Mobile Forward

Monday Assorted Links

1. Soon, Power Will Be Delivered to Your Device by Air

2. Apple introduces us to the Apple Ring in all its Glory  From Jack Purcher, on his site, Patently Apple. Note how often the patent says “in some embodiments”, meaning the device doesn’t have to be a ring. In fact, the patent states the device could have a touchpad or a touchscreen. Some of the use cases appear watch-friendly.

Apple explains that there’s a need for electronic devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for interacting and/or controlling external electronic devices.

3. Apple granted patent covering iPhone with glass wrap-around display

4. China aims to complete electric vehicle power charging infrastructure by 2020

5. Google’s Cute Cars And The Ugly End Of Driving  Nice piece by Matt Honan, at BuzzFeed. Great experience:

The first time I rode in a fully autonomous car, what really impressed me was when the car saw something that I could not.

Thursday Assorted Links

1. Samsung Galaxy S7 to have versions with curved and flat displays  I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens. Usually, when Samsung sees a fork in the road, they take it.

2. Xiaomi fast expanding ecosystem raises concerns, say sources  Concerns about Xiaomi, that is. Jingyue Hsiao, Monica Chen, and Steve Shen, for DigiTimes:

Market watchers have become more conservative about Xiaomi’s development potential because the vendor will constantly need more funds and resources for tapping new markets or product segments, commented the sources.

3. Pebble Is Trying to Run Circles Around Apple

4. The gen-two Moto 360—a beautiful, compact design without much new tech  Ron Amadeo, for Ars Technica:

It doesn’t move the needle much, but design is what really matters in wearables.

5. Bosch invents new electric car battery to double mileage  Always take claims of battery advances with two grains of salt, but FYI.

Monday Assorted Links

1. Following Apple’s Lead, Samsung Plans Its Own Phone Leasing Program, Cutting Out Carriers

2. Quick Charge 3.0 explained: what you need to know.  Nice overview.

3. Sprint confirms report that it will sell the Apple Watch from Sep 25, other carriers likely

4. Volkswagen’s Cheating Scandal Is Costing Them  Bourree Lam, for The Atlantic:

The potential fine is quite large, but that’s not the only thing of the ordinary about this recall: Volkswagen deceived not just regulators, but customers too—many of whom bought these vehicles precisely because they wanted clean diesel cars.

5. First driverless pods to travel public roads arrive in the Netherlands

Friday Assorted Links

1. Apple Acquires Mapsense, a Mapping Visualization Startup

2. Samsung to mass produce transparent displays for home electronics products

Samsung is also prepping to display new products at CES 2016 that include devices with transparent displays, the reports noted.

3. MediaTek chipsets power new Amazon devices

4. Vehicles may contain as many as 10 cameras when the age of self-driving cars arrive  (Thanks to Vladimir Koifman, who linked to this on Image Sensor World.)

5. Tesla signs another deal with a company developing a lithium mine

Wednesday Assorted Links – Car Edition

1. Connected, self-driving cars dominate buzz at Frankfurt auto show  David McHugh, Associated Press, at the San Jose Mercury News:

The big question among automakers is whether they will be the ones to provide new technologies — and profit from them — or will major tech companies like Google and Apple take a slice of the industry. For now, the two sides are balancing cooperation against competition as they gauge what the future holds.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra succinctly expressed a common view, asserting that “we will see more change in the industry in the next five to ten years than we have in the last 50.”

2. Google self-driving car patent reveals how you’ll let AI take the wheel  Chris Ziegler, for The Verge:

An arm on the steering column (not much different from a windshield wiper arm) could be pulled to engage a car’s self-driving mode; at that point, the system would do a check to see whether it’s ready and able to actually take control from the driver. If it isn’t — the car can’t get a GPS lock, for instance — the driver might see a “Not Available” light on the dash. Otherwise, you’d see a “Ready” light, at which point you can start taking your appendages off the wheel and pedals.

3. How carmakers can compete for the connected consumer Hans-Werner Kaas, Andreas Tschiesner, Dominik Wee, and Matthias Kässer, for McKinsey, in the full PDF report cited by the article:

The connected car will feature a high number of interfaces (e.g., to infrastructure, to other vehicles, and to some cloud-based platform) for which common standards are required (cross-brand, cross-geographies). Building an ecosystem of multiple OEMs with a shared platform might turn out to be a more promising way for them to succeed than to try competing on their own.

In such an ecosystem, OEMs and other players could cooperate using the same (software) platform to reach sufficient scale and to acquire specific capabilities for providing functionalities and services while keeping control over data flows.

They could, I suppose. Under perfect cooperation. But that’s not very likely. That’s one reason (of several) why Google has developed an autonomous automobile platform. And also one reason why Apple thinks its integrated hardware-software approach will be an advantage.

Tuesday Assorted Links

1. Qualcomm’s new Quick Charge will take batteries from 0 to 80 percent in 35 minutes  Vlad Savov, for The Verge:

Quick Charge 3 is 38 percent more efficient than its predecessor, and will appear in mobile devices next year.

2. Apple creating new software platform to unify its cloud services, based off Siri’s open-source backend  Huge, complex undertaking. Benjamin Mayo, for 9to5Mac:

What’s particularly interesting about this change is that Apple will be relying heavily on open-source software. Mesos is released under an Apache license, for instance. However, the report claims Apple has struggled to attract engineering talent with open-source backgrounds due to the company secrecy.

3. Apple is quietly expanding its stealthy R&D center in Lund (Sweden) to work on ‘advanced mapping technology’: report

4. Verizon and AT&T to roll out mini-stores inside Best Buy locations across the country

Tuesday Assorted Links – Car Edition

1. An early perspective on who might win the car wars  Brian Fung, for The Washington Post:

Who’s going to win the coming auto wars? The answer is twofold: whoever can crack the Chinese market wide open, and whichever company can avoid getting distracted by the lure of entertainment technologies and can stay focused on advances to ease the actual task of driving.

2. German Car-Parts Makers See Bigger Role in Technology  William Boston, for WSJ:

“The future of autonomous driving is more likely to take place in an urban environment than on the German Autobahn,” he said. “That’s why we believe the future of autonomous driving is the small car.” […]

The Germans are moving into [autonomous driving] technology aggressively because they have a lot to lose. Every seventh job in Germany is pegged to the auto industry. […]

“Whether our customers are the premium manufacturers in Germany, local volume brands in China, or Apple, our business [as a components technology] doesn’t change,” said ZF’s Mr. Sommer. “It is more of a danger for the auto manufacturers.”

3. Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ car faces manufacturing roadblocks, could necessitate partnership  Neil Hughes, for AppleInsider:

A person with knowledge of Apple’s secretive “Project Titan” revealed to AppleInsider this week that the company is currently facing problems as it plans out a manufacturing site for the anticipated “Apple Car.” They said the company’s timeframe, in which it would like to begin manufacturing within five years, may result in Apple seeking out a partnership with another, already-established player in the automotive space.

Monday Assorted Links

1. Microsoft to launch Surface Pro 4 and new phones at October 6th event Looking forward to this.

2. Microsoft Cortana May Come to Cyanogen

[Cyanogen CEO] McMaster revealed that Cyanogen is working with Microsoft to deeply integrate Cortana into the next version of Cyanogen OS. This is key to catapulting Cyanogen into the mass market, he asserts […].

3. Xiaomi teases upcoming news or products which will “Solve the most important problem in Life”

In the comments for that post, many users are guessing that Xiaomi might be launching “Xiaomi Loans”.

4. Obstacles Xiaomi Needs to Overcome Decent list.

Monday Assorted Links – Car Edition

1. Auto manufacturers pledge auto-braking for the masses (Scroll down to the “Complete stop” section.)

In another move that could speed the adoption of self-driving cars, ten automakers pledged on Friday to outfit all of their new cars with automatic braking systems, which use on-vehicle sensors to apply the driver’s brakes if a collision with a car or any other object is imminent.

2. Intel Establishes Automotive Security Review Board Hope it’s effective.

[Intel] announced the establishment of the Automotive Security Review Board (ASRB). The board will encompass top security industry talent across the globe with particular areas of expertise in cyber-physical systems

3. Google names auto veteran CEO of its self-driving car project

[Google] says the project isn’t ready to become a separate company yet, “though it’s certainly a good candidate to become one at some point in the future.”

4. Google reveals plans to increase production of self-driving cars Exploring production makes sense.

[Google] revealed its plans to build many more fully autonomous prototypes, and possibly move towards mass manufacturing.

5. Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ car initiative negatively impacting Tesla’s product development, source says It’s so hard, from the outside, to understand the true nature of what, if anything, is going on – even with some inside information. It does, however, sound interesting. Especially if some of the people that Tesla lost (Apple gained) are senior engineers and production managers.

6. New BMW CEO open to partnerships with tech firms: Sueddeutsche Zeitung

BMW’s new chief executive Harald Krueger is open to exploring deeper partnerships with software and computer companies such as Apple […].

BMW has realized next-generation vehicles cannot be built without more input from telecoms and software experts […].

7. Honda gets California approval for self-driving cars on roads Cool. More exploration and more competition should lead to better products, faster.

Friday Assorted Links

1. Qualcomm president says splitting company may not create value

“You have to step back and say why is that and would a separation actually solve whatever the underlying issues are that are creating the current valuation?,” he said. “You have to be careful that it’s not too simplistic an analysis.”

That’s one of the most un-asked questions ever, in most mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures: “would [it] actually solve […] the underlying issues?” 

By the way, my recent thoughts on the proposed Qualcomm breakup.

2. A Blind Spot That 85 Million People Can See

3. Toyota Pledges $50M To Research AI For Autonomous Vehicles, Hires DARPA’s Dr. Gill Pratt

Ise said that Google is focused on completely replacing the driver, while Toyota is looking at ways to take the load off the driver while maintaining the fun of the experience.

Wednesday Assorted Links

1. A simple primer for understanding China’s downturn

2. There is no simple way to switch to a “consumption-driven” economy without the growth rate both falling and staying permanently lower. Structural reforms are absolutely called for, but in this context they represent a surrender to a lower rate of growth and thus they are especially difficult to pull off in a politically sustainable manner.

3. The Chinese have been growing at ten percent or nearly ten percent for about thirty-five years. More than a generation of Chinese is used to treating the risk premium as if they don’t have to worry about it. I shudder to think what economic and also political decisions have been made on that basis

2. Documents reveal Apple’s secretive next-generation retail store design I’ve always liked the organic and simple materials in Apple stores (wood, stone, glass), along with the almost ancient notion of simple street market tables as the primary presentation aid. And plenty of natural light. More to come, apparently.

The new store features floor-to-ceiling glass panels and a roof that appears to be intended, at least in part, to allow natural light to filter in from above. It also includes a lighter natural granite facade and a simplified interior layout designed to show off the product tables from the street.

3. This chart shows the best cities to work in if you are a woman in the tech industry

4. Google revamps Docs with voice typing, search functionality and data analysis Nice.

Tuesday Assorted Links

1. Samsung Takes Smartwatch Fight to Apple Considering that there’s no release date, price, or launch market specified, I think this headline is 2X the overstatement that it would be anyway. It runs Tizen, by the way. A variant will have a 3G modem. In terms of the modem and call functionality, I’m sincerely looking forward to seeing how that performs and what consumers think.

2. ‘It’s time’: Lenovo sends out invites for a Moto 360 2 unveiling on September 8th

3. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 uses machine learning to fight malware

Instead of relying on a static list of threats to protect you, it’ll actually watch out for suspicious app behavior. […]

“Snapdragon Smart Protect is engineered to look at the actual behavior of device applications in real time and almost instantly detect and classify any application behavior that is considered suspicious or anomalous,” Qualcomm wrote in a blog post. “Suspicious applications are classified into severity levels of malware […].

4. Apple partners with Cisco to boost enterprise business I get uneasy when I read things like this. There’s no meaningful consumer problem to solve here. And for Apple, what’s the worst down-side to *not* doing this? To me, it means X fewer people working on new products or helping existing customers have a meaningfully better experience.

One big problem, Messrs. Cook and Chambers said, is ensuring employees get adequate networking performance in the workplace. Apple and Cisco said they aim to establish a “fast lane” for iOS devices in the corporate world, prioritizing wireless and Web connections so critical business applications aren’t compromised by a streaming cat videos and other nonbusiness fare.

5. Xiaomi said to release notebook in 2016 with help from Inventec and Foxconn Will it use Windows? First Windows device of more to come?

Monday Assorted Links

1. Benedict Evans on How Both Apple and Google Are Winning the Smartphone Wars (Video) Worth watching. Video is embedded below, too.

2. Rumored Xiaomi Mi Edge offers a curved edge on both sides of the screen Xiaomi isn’t shy about integrating newly-available technology into its products, so this rumor in the realm of the possible. And Samsung Display would certainly love for other OEMs to buy its flexible OLED product.

3. LG’s new smart sensor will turn your old appliances into connected gadgets Interesting idea. Simple functions.

Saturday Assorted Links

1. On Amazon’s Plans for a Low Cost Smartphone

At one point, the company planned a stripped-down Fire phone, but Amazon has stretched out its timeline for smartphone development indefinitely, people familiar with the matter said.

2. You can download Cortana for your Android device right now – here’s how Just interesting to see Microsoft’s cross-platform strategy evolve.

3. Xiaomi Will Launch In Africa In Sept Through Distributor

4. Xiaomi to release two chipsets for in-house use next year Focus appears to be cost. See my prior related post.

5. Huawei brings online smartphone brand Honor to Europe “Handsets would be mainly promoted and sold on-line […].”

6. Revealed: the first hydrogen-powered battery that will charge your Apple iPhone for a week Note: most small companies use an iPhone to demonstrate their capability. Primarily because it makes the invention look ready for prime time. And — as you can see — it increases the odds of generating a click-bait headline. Plus, yes, they’re hoping someone at Apple notices and sees “how well it fits in”, so to speak. Or that another potential acquirer thinks “Oh – I wouldn’t want Apple to buy them”.

Wednesday Assorted Links

1. Samsung Pay and Apple Pay Are Only Fighting Over 20 Percent of the Smartphone Market Perhaps… but it’s a 20% that likely has ~80% of the most valuable consumers. And it won’t stay 20% for long. Being there first, with a better solution, matters. And, as @eric_analytics points out on Twitter, Apple Pay vs. Google Wallet would have been a better comparison.

2. Qualcomm still supplies modem chips for next iPhone, sources claim

The sources believe that Intel is unlikely to obtain modem chip orders for the upcoming iPhones. However, Intel could win orders for the 2017 iPhone models as Apple is searching for additional modem chip suppliers apart from Qualcomm, the sources noted.

Sparks the question: would an Intel baseband processor appear on the iPhone, Apple’s current core business, before it appears on any other product (e.g., iPad)?

3. Xiaomi Bakes Opera’s Data Compression Tech Into Newest Version Of MIUI Android

4. Apple Working on Large Glass Something or Other, Says Global Equities

  • A device which is 27″ to 50″ Curved Glass somewhat resembling a car windshield or a curved display
  • The whole surface area acts like an HUD (Heads Up Display)
  • The various sensors are built right into the Glass

Impossible to tell how accurate this is, but it is interesting. Dimensions (if accurate) don’t appear large enough for a car windshield. Unless it’s a small prototype. This sort of glass assembly is probably something Apple can’t build in-house (i.e., for a prototype). So, with a supplier involved, the odds of a leak are higher. “Leak” isn’t quite the right word, though, since it implies a certainty that this information is accurate.

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