IF / News

Chipsets

[CES2019] Intel has announced Lakefield, which is a hybrid design featuring a primary 10nm Sunny Cove core, complemented by four 10nm Atom cores. It is using Intel’s Foveros 3D chip stacking technology, multiple copies of the platform can be sandwiched together without bloating Lakefield’s overall footprint.  (CN Beta, Wired, The Verge, PC World, Ars Technica)

[CES2019] Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has declared that “Moore’s Law isn’t possible anymore”. He explains that Moore’s Law used to grow at 10x every 5 years and 100x every 10 years, but now Moore’s Law is growing a few percent every year. Every 10 years maybe only 2s. (CNET, CN Beta)

Touch Display

[CES2019] Samsung Electronics will not immediately join the new market for rollable TVs, according to the company’s chief of consumer electronics division, Kim Hyun-suk, raising doubt as to the “economic efficiency.” (CN Beta, Korea Herald)

[CES2019] Royole is showing off not only the FlexPai but several other devices that implement thin, foldable displays. Namely, a smart speaker, a flexible keyboard and a smart-touch selfie stick. (Liliputing, Gizmo China, CNET)

Sensory

[CES2019] Sony has announced an all new music experience called “360 Reality Audio” that makes listeners feel as if they are immersed in sound from all directions. 360 Reality Audio makes it possible for artists and music creators to create a 360° musical experience by mapping sound sources such as vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information of distance and angle to suit their creative and artistic purpose.  (CN Beta, Digital Music News, Sony, Market Watch)

[CES2019] For some time now, Bose has been using the car stereo to help cancel out engine noise and give car users a quieter ride. Now the company has announced it’s going to extend the system to manage road and tire noise as well, which could have knock-on effects for efficiency and lightweighting. The system will start rolling out in production cars in 2021, says Bose. (CN Beta, New Atlas, Bose)

Connectivity

Development of 5G products and network has been ongoing in the past years. And the commercialization of 5G is expected to roll out in 2019, with 5G telecom services to be planned in the United States, South Korea, Japan, and China, etc. The arrival of 5G smartphones will also be in the spotlight this year. According to TrendForce, Android smartphone brands, such as Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and OnePlus, all have a chance to launch 5G smartphones in 2019. However, the production volume of 5G models would only be 5M units in 2019, a penetration rate of 0.4%, since the construction of 5G related infrastructure has not been fully completed. (Android Headlines, TrendForce, TrendForce[cn])

Phone

[CES2019] According to the CEO Jo Seong-jin, LG will retain its loss-making smartphone business as it plays an important role in the company’s internet of things (IoT) ecosystem. LG has been expanding its robotics business, taking it as the firm’s future growth engine. Jo said the business could near the break-even point within 2 years. (CN Beta, Korea Times, Telecom Paper)

ZTE has officially announced that ZTE’s 5G mobile phone will arrive in 1H19. The official stressed that this is only a portion of ZTE’s goal in the 5G era. By the middle of 2019, ZTE to have commence commercial use of 5Gnetwork.  (GSM Arena, GizChina, My Drivers)

Xiaomi has announced that Xiaomi’s power bank sales exceeded 100M units. The manufacturer said this is some kind of an indicator showing how much Mi fans like and trust the Mi power banks. (GizChina, Baijiahao)

Apple is cutting its current production plan for new iPhones by about 10% for the next three months in a sign that the U.S. smartphone maker is expecting a further hit this year, just a week after its market-shaking revelation that it would miss revenue forecasts at the end of 2018. (Asia Nikkei, Mac Rumors, GizChina, Kaixian)

[CES2019] Alcatel 1x and 1c are announced: 1x (2019) – 5.5” 720×440 HD+ IPS, MediaTek MT6739, rear dual 13MP-2MP + front 5MP, 2+16GB, Android 8.1, rear fingerprint scanner, 3000mAh, USD120 / EUR120. 1c (2019) – 5” 480×960 qHD+ IPS, Spreadtrum SC7731E, rear 5MP + front 2MP, 1+8GB, Android Go Edition, no fingerprint scanner, only 3G, 2000mAh. (Android Headlines, GizChina, GSM Arena)

[CES2019] HiSense U30 is announced with “punch hole” display – 6.3” FHD+ “O-Infinity”, Qualcomm Snapdragon 6150 (or 675), rear dual 48MP-5MP + front 20MP, 6/8+128GB, Android 9.0, 4500mAh. (GizChina, Gizmo China, XDA Developers)

Redmi Note 7 is launched – 6.3” 1080×2340 FHD+ IPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, rear dual 48MP-5MP + front 13MP, 3+32GB / 4 or 6+64GB, Android 9.0, rear fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh, from CNY999. (Android Authority, Android Headlines, GSM Arena, Mi.com)

PC / Tablet

[CES2019] Lenovo Smart Tab P10 / M10 are announced combining Android tablet with a smart speaker dock powered by Amazon Alexa – 10.1” 1920×1200 FHD IPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 450,rear 8MP + front 5MP / rear 5MP + front 2MP, 4+64GB / 2+16GB or 3+32GB, 7000mAh / 4850mAh, USD299 / USD199. (Android Authority, Android Headlines, Android Central)

Wearables

[CES2019] Mobvoi has announced TicWatch S2 and E2 – 1.39” 400×400 AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100, heart rate sensor, GPS, water resistant (5ATM),  415mAh. (Gizmo China, Android Central, Baijiahao)

Xiaomi has announced Mi AirDots Pro, which is priced at CNY399. It is lightweight and a single one weighs 5.8g and supports IPX4 water resistance as well. They can be paired with both iOS and Android devices including tablets laptops, and mobile phones. (Mac Rumors, GizChina, Yahoo, Engadget CN, Win and Mac)

[CES2019] Soma is bringing Bluetooth to the bra world. The Somainnofit bra is designed to help women determine their actual bra size, simply by slipping it on. It is a black, sports-bra-style garment with four sewn-in strips running horizontally across the fabric and a bright red line along the cup line, measuring a woman’s bust in the necessary locations for a fitting. (Engadget, Reado1, Sina)

Home

[CES2019] Lenovo Smart Clock is the Google Assistant bedside alarm clock – 4” 480×800 WVGA, MediaTek MT8167S, 1+8GB, 3W speaker inside (which can peak at 6W) along with two passive radiators. (Android Headlines, Android Central, Digital Trends)

[CES2019] Whirlpool Smart Countertop Oven is able to identify foods and then choose the appropriate temperatures and algorithms to cook them to perfection. It has voice activation courtesy of Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. (Engadget, W Labs)

Xiaomi has announced its new smart speaker — Xiaomi XiaoAi Speaker HD. The speaker comes with the company’s own XiaoAi voice-controlled smart assistant. The Xiaomi XiaoAi Speaker HD also comes with HiFi sound quality and 360° surround sound support. It is priced at CNY599. (Gizmo China, Sina)

Automotive

LG and Microsoft are collaborating to enhance and further grow LG’s autonomous vehicle and infotainment system business. LG will accelerate the transformation of its digital platform for the vehicle industry, seen as key growth engines for the company, by leveraging Microsoft’s Azure cloud and AI technologies along with LG’s future self-driving software developments. (CN Beta, PR Newswire)

[CES2019] Mobileye, which is based in Israel, provides technical support for driverless driving. In 2017, Mobileye was acquired by Intel for USD15B. After that, the company has been working hard to enter the Chinese market. In 2018, Mobileye signed 16 deals in China, half of which were for Chinese companies. (CN Beta, ZDNet, VentureBeat)

Artificial Intelligence

[CES2019] Google has announced that its Assistant is expected to hit the mark of 1B devices in Jan 2019. That number includes smart speakers, smart displays, phones, headphones and more. Devices with Google Assistant are available in 80 countries and 30 languages — up from 14 countries and 8 languages at the beginning of 2018. (Engadget, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Android Central, Google, CNET, 163, IT Bear)

Amazon’s SVP of devices and services, Dave Limp has revealed that more than 100M devices with Alexa on board have been sold. There are more than 150 different products right now with Alexa built in, more than 100 of which shipped in 2018 and are not made by Amazon at all. (Engadget, The Verge, CNET, Baijiahao)