Amazon is diving into the new and hotly contested market for streaming video games, the company said during a press event that also revealed a refreshed line-up of Echo smart speakers and a flying home video camera.
Luna, a service that lets gamers play without shelling out for expensive game consoles or games, is Amazon’s biggest foray yet into the fast-growing $150 billion (Dh550.5bn) video gaming market.
A subscription to the Luna+ channel costs $5.99 a month during an introductory period and will include games such as Resident Evil 7, Control and Panzer Dragoon.
The offering, available at first to invited testers, will go head to head with rival services launched in recent years by the likes of Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Nvidia.
It is a long-anticipated debut for Amazon, which operates the largest network of on-demand software services through its Amazon Web Services cloud division.
The company has also long harboured ambitions to expand its video game entertainment franchise beyond Twitch, the gamer-focused internet live streaming company it bought in 2014.
Dave Limp, a senior vice president who leads Amazon’s devices and services group, said close ties to Twitch, as well as seamless game streaming enabled by Amazon’s cloud-computing group, would aid the company in appealing to players not served by high-end consoles.
“We didn’t build this to displace consoles, they are here, they are going to be here for a long, long period of time,” he said. “We built it to attract a different type of audience.”
Amazon announced the game streaming programme at a devices showcase. The company has held these events in recent years in an effort to stay ahead in smart speakers and accompanying voice software, a market the company helped invent with its Echo device and Alexa software.
Echo speakers and other smart home devices were the darlings of the consumer electronics world a few years ago, but growth has waned more recently.
The Covid-19 pandemic gives Amazon a chance to re-ignite growth now that millions of consumers are working and studying from home.
Amazon maintains a lead in smart speaker sales over rivals such as Google and Apple.
In recent years, the company has tried to expand Alexa’s domain beyond typical interactions like answering questions or reading the weather. It has unveiled high-end music-streaming devices, internet-connected home appliances and tie-ins with automakers.
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UAE jiu-jitsu squad
Men: Hamad Nawad and Khalid Al Balushi (56kg), Omar Al Fadhli and Saeed Al Mazroui (62kg), Taleb Al Kirbi and Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg), Mohammed Al Qubaisi and Saud Al Hammadi (70kg), Khalfan Belhol and Mohammad Haitham Radhi (85kg), Faisal Al Ketbi and Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)
Women: Wadima Al Yafei and Mahra Al Hanaei (49kg), Bashayer Al Matrooshi and Hessa Al Shamsi (62kg)
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The biog
Name: Atheja Ali Busaibah
Date of birth: 15 November, 1951
Favourite books: Ihsan Abdel Quddous books, such as “The Sun will Never Set”
Hobbies: Reading and writing poetry
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950