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HardwareSoftware

Apple’s poor performance causes Wall Street problems

Better off if it was not there

It seems that Wall Street is regretting all that money it pushed into the fruity cargo cult Apple as the company’s value plummets faster than the British pound.

Analysts have been moaning that things would be great for the top 500 companies if it were not for that pesky Apple letting the side down. Other companies have managed to set record highs but because Apple was not performing it had dragged the whole side down.

Of course one if the problems is that Wall Street had for the last three years talked up the price of Apple shares despite warnings that the company had run out if steam and ideas. But everything started to become unstuck when Apple’s China market started to dry up. It is fairly clear that its iPhone cash cow is milked out and the company has no plans to improve it until next year.

Since the S&P 500 hit its prior record high on May 21, 2015, the benchmark index has risen 1.55 percent. But excluding Apple, the S&P 500 would have gained 2.63 percent during that time, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Although Apple’s stock is down 26 percent from its own record high close of $ 133 set on February 23 last year.

Autore: Fudzilla.com – Home

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HardwareSoftware

HTC al lavoro sul visore VR Vive di seconda generazione | Rumor

HTC ha dato il via nella primavera scorsa alla commercializzazione della versione commerciale del visore di Realtà Virtuale Vive, arrivata sul mercato dopo la versione che gli sviluppatori hanno avuto modo di provare nei mesi precedenti. Pur trattandosi di un prodotto relativamente giovane, al pari del segmento di mercato in cui si colloca, il produttore taiwanese sembra essere già impegnato per sviluppare il modello di nuova generazione. Lo afferma il sito di notizie cinese Sina con un report riportato da Focus Taiwan, fonte spesso ben informata sulle vicende di HTC. 

Le informazioni sulla nuova versione del Vive sono al momento piuttosto scarse, ma non mancano interessanti indizi che suggeriscono su quale binari potrebbe proseguire l’evoluzione della periferica. Secondo quanto riportato dalla fonte, il Vive di seconda generazione sarà caratterizzato da un design rinnovato, più sottile dell’attuale modello e dal peso inferiore. Nessun riferimento esplicito, per ora, ad ulteriori specifiche tecniche aggiornate (display, sensori, etc.).

Il report diffuso in rete dai media asiatici si basano sulle informazioni emerse nell’ambito di un incontro con gli analisti tenutosi presso l’azienda taiwanese Paiho, fornitrice delle cinghie elastiche che consentono di fissare il visore HTC Vive al capo. I dirigenti di Paiho (CEO, CFO e un portavoce) presenti all’evento avrebbero confermato  lo sviluppo del nuovo Vive e la fornitura ad HTC delle cinghie dedicate al nuovo modello a partire da settembre. Una tempistica che rende verosimile la commercializzazione della nuova versione tra la fine dell’anno e il primo quarto del 2017.

Dalle informazioni emerse sino ad ora, quindi, non sembra trattarsi di uno stravolgimento del modello attuale quanto di un affinamento della versione consumer che renderebbe più confortevole l’utilizzo del visore. Caratteristiche, come peso e dimensioni, che possono sembrare marginali, ma che nel caso dei visori di Realtà Virtuale di fascia alta, come HTC Vive e Oculus, sono in grado di rendere più o meno gratificante l’esperienza di utilizzo. 

HTC ha presentato il primo modello del Vive (versione sviluppatori) in occasione del Mobile World Congress 2015, mentre la commercializzazione della versione destinata all’utenza consumer ha preso il via solo nel mese di aprile 2016. Il progetto con il quale HTC ha scelto di diversificare l’attività d’impresa abbracciando l’emergente settore della Realtà Virtuale sta entrando in una fase sempre più matura, come testimonia tra l’altro la creazione della sussidiaria dedicata alla gestione delle attività inerenti il Vive. Le tempistiche tra presentazione e commercializzazione del nuovo modello potrebbero essere quindi più ravvicinate, premesso che il contenuto del report deve essere considerato un rumor in attesa di conferme ufficiali. 

Autore: Le news di Hardware Upgrade

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HardwareSoftware

Intel Readies New NUCs Based on Kaby Lake and Apollo Lake SoCs

As one might expect, Intel is working on a new generation of its NUC small-form-factor systems based on the company’s upcoming Kaby Lake and Apollo Lake microprocessors. The writers over at FanlessTech have published what appears to be an exclusive of a set of Intel slides regarding the next generation of NUCs, and we are in the process of double verifying the details. Until then, here’s our analysis of the news.

The new systems are expected to hit the market in late 2016 and early 2017 and bring a number of new technologies, which are absent from today’s SFF PCs. In particular, the new systems will support Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 (10 Gbps), HDMI 2.0 and the new processors.

The upcoming Intel NUC systems are code-named Baby Canyon and Arches Canyon, according to the slides published by FanlessTech. The Baby Canyon PCs will be powered by Intel’s upcoming Kaby Lake-U SoCs, whereas the Arches Canyon will feature the company’s Apollo Lake chips. The new systems will complement and then eventually replace current-gen NUCs running Broadwell, Braswell and Skylake processors. Meanwhile, Intel’s top-of-the-range code-named Skull Canyon NUCfeaturing the high-end Core i7-6700HQ processor (quad-core with Hyper-Threading, 6 MB LLC, Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 with 72 EUs and eDRAM, etc.) will not be replaced at least until late 2017.

Baby Canyon with Kaby Lake-U SoCs

Intel’s Baby Canyon NUCs will be the positioned as Intel’s mainstream SFF PCs for users, who would like to have Core-based CPUs powered by the company’s high-performance microarchitecture (Kaby Lake in this case). Thanks to microarchitectural enhancements, the new systems promise to be faster than existing mainstream NUCs, but at this point we have no idea what to expect from Kaby Lake in general, except natural enhancements of iGPU as well as improvements to media playback capabilities.

All of the Baby Canyon PCs will support up to 32 GB of DDR4-2133 memory, HDMI 2.0, an M.2-2280 socket for PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs, a MicroSDXC card-reader as well as a soldered-down Intel Wireless-AC 8265 controller. The Core i7 and i5 Baby Canyon systems will also come equipped with a Thunderbolt 3 controller, which will automatically bring support for USB 3.1 running at up to 10 Gbps, whereas NUCs featuring Core i3 CPUs will continue to rely on USB 3.1 Gen 1 implementation with 5 Gbps transfer-rate. Given all the hubbub surrounding Type-C audio, Intel decided to keep the good-old 3.5 mm audio jack but did not implement support for USB-C Audio into the Baby Canyon, at least, according to the published slides.

Intel Baby Canyon NUC PCs
  NUC7i7BNH NUC7i5BNH NUC7i5BNK NUC7i3BNH NUC7i3BNK
CPU Core i7-7000U
Two Cores
28 W TDP		 Core i5-7000U
Two Cores
15 W TDP		 Core i3-7000U
Two Cores
15 W TDP
Graphics Iris Graphics HD Graphics
PCH Intel’s next-generation PCH located in CPU package
Memory Two SO-DIMM slots, up to 32 GB of DDR4-2133
2.5″ bay One 2.5″/9.5 mm bay, SATA3 None 1 x SATA3 None
M.2 Slot Up to M.2-2280 SSD with SATA3 or PCIe 3.0 x4 interface
Wi-Fi/BT Soldered-down Intel Wireless-AC 8265 (802.11ac 2×2 + BT 4.2) with WiDi support
Ethernet Intel I219V Gigabit Ethernet controller
Display Outputs DisplayPort 1.2 via USB-C connector
HDMI 2.0
Audio 3.5 mm TRRS audio jack
7.1 channel audio output via HDMI or DP
Thunderbolt One Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) None
USB-C 1 x USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) 1 x USB 3.0 (5 Gbps)
USB 4 USB 3.0 Type-A (5 Gbps), one with charging
Other I/O MicroSDXC card reader with UHS-I support
One infrared receiver
Size (mm) 115 × 111 × 51 115 × 111 × 31 115 × 111 × 51 115 × 111 × 31
PSU External, 65 W
OS Compatible with Windows 7/8.1/10

The Baby Canyon family of NUCs is projected to arrive in early 2017, around the same time we expect Intel to start discussing its Kaby Lake-U processors with HDMI 2.0 support. Keep in mind that Intel has not announced Kaby Lake chips officially, hence, all the plans are subject change.

Arches Canyon NUCs with Apollo Lake SoCs

The Arches Canyon NUCs will be Intel’s new entry-level SFF systems running Apollo Lake SoCs branded as Celeron J-series processors. The chips will feature all new Goldmont x86 microarchitecture, Intel’s ninth-generation graphics architecture (Gen9) as well as improved media playback (due to hardware-accelerated playback of 4K video encoded using HEVC and VP9 codecs). Since the new SoCs are rated for 10 W TDP, it is logical to expect higher clock speeds than previous Atom-based NUCs, even though at this point this is a speculation.

Intel reportedly plans to offer two versions of its Arches Canyon NUCs: the NUC6CAYS with 2 GB of DDR3L-1866 memory, 32 GB eMMC storage and pre-installed Windows 10 Home x64 OS; as well as the NUC6CAYH, which will come as a barebone PC. Both systems will still support up to 8 GB of DDR3L memory, one 2.5”/9.5 mm SSD/HDD, a 1×1 wireless module supporting IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2, an HDMI 2.0 display output, USB Type-A ports, an SDXC card reader and so on. Intel decided to place a D-Sub connector on the back to enable connectivity with cheap displays.

Intel Arches Canyon NUC PCs
  NUC6CAYS NUC6CAYH
CPU Intel Celeron J-series
Four Cores
10 W TDP
Graphics HD Graphics
PCH Integrated into CPU
Memory 2 GB DDR3L-1866 pre-installed
Two SO-DIMM slots,
up to 8 GB of DDR3L-1866		 –
Two SO-DIMM slots,
up to 8 GB of DDR3L-1866
On-Board Storage 32 GB eMMC None
2.5″ bay One 2.5″/9.5 mm bay, SATA3
M.2 Slot None
Wi-Fi/BT Intel Wireless-AC 316x (802.11ac 1×1 + BT 4.2) M.2-2230 card with WiDi support
Ethernet Intel Gigabit Ethernet controller
Display Outputs D-Sub
HDMI 2.0
Audio 3.5 mm TRRS audio jack
TOSLINK
7.1 channel audio output via HDMI
Thunderbolt None
USB 4 USB 3.0 Type-A (5 Gbps), one with charging
Other I/O SDXC card reader with UHS-I support
Dimensions 115 × 111 × 51 mm
PSU External, 65 W
OS Pre-installed Microsoft Windows 10 Home x64 with Intel Remote Keyboard Compatible with Windows 7/8.1/10

Based on the documents published by FanlessTech, the fully-populated NUC6CAYS will hit the market ahead of the barebone NUC6CAYH sometimes in the fourth quarter of this year.

Please keep in mind that all the information regarding Intel’s new generations of NUCs is completely unofficial and many details may change by the time the systems hit the market. Intel responded to requests for confirmation and responded with ‘Intel does not comment on unreleased products’, which is the expected response. As mentioned at the top of this news, we are in the process of double verifying the information in the slides, but for anyone who follows Intel’s NUC lines, these hardware specifications are not far fetched at all and make sense for the markets they are entering. 

Gallery: Intel Readies New NUCs Based on Kaby Lake and Apollo Lake SoCs

Autore: AnandTech

Categorie
HardwareSoftware

Qualcomm sues Meizu

Other players might also face the wrath of its mighty briefs

Qualcomm has sued the Chinese smartphone vendor Meizu for infringing its patents and reports from China suggest that Oppo and Vivo might also be dragged into court.

Qualcomm used to demand China-based smartphone vendors pay a licensing fee equal to 5 per cent of each smartphone’s selling price per unit and provide free reverse patent licensing. However the Chinese authorities thought that was a bit unfair and made Qualcomm pay an anti-trust fine.

Qualcomm and China’s National Development and Reform Commission reached an agreement that Qualcomm is not allowed to demand reverse patent licensing and has recalculated its patent licensing fees based on 65 per cent of a smartphone’s selling price.

Most China-based smartphone vendors have already re-signed patent licensing contracts using the new rules, but a few vendors such as Meizu, Vivo and Oppo were not happy with the terms and refused to sign. As a result, Qualcomm has decided to file suit to resolve the issues.

At a recent press conference, Meizu complained about Qualcomm’s actions and claimed that the licensing fees are causing smartphone prices to rise.

Autore: Fudzilla.com – Home

Categorie
HardwareSoftware

Apple potrebbe voler acquistare la Formula 1

Non è un mistero che Apple abbia a disposizione una liquidità di ingenti dimensioni che potrebbe decidere di spendere per acquistare business di primissimo livello, anche l’intera Formula 1. Secondo recenti indiscrezioni, infatti, la Cvc, la società finanziaria britannica che detiene la maggioranza della Fom (Formula One Management) sarebbe interessata a disfarsi del pacchetto di maggioranza della Formula 1.

Formula 1

AppleInsider ha raccolto interessanti suggestioni secondo le quali Apple potrebbe voler comprare la Formula 1 per usarla come volano per il suo business Apple Car, più volte al centro di speculazioni ma mai concretizzato ufficialmente dai dirigenti di Cupertino. Lo stesso Elon Musk tempo fa ha definito “segreto di Pulcinella” l’impegno di Apple nel settore automotive.

Qualche altra indiscrezione, forse maggiormente orientata alla concretezza, vede invece un’opportunità per la Mela di stringere accordi più solidi con i produttori di automobili, non tanto in ottica Apple Car, quanto più per la diffusione della piattaforma di car automation/infotainment Car Play.

Secondo altre ricostruzioni Apple sarebbe interessata anche al potere mediatico della Formula 1, con l’acquisto che rientrerebbe in questo caso nella strategia di promozione di Apple TV, che verrebbe così usata come piattaforma esclusiva per la diffusione dei contenuti di Formula 1. Ma sarebbe anche interessata ad entrare nel Consiglio Mondiale della FIA per promuovere e sviluppare le componenti elettriche delle moderne auto di F1, spingendo verso vetture sempre più elettriche.

All’ultimo conteggio dichiarato la liquidità netta accumulata da Apple ammonta a circa 200 miliardi di dollari, mentre secondo alcune ricostruzioni il valore della Formula 1 potrebbe aggirarsi su circa la metà di quella cifra.

Autore: Le news di Hardware Upgrade