Geek News

Qualcomm has long rebuffed a merger with rival chipmaker Broadcom, but now it looks like the two companies may be closer to a deal. Today, Qualcomm's Chairman of the Board Paul E. Jacobs sent a letter to Broadcom's CEO , Hock Tan. In it, Jacobs outlined that the bulk of Qualcomm's issues have been addressed, but the companies are still too far apart on pricing. Broadcom's current offer is $79 per share (it was previously $82 per share), but Qualcomm's board believes that severely undervalues the company. If the two companies can come to an agreement on price per share, then Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm looks like it could actually happen. Qualcomm's shares have been lagging behind Broadcom's for years, and Broadcom has expressed interest in its rival for some time. Not to mention that Qualcomm's shareholders are fatigued with its patent licensing business, which has provoked the ire of companies like Apple. The company hasn't shown a lot o...

While Pokémon Go was a big step forward for AR in gaming, it appears that Niantic, the studio behind the game, has grander ambitions. This week, the company announced the acquisition of Escher Reality, which focuses on "persistent, cross platform, multi-user experiences," according to the release . Escher has been working on AR for a long time, before Pokémon Go was a bona fide hit. "Everyone thought we were crazy at that time," Escher's CEO Ross Finman told TechCrunch . But Escher has been committed to creating a toolkit for AR developers working on mobile. While Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore offer toolkits as well, Escher specifically focuses on multiplatform and multiuser experiences, which neither of those products do. This has big implications for Niantic's plans for Pokémon Go and its future AR games (including one that will reportedly include audio cues ). The kind of tech that Escher worked on could be use to create the MMO versi...