Taiwan-based smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) and Taiwanese PC brand Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) are to jointly demonstrate their efforts in virtual reality (VR) technologies at the Tokyo Game Show, Micro-Star said yesterday.
At the show, which runs from Thursday through Sunday, Micro-Star is to introduce the VR One, touted as the world’s lightest VR backpack PC, which will support the HTC Vive, HTC’s first VR headset.
Micro-Star said that the VR One, with a weight of only 3.6kg, is expected to render greater mobility and freedom for VR gaming, adding that the new VR PC, which sports two battery packs for 1.5 hours of non-stop use, will give HTC Vive users a better VR gaming experience.
The HTC Vive is one of HTC’s gambits to diversify from its core smartphone market, which is saturated and intensely competitive.
Jointly developed by HTC and US video game supplier Valve, the HTC Vive was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in March last year. The headset is equipped with tracked controllers that allow wearers to inspect objects from any angle and interact with their surroundings.
The VR headset is available worldwide and Japan has been targeted by HTC as one of its most important markets.
HTC said that with Micro-Star, it would launch a special sales package bundling Vive with VR One in the Japanese market and sales of the package would be available from Micro-Star’s Japanese distributors early next month.
The VR One is to be available in stores in Taiwan by the end of next month with a price tag of NT$69,900 (US$2,204), Micro-Star said.
In addition to the VR One, Micro-Star said it is also to launch several high-efficiency gaming notebook models at the Tokyo Game Show.
Micro-Star is one of HTC’s strategic partners in global VR development.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial
RSS