There are no service stations on the surface of Mars, meaning any rover that suffers a component failure on the Red Planet will remain unrepaired. Curiosity has been exploring the surface of Mars for a long time, and mission controllers have a plan in place to help keep the rover mobile even if wheel wear becomes a problem. Should a … Continue reading
Wearables have become extremely popular in recent years, with devices such as smartwatches becoming highly desirable and selling in significant volumes. Currently, the average wearable device is very expensive, putting them out of reach of some people who might benefit from the technology. Researchers have developed new printable inks that could enable high-performance inkjet-printed electronic circuits, providing a pathway to … Continue reading
Smart home products are called smart mostly because of how they’re able to connect to the Internet to allow for features and experiences that may not have been possible without such a connection. In some sense, networking equipment manufacturers have the advantage of already being knowledgeable and well-known when it comes to exactly that field. It’s no surprise, then, that … Continue reading
One massive area of study by researchers worldwide is improving batteries for use in electric vehicles and other electronic devices. Most modern electric vehicles rely on lithium-ion batteries, but they’re not ideal due to their expense, weight, and how long they take to charge. Researchers have been trying to replace conventional lithium-ion batteries with solid-state lithium-metal batteries for decades. The … Continue reading
Tesla presses pause on its Bitcoin program, and ASUS is bringing back the small smartphone.
Starting this fall, Ford will begin rolling out an improved implementation of Alexa to Sync 4-equipped cars in the US and Canada.
Tencent subsidiary Timi Studio Group is partnering with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios to jointly create new games.
TiMi Studios, one of the world’s most lucrative game makers and is part of Tencent’s gargantuan digital entertainment empire, said Thursday that it has struck a strategic partnership with Xbox.
The succinct announcement did not mention whether the tie-up is for content development or Xbox’s console distribution in China but said more details will be unveiled for the “deep partnership” by the end of this year.
Established in 2008 within Tencent, TiMi is behind popular mobile titles such as Honor of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile. In 2020, Honor of Kings alone generated close to $2.5 billion in player spending, according to market research company SensorTower. In all, TiMi pocketed $10 billion in revenue last year, according to a report from Reuters citing people with knowledge.
The partnership could help TiMi build a name globally by converting its mobile titles into console plays for Microsoft’s Xbox. TiMi has been trying to strengthen its own brand and distinguish itself from other Tencent gaming clusters, such as its internal rival LightSpeed & Quantum Studio, which is known for PUBG Mobile.
TiMi operates a branch in Los Angeles and said in January 2020 that it planned to “triple” its headcount in North America, adding that building high-budget, high-quality AAA mobile games was core to its global strategy. There are clues in a recruitment notice posted recently by a TiMi employee: The unit is hiring developers for an upcoming AAA title that is benchmarked against the Oasis, a massively multiplayer online game that evolves into a virtual society in the fiction and film Ready Player One. Oasis is played via a virtual reality headset.
Xbox’s latest Series X and Series S are to debut in China imminently, though the launch doesn’t appear to be linked to the Tencent deal. Sony’s Playstation 5 just hit the shelves in China in late April. Nintendo Switch distributes in China through a partnership with Tencent sealed in 2019.
Chinese console players often resort to grey markets for foreign editions because the list of Chinese titles approved by local authorities is tiny compared to what’s available outside the country. But these grey markets, both online and offline, are susceptible to ongoing clampdown. Most recently in March, product listings by multiple top sellers of imported console games vanished from Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace.
One of the driving forces in the automotive manufacturing industry is improved safety. Active safety systems are a major part of all new vehicle designs in recent years. Significant work is being put into assisting drivers and providing solutions to help the driver navigate and anticipate danger while improving the overall driving experience. Samsung says one most promising innovations for … Continue reading
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