tech that...

A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

VR PRICE DROP

HTC has revealed the price of its new top-of-the-line VR headset – and dropped the price on the standard version of its offering.

The Hive Pro HMD will cost £799 and come with a six-month Viveport subscription. That allows users to download five titles a month from the 400 on offer.

The Vive Pro offers updated optics, better sound, and a redesign to make less light leak in when wearing it. The current Vive headset will drop in price by £100, bringing it down to £499.

You can visit vive.com for more details, and to order. You can also test your PC set-up to make sure it’s capable of running VR software.

Orders for the Pro are open now and will ship on April 5.

SNAPCHAT’S UK AD REVENUES RISE

WHAT a difference a few months can make – at the turn of the year all the knives were out for Snapchat.

Even the social network’s biggest fan, American celebrity Kylie Jenner, was talking it down, causing $1bn to be wiped off the value of the company.

But now news reaches us that Snapchat’s UK ad revenue – 10% of the network’s worldwide takings – will surpass Twitter’s next year.

Snapchat has shown a remarkable growth in ad revenue over the last couple of years, from £21.9m in 2016 to a forecast £181.7m next year. Twitter is looking at £171m in revenues in 2019.

Obviously all this is small fry in comparison to Facebook, although the latest data suggests younger users are leaving Facebook for other social networks, with Snapchat being a big winner in attracting them.