from the Xbox’s digital store they are also expected to swim while wearing pajamas. But subscribing at the Gold level gets you some crucial perks, including the ability to play multiplayer games online and a handful of “free” games every month. Gold subscription will also mean that people start calling you ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ and take their hats off when they talk to you.
What is different is that the new Windows 10 operating system can push Microsoft’s subscription services on you including the Xbox live. It has all been dubbed as “Xbox as a service.”
The latest game from Microsoft “Quantum Break,” was supposed to be an Xbox exclusive. It was announced that there also be a PC version, which buyers of “Quantum Break” for the Xbox One get for free. Most important, you also can sync your saved games across the two via the cloud.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that this would be a “platform feature” for the Xbox and Windows 10. Basically it means you buy the game once, get two copies that you can play anywhere.
Sony is behind in this because it does not have Windows 10 as its trump card. It offers “cross-buy support” for some while on select games, letting you buy a game once and play it on your PlayStation 4 or the handheld PlayStation Vita console.
Google is researching into a more virtual realtiy technology which will probably just end up in the beta stage before the search engine gives up on the whole project.
Google is apparently developing a new virtual-reality headset for smartphones, and adding extra support for the technology to Android in a cunning plan to give Oculus a run for its money. We are not holding our breath, we keep getting announcements like this from Google and they always turn to be vapourware like Google Glass..
Anyway this one is to be a successor to Cardboard, the cheap-and-cheerful mobile VR viewer that Google launched in 2014 and you can sort of buy and sold more than than 5 million units.
This one will feature better sensors, lenses and a more solid plastic casing, according to people familiar with its plans. The smartphone-based device will be similar to the Gear VR, a collaboration between Samsung and Oculus that went on sale to consumers late last year.
Google is expected to release its rival headset, alongside new Android VR technology, this year. Like Cardboard and Gear VR, the new headset will use an existing smartphone, slotted into the device, for its display and most of its processing power. But it will still be VR for dummies. Google Cardboard relies solely on sensors already built into modern smartphones to detect the position of a user’s head while real VR kits are a bit better and suffer less from latency issues.
The updated Google headset will be compatible with a much broader range of Android devices than Gear VR, which only works with a handful of recent Samsung Galaxy smartphone models, as the Alphabet unit tries to bring the technology to a wider audience.
The thought is that by improving resolution and latency, the combination of better Android software and the new headset will allow viewers to spend longer in VR and enable developers to create more sophisticated apps.
Nintendo’s finances took a dip in the company’s third quarter report for FY 2015 – sales stayed relatively stable with just 3.9 per cent shrinkage to 427.7 billion Yen ($3.5bn), but profits dropped by 32 per cent year-on-year to 40.5 billion Yen ($336m).
Although the bottom line failed to excite, plenty of familiar faces performed well for the publisher’s software arm, as well as a few new names. Top seller was Child friendly Wii U shooter Splatoon, shifting over four million units. Super Mario maker wasn’t far behind on 3.34 million, whilst Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer reached 2.93 million. Collectively the 3DS family sold 5.88 million units of hardware and 38.87 million games. The Wii U totalled 3.06 million consoles and 22.62 million pieces of software. 20.50 million Amiibo figures were sold, and approximately 21.50 million Amiibo cards.
Those eagerly awaiting news of either the new NX system or the company’s first smartphone game will be disappointed – neither was mentioned in the company’s forward looking statements. Instead, the publisher focused on relatively known quantities.
“For Nintendo 3DS, we will globally release a special edition hardware pre-installed with Pokémon title(s) from the original Pokémon series on February 27 which marks the 20th year since the original Pokémon series release,2 read the accompanying statement.
“Furthermore, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and key titles from third-party publishers are scheduled for release. For Wii U, we will strive to maintain the attention level of Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, which are continuing to show steady sales, while introducing new titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. Meanwhile, for Amiibo, we will continue to expand the product lineup in order to maintain momentum. At the same time, we will aim to further expand sales by offering new gaming experiences with the use of Amiibo. In addition, the first application for smart devices, Miitomo, is scheduled for release.”
The company has maintained its full year target of 35 billion Yen in profit.
Virtual reality (VR) will not be supported on most consumer computers as the technology booms and manufacturers prepare to introduce it on a consumer level this year, Nvidia has warned.
Jason Paul, the firm’s general manager of Shield, gaming and VR, told Venturebeat that graphics processors need to be about seven times more powerful than in a standard PC game to run VR, and that there will be only about 13 million PCs in the market that will be powerful enough to run them by next year when the first major PC-based VR headsets ship, at least on PCs.
However, Nvidia said that this number could be extended to 25 million if the VR game makers use Nvidia’s GameWorks VR software (of course), which is said to make the VR processing more efficient.
GameWorks VR is aimed at games and applications developers, and includes a feature called VR SLI, which provides increased performance for VR applications where multiple GPUs can be assigned to a specific eye to dramatically accelerate stereo rendering.
The software also delivers specific features for VR headset developers, including Context Priority, which provides control over GPU scheduling to support advanced VR features such as asynchronous time warp. This cuts latency and quickly adjusts images as gamers move their heads, without the need to re-render a new frame.
There’s also a feature in the SDK called Direct Mode, which treats VR headsets as head-mounted displays accessible only to VR applications, rather than a typical Windows monitor, providing better plug-and-play support and compatibility for VR headsets.
Nvidia said that GameWorks VR is already being integrated into leading game engines, such as those from Epic Games, which has announced support for GameWorks VR features in an upcoming version of the popular Unreal Engine 4.3. However, considering Paul’s comments, it mustn’t be getting implemented as much as the firm would like.
VR is becoming increasingly prevalent as device manufacturers try to offer enhanced experiences, especially in gaming. Oculus has been showing off what it can do for some time, and it seems its official debut is not too far away. But it was Oculus that seemed to kick-start this upward trend and, since it hit the headlines, we’ve seen a number of big technology companies giving it a go, especially smartphone makers.
The HTC Vive is one, for example. But, like Oculus, the headset is still in the initial rollout phase and not yet on sale commercially, requiring any developers wanting to have a pop at writing code for it to enter a selection process for distribution, which began only this summer.
Sony, another smartphone maker, has also dipped its toe in the world of VR via Project Morpheus, a headset like HTC’s Vive that looks to enhance gaming experiences, but specifically as an accessory for the PlayStation 4, which we assume won’t come with the concerns Nvidia has as it should work with the console right out of the box.
Given the soaraway success of the PlayStation 4, the none-too-shabby success of the Xbox One (eclipsed by the PS4, sure, but doing fine by its own rights) and the continued meteoric rise of mobile and digital game revenues, it probably won’t surprise you that this has been a banner year for videogame stocks. The success hasn’t been evenly spread around – and there have been some notable failures this year, too – but as the end of 2015 approaches, several videogame companies are trading at prices they haven’t seen in almost a decade, and others are exploring historic highs in their valuations. It’s not unreasonable to say that for the first time in a while, videogames are back to being investors’ darlings.
For this year-end round up of stocks in recognition of the extremely large number of publicly listed Japanese game companies, we’ve divided them off into a feature of their own; the trials and tribulations of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2015 were very different from those of American or European markets, so it makes more sense to analyse those stocks separately (that’ll be in Part 2 later this week). In this feature, you’ll find a round-up of all the major stocks from the US and Europe throughout 2015 to date, so without further ado, to the charts.
Our first chart gives you a quick overview of just how great this year has been for the major publishers. The black line is the NASDAQ index, representing the average performance of US tech stocks during 2015; as you can see, it’s been a reasonably torpid year overall, which puts the excellent performance of the game publisher stocks in sharp relief. Take-Two, absent a major GTA release in the year, is the weakest of the bunch, but even at that it’s almost doubled the NASDAQ’s gains since the start of January – while at the top of the chart, Electronic Arts and Activision have soared, with Activision in particular up almost 90 percent for the year, setting brand new heights for its share price. The company’s expansion of its business, especially the acquisition of King, is undoubtedly responsible for some of the late gains – but its investors have clearly been taken with its overall performance over the year as a whole, including the entrenchment of Destiny as a major franchise and the marked excitement over the new Call of Duty (though we’re still waiting to see if its sales have halted the series’ slow decline).
Looking a little more deeply at the contest between Activision and EA, the very early lead which EA took in January was down to a fantastic earnings report and bullish new guidance from the company; but Activision reported its own excellent earnings in August, beating its guidance and reassuring investors with a move towards digital revenues, which allowed it to catch up with and eventually outpace EA’s growth. As the year ended, Activision announced a bevy of strategic moves (the acquisition of King, filling a major hole in its product portfolio, being a major one) which boosted its growth towards a spectacular year-end. Depending on how sales figures for Call of Duty hold up in December, it’s not impossible that the company will finish 2015 with double the valuation it had at the start of the year – but EA, with nearly 50 percent price growth, is far from shabby.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the only major publicly listed “traditional” publisher is Ubisoft on the Paris Exchange – and here we can see that while, again, the exchange wasn’t a dramatic performer for the year (up around 20 percent overall), Ubisoft’s value increase since September has been incredibly dramatic. Why? It’s not that Ubisoft has anything particularly dramatic on the market right now – Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, its biggest game for this autumn, is doing fine but hardly driving the kind of business that would see stock prices leap so high. No, that valuation leap has everything to do with corporate machinations, specifically the acquisition of shares in the firm by Vivendi – a move that was greeted with anger by Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot, who views Vivendi as a predatory firm whose potential takeover is far from welcome. His shareholders, apparently, do not agree; interest from Vivendi (which also owned a majority stake in Activision Blizzard until the subsidiary bought out the bulk of its own shares in 2013) sent prices rocketing.
As a general rule we don’t put stock prices from different indices alongside one another, as the fundamentals of the markets are very different and the comparisons unfair, but with both the NASDAQ and the CAC-40 index of Parisian shares rolling along at a low, steady rate this year, Ubisoft’s performance is actually broadly comparable with the US publishers – so here’s a quick graph showing where the French firm now sits in context, in the wake of rumours of aggressive take-over. Yves Guillemot may not like it, but rumours of a takeover have propelled his firm into second place among the traditional publishers for 2015 share price growth.
How about Microsoft, the US’ console platform holder? In truth, there’s not much to be gleaned about Microsoft’s gaming business from its share price movements; the company’s expansive businesses in operating systems, office software and cloud computing are far more relevant to its share price than the Xbox. Apple, on the other hand, finds its share price almost directly wired to the iPhone, or at least to sentiment around the iPhone; this year its share price hasn’t moved much, despite setting new records with the iPhone division, suggesting that as with Microsoft, there’s not really a whole lot of connection between the parts of the business relevant to videogames in any way, and the share price itself. In Apple’s case, there’s a compelling case that the share price isn’t really wired to anything real or sensible whatsoever, seemingly jolting around on whims, rumours and idiocy – but for the sake of completeness, we’ve included a graph of the two “platform holders”, so feast your eyes before we move on to the mobile space.
If 2015 has been a great year for traditional publishers, it’s been – once again – an unassuming year at best for mobile-first companies. The biggest mover is Gameloft, which also belongs to the Guillemot family and is essentially a sister company to Ubisoft. There’s a theory that in the event of a genuinely hostile takeover effort, Ubisoft could quickly merge with Gameloft and thus dilute its shares and boost the Guillemots’ control – a strategy called a “poison pill” approach, although that may be neutered by Vivendi’s decision to buy large tranches of shares in both companies at the same time.
Aside from Gameloft, the biggest performer is King – which plateaus in early November with the announcement of Activision’s buyout, and will of course not feature in any charts for the coming year. The premium Activision is paying for the company means that its shares, moribund for most of the year, will end up doubling the gains of the NASDAQ in 2015; a nice bonus for its long-suffering shareholders, though if you’d held on to your shares since the IPO, you’d still be making a loss. Zynga, a company struggling to retain its once-held lustre, underperformed again this year, losing money both in dollar terms and against the NASDAQ index, while Glu Mobile, last year’s top mobile performer off the back of its success with the Kim Kardashian brand, had a very bumpy year. Its growth in 2014 carried on to the middle of 2015, with new celebrity licensing deals and good financials helping to nudge the stock price ever higher, but the market soured on Glu in August after a double whammy of reality check – poor quarterly earnings and weaker than expected projections perhaps reminded investors of what Glu’s management will have known all along – that the Kardashian success might not be as easy to replicate as simply sticking Britney Spears’ or Nicki Minaj’s face on the loading screen and rolling in the money all over again. Turning celebrity mobile games into a sustainable business is a tough ask, and fears over the risks involved saw the firm’s shares cancelling out their 2015 gains, and then some, in the back half of the year.
With the removal of King from the charts, that leaves only Gameloft, Glu and Zynga as publicly traded mobile publishers in the west – and while the huge number of Japanese mobile publishers on the Tokyo exchange do make up the numbers, the absence in the stock markets of top mobile players like Game of War publisher Machine Zone is very notable. Of course, to some degree that’s due to the blurring of the lines with traditional publishers; buying King makes Activision a major mobile publisher overnight, while Electronic Arts has also consistently done pretty well in mobile. Incidentally, it’s not just mobile which lacks some major players on the markets – Bethesda, one of 2015′s biggest publishers in traditional gaming, is a subsidiary of the privately held ZeniMax.
Contrasting the performance of mobile with traditional publishers suggests that in the US, at least, there’s little sign of the “biggest names in gaming” changing any time soon; mobile threats have been met or absorbed by the dominant publishers, and they’ve come out of a tough transition looking more healthy, and certainly more valuable, than ever before. That’s a very different story from the other side of the Pacific, as we’ll see when we get around to tackling Japan’s stocks later this week.
Benchmarks for Valve’s Steam machines are out and it does not look like the Linux powered OS is stacking up well against Windows.
According to Ars Technica the SteamOS gaming comes with a significant performance hit on a number of benchmarks.
The OS was put through Geekbench 3 which has a Linux version. The magazine used some mid-to-late-2014 releases that had SteamOS ports suitable for tests including Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Metro: Last Light Redux.
Both were intensive 3D games with built-in benchmarking tools and a variety of quality sliders to play with (including six handy presets in Shadow of Mordor’s case).
On SteamOS both games had a sizable frame rate hit. We are talking about 21- to 58-percent fewer frames per second, depending on the graphical settings. On our hardware running Shadow of Mordor at Ultra settings and HD resolution, the OS change alone was the difference between a playable 34.5 fps average on Windows and a 14.6 fps mess on SteamOS.
You would think that Valve’s own games wouldn’t have this problem, but Portal, Team Fortress 2, and DOTA 2 all took massive frame rate dips on SteamOS compared to their Windows counterparts.
Left 4 Dead 2 showed comparable performance between the two operating systems but nothing like what Steam thought it would have a couple of years ago.


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We all know that Britain’s economy is in need of a boost, and the optimistic among us expect a renaissance at some point in the not-too-distant future! Amid this tense anticipation, more and more alternative funding options, and attractive business savings account deals are emerging – so now could be a good time for businesses to “shop around” for advantageous deals.
Partly as a means of encouraging a resurgence in business activity in the UK; and partly in the hope of capitalising on the future success of UK businesses, Britain’s high street banks and building societies are vigorously promoting their business savings accounts. Business savings accounts are in fact expected to grow by about 25% over the next five years.
In addition you may wish to consider the loan services of reputable organisations other than banks, such as Funding Circle. Since its foundation in 2010, Funding Circle has loaned more than £28million to 670 British businesses. Funding Circle has recently received a £10million boost, as it is now being backed by Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures.

domain: news


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Indonesian Beer Manufacturer Performs Prime Export to South Korea
By : Ahmad Fadli And Aldi Firhand. A | Tuesday, May 15 2018 - 19:04 IWST
Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita along with South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Kim Chang-beom unveils starter export of starter to South Korea
INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - PT Multi Bintang Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (MLBI) began to intensively explore new export markets. The manufacturer of Beer Bintang brand will be the first Indonesian beer brand available in South Korea.
This also adds to the list of Bintang Beer exporting countries, including Japan, Singapore and Timor Leste. Outside the Asian region, Multi Bintang has also exported to Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom thanks to cooperation through a strategic partnership between Multi Bintang and Heineken of South Korea.
In Chinatown Prime Export Ceremony to South Korea, President Director of PT Multi Bintang Indonesia Tbk Michael Chin explained that his party is proud of Bintang Beer, prepared by human resources (HR) Indonesia, will participate in promoting friendship between Indonesia and South Korea.
Bintang Beers will be available in a variety of sizes ranging from 330 milli liter (ml) cans, 500 ml tins, 330 ml bottles, and 620 ml bottles. "As an iconic Indonesian beer brand, we hope the experience of enjoying Bintang Beer in South Korea will support Indonesia's nation branding abroad which is currently being intensively conducted by the government," said Michael in his official statement on Monday (14/05/2018).
The development of the leisure economy in Indonesia has also supported the positive image of Bintang Beer. This is due to a shift in the consumption pattern of the community to an experience-based consumption pattern, so the South Korean tourist experience while enjoying Bintang Beer in Indonesia boosts demand for Bintang Beer in South Korea. This is the underlying demand for a large Bintang Beer in South Korea.
This export event was also inaugurated by Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita along with South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Kim Chang-beom. "I appreciate to Bintang Beer Management that has been able to bring its products as a pride for Indonesia," said Enggar
In addition, Enggar also said, South Korea is very strict about quality, so this proves that Bintang has a high quality so it can be accepted in South Korea and I also congratulate Bintang to enter the South Korean market


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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp MSFT.O said on Friday that Bungie, the crown jewel of its video game unit behind the hit "Halo" franchise, will become a separate company, opening the possibility that it could make titles for Microsoft rivals.
Microsoft said it will retain a stake in the new company, to be called Bungie LLC, and will continue to publish future “Halo” games and other titles.
“Now that they’re free they can come up with something else and address the whole market,” Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said, adding he expected Microsoft would have a window of exclusive rights to new Bungie games.
Microsoft declined to give any details of the separation, which follows days of speculation triggered by a reader blog on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Web site that Bungie was set to split from its corporate parent.
It is common in the $30 billion video game industry for star developers or teams of people to leave a game publisher to work on new, unrelated projects.
Faced with losing key talent, Microsoft made sure the split was amicable, Pachter said.
“What’s unusual is the umbilical cord, they kept a linkage. Credit Microsoft that they knew they were going to lose a super talented group of people,” Pachter said. “They turned what could have a big loss into a manageable, fair split of labor.”
Microsoft shares rose 0.8 percent to $29.95 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq.
“The Xbox has given us lot of success so, for now, our eyes are set on the Xbox 360,” Bungie spokesman Brian Jarrard said. “We’re not in a situation where we’re running out the door and grabbing Wii and PS3 development kits.
“There’s not a real intention to do that unless something changes down the road,” Jarrard said.
Microsoft bought Bungie in 2000 as it beefed up its game development efforts in preparation to launch its Xbox gaming console the following year.
“Halo 3,” which was released on September 25, has already topped $300 million in worldwide sales, and put Microsoft’s money-losing entertainment division on track to turn a profit.
Microsoft is keeping the rights to the “Halo” franchise.
“As far as anybody should be concerned, it’s business as usual with Bungie. The only difference is that they are now employees of Bungie, not employees of Microsoft,” Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Game Studios, told Reuters.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Victoria’s Secret Closing 250 Stores Around North America
Well, the list of retailers that are either going bankrupt or closing just keeps piling and now we can add Victoria's Secret to the list.
The lingerie company who was once worth $29 billion at its peak in 2015 (via Fortune), announced on Wednesday that they would be closing about 250 stores, including three Pink stores, with more expected over the next couple of years, reports USA Today. The company's CEO said that they plan on expanding their online presence and that the decision to shutter stores will only strengthen their business.
L Brands, which owns Victoria's Secret, also owns Bath & Body Works and said they would also be closing 50 of those stores. Most will be in malls where foot traffic isn't expected to increase after the coronavirus pandemic. L Brands also plans on operating Victoria's Secret as a standalone company, separate from B&BW.
Between the U.S. and Canada, there are almost 1,100 Victoria's Secret stores. Other than the 250 closures, the company plans on reopening all of their stores by the end of July. The affected locations have yet to be announced.
Victoria's Secret has 29 stores in Michigan with 4 in West Michigan (Grand Rapids, Grandville, Muskegon and Portage).
Since the pandemic, JCPenney, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, and Pier 1 Imports have all announced store closures.


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Towards a more productive and sustainable food system
Agricultural policy is contributing to food security and economic growth, with smart and digital agriculture holding huge potential for a more competitive EU farm sector
At global level, there is growing consensus on the importance of agricultural policy as a driver of development and growth.
“Both the G7 and G20 have made meetings of agricultural ministers a regular feature and the recent G7 agricultural ministers meeting set up a specific forum to track policy on agribusiness investment,” said Phil Hogan, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.
“In the European Union, our Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provides the...
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Eighth edition of Property Summit captures a changing industry
‘A sector in flux’ was the theme of the event, which took place online on December 1
Christmas Day Wine Pairings
As we head into the festivities and hopefully return to a bigger family celebration with family and friends this year, keep things relaxed with classic wine recommendations from Lynne Coyle, Master of Wine and wine director at O’Briens Wines.


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Forward-looking: Elon Musk has taken a break from his Twitter saga to speak about Tesla’s plans for its self-driving robotaxi. The CEO stated the autos, which lack steering wheels and pedals, might be mass-produced in 2024 and price much less per mile than a bus ticket.
Speaking at Tesla’s first-quarter earnings name, Musk stated the robotaxi would attain quantity manufacturing in two years and “be an enormous driver of Tesla’s development.” That timeframe is fairly optimistic, given the variety of regulatory hurdles the autos will doubtlessly face.
Musk added that the robotaxis would supply the bottom cost-per-mile that clients have ever skilled, lower than a bus ticket—a sponsored bus ticket—or a sponsored subway ticket. The world’s richest individual additionally stated they’re extremely optimized for autonomy and could have no steering wheels or pedals.
The service might be going up towards rival robotaxi builders corresponding to Alphabet-owned Waymo, GM-owned Cruise, and Argo AI, a few of which have been testing their companies for years. Musk stated that Tesla may reveal extra about its venture someday in 2023.
The woke thoughts virus is making Netflix unwatchable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2022
Musk isn’t out of the headlines as of late for causes unrelated to Tesla. Following information of Netflix’s first subscriber loss in a decade and its willingness to incorporate ad-supported tiers, Musk referred to as the streamer “woke” and “unwatchable.”
There’s additionally the Twitter takeover bid Musk is embroiled in. Following the revelation that he was the platform’s largest shareholder, a lawsuit, his declining a seat on the board, and a proposal to purchase Twitter, Musk revealed his plans for much less moderation on the platform. But the board plans to “poison” inventory to discourage the takeover bid.


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Raft of electric and hybrid vehicles on show, including first mass-produced plug-in 4WD and an all-electric minibus
Mitsubishi has unveiled the first four wheel drive electric car in series production, providing one of the highlights as Europe's largest motorshow opens in Geneva this week. The new Outlander plug-in...
All the latest green business news from around the world
UK survey of 7-17 year-olds also highlights concern their views are not listened to by policymakers on climate change and environmental issues
Is Tesla emulating Silicon Valley in its ability to catalyse an entire network of highly innovative clean tech companies?
Tech giant kicks off major new campaign designed to promote new wave of ultra-efficient smart technologies


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Maplin has gone into administration, leaving 2,500 people at risk of losing their job.
The retailer’s owners, Rutland Fund Management, had been in talks with Edinburgh Woollen Mill, which owns companies including Peacocks and Country Casuals, but discussions collapsed and the chain has now appointed PwC to oversee the insolvency process.
Maplin, which has more than 200 stores including outlets in Brislington Retail Park, at Cribbs Causeway and on Gloucester Road, had been struggling in recent months after difficult trading conditions saw like-for-like sales fall over the festive period.
PwC says stores will remain open for the time being and the chain's website will continue to operate while the administrator searches for firms interested in buying parts of the business.
Maplin chief executive Graham Harris said: “I can confirm this morning that it has not been possible to secure a solvent sale of the business and as a result we now have no alternative but to enter into an administration process.
"We believe passionately that Maplin has a place on the high street, and that our trust, credibility and expertise meets a customer need that is not supported elsewhere.”
The news comes as Toys R Us also falls into administration following failure to pay millions in rent and taxes.
The retail chains are the latest in a string of high street businesses to flounder following difficult trading conditions.
You may also be interested in - Everything you need to know about going into administration


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Fintech comes of age: invest in the future of finance
The financial technology sector covers areas ranging from digital payments in emerging markets to bolstering high-street banks’ crumbling IT infrastructure. Years of strong growth lie ahead, says Stephen Connolly
“Fintech”, short for financial technology, is often dismissed as yet another buzzword – a way for companies to market themselves and raise money. But there is a great deal more to it than that. Think of it as a sector bringing together money and new technologies to improve financial services. It is closely linked to major technological advances in several other areas.
One is artificial intelligence, which can help financial services companies make decisions about loans, for instance, or help customers by installing robo-advisers to answer questions. Blockchain, the electronic ledger that underpins bitcoin, can help manage transactions more efficiently; data storage and processing advances help companies achieve more scale for less cost; and internet connectivity, through cloud computing, means they can embed their services in everyone’s daily lives across all their devices.
The stockmarket sees the potential
Equity investors certainly see plenty of potential in the sector. It has generated near-10% returns this year while some markets, such as the S&P 500 in the US, are just breaking even. This is due to both the compelling long-term outlook and short-term factors. In lockdown, people were forced to change their habits and turn to online shopping, payments and e-commerce to get by. Many won’t go back. All these areas of fintech were already growing; what the virus has done is accelerate the take-up. Throw in the structural tailwinds from various technologies and no wonder more and more investors think the fintech sector is a smart place to be.
Fintech was profitable before Covid-19 too. Investors have been getting a stellar 23% annual return, if averaged out over the last three years – and that’s just by investing in a benchmark and not being clever at choosing individual stocks. And most studies expect the sector to expand by more than 20% a year to 2025 and beyond.
Upstarts take on the old guard
A look at recent developments illustrates the potential. One source of growth is that big, established financial services groups need the expertise of fintech businesses to help them change and adopt new technology. At the same time, however, the internet allows fintech firms that can raise funds to enter the market themselves and disrupt the old guard.
An online presence means reaching a market without investment in bricks and mortar. And platforms can be built using other providers who can offer the transaction management, the data processing and the joined-up infrastructure. It is becoming increasingly straightforward for new players to enter the sector. A good example of an early disruptor is mobile-payments company PayPal, while online, “virtual” bank Monzo offers accounts in the UK without a single branch.
Fintech can be hyped as a “David versus Goliath” battle between small, plucky upstarts armed with attractive deals and services fighting to free us from the tyranny of evil bricks and mortar banks. This narrative has been tarnished this year, most notably with the financial scandal unfolding at German payments company Wirecard. While it would seem its demise is a case of fraud rather than faulty technology or a flawed business model, it’s a warning to investors and regulators. Visionary entrepreneurs, start-ups and disruptors are all well and good, but the desire to encourage them should not come at the expense of supervising them effectively.
Challenger bank Revolut, meanwhile, has lost several top-level employees this year and has been accused of having a dysfunctional work culture. Monzo, on the other hand, has been scoring highly in the customer-complaints league. The US online stockbroking platform Robinhood has had technological breakdowns locking people out of trading just as prices move against them.
Where it all began
It’s all a far cry from the fintech of old. In June 1967 nobody waiting in the crowd outside the Barclays Bank on north London’s Enfield High Street could have imagined they were about to witness a major milestone in the long history of financial technology. For them, the attraction was an appearance by Reg Varney. He is still just about remembered today as the star of ITV’s sitcom On the Buses. He was there to launch what was the world’s very first automated cash machine. And now, more than 50 years later, there are 3.25 million more cash machines globally.
The first cash machine built on previous advances. In 1866 the first reliable transatlantic cable was used to send foreign-exchange price data (hence the term “cable” to denote the exchange-rate between the pound and the dollar). The US Federal Reserve’s Fedwire system launched in 1918 and used the telegraph and Morse code to transfer money. Credit and charge cards were appearing in the US in the 1950s, while Barclays launched Britain’s first plastic card – the still surviving Barclaycard – in the 1960s.
It’s not just retail banking. Finance everywhere was sped up by the major breakthrough of the handheld calculator in the late 1960s (previously they were big and generally built into desks). Electronic share trading arrived in the 1970s with the world’s first digital stock exchange, America’s Nasdaq. The Swift system, a name that will be familiar to anyone who makes international payments, came soon after. This international code remains a very common way in which banks talk to each other as they move funds around the world. The 1990s saw online banking, and hence e-commerce, take off.
Towards a cashless society
Despite fintech’s rich past, the sector today is often associated most closely with innovations in how people pay for goods, especially online, and pay each other outside the traditional banking and financial system. Digital payment is a major theme globally and a significant driver of fintech. The world is shifting away from cash. Covid-19 has accelerated the trend. Suggesting people avoid cash to limit potential transmission of the virus has been a boon for traditional banks and credit-card companies, as well as other payment-system providers. According to the British Retail Consortium, even before the pandemic cash payments were in third place behind debit and credit cards. Retailers handed over £1.3bn in fees to payment companies in 2018. No wonder, then, that the share prices of PayPal and Square are up by 65% and 100% respectively this year.
Sweden, with a young, tech-savvy population, provides a glimpse into the cashless future. Cash usage has declined rapidly as people embrace paying electronically. At least 4,000 Swedes have even had microchips inserted under their skin allowing them to make payments with the wave of a hand. Italy, on the other hand, where cash payments are still relatively high at 86%, is actively promoting the use of cards in a bid to reduce tax evasion totalling an estimated €100bn a year by offering tax cuts for users of plastic.
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Stephen Connolly writes on finance and business, and has worked in investment banking and asset management for over 25 years (firstname.lastname@example.org)


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For nearly 50 years, the International Woodworking Fair Challengers Award program has generated excitement around the IWF show.
The Challengers Distinguished Achievement Award recognizes advancements in technology, process or significant contributions to environmental improvement in the woodworking industry. It challenges IWF exhibitors to develop forward-thinking solutions for the wood manufacturing industry.
The Challengers Award also challenges woodworking professionals to be ready to look anew for production solutions on the plant floor. In this 24th installment of the Challengers Award program, begun way back in 1966, wood manufacturing businesses will find inspiration in the quest to retool for recovery.
The Official IWF 2012 Challengers Award publication, produced by Woodworking Network, profiles 80 wood industry products from 62 companies entered in the 2012 competition. From the 21 finalists selected by panel judges earlier this month will be drawn seven winners, to be announced August 22 at IWF 2012, in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center.
The intense interest among wood industry professionals in the Challengers Awards is reflected in spiking traffic on features about them at WoodworkingNetwork.com. Just prior to IWF Atlanta, scheduled for August 22-25 at the Georgia World Congress Center, the judges will meet with representatives of the 21 finalist products the day before the show opens to select the winners, who will be announced on the first day of the show.
Storied technologies have seen their first look in this competition including CNC machining technology, panel sizing systems, UV curing, and dust spark detectors. The excitement launched by the wood industry’s first Challengers Award event in 1966 continues to build to 2012.
— Bill Esler, Editorial Director
Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.


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Consumers should avoid eating certain peanut butter, cheese, salsa and spreads produced by Parkers Farm Acquisition LCC of Coon Rapids, Minn., because they might be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes bacteria, according to the Kane County Health Department.
No illnesses have been reported. Visit www.fda.gov for a full list of recalled products. They were distributed nationwide, including Illinois, under the Parkers Farm, Parkers, Happy Farms, Central Markets, Hy-Top, Amish Classic, Say Cheez, Win Schuler and Bucky Badger labels. Consumers who bought the products are urged to return or discard them. Contact 800-869-6685 or visit www.parkersfarm.com for information.


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Spotted by The Next Web, HTC posted November consolidated sales of US$1.03 billion, down from US$1.46 billion in October and 20 per cent lower than its sales in November, 2010.
Late last month, HTC lowered its fourth quarter revenue estimates by 23 per cent, citing increased competition and challenging economic climate. This ends a winning streak for HTC with sales in August peaking at US$1.56 billion leading to its year-to-date figures...
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It is about a week that this videoclip is being posted on Facebook and draws views on Youtube. It is, technologically speaking, not a big deal.
A robot can take care of cooking hamburger, replacing the “cook”. It embeds some sophisticated technology, like a camera to look at hamburgers on the grill, and a software with spatial savvyness to direct its arm to pick up and flip the hamburger at the right time. Of course it is also able to move the cooked hamburger from the grill to the waiting buns and stack cheese and salad leaves on it to deliver the finished, tasty meal.
The fact is that these technologies are no longer impressive, they have become “normal”, and we have robots in production lines that are way more sophisticated.
Yet, the idea of a robot that is affordable and as such can be used in menial tasks (no offense intended here for cooks…) shows the level of commoditization of these technologies that can now be used to replace a 15$ per hour blue collar with a 0$ per hour robot. Miso Robotics, the company producing the robot hamburger-flipper has not set the price saying that they are evaluating the selling strategy (price per flip?) but their whole goal is to produce affordable robots.
Most of the comments to the clip lean on concern of job losses because of this and other robots and basically none lingers on the amazing progress of technology (both in performance and, even more important, in affordability).
Optimists may say that if the past is of any value we have seen millions of job lost in agriculture, with increase in productivity, decrease in cost and rebalance in jobs growth in industry. Pessimists may say that we are not seeing any emerging activity that can make up for the job losses these flippers and their siblings are causing.
I tend to lean on the optimistic view. For some interesting thoughts on the way robots are replacing us in the job market you may want to read the nice blog of Shelly Palmer, Life after the Robot Apocalypse.


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Source: Bizcommunity, 2 September 2020, photo credit: Supa Boss Logistics
According to Samantha Naidoo, Logistics Industry Value Advisor at SAP Africa, the logistics industry’s response to the pandemic will greatly influence how well other sectors of the economy are able to adapt to our new reality. “The sector forms the backbone of global trade and is fundamental to the effective running of most other sectors. Any disruption in the sector has ripple effects on the performance of other sectors.
“For example, a shortage of fibre components affects Internet service providers’ ability to onboard and retain customers, and if those customers are businesses, their ability to remain productive and connected to their customers during lockdown is negatively affected too. And so the ripple effects cascade across industries and affects businesses big and small in significant ways.”


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VANCOUVER – A turbaned Sikh-Canadian model is featured in the latest ad from retail giant Nordstrom.
Toronto Teacher Harjass Singh is featured with female model Estelle Habermayer in the very chic Ad for one of the largest store chains in North America.
Although many North American companies feature multicultural and diverse models in their Ads, but this is a rare first one using turbaned Sikh-Canadian in their Ads. Sikhs across North America, especially in the US, have been targeted with hate crimes, falling victims to mistaken identity as most of those crimes are targeted against Muslims, some of whom also wear turbans. Nordstrom’s Ad campaign is important for Diversity and Inclusion and spreading a message of living in communal harmony.
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Global transaction services organization SWIFT releases global market share data for CNY at 8.66% in October
Last time we saw CNY market liberalization retail volumes out of China picked up more than 30%
Moving Yuan in and out of the country will be easier, and trading the Yuan should become easier.
As the Yuan continues to strengthen, Chinese FX traders also come out to trade.
Expansion of Yuan trading range band should increase Yuan volatility, and bring out more Chinese retail FX traders.
First foreign info provider to be allowed to deliver onshore CNY prices.


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The GREEN Program (TGP) — that’s Global Renewable Energy Education Network — is expanding its revenue model while keeping its mission in check.
On Black Friday, the public benefit corporation that sends college students on sustainability-focused study abroad trips will launch the pilot of an upcycled clothing line, rePurpose, to benefit its scholarship fund.
The line includes graphic t-shirts, custom denim jackets, military-grade jackets and more sourced from vintage military surplus in Philadelphia, such as I. Goldberg, and thrift stores here and in Brooklyn.
All clothing is gender-neutral and will include screen printed designs by founder and CEO Melissa Lee’s fiancé that were “inspired by our TGP students who we have the privilege to explore different corners of the world with,” Lee said. Local design studio P’unk Ave supported screen printing for the designs.
Lee said there’s a close tie between TGP’s existing programs and rePurpose: Upcycling, or reused, clothing aims to be a more environmentally friendly answer to shopping than mass production. Case in point: It takes hundreds of gallons of water to produce the cotton for one new T-shirt.
“I’ve always wanted to have a merchandise line for TGP because our students are always asking for it, but I really don’t think we need more t-shirts produced in the world from a sustainability point of view,” Lee said via email. “Over a happy hour about a month ago, [Student Success Coordinator] Lauren [Hamilton] and I were talking about this and she said, ‘Why don’t we do a TGP upcycling line?’
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“We both share a knack for thrifting and enjoy the creative process behind upcycling so it seemed like a great project for us to test,” she said.
TGP is storing the clothes at its office in Center City’s Graham Building, though Lee said she’d like to expand to a full warehouse if the program is successful. If this first line sells out, it can fund one full scholarship.
Sales will open here on Friday, Nov. 23.-30-
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Have you ever thought of having Kanye West as the new face for currency?
Kanye West is putting a stop to “Coinye,” a digital currency that is created by online coders. Kanye West’s lawyers file a lawsuit against the Coinye company because the currency features trademark infringement. It was first created as a chatroom joke with images of the South Park fish-sticks character spinoff.
The Coinye idea strung from the original bitcoin idea which is considered an online currency. Still after being sued for having Kanye’s face as the new Coinye currency, the website said they will still be pursing the sites launch sooner than expected.
You can get a glimpse of the new Coinye currency on their website here.


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JioFiber launches the Jio WiFi Mesh Router for ₹2,499
The new mesh router will allow Jio users to expand WiFi coverage across their homes or offices.
Reliance Jio has launched the Jio WiFi Mesh Router for its Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) service JioFiber. Priced at ₹2,499, this mesh router is going to help users expand the WiFi coverage across their homes, or offices and make the most of the connection.
According to JioFiber website, the WiFi coverage provided by Jio Home Gateway covers an area of 1,000 sq feet across a single floor. This can be affected by several external factors like Wifi access points, placement of the Home Gateway, other obstructions like walls etc.
The new Jio WiFi Mesh Router will help users cover more ground and expand the WiFi coverage that's offered by the default device. However, the company has not provided any details about the device or its range.
Telecom Talks reports that according to Smart Consumer, a portal developed by GS1 India, a standard body set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Jio WiFi mesh router is manufactured by Neolync Electronics. Smart Consumer also mentions that the device weighs 174 grams.
Airtel recently unveiled dedicated mesh router plans for Xstream Fiber users. Airtel's Fiber Plus Mesh plan comes for ₹25,000 and is offered alongside Linksys Velop Triband devices. Those subscribing to the Fiber Plus Mesh plan will receive three mesh units with a capacity to cover 3,500 sq feet.
This makes Jio's offer considerably more affordable, but if you are looking to cover a bigger area than what Jio Fiber supports right now with the mesh WiFi router thrown in, the company will allow you to buy additional modules.
Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews , also keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.


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Ben Affleck left no stone unturned
While proposing to Jennifer Lopez in 2002 with Harry Winston’s 6.1-carat pink diamond engagement ring. We all know how it turned out, but a shiny diamond can be worth a lot of money today. According to page six style diamond experts, the ring, which was estimated at $2.5 million in the early 2000s, maybe worth much more today. In fact, Mike Fried, CEO of The Diamond Pro told the Celebrity Gossip outlet that his company sells similar rings in the $11 million ballparks.
Fried explained, “Our fancy color partner recently made rings like Jay Lu two years ago.” The cost was about $10 million. He further added I think her ring will cost around $11 million today. “Colored diamonds are harder to find than colored diamonds, especially pink.”
Meanwhile, Ajay Anand, CEO of Rare Carat, told celebrity gossip outlets that people have to travel long distances to find diamonds of this color. Anand revealed that “ninety percent of the pink diamonds come from one place: the Argyle mine in Australia, which announced its closure in 2020 and stopped production this year.” Since 1983, Argyle Mine has been supplying the world’s best Pink diamonds and a large production of fancy pink diamonds.”
Back In 2002, Lopez recalled the moment when Affleck gave her his ring, emphasizing his uniqueness. “I just wanted you to have something that no one has In the world. He said in an interview with Diane Sawyer. She has never been seen. “
additionally, rumor has it that Lopez never returned the ring and is still in the possession of Shiny. According to her former publisher, Robert Shooter, the entertainer is in her care. “As far as I know, Jane never returned the ring,” she told the Daily in May. This is absolutely amazing.
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Full production of MOKE vehicles has now returned to the United Kingdom and will be produced at a state-of-the-art facility operated by the British automotive manufacturing services company, Fablink Group.
Fondly remembered by many as one of the 60s fun cars, the fashionable MOKE fast became the mode of transport for anyone seeking adaptable and simple ‘beach hopping’ in Europe, the Caribbean, the US, and Asia. To this day it remains the trendy automotive shuttle of choice.
The marque was revived back in 2017 with MOKE International’s production alternating between France and the Midlands seeing initial cars engineered in the UK and assembly taking place on the continent.
A move back to Blighty has only been made possible by UK government grant funding available from the Niche Vehicle Network, alongside the recent trade deal which allows UK automotive businesses tariff-free access to EU markets, based on defined rules of origin.
Popularity has grown from strength to strength with the ‘Longbridge lightweight’ now emerging as a must-have beachfront warrior. This has led to the creation of key commercial jobs to guide the brand through its next growth phase, including expansion into international markets.
Based in Northamptonshire, England, the Fablink group is already a leading Tier 1 supplier of automotive structures and complete vehicle assemblies to several global OEMs and provides comprehensive design, manufacturing, and engineering services to some of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover and Morgan.
With over 500,000ft of production space and around 700 highly skilled engineers, production operators, and technicians across six UK sites, the company says its ‘long-term commitment to MOKE production is reflected in key investment in state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities and processes, ensuring flexibility in response to client demand.’
Isobel Dando, CEO, MOKE International:
“The return of full MOKE production to British shores represents a homecoming for one of our nation’s best-loved icons. Since reviving the marque in 2017, we have re-captivated existing enthusiasts and introduced an entirely new generation to MOKE’s perfect combination of fun, utility, and open-air thrills. This has been reflected in significant demand from our home market, affirming our plans to light up beach resorts around the world through the global market introduction of the ultimate waterfront-to-beach house vehicle.”
MOKE customers can now specify a full range of colours and trim options throughout their chosen vehicle, including configurable individual shades for the car’s chassis, bumpers, central bars, and front grille – affording a nearly limitless scope to create truly individual interpretations of the MOKE’s iconic design.
Transmission: 4-speed Automatic
Engine: 4 cylinder, 1083cc
Fuel Economy: 34 mpg
Emissions standard: Euro 4
Top Speed: 68mph
Power: 67hp (50Kw) @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 93Nm @ 3500–4500 rpm
While the MOKE is powered by the trusty 4 cylinder 1083cc unit, the company could well move towards electrification if the trend continues. That said, the current and attractive £20,000 excluding local taxes and delivery price tag might be nearer £40K if it happens…
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Peter Morici, a professor of international business at the University of Maryland, writes that economists are hopeful that the March employment report that will be published Friday will show an increase after the loss of 36,000 jobs in February. He says:
For March, the consensus of forecasters expects a 200,000 jobs gain, though estimates range from a loss of 40,000 jobs to a gain exceeding 300,000 . . . Let’s hope the optimists have it right, and the economy can dodge a double dip recession.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department on Monday reported the fifth straight monthly increase in consumer spending, the engine that drives the economy. That is a hopeful sign but as the Christian Science Monitor observed, “inflation-adjusted incomes have been relatively stagnant for six months” as the economy waits for job creation to pump more money back into the system and sustain the recovery that is struggling to get underway.
– Posted by Tom Abate