This is the eighth in a series of essays by Imec about the future of electronics technology. This one is called Future Networks and is by Michael Peeters, director of Imec’s connectivity programme. Will people and their habitats become an integral part of tomorrow’s communication networks? The world has changed at breakneck speed in the ...
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Renesas claims to have the first MCU with embedded flash that integrates a hardware-based virtualization-assisted function while maintaining the performance of the RH850 products. This hardware-based virtualization assist technology can support up to ASIL D level of functional safety, providing greater levels of system integration. The RH850/U2A MCU is the first member of Renesas’ cross-domain ...
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Murata is collaborating with Cypress and NXP to provide IoT developers with mix-and-match wireless connectivity and processing solutions. The combined products pair Murata’s wireless modules, based on Cypress’ Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combos, with a range of processors from the NXP i.MX series. The solutions build upon Murata’s long-standing relationship with Cypress and NXP. Murata says ...
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University of Cambridge spin-out Sorex Sensors has appointed Michael LeGoff as CEO – LeGoff founded LED-maker Plessey Semiconductors, and before that Dynex. Sorex raised £1.2 million seed funding last year from Cambridge Enterprise, the Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group. “The team has done a fantastic job in bringing its sensing technology close to the ...
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Dialog Semiconductor has included an Arm Cortex-M33 application and algorithm processor in a Bluetooth 5.1 wireless microcontroller, to create a family called DA1469x. “The product family is the first wireless microcontroller in production with a dedicated application processor based on the ARM Cortex-M33 processor,” said Dialog. “The M33 offers developers greater processing power for more ...
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SamacSys, the specialist provider of electronic component CAD models, has completed a new integration with Altium, the supplier of PCB design tools. The agreement was announced at Embedded World in Nuremberg and the collaboration will support Altium customers by directly integrating the SamacSys platform of free design resources, including PCB footprints, schematic symbols and 3D ...
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German chip firm Trinamic has chosen Risc-V over Arm for the processor inside its latest generation of motor drivers – it specialises in drivers with advanced features, aimed at high-performance positioning systems like servos and those in computer controlled machines. Dubbed Rocinante (named from both Don Quixote and The Expanse, according to the firm), it ...
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Toshiba has announced a range of single-supply single-gate logic devices. In total the line-up consists of 31 devices that simplify the design of voltage-level translation as used in data communication between devices, such as between microprocessors and peripherals. These single-gate devices are provided in tiny packaging that ensure that voltage translation can be implemented even ...
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TI has announced bulk acoustic wave (BAW)-based embedded processing and analogue chips for connectivity and communications infrastructure. The first two devices developed with TI BAW technology are the SimpleLinkTM CC2652RB wireless microcontroller (MCU) and the LMK05318 network synchronizer clock. BAW resonator technology integrates reference clocking resonators which improves performance and increases resistance to mechanical stresses, ...
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This is the seventh in a series of essays from Imec on the future of electronics technology. It is called Augmented Reality and it is by Imec principal scientist Soeren Steudel AR glasses have the potential to replace the smartphone within 10-15 years from now, says Soeren Steudel, who heads up the displays research activity at Imec. ...
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The London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement (LORCA) today launches the open call for its third group of cyber innovators. The new group will be tasked with solving some of the most pressing cybersecurity issues, as identified by industry leaders at LORCA’s Innovation Forum. Details of the application process and a full description of the challenges can be ...
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Micron’s 1300 SATA SSD uses 96-layer TLC 3D NAND-based SSDs and delivers storage capacities up to 1TB (in M.2) and 2TB (in 2.5-inch). It delivers sequential reads/writes up to 530MB/520MB per second and random reads/writes up to 90,000/87,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS). It uses 75 mW. Itbsupports Microsoft Windows 10 Modern Standby requirements including adaptive thermal management ...
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An arbitrator has awarded $179 million in damages to the stars and creative team behind the Fox show “Bones.”
As laid out in an in-depth Hollywood Reporter story, the ruling could have bigger implications for the streaming world, particularly as the major media companies are looking to launch their own streaming services, which will presumably take advantage of their existing content libraries.
Stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, along with executive producer Barry Josephson and Kathy Reichs (who wrote the novels that “Bones” was based on), sued 21st Century Fox in 2015. They alleged that the Fox studio licensed the show for below-market rates to Fox networks and later to Hulu, cheating them out of their rightful share of the profits.
The dispute ultimately went into arbitration. Now arbitrator Peter Lichtman has ordered Fox (which currently owns a 30 percent stake in Hulu, and is in the process of being acquired by Disney) to pay one of the largest profit-sharing awards in Hollywood history.
As part of his ruling (embedded below), Lichtman examines Fox’s deal to stream “Bones” reruns on Hulu. These kinds of deals — where studios sell content to a corporate sibling — aren’t unusual, but the company is still expected to pay fair market value.
It seems, in this case, that Hulu was only giving Fox a share of ad revenues, something that Lichtman describes skeptically: “So, when Fox contends that there is no evidence of a better deal struck by another studio in terms of the percentage of ad revenue, this is true because no other studio would make such a deal based on the percentage of ad revenue” (emphasis in the original).
Lichtman then moves on to what he calls “perhaps the most shocking piece of evidence related to the Hulu issues,” namely the fact that executive Dan Fawcett signed the licensing agreement on behalf of both Fox and Hulu.
“As stated above, Mr. Fawcett literally signed the agreement for both parties in his representative capacity for both sides,” Lichtman writes. “The obvious inferences of self-dealing, conflict of interest and the lack of any arm’s length negotiations leap off the page.”
Ultimately, Lichtman concludes that there’s one obvious reason why Hulu got such a good deal.
“It is undisputed that the Fox conglomerate had an equity stake in Hulu, and the evidence established that ‘Fox writ large’ essentially handed over the digital rights at a low cost to build up value of that enterprise,” he says.
Fox, meanwhile, is challenging the ruling and arguing that most of the damages should be avoided.
“The ruling by this private arbitrator is categorically wrong on the merits and exceeded his arbitration powers,” the company said in a statement. “Fox will not allow this flagrant injustice, riddled with errors and gratuitous character attacks, to stand and will vigorously challenge the ruling in a court of law.”
Regardless of how this case plays out, it probably won’t be the last time Hollywood talent challenges the studios over streaming profits.
Update: Disney has provided the following statement from CEO Bob Iger:
[Fox executives] Peter Rice and Dana Walden are highly respected leaders in this industry, and we have complete confidence in their character and integrity. Disney had no involvement in the arbitration, and we understand the decision is being challenged and will leave it to the courts to decide the matter.
Bones arbitrarion ruling by TechCrunch on Scribd
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1. Spotify launches its streaming service in India
Just for India, Spotify users who do not pay for a subscription can play any song on demand on mobile. There are also playlists for India and a “Starring…” feature that includes music from Bollywood movies.
“Not only will Spotify bring Indian artists to the world, we’ll also bring the world’s music to fans across India,” said Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
2. FTC creates antitrust task force to monitor tech industry
This isn’t necessarily a precursor to some big action like breaking up a big company or imposing rules or anything like that. It seems more like a recognition that the FTC needs to be ready to move quickly and decisively in tech matters.
3. This is the Stanford thesis presentation that launched Juul
Against a backdrop of public backlash and looming federal regulations, the world’s biggest e-cigarette manufacturer has released video of the original thesis presentation that launched the company.
4. We’re ready for foldable phones, but are they ready for us?
After years of prototypes, the age of foldables has finally arrived.
5. D-Wave announces its next-gen quantum computing platform
With the latest improvements, developers can use the machine to solve larger problems with fewer physical qubits — or larger problems in general.
6. How Amazon took 50 percent of the e-commerce market and what it means for the rest of us
Some thoughts from the former SVP of Walmart’s global e-commerce supply chain.
7. Steam fights for future of game stores and streaming
Cracks are starting to appear in Steam’s armor, threatening to make it the digital equivalent of GameStop — a once unassailable retail giant whose future became questionable when it didn’t successfully change with the times. (Extra Crunch subscription required.)
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The US should put up any evidence they may have that Huawei switchgear has been used for spying, says Vodafone boss Nick Read (pictured), The US has been pressuring countries and companies not to use Huawei gesr. However, says Read, not to use it involves a “massive swap of equipment hugely disruptive to national infrastructure ...
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The Ultimate Arduino Challenge was announced at Embedded World by Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi. The Ultimate Arduino Challenge is divided into three categories: Data Collection, Industrial IoT, and Anything Goes. The Data Collection category tasks engineers with collecting data using an Arduino board and various sensors; The Industrial IoT contest tests engineers’ skills in designing ...
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Samsung is ramping up production of its 512GB eUFS 3.0 3D NAND flash memory module. In H2 it plans to launch a 1TB device. Samsung’s 512GB eUFS 3.0 stacks eight of the company’s fifth-generation 512Gb 3D NAND die and integrates a high-performance controller. At 2,100 MB/s, the new eUFS doubles the sequential read rate of Samsung’s ...
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China car manufacturer Geely, Qualcomm and IoT specialist Gosuncn have teamed upto0put 5G-linked cars on the road in China in 2021. proposed its four steps G-Pilot strategy for autonomous driving in 2018. Presently, its autonomous driving is at Level 2 and will now provide Level 3 services with 5G and C-V2X technologies in 2021 for ...
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Hua Hong Semiconductor, the China foundry, is looking to acquire a 14nm process next year. It also plans to develop 7nm and 5nm processes. Hua Hong says it will add capacity to its fabs in Shanghai (Jinqiao, Zhengjiang and Kangqiao) and Wuxi, to achieve 350,000 wpm capacity next year.. Hua Hong’s first 12-inch fab dubbed ...
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Rotten Tomatoes is making a couple of changes designed to prevent trolls from attacking films before they’re even released.
The review aggregator (owned by Fandango) recently announced that it will no longer allow users to post comments about a movie before the movie actually comes out.
This seems like a no-brainer, and it comes less than two weeks before the release of “Captain Marvel” — the latest blockbuster film to be targeted by online commenters who are apparently upset that movies no longer focus exclusively on white male heroes. (Despite this, “Captain Marvel” looks like it’s going to be a big hit for Marvel and Disney.)
“Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership,” the site says. “We have decided that turning off this feature for now is the best course of action.”
The site also says it’s no longer displaying a “Want to See” score for a movie, supposedly because it was getting confused for the “Audience Score” — which, again, is only displayed after a movie has been released.
“Don’t worry,” Rotten Tomatoes says, “fans will still get to have their say” once the movie is out. So if a bunch of reactionary idiots still think this is the best venue for their rants about SJWs, they’ll get their opportunity — but this will make it a little harder for them to affect the buzz around a film before it comes out.
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1. Huawei’s folding Mate X: a closer look
Brian Heater got to check out the foldable phone (with a Huawei rep driving the demo), and he says it ran pretty smoothly. It’s also surprisingly thin, both folded and unfolded.
The Mate X looks cool, but with a price of €2,200, Huawei probably doesn’t expect to sell a lot of these. Instead, you should probably think of this as a proof of concept.
2. Microsoft CEO defends work on half-billion-dollar HoloLens military contract
“We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy,” Satya Nadella said in an interview.
3. Fortnite’s revenue dropped 48 percent in January, but the lull likely won’t last long
New numbers from SuperData show that revenue across platforms dropped by a hard-to-ignore 48 percent between December 2018 and January 2019. It’s worth remembering, however, that a game like Fortnite is designed to be cyclical, with players rotating in as fresh content debuts.
4. Pandora Stories launches, combining music and podcasting in a new format
The feature allows artists to build music playlists combined with voice tracks, where they can add a narrative and deeper insights — explaining, for example, what a song means for them, what inspired their music or the story behind the song.
5. Walmart acquires Israel’s Aspectiva, which analyses UGC to recommend products to shoppers
The startup will be joining Store No. 8, Walmart’s in-house incubation arm established in 2017 to help the company develop and roll out more innovative shopping experiences.
6. Tinder launches a Spring Break mode
The feature will allow students to swipe through potential matches before heading out to their Spring Break destination.
7. YieldStreet raises $62M to democratise alternative investments in shipping, real estate and more
To date, YieldStreet has seen more than $600 million invested on its platform from over 100,000 members, with an expected 12 percent IRR.
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Botify, a search engine optimization company that works with customers like Expedia and Nike, announced today that it has raised $20 million in Series B funding.
Co-founder and CEO Adrien Menard said that the opportunity in SEO is “even bigger now than in the past,” and that the problem is a much broader problem than many realize.
“Most people think about SEO in terms of keyword optimization, but more than 50 percent of the pages in large websites are not being indexed,” he said. So Botify can identify which pages aren’t being crawled by Google and make recommendations on how to better organize content.
Over time, Botify has also launched a keyword product, as well as tools like a JavaScript crawler and mobile versus desktop analysis. Menard said the company now offers a platform designed for “optimization of every stage of the search process.”
The new funding was led by France’s Idinvest Partners, with participation from Ventech. Botify has now raised a total of $27 million.
The company was founded in France, launching in the United States after taking the stage at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY conference in 2016. Next, it’s opening what it calls a “second U.S. headquarters” in Seattle (the first is in New York City), which Menard said will mostly provide sales and support for West Coast customers.
In addition to announcing the funding and the new office, Botify has also grown its leadership team, with the hiring of Christophe Frenet as senior vice president of product and Rachel Meranus as chief marketing officer, as well as the addition of Neolane co-founder Stephane Dehoche and former BuzzFeed president Greg Coleman to its board of directors.
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Facebook is expanding its efforts around premium video advertising with a new program called Facebook Showcase.
This follows the announcement last fall of what the company calls In-Stream Reserve advertising — video ads with a curated list of hundreds of publishers, at a set price, with Nielsen-verified audiences. In fact, Facebook said at a press event today that In-Stream Reserve ads are reaching nearly 100 million U.S. viewers each month.
“That’s TV-like scale,” said Head of U.S. Agency Sales Erik Geisler (pictured above). He added that Facebook offers an effective way to reach the younger audiences that are moving away from linear TV, since 43 percent of In-Stream Reserve viewers are between the ages of 18 and 34.
How does Showcase change things? It combines this video advertising with the ability to run ads on a specific content category (including sports, fashion/beauty and the new additions of food and news), and to exclusively sponsor individual shows. And now advertisers can buy those ads for the 2019-2020 broadcast year.
“It takes In-Stream Reserve from a quarter-by-quarter opportunity [to something] more in line with the upfronts,” Geisler said.
Matthew Henick, Facebook
Facebook’s video destination Watch doesn’t exactly seem like a runaway success. In fact, Digiday just reported that Facebook won’t be renewing two-thirds of the news shows that it commissioned for Watch. However, Matthew Henick, who leads Facebook’s content and planning strategy, said he actually expects news content on Facebook to grow.
“We’re not cutting two-thirds of what our final output would be, we’re reexamining previous commitments,” he said.
More broadly, Facebook has said that Watch is attracting 400 million viewers who are watching at least one minute of video each month, and 75 million viewers who are watching at least one minute per day. And those daily viewers are actually averaging 20 minutes per day.
Henick said that there are “three main pillars” to Facebook’s video strategy: community, interactivity and the ability to “co-watch” a show with others.
He also announced a new animated comedy called “Human Discoveries,” which will star Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick and premiere sometime this year, while also revealing more details about Facebook’s upcoming revival of “The Real World” — apparently it will also be streaming old seasons of the show, as voted on by Facebook users.
And while Watch is at the center of Facebook’s premium video strategy, it’s worth noting that Showcase ads aren’t limited to Watch; they can be viewed across Watch, the News Feed and Facebook Pages.
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At Embedded World 2019, we caught up with Milan Yudkovich, founder of IoT specialist SensiEDGE, as part of our promotional coverage for the event. He discusses how the company’s devices make it easier and faster for developers and startups to design their IoT applications. Thank you to Milan for his time. Read all our Embedded ...
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Clive Couldwell, group editor of Electronics Weekly, anticipates attending Embedded World 2019, running 26-28 February, in Nuremberg. He expects automotive, AI and IoT security to be big themes of the show. And, if you are attending in Germany, he cordially invites you to come and say hello at the stand we share with OEMSecrets, who ...
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At Embedded World 2019, we caught up with Jackie Rutter of Analog Devices, as part of our promotional coverage for the event. She discusses power control and power management, embedded AI, cyber security at the device level, and a wireless smart sensor system for condition-based applications. Thank you to Jackie for her time. Read all ...
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We caught up with Hussein Osman of Lattice Semiconductor to discusses implementing AI at the network edge.
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Intel has ended its year-old joint development deal with the Tsinghua Unigroup-owned chip manufacturer aunidoc to develop 5G modem chips, reports Bloomberg. Intel says the partnership has not been ended because of pressure from the US government, “We decided mutually that we would not continue the partnership,” said Robert Topol, GM of Intel’s 5G strategy and ...
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e-peas, the Belgian low-power specialist, is applying its technology to energy harvesting with a chip optimized for energy harvesting from thermal sources in wireless sensors application. Supplied in a 28-pin QFN package, the AEM20940 is capable of extracting available input current up to levels of 110mA. Taking DC power from a connected thermal electric generator ...
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At Embedded World today, Insight SiP, the specialist in ultra-miniature RF modules, is launching the ISP4520 series of modules, extending its product portfolio to include Long Range Networking via LoRa technology. The ISP4520 module integrates BLE and LoRa radio functionality to offer a unique solution, combining the short-range high throughput capability and easy smartphone/PC access ...
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Today, at Embedded World in Nuremberg, UltraSOC announced that its UltraDevelop 2 IDE is now available for beta testing and is being shipped to qualified lead customers. The new IDE will be publicly demonstrated for the first time at Embedded World. Launched in October 2018, UltraDevelop 2 presents a complete and comprehensive IDE for system-on-chip ...
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This is the sixth in a series of essays by Imec on the future of electronics technology. This one is called: Smart Industries. Man and machine collaborating on the factory floor: a nightmare or a match made in heaven? What will our factories look like in 2035? asks Pieter Simoens of the University of Ghent, ...
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Q4 DRAM revenues fell by 18.3% QoQ, reports DRAMeXchange. ASPs of mainstream 8GB modules have fallen to $50 for January, and will continue to fall through in February and March, says DRAMeXchange, with an estimated decline of 20-25% for Q1. The production bit levels of DRAM suppliers in 4Q18 were far above sales bit levels, ...
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Infineon will sample an eSIM for mobile consumer devices in the middle of the year. It will be a tested and certified end-to-end solution comprising a chip, operating software and services. To facilitate technical integration of the eSIM into consumer devices and accelerate time to market, Infineon can also provide data plans in cooperation with ...
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January billings for semiconductor manufacturing equipment fell 10.5% compared to December’s billings, reports SEMI. As well as being down on December’s billings total if $2.1 billion, the January billings of $1.89 billion were also 20.8% down on the January 2018 billings figure of $2.37 billion. The January decline was the third consecutive month of decline. ...
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1. Say hello to Microsoft’s new $3,500 HoloLens with twice the field of view
Microsoft has unveiled the latest version of its HoloLens “mixed reality” headset at MWC Barcelona. The HoloLens 2 features a significantly larger field of view, higher resolution and a device that’s more comfortable to wear. In fact, Microsoft says the device is three times as comfortable to wear.
HoloLens 2 will be available later this year in the United States, Japan, China, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Australia and New Zealand for $3,500.
2. Nubia’s ‘wearable smartphone’ might be the next step for flexible displays
It’s still bulky, so far as smartwatches go. But at the very least, you could probably walk down the street in the thing without stopping traffic.
3. Netflix’s ‘Roma’ wins three Oscars, including Best Director (but not Best Picture)
It was a good night for Netflix, and for “Roma.” But I’m still mad that “Green Book” won the big prize.
4. New microSD format promises insane transfer speeds, better battery life
The SD Association has announced the new microSD Express format, which will allow future mobile devices to consume and create content at even faster speeds.
5. New flaws in 4G, 5G allow attackers to intercept calls and track phone locations
This is the first time vulnerabilities have affected both 4G and the incoming 5G standard — which promises faster speeds and better security. But the researchers say their new attacks can defeat newer protections.
6. The Google Assistant gets a button
Traditionally, the Google Assistant always lived under the home button on Android phones. But LG, Nokia, Xiaomi, TCL and Vivo are about to launch phones with dedicated assistant buttons, similar to what Samsung has long done with its Bixby assistant.
7. This week’s TechCrunch podcasts
In the latest TC podcasts, Equity discusses potential Pinterest and Lyft IPOs, Mixtape interviews the CEO of compassionate care startup Concrn and Original Content reviews the Netflix film “High Flying Bird.”
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Narrative, a startup that makes it easier to buy and sell data, is announcing that it’s raised $3 million in additional seed funding.
The round was led by Glasswing Ventures. XSeed, Tuhaye and Revel also participated.
When I first wrote about the company two years ago, it had already raised $2.25 million, and its business revolved around a marketplace for data. Founder and CEO Nick Jordan told me that’s still what Narrative offers — but customers have also started using its software to manage data transactions beyond the marketplace.
“Buying or selling data sounds really simple — anybody can write in a board deck … ‘We’re going to acquire data, we’re going to distribute data,'” Jordan said. “But it’s much more complex. As a buyer you want specific records, you’re buying for multiple parties. Every seller sells data in a different format. Broadly speaking, there’s a ton of fragmentation.”
And yet, these transactions do happen, with or without Narrative. But Jordan said companies have “historically built their own systems out of duct tape and prayers,” and they often lack features that “seem incredibly trivial, like reporting how much data was sold or bought.”
With Narrative, on the other hand, businesses don’t need to spend the time and resources to create this infrastructure, and they get a tool that allows them to monitor, and hopefully grow, their entire data business.
As this happens, the broader landscape around buying and selling user data is changing, thanks to GDPR, the California privacy bill and the potential for more regulation.
Jordan acknowledged that when GDPR went into effect, Narrative saw “a fairly precipitous drop in data made available in the EU.” At the same time, he said, “The industry as a whole grew up a bit,” and that’s made the technology more appealing to some customers, because it provides “full transparency between the buyer and seller.”
“It [gives] you the ability to do your own due diligence and make sure the data you’re getting is compliant, based on your own reading of GDPR law,” Jordan said.
In fact, he claimed that Narrative really started to see a positive response from customers in the second and third quarter of last year — coincidentally or not, right as GDPR was going into effect.
“This money is really to show that we’ve found product market fit,” Jordan added. That means investing in sales and marketing — and if that pays off, Narrative can probably go out and raise a bigger round.
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A roundup of all the latest electronics news from Embedded World 2019 in Nuremberg.
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“High Flying Bird,” the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh, isn’t an easy movie to categorize.
For starters, it’s a basketball movie without any basketball. Instead, the story focuses on agent Ray Burke (played by Andre Holland), and his efforts behind the scenes during an NBA lockout. It becomes surprisingly political, portraying the pro sports world as another arena for the conflict between labor and management.
Oh, and this is the second time Soderbergh’s shot a movie on an iPhone — but instead of the grainy, handheld shots you might imagine, it’s filled with carefully composed images of cushy backroom dealings.
On this week’s Original Content podcast, Jon Shieber joins us to review the Netflix Original film. We all liked it — but while some of us struggled to keep up during the dense dialogue scenes, and whether they fully paid off in the end, Jon was completely won over.
You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You also can send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)
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Note the deadline for entries to EW BrightSparks 2019 - Thursday 28 February 2019. Please nominate a deserving colleague or friend.
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Sponsored Content: Siglent Technologies has recently presented their new flagship oscilloscope. It was shown the first time to the audience, end of January 2019, at DesignCon in America. The newly introduced Oscilloscope series SDS5000X is available with a bandwidth up-to 1 GHz, a maximum sample rate of 5 GS/s, and a maximum acquisition memory of 250 ...
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In October 2017, Arm introduced Platform Security Architecture (PSA), a set of hardware, firmware specifications, analysis models an open source firmware reference implementation for a scalable, secure IoT framework. The three initial pillars of analysis (threat and security analysis), architecture specifications for firmware and hardware and an open source implementation, are now joined by a ...
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Ultimately cyber-security will only come from international agreement on a system of ethics and standards for operating in cyber-space, said the director of GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming (pictured) in a speech in Singapore today. “Our future security will be guaranteed not by the quality of our coding, the design of our silicon or the cunning of ...
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Huawei’s answer to Samsung’s folding phone is bigger and thinner. The Huawei Mate X has an unfolded 8” screen, a 4,500mAh battery and is 11mm thick when folded compared to 17mm for the Samsung Fold. It’s also more expensive – $2,300 for the Mate compared to $2,000 for the Fold – more than double the ...
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Mark Bohr (pictured) Intel’s process guru, is to retire in March, reports The Oregonian. Bohr has worked at Intel for 40 years, latterly heading the group responsible for process migrations. Notable achievements were the introduction of high-k metal gate and finfets. However Bohr slipped up on 10nm which is running almost three years late. “We ...
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“Roma” took home three Academy Awards tonight — though not Best Picture, which went to “Green Book.”
Alfonso Cuarón did win an Oscar for directing the film. It was his second victory in the category, following his previous award for “Gravity.” And it marks the fifth time in six years that Best Director has gone to one of the “Three Amigos,” a trio of acclaimed Mexican directors that also includes Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Iñárritu.
“Roma” is based on Cuarón’s childhood in Mexico City, as told through the eyes of the family’s maid Cleo. It went into the night with 10 nominations, tying “The Favourite” for the most nods, so it seemed well-positioned to bring home the first Best Picture award for a streaming film (it would also have been the first for a foreign language film).
Despite losing out on the biggest prize, it won the awards for Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Film and Best Director.
“Being up here doesn’t get old,” Cuarón said as he took the stage for the third time. He went on to thank the Academy for recognizing “a film centered around an indigenous woman — one of the 70 million domestic workers in the world without work rights, a character that had been historically relegated to the background in cinema.”
Netflix spent an estimated $25 to $30 million to campaign for “Roma” — a particularly impressive sum since the film cost $15 million to make. The company also dropped its previous insistence on simultaneously releasing films on streaming and in theaters. (Creating an exclusive theatrical window of just a few weeks still wasn’t enough to win over the major theater chains.)
While “Roma” was the big streaming success story for the night, Netflix’s “Period. End of Sentence.” won for Best Documentary (Short Subject). The streamer’s “Ballad of Buster Scruggs” also received three nominations, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings took the stage to perform the movie’s Best Song contender “When The Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” though it didn’t win in any category.
Meanwhile, Hulu’s “Minding the Gap” was nominated for Best Documentary Feature, but lost to “Free Solo.”
Beyond the streaming news, “Black Panther” was the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture. Ultimately, it took home the awards for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Original Score. Also on the superhero front: “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” won for Best Animated Feature.
And since I’ve written about “First Man” — hey, it won for Best Visual Effects!
The awards were given out at a ceremony without a host, for only the second time in Oscar history. Instead of a monologue, there was a montage highlighting all kinds of movies from the past year, and then Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph came out to make a few host-style jokes before presenting the first award.
And how did I feel about the results? Well …
If Green Book wins Best Picture I’m going to set this television on fire
— Anthony Ha (@anthonyha) February 25, 2019
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Q4 2018 sales of smartphones were flat with Q4 2017 at 408.4 million units, says Gartner. Apple sales fell 11.8% – its worst quarterly decline since Q1 2016. Table 1 Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q18 (Thousands of Units) Vendor 4Q18 Units 4Q18 Market Share (%) 4Q17 Units 4Q17 Market Share ...
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Next month Infineon will sample a new family of Embedded Power ICs. The TLE985x series provides AEC Q-100 qualified H-bridge driver motor control solutions for 2-phase DC and single-phase brushless DC motors. It will support automotive customers in replacing relays in low-end motor control applications such as sunroof and window lift. By switching from relays to ...
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Omnivision is sampling a 1.12 micron, 8 megapixel (MP) image sensor family, designed for the broad smartphone camera markets. The sensor, designated OV08B, supports mainstream selfie imaging, as well as multi-camera configurations. “The 1/4 inch 8 MP sensor category continues to see tremendous volume opportunities in the mainstream mobile phone camera market. In addition to ...
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Renesas has introduced the RZ/G2 Group of 64-bit Arm Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53-based microprocessors (MPUs) for industrial automation and building automation applications. The four new RZ/G2 MPUs are supported by the Renesas RZ/G Linux Platform for industrial applications, bringing increased performance, reliability, security, and long-term software support to mission-critical applications as well as standard applications with ...
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The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
1. Pinterest files confidentially to go public
The business has confidentially submitted paperwork to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering slated for later this year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Earlier reports indicated the company was planning to debut on the stock market in April. In late January, Pinterest took its first official step toward a 2019 IPO, hiring Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as lead underwriters for its offering.
2. Google ends forced arbitration for employees
This is a direct response to a group of outspoken Google employees protesting the company’s arbitration practices. Forced arbitration ensures that workplace disputes are settled behind closed doors and without any right to an appeal, effectively preventing employees from suing companies.
3. Facebook will shut down its spyware VPN app Onavo
Facebook will end its unpaid market research programs and proactively take its Onavo VPN app off the Google Play store in the wake of backlash following TechCrunch’s investigation about Onavo code being used in a Facebook Research app that sucked up data about teens.
In this photo taken on February 6, 2019, Indian delivery men working with the food delivery apps Uber Eats and Swiggy wait to pick up an order outside a restaurant in Mumbai.
4. Uber is reportedly close to making a tactical exit from India’s food delivery industry
India’s Economic Times is reporting that Uber is in the final stages of a deal that would see Swiggy eat up Uber Eats in India in exchange for giving the U.S. ride-hailing firm a 10 percent share of its business.
5. Google’s ‘Digital Wellbeing’ features hit more devices, including Samsung Galaxy S10
Initially available exclusively to Pixel and Android One device owners, Digital Wellbeing’s feature set is now rolling out to Nokia 6 and Nokia 8 devices with Android Pie, as well as on the new Samsung Galaxy S10.
6. DoorDash raises $400M round, now valued at $7.1B
Recent data from Second Measure shows that DoorDash has overtaken Uber Eats in U.S. market share — for online food delivery, it now comes in second to Grubhub.
7. Venmo launches a ‘limited edition’ rainbow debit card for its payment app users
The new rainbow card will be offered until supplies last, Venmo says. And existing card holders can request this card as a replacement for their current card, if they choose.
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Showfields, which helps online brands move into offline, brick-and-mortar retail, is announcing that it’s raised $9 million in seed funding.
“Our thesis was simple: Make the process of becoming physical as easy as becoming digital,” co-founder and CEO Tal Zvi Nathanel told me.
I’ve written about other companies, like Bulletin, promising a more flexible approach to real-world retail. But one of the things that’s impressive about Showfields is the sheer size of its flagship space — Nathanel said the company has signed a lease for 14,000 square feet in New York City’s NoHo neighborhood.
When I visited the Showfields store last week, only the first floor was open, but it’s already home to a number of brands, ranging from mattress company Boll & Branch, to fitness company Cityrow, to toothbrush company Quip.
Each brand gets their own separate, dedicated space. For example, in the Cityrow space, I got to sit down and try out the rowing machine, while the Quip area had a mock-up bathroom sink to display the toothbrushes.
“This space is about [the brand], not about Showfields,” Nathanel said. “We really look at ourselves as a stage.”
He added that brands can sign-up online to create a pop-up store, providing input while Showfields designs and builds the space. The brand also decides which goods to sell in the store, and which ones to highlight via a touchscreen display. And they can choose whether to have a dedicated staff member, or to share staff with neighboring brands.
Nathanel said the spaces can be designed around different goals — one brand might focus on driving sales, while another might simply want to grow consumer awareness. In each case, Showfields will also provide data sow they can see how the space is performing.
The brands pay Showfields a monthly fee, with a minimum four-month commitment. Nathanel emphasized that Showfields doesn’t make any money on the product sales, which he said allows the company to offer a more “curated” and “customer-centric experience.”
Ultimately, Nathanel said the Showfields approach can also result in a more varied and dynamic retail environment (after all, Showfields bills itself as “the most interesting store in the world.”) And naturally, he’s hoping to bring this to additional cities, though he declined to offer specifics, beyond saying, “Before the end of the year, we’re hoping to have more Showfields.”
The seed funding was led by Hanaco Ventures, with participation from SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, Rainfall Ventures, Communitas Capital and IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond.
In a statement, Hanaco General Partner Lior Prosor predicted the rise of “experiential retail,” which will be “focused on doing everything that e-commerce cannot do well – enabling discovery, trial, and the use of all five senses to come to a purchasing decision.”
“We truly believe that by being consumer-centric at their core, [Showfields’] founding team and product will make them a category leader in this space,” Prosor said.
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Arrow has introduced a develoment board for ST Microelectronics’ new Linux-enabled MCU that combines a 209MHz Arm Cortex-M4 core for real-time processing with dual 650MHz Cortex-A7 cores for the open-source operating system to run a human-machine interface. Called Avenger96 Development Platform and System on Module (SoM), the parts are intended to work within the 96Boards ...
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RS Components has introduced a range of industrial frequency converters for automation applications. Made by Rexroth, EFC 5610 is a range of intelligent variable-frequency drives, for use up to 7.5kW in the variants stocked by RS. They It offers vector control and a torque curve with high starting torque. Features include expansion options via I/O ...
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Infineon , Xilinx and Xylon have developed the Xylon IP core called logiHSSL to enable high-speed communication between Infineon’s AURIX TC2xx and TC3xx MCUsand Xilinx’ SoC, MPSoC and FPGA devices via the Infineon High Speed Serial Link (HSSL). This serial link supports baudrates of up to 320 Mbaud at a net payload data-rate of up to 84%. ...
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GreenWaves Technologies of Grenoble, a fabless semiconductor start-up designing ultra-low-power AI embedded processors for battery-operated edge devices, has raised €7 million in its Series A. The round was co-led by Huami, with the participation of Soitec, its seed round lead investor, and other investors. “This support from a distinguished group of corporate investors demonstrates the GAP ...
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Huawei is increasing its employee headcount in Canada and intends to have a plan to address UK security concerns about its switchgear by the end of Q2. Ryan Ding, head of Huawei’s carrier business group, says a “global and comprehensive” plan will be approved internally by the end of March. “In Q2 we will talk ...
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Progress in the IC industry hinges on the ability of IC manufacturers to continue offering more performance and functionality for the money. As mainstream CMOS processes reach their theoretical, practical, and economic limits, lowering the cost of ICs (on a per-function or per-performance basis) is more critical and challenging than ever. The 500-page, 2019 edition ...
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Q4 NAND revenues fell 16.8% QoQ, reports DRAMeXchange, 2018 NAND revenues were 10.9% up on 2017 at $63.2 billion. A gloomy Q1 forecast sees declining bit shipments, price and demand The reasons are: economic uncertainty which has led to cancelled orders and delayed re-stocking, lower iPhone sales and the x86 CPU shortage. Samsung’s bit shipments for ...
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UltraSoC, the Cambridge embedded IP analytics specialist, will support Western Digital’s RISC-V SweRV Core and associated OmniXtend cache-coherent interconnect. The two companies have worked together to create a debug and on-chip analytics ecosystem that will support the requirements of both Western Digital’s internal development teams, and third parties choosing to adopt the SweRV Core for their ...
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Gemalto says it’s produced the first 5G SIM. Compliant with the latest ETSI 3GPP specifications and SIMalliance recommendations, the Gemalto 5G SIM Claims to deliver improved data privacy, seamless 5G global roaming and enhanced protection against hacking. The Gemalto 5G SIM will be available in all SIM form factors (removable SIM, M2M SIM, eSIM), during the ...
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Synopsys and GLOBALFOUNDRIES are to develop a portfolio of automotive Grade 1 temperature (-40C to +150C junction) DesignWare Foundation, Analog, and Interface IP for the GF 22-nm FD-SOI(22FDX) process. By providing IP that is designed for high temperature operation on 22FDX, Synopsys enables designers to reduce their design effort and accelerate AEC-Q100 qualification of system-on-chips ...
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TI has brought out two new Ethernet PHY transceivers, expanding connectivity options for designers of both space-constrained applications and time-sensitive networks (TSNs). The DP83825I low-power 10-/100-Mbps Ethernet PHY has a provides a 150m cable reach. The DP83869HM supports copper and fiber media, and offers high-temperature operation up to 125°C, which enables engineers to leverage the ...
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Delivery company DoorDash is announcing that it has raised $400 million in Series F financing.
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was looking to raise $500 million at a valuation of $6 billion or more. In fact, DoorDash now says the funding came at a $7.1 billion valuation.
The round was led by Temasek and Dragoneer Investment Group, with participation from previous investors SoftBank Vision Fund, DST Global, Coatue Management, GIC, Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator.
DoorDash has been raising money at an impressive rate, with a $535 million round last March followed by a $250 million round (valuing the company at $4 billion) in August.
Co-founder and CEO Tony Xu told me the round is “a reflection of superior performance over the past year.” Apparently, the company is currently seeing 325 percent growth, year-over-year, and it points to recent data from Second Measure showing that the service has overtaken Uber Eats in U.S. market share for online food delivery — DoorDash now comes in second to Grubhub.
“I think the numbers speak for themselves,” Xu said. “If you just run the math on DoorDash’s course and speed, we’re on track to be number one.”
Tony Xu of DoorDash
He attributed the company’s growth to three factors: its geographic reach (3,300 cities in the United States and Canada), its selection of partners (not just restaurants — Walmart is using DoorDash for grocery deliveries) and DoorDash Drive, which allows businesses to use the DoorDash network to make their own deliveries.
He added that DoorDash has been “growing in a disciplined way, turning markets towards profitability.”
The funding, Xu said, will allow the company to continue investing in Drive, in its DashPass subscription service (where you pay $9.99 per month for free deliveries on orders of $15 or more from select restaurants) and in more hiring. And while DoorDash is currently available in all 50 states, Xu said there’s still plenty of room to cover additional territory in the U.S. and especially Canada.
“To me, this round … really changes the position of the company, not only as we march towards market leadership, but as we go beyond restaurants and become the last mile for commerce,” he said.
Not all of DoorDash’s recent news has been good. Along with Instacart, the company has been under scrutiny for subsidizing its driver payments with customer tips.
When asked about the criticism, Xu said the current compensation system was tested “not in a quarter, not in a month, but tested for months” before being implemented in 2017, and since then, there’s been a “significant increase” in retention among “dashers,” along with improved dasher satisfaction and on-time deliveries.
“When it comes to this pay model that has been in the press, the most important thing, I would say, is looking again at the facts and results,” he said.
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A new version of “The Twilight Zone,” hosted and executive produced by “Get Out” director Jordan Peele, is set to premiere on CBS All Access on April 1.
CBS aired a teaser during the Super Bowl, but it didn’t include any actual footage. So this is the first time we’re getting a real taste of what the show will be like.
This trailer is still pretty fast-paced, not going in-depth on any of the stories. Basically, it’s a montage of famous people — including Kumail Nanjiani, John Cho, Sanaa Lathan, Adam Scott, Allison Tolman and Steven Yeun — looking scared or alarmed, accompanied by that oh-so-recognizable theme music.
CBS All Access has had fewer big, splashy content announcements than some of the other new (or yet-to-launch) streaming services, but with “Twilight Zone” and an entire lineup of Star Trek spin-offs, it could become a real destination for science fiction fans.
Peele, meanwhile, has been pretty busy. He’s got a new movie (“Us”) set for release in March, and “Weird City,” a series he co-created, just launched on YouTube Premium.
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