4-16: Japan earthquake impact Sony CIS; Huawei VR announced; Tsinghua Unigroup acquires Lattice Semiconductor; Samsung to supply 100mln 5.5″ OLED to Apple yearly; etc.
Japan earthquake impact Sony CIS; Huawei VR announced; Tsinghua Unigroup acquires Lattice Semiconductor; Samsung to supply 100mln 5.5″ OLED to Apple yearly; The shipments of IGZO panels worldwide totaled 5.05 million units in 2015; Last year Apple has recovered 61,357,800 pounds of raw materials out of its discarded devices, including 2,204 pounds worth of gold; LG plans to manufacture 1 million phones in India; etc.
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Chipset |
| Intel announces “Apollo Lake” for the next-gen Atom-based notebook SoCs, featuring a new x86 microarchitecture, based on 14nm Airmont designs, using all the savings can make a difference in BOM for between USD5.55 and USD7.35. (My Drivers, Digital Trends, Motley Fool, AnandTech)
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| Tsinghua Unigroup has accumulated a 6% stake in Lattice Semiconductor through share purchases on the open market with USD41.6 million in the stake. (CN Beta, WSJ, NASDAQ, SCMP) |
| Rockchip released a new generation super scalable and versatile flagship chip RK3399, which could be used for VR. Its CPU features dual Cortex-A72 + quad Cortex-A53, and Mali-T860MP4 GPU. (CN Beta, Liluputing, PR Newswire)
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Display |
| The shipments of IGZO panels worldwide totaled 5.05 million units in 2015 and are forecast to skyrocket by 296% year on year to 20 million units in 2016 owing to the demand generated by Apple’s latest tablet, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, according to TrendForce. (TechNews, TrendForce[cn], press, TrendForce, press) |
| According to IHS, revenue in small-medium market only grew by 4% YoY in 2015. The need for small, high-resolution displays have caused many manufacturers to switch to AMOLED, resulting in a 54% YoY growth for AMOLED panels. LTPS (low-temperature polysilicon) TFT LCD displays also marked a 10% growth, a-Si (amorphous silicon) TFT LCD panels are down 10%. (Phone Arena, IHS, press, Business Korea, Wincooperation)
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| Samsung Display will reportedly provide Apple with 100 million 5.5” OLED panels per year in a deal worth USD2.59 billion. (GSM Arena, Apple Insider, Korea Herald, China Times, 163) |
| Foxconn Electronics will invest JPY388.812 billion (USD3.42 billion) for a 66.00% stake in Sharp and one of the key challenges is how it can create a synergy between Sakai Display Products (SDP), Sharp and Innolux to hike combined profitability for panels output. (Digitimes, press, Android Headlines, 163) |
| Evidence that the next version of Google Android mobile operating system may include 3D Touch-style app shortcuts has been discovered. References have been found in the code, and the official Preview 2 documentation for Android N. (Digital Trends, Android, Phandroid, Yahoo, Phandroid, 163, 51Touch)
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Camera |
| Earthquake struck Japan Mashiki-town on 14 April 2016 17:26, and Sony said a factory producing image sensors for smartphone makers took a hit. The inventory reportedly would sustain till June, Apple and Huawei start to pull in aggressively. (Toutiao, Sigma Intel, Today Online, Yahoo)
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Memory |
| During the Intel Developer Forum 2016 conference in China, senior vice president and general manager of the Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group Rob Crooke showed 3D XPoint-based Optane SSDs transferring a file at 2GB/s. (Digital Trends, My Drivers, CN Beta)
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| SanDisk announces that one of its largest capacity microSDXC memory cards has become one of the first cards to be Works with GoPro verified. (CN Beta, Beta News, Slash Gear)
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Camera |
| Huawei P9 dual camera is Leica Summarit H 1:2.2/27 ASPH, and this is the first time Leica reportedly outsource manufacturing to Chinese vendor, i.e., Sunny Optical. (CN Beta, My Drivers) |
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Sensors |
| Nissan has created an exciting “mind-reading” Nissan Leaf car concept that can project the thoughts of its drivers on the road. The project will use a headset to scan the driver’s brain waves and project a real-time message in a comic format on the road. (CN Beta, Auto World News, Auto Blog)
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Connectivity |
| Google’s latest plan for Google Fiber is to beam wireless broadband directly into households. (Digital Trends, Re/Code)
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| UK BT new and existing entry-level subscribers can now enjoy up to 52Mbps, a 32% increase from their previous 38Mbps connection. (Engadget, BT) |
| Toyota partners with University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), which is already testing V2V in concert with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to expand connected car technology test in Michigan. (Digital Trends, Sohu) |
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Smartphones |
| Last year Apple has recovered 61,357,800 pounds of raw materials out of its discarded devices, including 2,204 pounds worth of gold (worth USD40 million), 3 million pounds of copper (worth USD6.4 million), and 4.5 million pounds of aluminum (USD3.2 million). (Engadget, Apple, Cult of Mac, Sina, iFeng)
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| LG will be manufacturing phones at its Noida facility in partnership with GDN Enterprises. The target is to manufacture 1 million phones in India. (Economic Times, HMS) |
| LG joins “Make in India” with its new K7 LTE and K10 LTE: K7 LTE – 5” FWVGA display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor, 5MP + 5MP cameras, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB storage, Android 5.1, dual-SIM, LTE, 2125mAh battery, INR9500. K10 LTE – 5.3” HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, 13MP + 5MP cameras, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, Android 5.1, dual-SIM, LTE, 2300mAh battery, INR13000. (Android Authority, NDTV)
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| LG L5000 is announced in South Korea – 5.9” HD display, LG Nuclun processor, 13MP + 2MP cameras, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, Android 5.1, LTE, DMB-TV tuner, 3000mAh battery. (Android Headlines, Android Geeks)
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Tablets |
| Intel Cloudbook is a whole category of low-cost, low-power Windows laptops that sell for USD169-269. Intel says since the category was introduced in 2014, over 5 million units have been shipped. (Digital Trends, Liliputing, ZDNet)
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| Acer Iconia Tab 10 tablet –10” FHD display, MediaTek MT8163 processor, 5MP + 2MP cameras, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, Android 6.0, micro-HDMI, DTS-HD audio, GBP180. (Android Headlines, Digital Trends)
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Wearables |
| Research firm Tractica predicts that by 2021, healthcare wearables will bring in USD17.8 billion in annual revenue. Worldwide shipments of healthcare wearables will soar from 2.5 million units this year to 97.6 million in 2021. (Tractica, press, Phone Arena, Toutiao)
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| Huawei VR offers a 95º field of view, 20ms low latency, integrating a touchpad on its right side for navigating in a VR app and a back button above that, come with more than 4000 movies, 40 games, 150 panoramic tours, and 350 panoramic images, for free. (Digital Trends, Forbes, Phone Arena, Engadget, 163, IT168)
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Internet of Things |
| Alphabet is reportedly looking at building a digital city in which to test its subsidy Sidewalk Labs’ technologies. (Android Authority, The Information, CN Beta) |
| GoPro launches a Developer Program focusing on three things: mobile apps, mounting hardware and interoperability with other physical products. (Engadget, iFeng)
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| Hong Kong-based Eggplant Technologies creates Move It smart home gym including four workout tools: a resistance band, ab wheel, jump rope, and push-up stand, equipped with a range of sensors to connect to smartphone. (Digital Trends, CNET, PR Newswire, Tuicool, Engadget)
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