Around the web
6 Nov 20145 Nov 20144 Nov 20143 Nov 201431 Oct 2014
Could social media have predicted the failure of 3D TVs and its successor 4K?
Forbes
Company release
Samsung was replaced by the iPhone maker as No. 1 in China's mobile sector this year, according to the China Brand Research Center's 2014 China Brand Power Index ranking report released Tuesday.
ZDNet
GT Advanced Technologies has announced a multi-year, US$578 million contract with Apple to supply advanced sapphire material.
Apple Insider
Users in Apple's support forums have recently highlighted a rare issue that causes iPhones to crash, specifically for users with a large amount of apps installed.
9to5Mac.com
"This announcement reinforces our commitment to building the ZTE brand in the United States...," said ZTE USA's CEO Lixin Cheng.
SlashGear
In a sign that LG and Google are tightening their Android alliance, the two companies have announced a deal to enter into a "long-term patent cross-licensing agreement" covering both existing and future products.
CNET
China's Xiaomi Technology said on Tuesday it would spend US$1 billion to expand its internet TV content as the world's third largest smartphone maker ramps up its push into the living room, and a market estimated to be worth US$3 billion.
Reuters
As numerous reports of low read performance of the Samsung SSD 840 and 840 EVO using TLC NAND flash have surfaced on the Internet, a problem in the controller IC is considered to be the more likely cause of the defects.
BusinessKorea
It seems that it is not just towns in New South Wales that are looking to meet all their own electricity needs with renewable energy - a small township in Victoria is also looking to become 100% renewable within a decade.
Cleantechnica
This imposingly named premium laptop line adds an Ultra HD screen for high-res PC gaming.
CNET
There's typically two touchscreen devices consumers use in 2014: a smartphone and a tablet.
GEEK.com
Kim Hyun-seok, head of Samsung Electronics' TV business, has told reporters in Seoul that it's still too early for the company to launch OLED TVs and that Samsung's "strategy on OLED TV this year as well as next year remains unchanged."
CNET
On Monday, Starwood Hotels and Resorts became the first chain to let guests unlock doors with their smartphones.
Boston Globe
The yen slumped anew to its lowest level against the dollar since 2007, handing fresh profits to investors who had bet against the currency but sending shivers through Asian financial markets.
Wall Street Journal
Samsung is expected to start producing application processors (APs) for clients such as Apple, Qualcomm, and AMD, using its 14-nanometre process around the end of the year.
ZDNet
Kilopass Technology has successfully ported its one-time programmable (OTP) NVM technology to TSMC's 16 nanometer (nm) FinFET process.
Company release
Sony is to pull back significantly from the Chinese mobile market and appoint a new executive to head its mobile division as the company steps up efforts to fix its struggling smartphone business.
The Financial Times
Micron Technology said Monday that its board had authorized as much as $1 billion in share buybacks, its first such repurchases in three years.
Wall Street Journal
Samsung successfully expands the use of the 20 nanometer process from PC and mobile memory to the enterprise server market.
Company release
Samsung Electronics on Thursday said it would revamp its smartphone line-up to take on competitors in the rapidly growing mid-to-low range segment, after third-quarter earnings set it on course for its worst year since 2011.
Reuters
Microchip Technology missed revenue targets for its second fiscal quarter ending September 30 and said the next quarter will see single-digit declines.
EE Times
SiTime, a MEMS and analog semiconductor company, has signed a definitive agreement under which MegaChips, a top 25 fabless semiconductor company based in Japan, will acquire SiTime for US$200 million in cash.
Company release
Tim Cook's declaration on Thursday that "I'm proud to be gay" made him the first publicly gay chief executive of a Fortune 500 company.
New York Times
Three of Japan's biggest electronics companies reported modest earnings gains Thursday for the first half of the financial year ending March, helped by the yen's weakness and restructuring, but held back by a soft domestic economy.
Wall Street Journal
If you live in Louisiana, you likely use more than twice as much electricity as the average New Yorker does each month.
Huffington Post
To help ensure you're getting a good quality LED bulb, buy one that has the ENERGY STAR label on the box.
Huffington Post
LED retrofits are sometimes likened to the "Trojan Horse" of the Internet of things. Because many fixtures are intelligent, they are capable of collecting data that could be used far more broadly than just for lighting applications.
Forbes
We started by developing and building a small portfolio of 10MW to prove our investment thesis. Now we are working on a portfolio of 400MW - that's enough power to supply roughly 125,000 average US homes, and in a couple of years we expect to grow our portfolio large enough to generate power for the equivalent of a third of Manhattan.
Forbes
LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS), maker of expensive OLED display televisions, said it will supplement its line-up of next-generation TVs with sets using cheaper quantum dot display technology under a dual-track strategy.
Reuters
This monitor is designed for video production, which is the primary reason for buying a 5K display as opposed to a 4K display.
Ars Technica
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