IF / News

Chipset

NVIDIA has launched an AI data center platform that delivers the industry’s most advanced inference acceleration for voice, video, image and recommendation services. The NVIDIA TensorRT Hyperscale Inference Platform features NVIDIA Tesla T4 GPUs based on the company’s breakthrough NVIDIA Turing architecture and a comprehensive set of new inference software. (Engadget, NVIDIA, 36Kr, CN Beta)

Touch Display

Huawei CEO Richard Yu believes that the foldable smartphone could replace PC because the display can be folded out. He reveals that the foldable smartphone will be launched within 2018. (My Drivers, IT Home, CN Beta, BGR, BBC News, Die Welt)

Camera

TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple will not integrate a rear-side time of flight (TOF) solution in its 2019 iPhone lineup, saying the technology is not yet ready for the augmented reality revolution. He indicates that the distance and depth information provided by existing rear-side TOF hardware is insufficient for creating the “revolutionary AR experience” that Apple is presumably working toward. (GSM Arena, Apple Insider, Mac Rumors, Sina, CN Beta)

Biometrics

Samsung allegedly may be preparing to follow in the footsteps of Sony and Motorola by releasing a smartphone with a fingerprint scanner integrated into the aluminum frame later in 2018. The device is allegedly Galaxy J6 Plus. (Phone Arena, Twitter, CN Beta)

Connectivity

Verizon has announced that it will be launching the world’s first commercial 5G service beginning on 1 Oct 2018. It will be available for 3 cities, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento. 5G Home is a product that Verizon is going to be offering. It is built on Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Network. (Android Headlines, Apple Insider, Verizon, iFeng)

Lin Ruiqi, senior vice president of Huawei Technologies, said that Huawei is preparing for the construction of 5G network in Russia, but has not yet entered a large-scale trial. The project is now only in the experimental stage that is carried out in Kazan City. (CN Beta, GizChina)

AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson said that Verizon is using non-standard 5G technology for its network, and commended them on being first with a non-standard 5G network. But also noted that AT&T will be first with a standards-based 5G network.  (Android Headlines, Dallas News, Bloomberg)

The project from Google’s parent company Alphabet, called Loon, would send giant, high-flying balloons into the stratosphere to deliver LTE signals to the ground. Loon said it sent a signal farther than it has before: 1,000 kilometers, or more than 621 miles, across 7 balloons. The feat means the balloons can create a web of internet connectivity spread across multiple balloons. (CN Beta, ZDNet, CNET, Medium)

Samsung and Google have announced an expanded partnership to ensure that their respective Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging services play nicely with each other across platforms. (VentureBeat, Samsung, TechCrunch, Sina, CN Beta)

Phone

Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has reached a global licensing agreement with Xiaomi, which covers NTT’s standard necessary wireless patents. NTT has contributed to the specifications of all generations of mobile network technologies, and the company previously announced plans to commercialize 5G services by 2020. (GizChina, Xiaomi, Mobile World Live, Sina, CN Beta)

The Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy is investigating the allegations that Apple infringed on the KAIST’s FinFET-related patent. With the investigation period already extended twice, its final determination is likely to be in favor of the KAIST. Then, import of Apple phones such as the iPhone X may be banned. (GizChina, Apple Insider, Business Korea, 163, iFeng)

According to Counterpoint Research, cumulative shipments of Apple iPhone X reached 63M units within 10 months of its launch ending Aug 2018. By comparison, during the iPhone 6 Super Cycle, Apple took only 6 months to achieve similar volume, post 2014 launch. iPhone 6 shipped 30M more units than iPhone X during its first 10 months of sales, so iPhone X missed the “volume Super Cycle”. (GSM Arena, Counterpoint Research, blog, 199IT, IT Home)

Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced that the company has shipped close to 2B iOS devices. Cook also said that 500M people visit Apple stores every year.  (Engadget, Apple Insider, CNET,  JRJ, East Money)

Shipments of the Apple’s 3 new iPhone devices, the iPhone Xs, Xs Max and XR, are expected to surpass 85M units in 2H18, according to Digitimes Research. Shipments of the LCD-based 6.1” iPhone XR are expected to account for over 50% of combined shipments of the new 3 models being released. (Mac Rumors, Digitimes, press, Sina)

Apple debuts 3 new iPhone, powered by Apple A12 Bionic, iOs 12: XS – 5.8” 1125×2436 19.5:9 Super AMOLED, rear dual 12MP OIS – 12MP OIS + front 7MP, 4GB + 64/256/512GB, IP68 rated, from USD999. XS Max – 6.5” 1242×2688 19.5:9 Super AMOLED, rear dual 12MP OIS – 12MP OIS + front 7MP, 4GB + 64/256/512GB, IP68 rated, from USD1,099. XR – 6.1” 828×1792 19.5:9 Liquid Retina LCD, rear 12MP OIS + front 7MP, 3GB + 64/128/256GB, IP67 rated, from USD749. (Apple Insider, Apple Insider, CN Beta, GSM Arena, GSM Arena)

Huawei Maimang 7 (Mate 20 Lite) is launched in China – 6.3” 2340×1080 FHD+ 2.5D glass, Huawei Kirin 710, rear dual 20MP-2MP + front dual 24MP-2MP, 6GB+64GB, Android 8.0, CNY2,399. (Gizmo China, GizChina)

ASUS announces ROG (Republic of Gaming) phone – 6” 1080×2160 FHD+ AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, rear dual 12MP-8MP + front 8MP, 8GB + 128 / 512GB, 4000mAh, 3D Vapor Chamber cooling technique, dual speakers, CNY5,999 / CNY7,999. (CN Beta, My Smart Price, Pandaily, SlashGear)

vivo Y97 is launched in China – 6.3” 1080×2280 FHD+ IPS Halo FullView, MediaTek Helio P60, rear dual 16MP-2MP + front 16MP, 4GB+128GB, Android 8.1, face unlock, no fingerprint scanner, 3315mAh, CNY1,998. (GizChina, NDTV, My Smart Price, vivo)

Wearables

Apple Watch Series 4 is announced – 2 sizes 40mm and 44mm, Digital Crown with haptic feedback, Apple S4 chip, ECG detection, GPS built-in / LTE optional, USD399 / USD499. (Apple Insider, Apple, Telegraph, ZDNet, WCCFTech, Gizmo China)

Automotive

Agero, a self-described “driving solutions” company headquartered in Medford, Massachusetts, aims to expedite emergency response. It is a software development kit called Driver360, and it taps artificial intelligence (AI) and smartphone sensors to detect car crashes automatically after they have happened. (VentureBeat, ASIRT)

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Apple has now 70 cars approved for testing in the State. These cars are being controlled by 139 approved drivers. (CN Beta, 9to5Mac, Mac ReportS)

SkyRyse’s systems include cameras and a type of radar called phased-array; a screen displaying a 360º view around the chopper; artificial intelligence (AI); and decision-making algorithms to help the pilot choose the safest path to take. SkyRyse has announced that it has a contract with the city of Tracy to transport first responders, including police, fire and search-and-rescue teams, to emergency situations starting in Jan 2019. (CN Beta, CNBC, SF Chronicle, Fast Company, New Atlas, Quartz)

Artificial Intelligence

Facebook has built and deployed a large-scale machine learning system named Rosetta. It extracts text from more than a billion public Facebook and Instagram images and video frames (in a wide variety of languages), daily and in real time, and inputs it into a text recognition model that has been trained on classifiers to understand the context of the text and the image together. (Ubergizmo, Facebook, CN Beta)

Payment

PayPal, now with 19.5M businesses and 250M customers using its payment rails to sell and buy goods and services, is taking the wraps off a new feature that it hopes will bring more transactions to its platform. The company is launching Funds Now, instant payouts to businesses using PayPal for their transactions. (TechCrunch, PYMNTS, PayPal)