10-11: Samsung halts sales of Galaxy Note 7 globally, “temporarily adjusting” production plan; US operators halts selling and replacing Galaxy Note 7; etc.
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Chipset |
| MediaTek announced the availability of the LinkIt 2523 Hardware Development Kit (HDK) for developers looking to create advanced wearable products. Based on the MediaTek MT2523G chipset, the HDK – produced by Silicon Application Corp (SAC). (EE Trend, Yahoo, TechNews)
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| Samsung has announced that it has begun mass production of the Exynos 7 Dual 7270. It is the first mobile AP in the industry designed specifically for wearable devices with 14nm FinFET process technology. (CN Beta, Fonearena, Business Wire)
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Touch Display |
| Sigma Intell indicates that from early 2016 till Sept. 2016, 5” HD smartphone panel prices has increased more than 100%, due to the shut-down of last-gen production facilities, in addition to the high demand of a-Si panel. It expects that a-Si panel for mid-to-low end smartphone will be in tight-supply until 2Q17. Hannstar and CPT would have good profit in 1H17. (China FPD, OfWeek) |
| Panasonic introducing “Smart Mirror”, which analyzes the person’s face and detecting its weakest spots ( wrinkles, spots, sun damages, bags under the eyes), to then print a “patch” with make-up analyzed to fit the user’s skin tone and needs. (Forbes, Engadget, Pulse, Daily Mail, TechNews)
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Camera |
| Image sensor IMX398 is developed in collaboration between OPPO and Sony, and it will be used in OPPO R9s to be announced soon. (CN Beta, Gizmo China, IT Home, GSM Arena)
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Battery |
| Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) in Saarbrücken could aid the superconductor industry by improving capacitance by an order of magnitude compared to current approaches. The researchers identified the improvement when using a “hybrid mix” of potassium ferricyanide in aqueous media. (TechNews, Green Tech Media)
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| Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water and Sustainability of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed a new hybrid energy storage technology combining pros of lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors and thus has higher energy capacity and supports about 100 times faster charging. (CN Beta, Korea Times, Pulse)
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Smartphones |
| Samsung has officially issued a statement that it is ceasing sales of the phone worldwide. It is also urging all Galaxy Note 7 owners to power down and stop using their phones. (CN Beta, Android Central, Samsung)
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| Samsung has officially stated the company is “temporarily adjusting” the Galaxy Note7 production schedule in order to take further steps to ensure quality and safety matters. (Android Central, Android Headlines, PC World, Engadget, iFeng, Sohu, Samsung, WSJ, Bloomberg) |
| Following T-Mobile and AT&T, US Cellular, Sprint, Verizon and Best Buy have also stopped selling and issuing Samsung Galaxy Note 7 replacement. (CN Beta, The Verge, The Verge, Slash Gear, Yahoo) |
| Cyanogen CEO Lior Tal introducing its business strategy, and the new executive leadership team. Cyanogen is moving to what it calls the “Cyanogen Modular OS”. This new program will let smartphone manufacturers pick and choose individual portions of Cyanogen OS, and integrate them into its own current software stack. (CN Beta, Android Central, Cyanogen) |
| Microsoft allegedly plans to introduce the Surface Phone in late 2017 or even early 2018, as Microsoft is still working on it and some features might not be ready before these dates. (CN Beta, Tech and Flash, Softpedia, ZDNet) |
| Xiaomi Mi Max Prime is announced in India – 6.44” FHD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 16MP + 5MP cameras, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage, Android 6.0.1, 4G, dual-SIM, fingerprint sensor, 4580mAh battery, INR19,999. (Android Authority, GSM Arena, Android Headlines, Phone Arena, Mi.com)
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Wearables |
| Based on a research done by Baofeng Mojing and SocialBeta, in 1H16 in China potential VR users have reached 450 million, light users 27 million, and heavy users 2.37 million. The length of time the VR heavy users using the VR headset is increasing, daily average use has increased from 34 minutes in 2015 to 37 minutes. (eBrun, 199IT, report)
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| Oculus has issued an update to its mobile app to disable Gear VR (collaboration between Samsung and Oculus) compatibility with Samsung Galaxy Note 7. (The Verge, Android Central, Oculus, IT Home) |
| After successfully raising over USD220,000 in crowdfunding in Japan, Blincam opened an Indiegogo campaign to fund international distribution. A sensor inside the camera watches for any eye movement that is longer than a normal blink, then snaps a photo. (CN Beta, Digital Trends)
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Internet of Things |
| TECHnalysis Research recently surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers who both own a car and are planning to purchase a new one within the next 2 years. Half of the respondents in the survey said they would give at least moderate consideration to purchasing a car from a tech company. (Fast Company, 199IT)
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| Google is about to speed up its effort by deploying a lot more vehicles through its partnership with Fiat-Chrysler to build a fleet of self-driving Pacifica, Chrysler’s new plug-in hybrid minivan. Google is currently equipping a fleet of 100 Pacifica minivans with a new suite of sensors to test its self-driving system. (CN Beta, The Verge, Tech Times, Electrek)
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| Both Toyota and BMW recently invested Nauto, a self-driving car startup focused on collecting data from cars currently on the road so that companies can leverage that data to build out their self-driving car’s technology. (TechNews, Tencent, Fortune, Digital Trends, Business Insider, Recode)
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| Oxbotica, a company spun out from Oxford University, will be testing 2 driverless cars in the southern English town of Milton Keynes. Britain is aiming to build an industry to serve a worldwide market which it forecasts could be worth around GBP900 billion by 2025. (CN Beta, Robo Hub, Business Insider)
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| According to GfK, 90% of global production of hooverboard is mainly in China. Shipment of hooverboard in 2015 has reached 12 million units, 70% of which is to outside China. Due to lack of patent protection, no fees to support validation, and fierce domestic and global competition , a lot of vendors are bankrupt—number of vendors is reduced from over 1000 in 2015 to 400+, and orders to overseas has reduced 70%. (GfK, press)
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| Google will soon rename its Cast app to “Google Home” . Consumers will be able to use the app to “discover new content and manage (their) Google Home assistant and Cast devices,” according to Google. (CN Beta, Variety, Digital Trends, NDTV) |
| NetEase is officially entering smart hardware market, launching products targeting smart home, wearables and healthcare in the near future. Now, it will launch smart plug, charger, and other accessories. (CN Beta, TechWeb, 163)
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