If you’re thinking of getting a virtual reality headset, it might not be a bad idea to wait a few more months.
HTC’s China Regional President of Vive Alvin Wang Graylin told Road to VR, that he expects new headset iterations to follow a smartphone release cycle.
For Graylin, he feels that the VR market is moving so quickly that it will not follow the release cycle that video game consoles tend to be in. “Instead of looking at just the phone market — which is one type of very rapid consumer product — if you look at the other segment, which is the consoles, they’re about five- or six-year type of cycles,” Gaylin said. “What I would imagine is that the VR headsets are probably somewhere in-between, probably tending closer toward the phone cycles than it is to the console cycles, but it’s definitely not as quick [as the early smartphone era] with the major updates.”
For Gaylin, this does not mean consumers will be getting new VR iterations every year, but most likely every two to three years. Think of it less like upgrading from an iPhone 6 to a 6S, but rather a 6 to a 7.
For Vive, to keep headsets fresh between iterations, it will continue to push new accessories to make the experience better. “What we will do [between cycles] is accessories; the thing that you’re seeing is that we’ve created a good foundational platform for people to build things on. Changing it too quickly will actually make it very difficult for developers, make it difficult for accessory makers and for other types of systems that rely on it,” Gaylin said.
At CES, HTC Vive introduced the Vive Tracker and Deluxe Audio Strap. Considering the Vive was launched last April, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to expect a new version this year at the earliest, or more likely, next spring.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.