Are the high costs of virtual reality technology stopping you from exploring virtual worlds? According to a Road to VR report, Valve is seeking alternative construction methods for its SteamVR Tracking Base Stations, with the aim of reducing HTC Vive costs by a significant margin.
While the “Lighthouse” Base Stations are currently among the most expensive components required for SteamVR Tracking, future innovations could simplify their inner workings without impacting performance, reducing the buy-in price for an HTC Vive setup by $100 or more.
Currently, SteamVR Tracking requires two Tracking Base Stations to function — a requirement that contributes to the HTC Vive’s high price point. A replacement Tracking Base Station costs $134 through HTC’s online storefront, which “may be the single most expensive part of the Vive system beyond the headset — and you need two of them,” according to Road to VR.
Valve Engineer Ben Jackson proposed a cost-cutting solution at Valve’s recent Steam Dev Days event. According to Jackson, current Tracking Base Stations use a pair of motors to track motion. Each motor requires its own controller and laser diode, among other costly components, driving up the unit’s price significantly.
Jackson proposes a single-motor solution that essentially cuts the Tracking Base Station’s hardware production requirements in half. In Jackson’s design, a single motor generates a V-shaped laser pattern within the VR play area, gathering ‘X’ and ‘Y’ axis information simultaneously without the need for an additional motor for fine-tuned tracking.
“What better way to make [the Base Station] lighter, quieter, cheaper, and more power-efficient than to chop out half the parts?” Jackson asks.
Triad Semiconductor’s Reid Wender also foresees “rapid cost reductions” stemming from potential Tracking Base Station redesigns. While Valve has not announced plans to redesign current Base Station units, Road to VR estimates that cost-cutting measures could reduce the base price of the HTC Vive to $665, or “about 17 percent less than the current price.”
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.