9-21: The BOM cost for a 32GB NAND Apple iPhone 7 USD219.80; Japan government would consider divesting its stake in Japan Display; etc.
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Touch Display |
| Japan’s industry minister Hiroshige Seko said the government would consider divesting its stake in Japan Display unless the company can demonstrate it is more than just a commodity supplier to Apple. (CN Beta, TechNews, WSJ, Apple Insider) |
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Memory |
| A recent rally in NAND flash prices will buoy sales and profits at related companies including module makers Adata Technology and Apacer Technology, and flash controller IC designer Phison Electronics in 3Q16, according to Digitimes. (Digitimes, press, EE Focus)
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| Samsung announces 960 PRO and 960 EVO M.2 PCIe SSDs, priced from USD329 and USD129, respectively, and will be available from Oct. 2016. (CN Beta, AnandTech, PC Perspectives)
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| SanDisk has showcased the first prototype 1Tb (1024GB) SDXC card. (eTekNix, Digital Trends, My Drivers, ZOL)
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Sensory |
| BOE has teamed up at least 100 engineers engaged in R&D for bio-sensors. A business unit has also been set up under BOE to focus on related sensor products. The new sensor unit under BOE will likely roll out its first sensor products for medical instrumentation, and gradually expand its offerings to include those for UAV drone systems. (Digitimes, press, Sigma Intell)
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| MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has developed a device that can determine a person’s mood using wireless signals. The device, dubbed EQ-Radio, can identify emotions such as anger, pleasure, sadness and joy by bouncing wireless signals off a person’s body and analyzing the reflections to infer breathing and heartbeat signals. (Engadget, TechSpot, CN Beta)
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Biometrics |
| Samsung’s face and voice recognition solution will be developed by Sensory using TrulySecure technology, and will be highly accurate and compliant with FIDO standards. Samsung’s face and voice recognition will be capable of securing applications and authenticating mobile transactions. (Android Headlines, Mobile ID World) |
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Connectivity |
| According to new tests that T-Mobile has conducted in the lab with Ericsson, the company’s 5G network has reached download speeds of 12Gbps. These tests were conducted with the 28GHz band, and the latency in this test was supposedly no more than 2ms. (Phone Arena, T-Mobile, Phone Scoop, OfWeek) |
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Smartphones |
| The bill of materials (BOM) for an Apple iPhone 7 equipped with 32GB of NAND flash memory carries USD219.80 in bill of materials costs, according to a preliminary estimate from IHS Markit. The unsubsidized price is USD649. (IHS Markit, press, Barron’s, Reuters, Apple Insider, 91.com, Leiphone)
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| Meizu said the current Flyme cloud services, including Gallery app and Document Management app are shutting down, thus ending the cooperation with Ali’s cloud servers. (GizChina, My Drivers) |
| Samsung claims that so far 25% of Note 7 handsets in the US have been exchanged. Samsung has also reminded customers that there will be 500,000 replacement units that have been shipped to retailers and carriers. (Ubergizmo, The Verge, GSM Arena, CN Beta)
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| Nokia 216 Dual Sim feature phone is announced in India – 2.4” QVGA 240×320 display, 0.3MP + 0.3MP cameras, Nokia Series 30+ operating system, 1020mAh battery, INR2495. (CN Beta, NDTV, BGR)
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| HTC Desire 10 Pro and Lifestyle are announced: Pro – 5.5” FHD IPS display, MediaTek Helio P10 MT6755 processor, 20MP + 13MP cameras, 3 / 4 GB RAM, 32 / 64GB ROM, Android 6.0, LTE, dual-SIM optional, 3000mAh battery. Lifestyle – 5.5” HD Super LCD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 13MP + 5MP cameras, 2 / 3GB RAM, 16 / 32GB ROM, Android 6.0, LTE, dual-SIM optional, 2700mAh battery. (Engadget, CN Beta, PC Mag)
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| LeEco Le Pro 3 is official – 5.5” FHD IPS LCD 2.5D curved display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, 16MP PDAF + 8MP cameras, 4 / 6GB RAM, 32 / 64 / 128GB ROM, LTE, dual-SIM, fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C, 4070mAh battery, from CNY1799. (Gizmo China, Phone Arena, CN Beta, Phone Radar)
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Tablets |
| Micromax Canvas Tab P681 with voice-calling function is launched – 8” WXGA 800×1280 IPS LCD display, MediaTek MT8321 processor, 5MP + 2MP cameras, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, Android 6.0, INR7499. (Android Authority)
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Wearables |
| Slice Intelligence data shows that 74% of those Americans who preordered an Apple Watch Series 2 in 9~12 Sept. 2016 were men, while just 26% were women. Women were slightly better represented than in the preorders for the first Apple Watch in Apr. 2015. Then, 20% of the preorders came from women and 80% came from men. (Apple Insider, Wearable, Fast Company, Qudong, iFeng)
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| Acer is planning to launch a VR backpack for 2017, but instead of the consumer sector, the product will mainly focus on the business to business (B2B) market. The product will sell with the StarVR head-worn VR device, which Acer has partnered with Sweden-based game developer Starbreeze on development. (Digitimes, press, Hexun, 163) |
| JK Imaging, the company licensing the Kodak name, announced the Kodak Pixpro 360 4KVR360. Using two lenses and two 20MP sensors, it can capture 360° video and stills. (Engadget, Digital Trends, 163, Tencent)
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Internet of Things |
| IBM and MIT have begun a “multi-year” partnership that aims to improve AI’s ability to interpret sight and sound as well as humans. IBM will supply the expertise and technology from its Watson cognitive computing platform, while MIT will conduct research. (Engadget, IBM, CN Beta) |
| Canary is launching a new, smaller weatherproof camera called the Flex. It is IP65 rated. When it’s running on batteries, the Flex runs on a low power WiFi state to stay connected to the servers without sucking up juice, and also uses a passive infrared (PIR) sensor to detect incidents before triggering the rest of the system. Pre-order price USD199. (CN Beta, Engadget)
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