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.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
RSS