Geek News

It's been an interesting few months for HTC. Google bought the team responsible for Pixel phones last year for $1.1 billion. The president of HTC's smartphone operations just resigned , claiming a "personal career plan" for the move. Now, the remaining US workforce is facing layoffs. As first reported by Digital Trends this week, HTC has confirmed that it will combine its smartphone and VR divisions, resulting in employee reductions. Digital Trends ' sources report that between a few dozen to around 100 employees have been let go. The company told Engadget that it was still very committed to the smartphone business. "We have recently brought our smartphone and VR businesses under common leadership in each region," a company spokes person said. "Today we announced a restructure in North America for the HTC Smartphone business that will centralize the reporting structure within the region. In doing so, there have been some employee reductions to ...

At this year's Toy Fair in New York, Hasbro announced HasLab , a new program that aims to bring to life special creations like a massive, four-foot long recreation of Jabba the Hutt's sail barge. The company is taking inspiration from platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, too: in order for the barge to become a real for-sale production item, Hasbro wants to gather 5,000 $499 pre-orders by midnight on April 3rd. If the project reaches its funding goal, Jabba's Sail Barge (or The Khetanna if you're a Star Wars geek) will come with a 64-page booklet with behind-the-scenes details, set photos, interviews and blueprints of the actual set piece in the film as well as production information on the toy. The barge also comes with a 3.75-inch scale Jabba the Hutt and soft cloth sails for the top of the sand boat. The barge itself is on display to media at the toy fair and looks even bigger than that GI Joe aircraft carrier that came out a while back. It's incredibly...