01-18: BOE Technology has begun construction of its third 6G flexible OLED panel line in Chongqing; The upcoming OPPO R and the next vivo X phone will reportedly equipped with pop-up camera; etc.
Chipsets
Meizu founder Huang Zhang reveals the company is working on 3 devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855: 16s, 16s Plus and 16G. The model 16s and 16s Plus are positioned at high-end with display size 6.2” and 6.5”, respectively; whereas 16G (Game) is a lower-end device. (My Drivers, CN Beta, BGR, GSM Arena)
Barclays’ analysts believe there is a good chance Apple will have to use Qualcomm’s 5G modem in its 2020 iPhones. Apple will reportedly launch iPhones with a 5G-ready status in 2020, but that will be a whole year after Apple has embraced the standard. Intel has recently announced its XMM 8161 5G modem, but Apple is reportedly displeased with Intel’s results, Apple will allegedly most likely tap MediaTek to supply it with 5G baseband chips, should Intel fail to make amends. (CN Beta, Mac Rumors, WCCFTech)
MediaTek has denied the rumors of it not working with Xiaomi again. The company claims it has good relations with Xiaomi, and there is no suspension of supply from its side. (Gizmo China, BGR, CN Beta)
Touch Display
Samsung’s head of Design Innovation Center Federico Casalegno has hinted at the possibility of Apple working on an “wrap-around” display foldable iPhone. He believes that Samsung will offer the better user experience from a design standpoint. (GSM Arena, MS Poweruser, Korea Herald, IT Home)
LG will reportedly introduce a smartphone with an optional “second-screen attachment”. The phone itself will look like a standard smartphone with a touchscreen display. (Neowin, Liliputing, CNET, Engadget CN, Sina)
BOE Technology has begun construction of its third 6G flexible OLED panel line in Chongqing with a capacity of 48,000 substrates a month. The company is investing a total of CNY46.5B (USD6.88B) in the new line, which aims to roll out flexible OLED panels for handset, automotive and notebook applications. (Digitimes, press, OfWeek)
Google has filed a patent showing a phone with a near bezel-less design and no notch. The device also has a single rear camera with a flash. And it has a fingerprint sensor on the rear, power and volume buttons on the right side, and a SIM card tray on the left. (Pocket-Lint, TechRadar, 91Mobile, GizChina, CN Beta)
Camera
Apple is reportedly making improvements to its TrueDepth system for Face ID and animoji by adopting 10MP selfie camera. Apple’s rear tri-cam may include 10MP and 14MP sensors, but details of the third sensor are unknown. One possibility is that this will support a “time of flight” (TOF) system for depth maps, useful in Portrait shooting and AR. (Compare Raja, Apple Insider, Inpai, IT Home)
GoPro has released beta firmware that lets its Fusion VR camera capture 5.6K spherical video at 24fps. The firmware also supports time lapses in this mode, and there is now RAW photo support for both time lapses and night modes when the intervals are set to 5s or longer. (Engadget, Digital Trends)
OPPO’s R series and vivo’s X lineup have been consistently providing higher screen space with each generation. The upcoming OPPO R and the next vivo X phone will reportedly equipped with pop-up camera. (Gizmo China, Weibo)
Biometrics
OPPO has announced a new optical in-display fingerprint scanning technology. The new in-display fingerprint scanning technology is said to cover 15 times the area of current versions. OPPO says the new in-display fingerprint technology supports one-click payment and domain and app encryption. (Gizmo China, My Drivers)
DeepGestalt, an artificial intelligence (AI) built by the Boston-based tech company FDNA, is a facial image analysis framework that is able to highlight similarities to hundreds of genetic disorders. FDNA’s A.I. is already being used by clinicians in the form of a community platform called Face2Gene. (Digital Trends, CN Beta, Science Mag, New Scientist, Nature)
With prices for handset-use fingerprint sensors continuing their downward trend due to intensifying competition among China- and Taiwan-based suppliers, Taiwan-based fingerprint sensor specialists have moved to diversify their target markets to include notebooks, bank debit cards and other non-handset applications for better profitability. Egistec and Goodix are 2 major fingerprint sensor companies in Greater China, and they are expected to encounter rising competition from others including Silead, Novatek and FocalTech in 2019. (Digitimes, press)
Battery
While Apple has been silent on the fate of AirPower, a new report suggests the wireless charging mat has entered production. The manufacturer Luxshare Precision has started production of AirPower. (My Drivers, Trusted Reviews, 9to5Mac, ChagerLab)
Tesla is launching a new home charging station designed for the modern home. The new Wall Connector is Tesla’s first home charging solution that can be plugged into a wall outlet rather than being hardwired into the home’s electrical system. It can plug directly into a NEMA 14-50 plug — the most common high-voltage plug in the U.S. (TechCrunch, Tesla, Huanqiu)
Connectivity
Huawei has completed the 5G NR (New Radio) test at 2.6GHz spectrum in the 5G trial organized by the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group. To date Huawei officially completed the third phase of China 5G Technology R&D (Research and Development) Trial including laboratory and field testing in NSA (Non-Stand Alone) and SA (Stand Alone) scenarios. The most mainstream NR frequency bands, including the 3.5GHz and 4.9GHz that have been tested earlier, and 2.6GHz that has just been tested, demonstrate the powerful support capability of Huawei 5G gNB. (CN Beta, Sina, Huawei, Huawei)
Barclays suggest that the successor to Apple iPhone XR expected later in 2019 will reportedly be equipped with a 4-by-4 “multiple-input, multiple-output” (MIMO) antenna for better wireless connections. The current iPhone XR is limited to 2-by-2 MIMO. (Apple Insider, Mac Rumors, Sina)
Phone
Google has announced a new initiative to help local news publications be more sustainable for their contributors. Google has partnered with Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, to launch Newspack, a set of tools to make online content management and presentation easier. Google has invested USD1.2M in its efforts to kickstart the platform. (Neowin, Google, Sina, CN Beta)
Wearables
Apple reportedly has been in talks with at least three private Medicare plans about subsidizing the Apple Watch for people over 65 to use as a health tracker. Apple has paid a visit to several of the largest insurers in the market, as well as some smaller, venture-backed Medicare Advantage plans. (CN Beta, CNBC, 9to5Mac)
Fossil Group is selling USD40M worth of smartwatch-related intellectual property to Google. The IP is related to a smartwatch technology currently under development by Fossil. (Android Authority, Android Central, CNBC, Yahoo, HKEJ, Sina)
Michael Kors has a full range of fashion-focused smartwatches powered by Wear OS and the Access Sofie model is being updated in Summer 2019. This is the 2.0 refresh of the Access Sofie and there are new features to support fitness. (GSM Arena, Pocket-Lint, Engadget CN)
Robotics
The Tel Aviv-based company SeeTree has launched a service based on AI and drones for farmers looking to gain deeper insight into the health and productivity of their trees. The end-to-end service provides growers with intelligence on individual trees and tree clusters from the air, ground, and underground. (CN Beta, Globes)
Artificial Intelligence
Bold Commerce, a software development company that builds tools, integrations, and enhanced functionality for ecommerce stores, has raised CDN22M (USD16.5M) in a series A round of funding from Whitecap Venture Partners and Round13 Capital. The funding will be used to double down on its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts. (VentureBeat, PE Hub, Lieyun)
