IF / News

Chipset

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that Intel Capital would be investing USD250M in autonomous driving over the next 2 years. (TechCrunch, The Verge, Intel, Tencent, iFeng)

IC Insights released top-20 2016 semiconductor suppliers, which  includes 8 suppliers headquartered in the U.S., 3 in Japan, 3 in Taiwan, 3 in Europe, two in South Korea, and 1 in Singapore. There are 5 companies that are forecast to display a double-digit 2016 jump in sales (Nvidia, MediaTek, Apple, Toshiba, and TSMC) and 4 that are expected to register a double-digit decline (SK Hynix, Micron, GlobalFoundries, and NXP). (TechNews, IC Insights, press)

The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday it had voted to investigate if some electronic mobile devices from Chinese companies contain hardware and software components that infringe upon patents owned by Qualcomm Inc. These companies include Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co, Ltd; Zhuhai Meizu Telecom Equipment Co, Ltd; Dest Technology Limited and LGYD Limited. (CN Beta, Reuters, IP Watch Dog)

Touch Panel

JOLED, a Japan-based panel maker established in Jan. 2015 through combining Pansonic’s and Sony’s OLED business units, will offer prototype printed OLED panels initially for use in medical monitors and commercial displays in 1H17. Without using vacuum equipment, production cost for printed OLED panels is 30~40% less than that for conventional evaporation-based OLED panels. (Digitimes, press, Sigma Intell)

A new Samsung patent application highlights their all-new holographic technology，which are 3D image display methods capable of making the depth perceived by the brain consistent with the focus of the eyes and providing full parallax, have been gradually put to practical use. (CN Beta, Patently Mobile)

Camera

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities indicates that Apple will launch 3 new iPhone models in 2017—4.7” TFT-LCD display with single camera, 5.5” TFT-LCD display with dual-camera, and an unknown size yet OLED display with dual-camera. He expects 2017 dual-camera adoption rate will increase from currently 30~40% to 65~75%. (CN Beta, iDownloadBlog, Business Insider, Apple Insider)

Google’s new Rapid and Accurate Image Super-Resolution (RAISR) system is capable of upscaling images without aliasing, achieving increased detail, all in real time on mobile devices. It actively improves the quality of an image while resizing it, and that does so as much as 100 times faster than competitive systems. (TechNews, Google, DP Review, Digital Trends)

Memory

Seagate has just released the highest capacity portable hard drive yet with the 5TB Backup Plus Portable, with just size of 20.5×78×78mm, priced at USD189.99. (Digital Trends, Seagate, 163, ZOL)

Biometrics

Synaptics vice president of marketing Anthony Gioeli has and listed 3 phases of fingerprint scanning in the future: 1) Sensor under glass in the bezel / ink area; 2) Sensor at a fixed location within the display area; and 3) enabling fingerprint scanning anywhere within the display. (EE Times, article)

Connectivity

According to Strategy Analytics and Fierce Wireless, in 3Q16, the carrier with the most net additions was T-Mobile with 1.97M net new subscribers. Sprint was the least performing of the 4 major US carriers with net adds of 0.753M subscribers. Verizon has added 1.125M subscribers, while AT&T had the second-most new subscribers at 1.532M adds. (Fierce Wireless, Android Central, GSM Arena)

Smartphones

According to IDC, smartphone market in India crossed the 30M unit shipments milestone for the first time ever in 3Q16 maintaining its healthy traction with 11% YoY growth. Lenovo Group continues to lead online channel followed by Xiaomi. (IDC, press, 199IT)

Samsung has acquired a Canada-based Rich Communications Services business from NewNet Communication Technologies. Called NewNet Canada, it will continue to operate independently as a unit of Samsung Electronics Canada. (CN Beta, CNET, Mobile World Live)

Samsung reportedly might be contemplating selling refurbished Galaxy Note 7 units starting from 2017. The refurbished handsets will be mostly sold in emerging markets such as India and Vietnam where low-end and mid-range smartphones are popular. (Android Headlines, Phandroid, TNW, The Investor, CN Beta)

Kryptowire has identified some Android mobile devices with firmware that collected user’s sensitive personal data and transmitted to third-party servers without disclosure or the user’s consent. The backdoor software is developed by Shanghai Adups Technology Company, and is supposedly pre-installed in more than 700M connected devices including smartphones. U.S. manufacturer BLU Products says that 120,000 of its phones have the software installed, and that it has recently updated the software to eliminate the monitoring. (Android Headlines, NY Times, PR Newswire, Digital Trends, CN Beta, Apple Insider)

It has long been rumored that Google is working on converging Chrome OS and Android. Andromeda is its codename. Two major (also unnamed) OEMs allegedly now have access to Dev Kits for Andromeda, and that the plan is to launch devices in the end of 3Q17 / 4Q17. (Android Headlines, 9to5Google)

Rugged phone Ulefone Armor is unveiled – 4.7” HD display, MediaTek MT6753 processor, 13MP + 5MP cameras,  3GB RAM, 32GB storage, Android 6.0, LTE, SoS key, IP68 certified, USD159.99. (GizChina, Ulefone)

OnePlus 3T is official – 5.5” FHD AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, 16MP PDAF + 16MP cameras, 6GB RAM, 64 / 128GB ROM, Android 6.0 (Oxygen OS), LTE Cat.6 (VoLTE), dual-SIM, 3400mAh battery, from USD439. (Android Central, GizChina, GSM Arena)

Thuraya is one of the few companies specialized in satellite phones. Thuraya has just announced world’s first dual mode, dual SIM phone, which will allow users to seamlessly switch between satellite and GSM communication, XT-PRO DUAL. (Phone Arena, Broadway World, Telecom Paper, Morning Post, Xinmin)

Wearables

Vinci is a smart, wireless headphone that is powered by cloud technology and controlled via voice commands. It does not require a connection to a smartphone. Features include a touchscreen display, virtual assistant, 3D recording, location-based services, advanced noise canceling, the ability to monitor body vitals, and more. (Android Central, Ubergizmo, Engadget, Vinci)

Google is bringing VR to the classroom with the aim of introducing the concept to one million British schoolchildren. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said that the company will offer VR training and resources to teachers through its Google Expeditions program. (CN Beta, TNW, Engadget)

Internet of Things

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research non-profit backed by Tesla’s Elon Musk, Y Combinator’s Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and numerous other tech luminaries, is partnering with Microsoft to run large-scale experiments on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. (TechCrunch, Engadget, Microsoft, 163)

GE Digital announced that it has acquired Wise.io and Bit Stew Systyms, machine-learning powered service that helps businesses find patterns and trends in their vast data stores. (TechCrunch, 163)

IBM’s Watson AI platform has joined forces with MIT and Harvard to study how thousands of cancers mutate to become resistant to drug treatments that initially worked to beat back the disease. It is a new 5-year USD50M genome project. (Time, Computer World, TechNews, Fortune, Boston Globe, Sohu, Huanqiu)

Nividia has partnered with the National Cancer Institute and the US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop the CANDLE (Cancer Distributed Learning Environment) an AI-based “common discovery platform” to help fight cancer. This is all part of the Cancer Moonshot initiative – announced by President Barack Obama. (CN Beta, Nvidia, Silicon Angle, Robotics Trends)

Xiaomi TV Box 3s and 3c unveiled, priced at CNY299 and CNY199, respectively: 3s –  Packs a flagship Amlogic S905X processor which supports HDMI 2.0a. The set top box also supports VP94K at 60 frames per seconds hardware decoding. There is a large 2GB RAM and 8GB storage onboard. 3c – Packs Amlogic S905 quad0core processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, support 4K and Patchwall, Dolby and DTS. (CN Beta, Gizmo China, BGR)