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Valve reveals its Index VR headset
Valve has unveiled its new Index VR headset, the first SteamVR kit developed fully in-house by the company, which also had a hand in HTC's Vive headset (Polygon). Reviewers' assessments of the hardware are positive, lauding its displays, controllers and comfort, but Valve didn't have any of its planned major VR releases available to demo. The full kit will cost £919 and will ship on June 28 – limited pre-orders are reportedly only available in the US and continental Europe.
Eric Schmidt and Diane Greene are leaving Alphabet's board
Alphabet board members Diane Greene and Eric Schmidt will step down when their terms expire on June 19 (TechCrunch). Schmidt has been an enormously influential board member at Google and then Alphabet for 18 years, with roles including CEO and executive chairman – he'll now continue at the company as a "technical advisor".
Greene has been on the board since 2012 and was Google's cloud business CEO until she stepped down in January. Meanwhile, Gilead Sciences CFO and executive vice president Robin L. Washington has joined the board.
Government proposes new security requirements for the Internet of Things
Digital Minister Margot James has announced plans for a new labelling scheme for Internet of Things devices, from connected toys to smart TVs and washing machines (BBC News). The IoT security label, which is proposed to begin as a voluntary programme and later become mandatory, would show that an IoT device ships with a unique password, that the manufacturer is contactable and that the security update lifetime of the device is explicitly stated.
Mark Zuckerberg announces privacy-focused updates to Facebook's services
"The future is private", according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but the social media firm's actual moves towards more private communication and security are coming slowly and very much on its own terms (Gizmodo). Speaking at the F8 developer conference, Zuckerberg reiterated plans to bring WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption to Messenger and Instagram, but it's still early in a consultation process involving governments, law enforcement and experts.
Meanwhile, Facebook still hasn't manifested many of last year's privacy promises, such as a clear history of stored user data, and is instead busy promoting a new colour scheme and a method of informing the all-seeing social network if you have a secret crush on your friends.
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer is truly awful. Here's why
The first trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie has arrived – but Paramount's adaptation of Sega's iconic blue blur should be returned to sender (WIRED). For everything that Detective Pikachu seems to be doing right in bringing a beloved video game franchise with a cartoonish aesthetic to life, Sonic seems to be doing wrong. That's a lot of wrong.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
