3-29: Apple iPhone SE to exceed 3.4mln pre-orders in China; Samsung Pay launched in China; Samsung GS7 alleged to also use MediaTek Helio X20/X25; China facial-recognition for medicare payment, and for police car; etc.
Apple iPhone SE to exceed 3.4mln pre-orders in China; , Samsung Electronics is working on new businesses such as automotive electronic component manufacturing, VRand AI; LG is asked to pay USD3.5 million to Core Wireless for patent infringement; Samsung GS7 alleged to also use MediaTek Helio X20/X25; China facial-recognition for medicare payment, and for police car; etc.
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Chipsets |
| A smartphone called the Samsung SM-G930W8 (allegedly one of the variants for Galaxy S7) has been recently spotted in the Geekbench database carrying one of three different chipsets: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Samsung Exynos 8890 or MediaTek Helio X20/X25. (Phone Arena, TechNews, GeekBench, GSM Arena) |
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Camera |
| Camera Culture Group of MIT’s Media Lab is developing a camera that can take photos through glass without any reflections. For their latest project they used the Xbox One’s Kinect motion sensor and camera, taking advantage of its depth sensor. (SlashGear, Gizmodo, CN Beta, MIT)
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Memory |
| Samsung already shifting 70% of its DRAM production capacity to 20nm last year, and now it is entering 18nm era, leading the technologies. Compared to others, SK Hynix will only start mass producing 18nm DRAM, and Micron still doing 20nm. (CN Beta, Android Headlines, ET News) |
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Battery |
| Cambridge University researchers consider the properties of hybrid lead halide perovskites, a group of materials already making waves in solar cell technology, and demonstrates their ability to absorb energy from the sun, create electric charge, and then churn out some light energy of their own. This boosts efficiency by harnessing the power to recycle light. (CN Beta, Business Insider, Zee News)
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| Electric vehicle battery sales figures for Dec 2015 were recently revealed by the EV Sales blog. For the whole year of 2015, Panasonic remains on top of the pile, and that BYD and LG Chem continue to grow. (Clean Technica, EV Obsession, CN Beta)
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| Dee Strand, the CSO at Wildcat Discovery Technologies, indicates that phones may never reach 2-3 days of battery life. (Phandroid, CN Beta) |
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Biometrics |
| China Wuhan Central Hospital launches the first facial recognition for medicare payment system. This system requires online payment bank identity, identity card, and medicare identity for authentication, and by using unique facial recognition biometric technology, all integrated to be used on one single app. (CN Beta, 163)
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| The police car, developed by University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Sichuan Province, is equipped with rooftop cameras that capture faces within a radius of 60m, even at a speed of 120 km/h. Its face-scanning capability could help in chasing and arresting wanted criminals. (CN Beta, Biometric Update, NDTV) |
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Smartphones |
| According to financial data provider FnGuide, South Korean securities firms are estimating Samsung Electronics’ operating profits for 1Q16 at KRW5.1777 trillion, 14.72% less than their estimates at the beginning of this year and 13.41% less than the figure for 1Q15. Thus, Samsung Electronics is working on new businesses such as automotive electronic component manufacturing, virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI). (Business Korea, Android Headlines) |
| Pre-orders for Apple iPhone SE are said to have exceeded 3.4 million so far in China alone, according to data from local retailers. (Apple Insider, Yahoo, Sina) |
| TD Securities’ analyst Daniel Chan believes that time is up for BlackBerry as a hardware manufacturer. Exiting the hardware segment could result in big savings for the Canadian firm as research and development related to the business is expected to be around 30%-50% of the total R&D spending. (Phone Arena, Value Walk) |
| Google is reportedly preparing to drop support for the physical Wallet Card on June 30th. (CN Beta, Android Police, Yahoo)
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| Oracle is going to try to convince the jury that Google owes it USD9.3 billion, reports James Niccolai at IDG News Service. (CN Beta, Business Insider, PC World) |
| Core Wireless, which holds patents for 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE network technologies, alleged that LG infringed on its patents that relate to a smartphone’s user interface, is awarded USD3.5 million in past damages. (Digital Trends, Newswire, iFeng) |
| Samsung has collaborated with China UnionPay to launch Samsung Pay in China. (Android Central, CN Stock) |
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Tablets |
| NTT DoCoMo has agreed to buy Dell information-technology-services division for USD3.05 billion, its latest effort to seek growth overseas. (CN Beta, WSJ, 4-Traders) |
| Dion Weisler, CEO of HP Inc, says, focusing on new premium products was one of his priorities, indicating that they are pretty effective with building a premium line to take on share in Apple’s traditional space. (CN Beta, Financial Times) |
| Microsoft indicates that global Windows 10 installation has reached 200 million units since its launched on 29 July 2015, and expecting to reach 1 billion units in 3 years timeframe. However, according to Net Applications, there are still a number of Windows 7 users decline to upgrade to Windows 10. (TechNews) |
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Wearables |
| Logitech, François Morier – who leads the firm’s 2D sensor design for gaming mice – says, “It is true that virtual reality is becoming big. We are a controller company. We are a company that builds controller devices. There is a reason why we still have this [360º testing] machine. There is always something coming.” (CN Beta, Trusted Reviews) |
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Internet of Things |
| Tesla direct sales and service model is the company’s advantage. Unlike most incumbent automakers, Tesla has a very direct relationship with its customers since the company has vertically integrated distribution and service, much to the dismay of car dealer associations around the country. (Motley Fool, TechNews) |
| The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced that 20 automakers have agreed to make automatic emergency braking (AEB) standard by September 1st, 2022, representing “more than 99%” of the US auto market. (TechNews, USA Today, The Verge) |
