Your Tech News Digest via the DGiT Daily Tech Newsletter for Friday, October 30th, 2020.
1. Maybe Huawei is back?
Huawei appears to have some good news towards the end of the year as the U.S. ban weakens its consumer arm, which includes the smartphone business.
- It was reported yesterday that chipmakers were reportedly given permission to supply silicon to the company’s smartphone division while it was not being used for the company’s 5G telecommunications business.
- It is unclear which chips Huawei can order or whether this will herald the return of its Kirin chipsets. Huawei previously announced that the Kirin 9000 would be its final flagship SoC that it designed itself.
- And Huawei suggested using Qualcomm chips in the future.
- The FT report qualified things to a certain extent: “However, industry experts warn against too high expectations on this matter and point to the unpredictable political decisions of the Trump administration.”
- We also saw that Samsung can offer Huawei displays, which isn’t big news as Huawei is using displays from other vendors that weren’t affected but have competition and arguably the best in the world with Samsung displays that only supply chains can support .
And in today’s news, another sign of thawing is that Huawei can once again buy Sony and Omnivision camera sensors.
- This is particularly important because Huawei differs from all other smartphone manufacturers in that it uses Sony’s RYYB camera sensors for image capture in its flagships
- Aside from Samsung, which makes its own image sensors, major flagships generally use Sony image sensors, including iPhone, OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. However, these are more traditional red-green-blue or RGB color filters with the Sony sensors.
- In the Huawei P and Mate series, the photographic performance was owed to Sony’s red-yellow-blue (RYYB) sensors, which can collect more light than RGB sensors, and Huawei has worked extensively with Leica on the imaging techniques to perfect.
- It doesn’t always take the best shots in all lighting conditions, but the Mate 40 Pro is currently at the top of Dxomark’s list of smartphone cameras for rear and selfies. (The new Google Pixel 5 has just been tested and the iPhone tests are pending.)
- So accessing these sensors feels like a “make” moment on yet another supply chain problem Huawei faced with smartphones.
- Who knows where this is going next! It would be amazing to see if Google gets its mobile services back on Android next, but for some reason, at least a partial thaw is happening.
2. Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google (Alphabet) all reported profits yesterday. It’s no surprise that everything is going very well: Amazon has squeezed profits, Apple did well without a new iPhone to kickstart its quarter, Google blasted its doors after its disappointment last quarter, and Facebook has expectations for both User growth as well as sales exceeded. These are all top-line numbers, and below the surface details are fascinating. Apple will spend $ 20 billion on research and development in 2021. Prime Day was not included in Amazon’s results. Sales were $ 100 billion per quarter and currently employs over 1.2 million people. Breakdown of all four here and expected analysis for the coming week (Business Insider).
3. Prepare your wallet: Netflix has once again increased prices for its most popular plans for all subscribers. Standard is now $ 14, Premium is $ 18 as Netflix focuses on closed theaters and lack of blockbuster competition (Android Authority).
4. Samsung introduces SmartThings Find to find lost Galaxy (Android Authority) devices.
5. Google announced their own VPN for top-notch Google One subscribers. But are we using VPNs to get away from Google? How is the encryption? (Android Authority).
6. The Apple One subscription bundle launches today, October 30th, with iCloud, Arcade, Music and TV + and more in a bundle from $ 15 per month (Engadget).
7. Amazon Opens Brand New Razr Boxes To Fold The Phones For Safer Shipping (The Verge).
8. The Oculus Quest 2 was pre-ordered five times as much as the original (The Verge). Even so, the PlayStation CEO believes that the bright future of VR is still years away and that Sony will not make any “immediate leaps” forward (Engadget). .
9. Ransomware hits dozens of US hospitals in an unprecedented wave (Wired).
10. The researchers finally figured out what octopuses taste like with their arms (Gizmodo).
11. Roborace car receives the green light and immediately hits the wall (Jalopnik).
12. “What do most people not realize, is newer than they actually think?” (R / askreddit).
And just for fun, to end the week:
A South Korean YouTuber was attacked by a flying cheese fondue in a viral video. Tasty Hoon, a well-known channel, seemed to combine chicken, cheese, and ASMR but apparently used an under-runny cheese, resulting in the following:
- The rest of the video is up to you, but the impressive Tasty Hoon didn’t let that put him off and happily ate the cheese and chicken.
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