Nintendo has announced the Wii U, a new home console with a companion controller that can switch gaming from the TV onto its 6.2in touchscreen.
The controller amounts to a reinvention of the Wii. Nintendo said it would change the way people played games when it appeared in 2012. The controller rather than its console was the focus of Nintendo’s press conference at the E3 video game trade show on Tuesday.
Sony has announced a lower than expected price for its next-generation portable console as makers of gaming devices face growing competition from smartphones and tablets.
At a news conference at the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles, Sony revealed that the device, previously known as NGP, would be called the PS Vita. It said a basic version would cost $250 in the US, €250 ($367) in Europe and Y25,000 ($312) in Japan when it goes on sale later this year. Read more
Nintendo unveils Wii U console
Nintendo has announced the Wii U, a new home console with a companion controller that can switch gaming from the TV onto its 6.2in touchscreen.
The controller amounts to a reinvention of the Wii. Nintendo said it would change the way people played games when it appeared in 2012. The controller rather than its console was the focus of Nintendo’s press conference at the E3 video game trade show on Tuesday. Read more
Not so long ago we had standalone computers, in my case a loveable Amstrad, on which we kept our paltry data and software. The net connected these computers together; the worldwide web linked documents we held on them; browsers let us surf these links. The overarching ethics came from a motley crew of hippies, geeks and academics who believed in openness and collaboration to allow ideas to grow.
That era may be about to end. Read more
Tech news from around the web
Following yesterday’s launch by Apple of its iCloud service and upgrades to its PC and mobile operating software, the New York Times lists those the apps that might have woken up this morning to face a larger, more powerful competitor. Among those in the line of fire include: Drop Box, Instapaper, to-do apps like 2Do and Remember the Milk, Zinio and Readability. Read more
Sony has announced a lower than expected price for its next-generation portable console as it faces growing competition from smartphones and tablets.
At a news conference at the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles, Sony revealed the device previously known as NGP would be called the PS Vita – from the Latin word for “life” – and a basic version would cost $250 in the US, €250 in Europe and Y25,000 in Japan when it goes on sale later this year.
Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller has sparked a robotics and 3D revolution, inspiring innovations that allow vacuum cleaners to be controlled with a hand gesture and surgeons to flick through medical scans without touching them in the operating theatre.
Features announced at Microsoft’s press conference at the E3 video game trade show – such as finger-tracking and whole-body scans – already exist, albeit as hidden capabilities.
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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
