IF / News

Chipsets

Ren Zhengfei, the founder and CEO of Huawei, has indicated that although some areas of Huawei have developed products that can be replaced, if the US government allows companies such as Intel and Qualcomm to continue to supply, Huawei will continue to purchase products from them. (GizChina, My Drivers)

Apple’s new iPhone in 2019 will reportedly feature the Apple A13 chip, internally known by its platform codename Cebu, model T8030. (9to5Mac, Sina, IT Home)

Apple has confirmed an agreement to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business for USD1B. The move will see Apple acquire intellectual property, equipment, and 2,200 Intel employees. (Android Central, iMore, Apple, Apple Insider, CN Beta)

Touch Display

Apple’s 2019 iPhone would feature a new type of Taptic Engine, known by the codename “leap haptics”, which could have alterations that would make it more useful for Haptic Touch. (Apple Insider, 9to5Mac, ZOL)

Apple’s “iPhone 11” models in 2019 are known as D42 (iPhone12,3) which will replace the iPhone XS; D43 (iPhone12,5) which will replace the iPhone XS Max; and N104 (iPhone12,1) which will replace the iPhone XR. D42 and D43 will have a 3x OLED Retina display, while N104 will still feature the 2x Liquid Retina display just like the current generation. (9to5Mac, ZOL, Sina)

LG Electronics has recently registered trademarks, Folds and Arc, with Korean intellectual property authorities for the names of its future foldable smartphones. The company has already registered several trademarks for the names “LG Flex,” “Foldi,” “Duplex” and “LG Bendi.” (CN Beta, LetsGoDigital, Business Korea)

Samsung has announced that it has fixed its Galaxy Fold and will make it available in select markets beginning in Sept 2019. Samsung has made “necessary improvements” and run “rigorous tests” on the phone. (CN Beta, Samsung, Engadget, CNN)

Camera

In 2019, Apple’s 2 OLED iPhone would be equipped with triple cameras, while LCD version would be only dual camera. Additionally, the wide-angle ‘iPhone 11’ camera will enable a feature called Smart Frame, which captures the area around the framed area in pictures and videos so that the user can adjust the framing or perform automatic perspective and crop corrections in post. (IT Home, 9to5Mac, ZOL)

Connectivity

Satellite-TV provider Dish Network has reportedly agreed to pay USD5B for wireless assets in a deal with T-Mobile US and Sprint, setting the stage for the Justice Department to approve the USD26.5B merger of the mobile-phone carriers. (Android Central, Bloomberg, Zhitong)

T-Mobile, Qualcomm, and Ericsson have successfully completed the first 5G data call over the carrier’s low-band 600MHz spectrum. Neville Ray, T-Mobile’s CTO has revealed that while the first test was done in the lab, now the data call is successfully completed in the wild. (Phone Arena, Twitter, HQEW, CWW)

According to IHS Markit, 5G subscribers are expected to reach 1.1B by 2023 across the Asia-Pacific and North America regions, where the next-generation network has been launched. That would be triple the number of subscribers 4G reached in the same five-year time period after launching. 5G, already launched in some parts of the US by Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, is being tapped by smartphones to provide faster speeds and more capacity. (CN Beta, CNET, IHS Markit, Telecom Lead)

Phone

London-based startup Jukedeck is acquired by TikTok, owned by ByteDance. Jukedeck is building technology to create music using AI — including the ability to interpret video and automatically set music to it. Jukedeck has raised GBP2.5M, largely from Cambridge Innovation Capital. (TechCrunch, CN Beta)

President of Honor, Zhao Ming, has revealed that Huawei consumer business group Richard Yu has huge expectation from Honor: He hopes that Honor will enter top 2 in the Chinese market and top 4 in the global market. (GizChina, My Drivers)

Zhao Ming, president of Honor, has revealed that the Honor 5G phone is currently in the process of development and lab testing. Their R&D partners are already testing the device and it will go public in 4Q19. (GizChina, My Drivers)

Honor president Zhao Ming explains that Honor products are divided into 4 series—Honor M line (also Magic) will try “future technologies”; the Honor V line, will bring the “best technology”; Honor N line (also called digital line) will take care “technology trends”; Finally Honor X series, will be the “because we can” series. (GizChina, My Drivers)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has formally announced its approval of a USD5B settlement with Facebook over the company’s privacy policies. Facebook has been “deceiving” users about their ability to keep personal information private, after a year-long investigation into the Cambridge Analytica data breach. (CN Beta, Engadget, The Guardian, CNBC)

RED founder Jim Jannard has announced that the company has started work on the Hydrogen Two. Jannard has blamed Hydrogen One’s ODM in China for all the issues plaguing the device. He claims the ODM has “significantly under-performed” and failed to fix known issues on the Hydrogen One. (Android Central, H4VUser, CN Beta)

According to GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu, Apple’s suppliers are reportedly preparing to produce components for up to 75M new iPhones in 2H19, up about 7% from his estimate of 69M in 2018. TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo forecast that Apple would sell 75M~80M new iPhones in 2H19. (Bloomberg, Mac Rumors, CN Beta)

vivo Y90 is launched in India – 6.22” 720×1520 HD+ IPS, MediaTek Helio A22 MT6761, rear 8MP + front 5MP, 2+16GB, Android 8.1, face unlock, no fingerprint scanner, 4030mAh, INR6,990 (USD102). (My Drivers, The Mobile Indian)

Moto E6 is unveiled – 5.5” 1440×720 HD+ IPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 435, rear 13MP + front 5MP, 2+16GB, Android 9.0, micro USB, 3000mAh 5W, USD150. (Android Central, Liliputing, Motorola)

Virtual / Augmented Reality

Amazon has announced the launch of Prime Video VR on Oculus Quest, Go, and Gear VR. In addition to bringing the entire Prime Video catalog onto the headsets, Amazon is also for the first time adding VR content to its Prime Video library. (Android Central, Oculus, Road to VR)

Firefox Reality, Mozilla’s virtual reality browser, now supports Facebook’s Oculus Quest headset. It has already worked with the HTC Vive Focus Plus, the Lenovo Mirage and some other VR headsets. (Engadget, Mozilla, CN Beta, CNET)

Automotive

Tesla has revealed that Model 3 production is on track to begin at its Shanghai factory by the end of 2019. Depending on the timing of the Gigafactory Shanghai ramp, Tesla continues to target production of over 500,000 vehicles globally in the 12-month period ending 30 Jun 2020. (CN Beta, TechCrunch, Tesla, Teslarati)

Didi Chuxing has announced that it has concluded an agreement with Toyota Motor to expand collaboration in Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in China. Toyota will invest a total of USD600M in DiDi and a joint venture which the 2 companies will establish with GAC Toyota Motor to provide vehicle-related services for ride-hailing drivers on DiDi’s network. (TechCrunch, Didi Global, Sina)