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HTC has announced that the Vive Focus Plus — a new virtual reality headset it  unveiled last month  — will launch on April 15th for $799. The Vive Focus Plus is a self-contained headset with fully tracked motion controllers, following on the heels of HTC’s Vive Focus, which launched with similar specs but more limited tracking options. It’s loosely similar to the  upcoming Oculus Quest , but instead of aiming at a mass-market gaming audience, HTC designed the Vive Focus Plus for business customers. HTC will let visitors to its Vive Ecosystem Conference try out 15 different apps for the Vive Focus Plus, including at least one game: a “Paintball VR” experience where the headset is paired with a haptic vest. But it describes the system as something for enterprise users, who will be able to buy it in 25 markets with support for 19 languages. The Vive Focus Plus, like the original Vive Focus, is based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor. Its screen offers 1440 x 1600 pixels per eye, on

Google has been hit with a new antitrust fine from the European Union  totaling €1.5 billion . In a press conference this morning, EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the tech giant had abused its dominant position by forcing customers of its AdSense business to sign contracts stating they would not accept advertising from rival search engines. Said Vestager: “The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate.” The fine is the third major penalty the EU has levied against the tech giant in as many years, and closes its last open probe of the firm. Google was fined a record  €4.3 billion  last year for abusing its market dominance in mobile, and  €2.4 billion  the year before that for manipulating shopping search results. Google is currently appealing both cases. With the new penalty, Google’s total EU antitrust bill now stands at €8.2 billion ($9.3 billion). Today’s fine was lower than the previ

The star will soon be in theaters delivering his take on an “Aladdin” character made famous by the late comedy legend, and he knows expectations are running high. Disney’s highly anticipated live-action version of “Aladdin” hits theaters in May, but before moviegoers get lost in a whole new world of adventure, one of the stars is taking time out to honor an icon who came before him. On Monday, Will Smith paid tribute to Robin Williams for the late actor’s interpretation of a fan-favorite character 27 years ago — one that  Smith will soon be famous for, too . “I know Genies don’t have Feet… But you left some Big Shoes to fill,” the 50-year-old wrote of the comedy legend, who died in 2014. “R.I.P., Robin!” That sweet — and very true — sentiment accompanied an illustration by character designer and concept artist Luigi Lucarelli that showed what an animated rendition of Smith’s Genie might look like alongside Williams’ classic big blue guy. Smith shared that image and message on Inst

The forgiving husband of a woman gunned down in the Christchurch mosque attack said he wants to give her killer a hug. Wheelchair-user Farid Ahmed said he has no hatred for Brenton Tarrant despite losing his wife Husna Ahmed in the slaughter. She had already led dozens of women and children to safety when she went back into the Al Noor mosque to help her husband. But tragically the heroic 44-year-old was shot from behind and killed before getting to his aid. Farid, 59, managed to escape the bloodshed – but later discovered his wife was one of the victims. He recalled: “It was a horrible scene. I saw blood, I saw people injured, I saw dead bodies, people in panic. “They were pushing one and other trying to get out. I thought, ‘How can I get out?’. “Mentally, I prepared myself, I told myself to calm down and there was no point panicking – whatever will happen will happen. “I took the chance and I came out slowly and I was expecting that any moment I would be shot in my head from

The tit-for-tat war of words between Spotify and Apple continued today, with the former calling the latter a “monopolist,” and that its response to the lawsuit was “entirely in line with our expectations,” according to  Variety . The statement is the latest in a highly public spat between the two companies. On Wednesday, Spotify filed a complaint with the European Union, alleging that Apple uses unfair practices in the App Store. Specifically, Spotify is upset at the 30 percent that Apple charges developers for subscriptions, and it says that it’s designed to give Apple Music an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Essentially, to match Apple’s price with its 30 percent cut, it can’t match the price of Apple Music, and it’s at the mercy of Apple’s technical restrictions. It also launched a website called Time to Play Fair, where it outlined its complaints against Apple. Apple pushed back on Spotify’s claims yesterday, saying that Spotify “wants all the benefits of a free app without

The US is falling behind on phone design, and foldables are the proof. This year’s Mobile World Congress was full of foldables, from Huawei’s sleek Mate X to Xiaomi’s triple-folding model to TCL’s angular DragonHinge design to Oppo’s prototype to the clunky Royale FlexPai to LG’s sort-of-cheating V50 second screen. But all of those devices have one thing in common: like the last few waves of innovative phone designs released overseas, they won’t be available in America in any meaningful way. Looking at the foldable landscape, there’s basically only one device out there that will actually be sold in the US, from carriers, without requiring to deal with import fees or cellular compatibility: Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Cool phones from overseas have always had a tough time making their way to America, due to market demand, trade agreements, and complex other geopolitical factors. The current distrust various US intelligence agencies bear toward Chinese telecom c