IF / News

Chipsets

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s new custom AI chip is about 6 months away from being installed in new production cars. The chip, which is confirmed as being in development in Dec 2017, will offer “500% ~2000%” increase in its vehicle’s autonomous driving performance. Existing Tesla owners who have already paid for full self-driving will be offered this “hardware 3” update for Autopilot free of charge. (CN Beta, The Verge, Inverse)

Ming-Chi Kuo of TF Securities expects that TSMC will continue to be the sole supplier for both the “A13” in 2019 and “A14” in 2020. Kuo also predicts that Mac models will adopt Apple A-series processor in some form starting 2020 or 2021, with four benefits predicted. The main benefit for Apple would be a “full-stack” control of all of the Mac, like it has for the iPhone and iPad. (Mac Rumors, Apple Insider, Feng, CN Beta)

Touch Display

Baidu and Tsinghua University have jointly developed a product for blind—a “large-format tactile graphic display terminal”, which makes it easier for blind people to “read” texts and even image content on the Internet. Its surface consists of a lattice that can be raised and retracted. The computer controls the changes of these lattices to form a pattern. These lattices can form traditional Braille or form graphics. (CN Beta, My Drivers, IT Bear)

Lenovo is reportedly working with LG Display (LGD) on a tablet that will have a 13” foldable display manufactured by LGD. The display is described to be an OLED panel which folds in half. LGD plans to supply the foldable display to Lenovo in 2H19.  (CN Beta, Gizmo China, ET News)

Memory

Huawei’s consumer business CEO Richard Yu says he wants Nano Memory to become a new industry standard. The new memory card standard will be made available to other companies. (Android Authority, The Verge,CN Beta)

Phone

Despite Apple iPhone XR slated for launch in the latter half of Oct 2018, Taiwan-based suppliers engaged in the Apple supply chain remain cautious about orders for the new iPhone series for the rest of 2018, according to Digitimes. If sales of the upcoming iPhone XR, which will be priced lower than the XS models, fail to stimulate the overall demand for iPhones, Apple may slow down its pace of orders. (Digitimes, press, Apple Insider, CN Beta)

In Jul 2018, the European Commission ordered Google to stop illegally tying the Play Store, Chrome, and other apps to the Android operating system. Google is fined USD5B for antitrust violations. In light of this, Google has announced: 1) Google will no longer force manufacturers to sign agreements related to pre-installing almost all Google apps; and, 2) Google will begin charging a license fee to those manufacturers within the European Economic Area that wish to do so. (Phone Arena, Google, Sina, Huanqiu)

Essential Products, the startup founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, has allegedly cut about 30% of its employees. The company is now pinning its future on a different phone with a small screen that will try to mimic the user and automatically respond to messages on their behalf. (Phone Arena, Bloomberg, 163)

Huawei Mate 20 and 20 Pro are announced, powered by Huawei Kirin 980: Mate 20 – 6.53” 2244×1080 FHD+ ‘Dewdrop Display’,  rear Leica tri 12MP-16MP UW-8MP Tele OIS + front 24MP, 4/6+128GB, Android 9.0, rear fingerprint scanner, face unlock, 4000mAh, EUR799 / EUR849.  Mate 20 Pro – 6.39” 3120×1440 QHD+ curved OLED, rear Leica tri 40MP-20MP UW-8MP Tele OIS + front 24MP, 6+128GB, Android 9.0, in-display fingerprint, 3D face unlock, 4200mAh, EUR1049. (Android Central, GSM Arena, CN Beta)

Huawei Mate 20 X is announced – 7.2” 1080×2244 FHD+ ‘Dewdrop’ AMOLED, HiSilicon Kirin 980, rear Leica tri 40MP-20MP UW-8MP Tele OIS + front 24MP, 6+128GB, Android 9.0, rear fingerprint scanner, face unlock, 5000mAh, EUR900. (CN Beta, Android Central, GSM Arena)

Lenovo K9 is launched in India – 5.7” 1440×720 HD+ 2.5D, MediaTek Helio P22 MT6762, rear dual 13MP-5MP + front dual 13MP-5MP, 3+32GB, Android 8.1, rear fingerprint scanner, 3000mAh, INR8,999. (GSM Arena, Flipkart, GizChina)

Lenovo A5 is launched in India – 5.45” 720×1440 HD+ IPS, MediaTek MT6739, rear 13MP + front 8MP, 2+16GB/3+32GB, Android 8.1, rear fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh, INR5,999 / INR6,999. (Gizmo China, NDTV, Indian Express)

Coolpad debuts Android Go Illumina – 5”, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210,  rear 5MP + front 2MP, 1+8GB, Android Oreo (Go Edition), 2150mAh, Boost Mobile / Virgin Mobile USD40. (Neowin, Phone Arena, Boost Mobile)

vivo Z3 is announced – 6.3” 1080×2280 FHD+ IPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 / 710, rear dual 16MP-2MP + front 12MP, 4+64GB (670) / 6+64/128GB (710), Android 8.1, rear fingerprint scanner, face unlock, 3315mAh, from CNY1598. (CN Beta, GSM Arena, NDTV, vivo)

Panasonic Eluga Ray 530 is launched in India – 5.7” 1440×720 HD+ ‘Big View’, 1.3GHz quad-core, rear 13MP + front 5MP, 3+32GB, Android 8.0, rear fingerprint scanner, 3000mAh, INR8,999. (GizChina, NDTV, 91Mobiles)

PC / Tablet

Preliminary results for 3Q18 show that shipments of traditional PCs (desktop, notebook, and workstation) totaled nearly 67.4M units, marking a decline of 0.9% in year-on-year terms, according to IDC. Unlike 2Q18, which grew, the 3Q18 results nonetheless outperformed the forecast which called for a decline of 3.0% due to several factors. (Gizmo China, IDC, press, 199IT)

Wearables

Huawei Watch GT is official – 1.39” 454×454 DLC (diamond-like carbon) OLED, Cortex-M4, 5ATM water resistance, 6-LED optic heart-rate sensor, tri-GPS system, LightOS, 14 days battery life, from EUR199. (CN Beta, GizChina, Gizmo China)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

A new industry group, Open AR Cloud Organization, plans to develop an AR cloud in the hopes of linking all of the augmented reality (AR) games and services into a shared platform that creates a singular augmented view of the entire world. (VentureBeat, News Wire, Open Cloud)

Amap and Alibaba AI institute DAMO Academy are working together launching automotive augmented reality (AR) navigation product. The product superimposes the navigation guidelines on real road scenes, giving the driver a more intuitive live view experience. The first application of the product plan is applied to the smart rearview mirror to verify the capability, and the subsequent expansion will be extended to the dashboard, the car center control panel and the HUD head-up system. (CN Beta, Sina, Sohu)

Artificial Intelligence

IBM has introduced AI OpenScale, a new technology platform that addresses key challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, such as concerns over how AI applications make decisions, the global shortage of AI skills and the complexities of working with disparate AI tools from multiple vendors. (VentureBeat, ZDNet, PR Newswire, CSDN, Zhidx)

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced a USD1B initiative to reshape how the college operates and make artificial intelligence (AI) a part of its curriculum for all students. The effort will be spearheaded by a USD350M donation from Blackstone investment firm CEO Stephen Schwarzman. An additional USD300M has been raised for the USD1B project. (VentureBeat, Ubergizmo, MIT, Back China, Jiemian, Sohu)

Baidu has become the first Chinese company to join a US-led consortium dedicated to the safe development of artificial intelligence. The Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society (generally known as the Partnership on AI) is established in 2016 to “realize the promises, minimize the challenges, and better understand the impacts of artificial intelligence”. (CN Beta, The Guardian, The Verge, Partnership on AI)

Fintech

Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak has announced that he has become the co-founder of EQUI Global, the venture capital tech innovator. EQUI Global presents a technology focused venture capital fund, which combines the conventional principles of investing with a blockchain ‘back end’ that allows value to be realized and then traded in the open market through the EquiToken. (CN Beta, PR Newswire, Verdict)