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HTC

HTC moves into VR and it has the perfect partner to help it succeed

Especially if you’re a fan of games.

THERE WERE A few things people expected HTC to reveal today. A new flagship phone was expected which came in the form of the M9, a fitness band was also on the cards considering its partnership with Under Armour, but a Virtual Reality headset?

Yet that’s what HTC did with the launch of its virtual reality headset called Vive. That alone probably isn’t exciting in itself, but the major coup is who it’s partnered with.

Valve, the company behind Steam, the major online retailer dedicated to PC, Mac and Linux games, and games like Half-Life 2 and Portal – will form a partnership with HTC to bring this device and developer software to market.

The device will also come with wireless VR controllers, which come in a pair which both HTC and Valve believe are “simple and intuitive to use.” The controllers are part of a Full Room Scale 360 Degree Solution which allows you to walk around and explore your surroundings.

The company claims you won’t get sick wearing it which, if true, will mean you can spend a long time playing games or experiencing virtual reality.

HTC says the developer edition will be released by the end of Spring while a consumer version will be released by the end of the year.

That wasn’t the only device announced. A wearable tracker called Grip, which takes advantage of its partnership with Under Armour, will be able to track your activity as well as work as a notification screen for texts and calls.

More importantly, its latest flagship smartphone, the M9, was also announced. An upgrade of the M7 and M8, it runs on Android Lollipop, has a 3GB RAM, a 20MP camera and 32GB of storage.

HTC One M9_Silver_3V HTC HTC

It will include HTC Sense which will provide you with the relevant apps based on your location, a better camera experience with the image quality being said to be almost like photos from an SLR and image editing tools to get the best out of your photos.

The HTC One M9 will be available in Ireland from 31st March, and will be available to pre-order on select websites from 16th March.

Quinton O’Reilly is at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona all this week. Follow all the goings-on at @TheJournalTech.

Read: This could be the first Android Wear watch you will want to buy >

Read: Stuck at a computer? Here’s how to message your friend’s phone without picking up your own >

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    Mute The whistler
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    Mar 1st 2015, 4:37 PM

    Valve made the mistake of giving oculus rift a dig out back in their early days and they were rewarded by having some of their top staff poached

    And now gaben is rushing in like the gaming cavalry to save the day from the villiany of facebuke and oculus rip

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    Mute Derek hutchings
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    Mar 1st 2015, 10:37 PM

    The HTC vs Samsung. HTC looks like the better of the New phone released today

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    Mute executioner
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    Mar 1st 2015, 11:34 PM

    The front boom sound speakers are fantastic and give it the edge over the other competitors.

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    Mute John Smith
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    Mar 2nd 2015, 1:13 PM

    My M7 is without doubt the best phone I’ve ever owned but is coming to the end of it’s life. Just out of contract so I think the M9 is something I’ll really have to look into.

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    Mute Stephen Carroll
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    Mar 2nd 2015, 1:39 PM

    Are Valve the perfect partners though, Alienware I believe were a bit miffed abs brought out a Windows version of their steam machine, valve have a unique work environment that caters to quality not deadlines and having ownership of steam pretty much gives them leeway to work on projects for a very long time, anyone who wanted to innovate in this field seems have left already. Either for Oculus or their heads hardware engineer went to pursue prototyping AR goggles.

    They make excellent projects but are no slaves to. Bosses or shareholders I expect to hear about delays and such but I’m not quite sure how involved they are in the process of the creation of the hardware, maybe their OS is more the aim of this venture

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    Mute Francis Fakeman
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    Mar 2nd 2015, 7:31 AM

    I will sell my children for Half Life 3 on a BT headset.

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    Mute Francis Fakeman
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    Mar 2nd 2015, 7:32 AM

    VR (f**cking Samsung autocorrect)

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