07-10: Qualcomm is announcing Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 Mobile Platform; MediaTek has announced the iAIT platform i700; etc.

Chipsets

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company will “most likely” begin upgrading older electric vehicles with its new custom chip later 2019— a lofty task that will involve retrofitting hundreds of thousands of Model S, X and 3s. Tesla offers two different advanced driver assistance packages to customers: Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD). (Pocket-Lint, The Verge, TechCrunch, CN Beta)

Qualcommis announcing Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 Mobile Platform, positioned as the successor to Snapdragon 212. The new chipset finally brings the series into the 64-bit era, offering a quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU layout (1.3Ghz). First phones with the platform will debut in 2H19.(Android Authority,Qualcomm,Android Central)

Qualcommis reportedly developing a new smartwatch SoC that will either be called the “Snapdragon Wear 429” or “Snapdragon Wear 2700”. Essentially a modified version of the Snapdragon 429 processor for smartphones, the new smartwatch chip is said to have a 64-bit architecture, use the newer Cortex A53 CPU, and have 8GB of storage along with 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM. (Android Central, WinFuture, CN Beta)

MediaTekhas announced the iAIT platform i700 with high-speed edge AI computing capability for fast image recognition. Its single-chip design integrates processing units, including CPU, GPU, ISP, and AI core. The i700 platform adopts an octa-core architecture, integrating two ARM Cortex-A75 processors operating at 2.2GHz and six Cortex-A55 processors operating at 2.0GHz.  (GizChina,CN Beta, MediaTek)

Touch Display

JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee expects Apple to launch a trio of high-end iPhones with 5G baseband modems and 5.4”, 6.1” and 6.7” OLED displays. At least two of the top iPhones will adopt “world facing” (or rear-facing) time of flight (TOF) 3D sensor technology for AR and VR applications. (CNBC, Apple Insider, My Drivers)

LG Display (LGD) has said that its OLED factory in China will be put into full swing next month to ramp up its production capacity of premium panels in the key market. LGD has said earlier it plans to roll out 60K OLED sheets per month at the Guangzhou factory in the initial stage, which would increase its total monthly OLED sheet output capacity to 130K units in 2019 when combined with its production line at its Korean factory in Paju, north of Seoul. (CN Beta, LG Display, Business Korea, The Investor)

Connectivity

OpenSignal has found that peak download speeds on 5G reach just past 1.8Gbps in the United States versus 678Mbps for LTE, or about 2.7 times faster. OpenSignal has noted that more 5G services would launch on new spectrum and wider channels, helping deliver on the technology’s potential. (Engadget, OpenSignal)

According to Huaweitechnology director Nicolas Driesen, Huawei aims to lead the development of 5G networks in Brazil, but sees challenges as the country is lagging behind other Latin American countries.(CN Beta, Channel News Asia, Rio Times Online)

According to HuaweiPoland executive Ryszard Hordynski, Huawei aims to spend PLN3B (USD793M) in Poland in the next five years, although whether the Chinese firm has a role in the 5G rollout may affect the scale of investment. (CN Beta,Reuters)

Nokiaunveils the Beacon 1 mesh Wi-Fi router. Dubbed “Intelligent Channel Selection” by Nokia, the Beacon 1’s smart channel-switching feature lets the router pick the best channels for the 2.4- and 5GHz frequency bands by analyzing nearby wireless usage patterns over time.  (Gizmo China, PC World, Android Central)

Phone

Launched in Oct 2018, Honor 8X series’ worldwide shipment exceeded 10Munits in just 173 days. As of 8 Jul 2019, Xiong Junmin, VP of Honor has announced that the global market shipment of Honor 8X series exceeded 15M units. (GizChina, Huawei Central, My Drivers)

Strategy Analytics believes that Huawei is will launch its HongMeng system at the end of 2019. It also says that the company will start promoting this system outside China in2020.The emergence of HongMeng OS will weaken Android’s market share, at least in China.(Pocket-Lint,GizChina,CN Beta, Strategy Analytics)

Samsung Venture, the investment arm of Samsung giant, has invested USD8.5M in Indus OS  and 3 other Indian startups as the company’s VC fund begins its journey in the country. Indus OS is a popular Android  fork that has built a suite of localized applications focused on serving the masses in India. (TechCrunch,Economic Times, Teller China)

Infinix Note 6is launched in Africa – 6.01” 1080×2160 FHD+ AMOLED, MediaTek Helio P35 MT6765, rear tri 16MP-8MP ultrawide-2MP depth + front 16MP, 4+64GB, Android 9.0, rear fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh, about USD200. (GSM Arena, Infinix Mobile)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

Sports technology company FORM has announced the FORM Swim Goggles, a pair of premium swim goggles with a see-through, augmented reality display that delivers performance metrics in real time. Integrated into the goggles lens, this display provides a completely unobtrusive, see-through experience and always appears in focus.(Digital Trends, Form Swim, VentureBeat,Globe Newswire, Lan Xiong)

Apple’s patent “Augmented Reality Device to Warp Images” details a camera or imaging sensor captures the environmental view directly in front of the user, typically from the same perspective as their eye. A portion of the field of view is then selected for further processing to warp the image for the user, then the composite view is then placed in front of the user’s eyes. (Phone Arena, Apple Insider, Patently Apple)

Automotive

Instead of of switching between apps to secure a ride during rush hour, people in China can now hail from different companies using a single app. Some of the country’s largest internet companies — including ride-hailing giant Didi itself — are placing bets on this type of aggregation service. The trend underscores changes in China’s massive ride-hailing industry of 330M users.(TechCrunch, CNNIC)

Lyft and Aptiv are already running autonomous driving trials in Las Vegas, and now they’re expanding that limited pilot to include low-vision and blind riders in a new partnership with the National Federation of the Blind. (TechCrunch, Lyft, Teller China)

Ford and Volkswagen (VW) have reportedly reached an outline agreement to share electric and autonomous car technologies, extending their alliance beyond a cooperation on commercial vehicles. VW will share its MEB electric vehicle platform with Ford.(Digital Trends, Reuters, Auto Home)

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is developing technology to create the world’s first self-learning car. Designed to reduce driver distraction and take the chore out of driving, the self-learning car uses the latest artificial intelligence techniques to ‘learn’ driver’s habits. Identifying the driver from their key fob or phone, the car learns driver preferences such as if they listen to a certain radio station in the morning but a CD in the evening and implements the choices automatically.(Digital Trends, Land Rover, Telegraph)

Artificial Intelligence

A recent IDC urvey of global organizations that are already using artificial intelligence (AI) solutions found only 25% have developed an enterprise-wide AI strategy. At the same time, 1/2 organizations surveyed see AI as a priority and 2/3 are emphasizing an “AI First” culture.  (IDC, VentureBeat)

Fintech

LG Electronics has filed a trademark in America with the USPTO for the name ThinQ Wallet. The application is also included in the European database. The trademark is classified as Class 9/36 with the description; application software for smartphones; payment software for telephones; blockchain software; digital wallet for cryptocurrency’.(CN Beta, LetsGoDigital, TechGenyz)

Facebook’s David Marcus told the Senate Banking Committee that the company needs governments, central banks and regulators involved to properly launch its Libra cryptocurrency. (CN Beta, CNBC)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *