Tag Archives: googl

Google’s YouTube Gaming challenges Amazon’s Twitch

Google’s YouTube announced plans Friday to debut a new app and website devoted to video games called YouTube Gaming. YouTube Gaming will compete with Twitch, which was purchased last September by Amazon.com in a deal worth $970 million. Amazon reportedly outbid Google for Twitch. At the time of the acquisition, Twitch had more than 55 million monthly active users. Launching this summer, starting in the U.S. and U.K., YouTube Gaming will be a home for all of its gaming video both live-streamed and on demand. Twitch is the leader in live-streamed and broadcast game play. YouTube is best known for on-demand gaming videos in categories such as let’s play, walk-throughs and speed-runs. Google (GOOGL) will be showing off its YouTube Gaming service next week at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles. YouTube’s booth is in the same hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center as Amazon’s (AMZN) Twitch.

Apple Watch and other wearables don’t wow consumers

T he new Apple (AAPL) Watch is revving up to hit stores next week, joining Google’s (GOOGL) Android Wear and other Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-connected smartwatches. But a new survey found that consumers aren’t wowed by wearables. “Awareness of wearable devices is up, industry forecasts for growth are high, but consumers’ interest in buying anything besides a fitness tracker is still low,” according to a report from eMarketer analyst Cathy Boyle. “Even though the Apple Watch has had early sales success, consumer survey data suggests manufacturers, specifically their marketing teams, have significant work to do in convincing the average person that a smartwatch is as worthy of their time and money as tablets proved to be,” Boyle said. The report compiled and analyzed data from more than 25 third-party studies on wearable device adoption, usage and consumer awareness worldwide, in addition to including insights from some …

South Korean robot ‘terminates’ Google-backed rivals

POMONA, Calif. — A humanoid robot built by engineers in South Korea beat out robots backed by Google (GOOGL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and top U.S. technology schools to win the $2 million grand prize in the Darpa Robotics Challenge (DRC) on Saturday. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) sponsored the Darpa Robotics Challenge to spur the development of robots that can save lives after natural and man-made disasters. Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown in 2011 was a call to action for the competition. Robot DRC-Hubo from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and its spinoff company Rainbow completed all eight assignments in a simulated disaster-response mission in less than 45 minutes. A robot named Running Man from the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) came in second to claim the competition’s $1 million prize. Running Man, built by Google-owned Boston Dynamics, finished the eight…