Author: entelechyasia

Entelechy Asia is passionate about technology -- from the home to the enterprise, and telecommunications. We deliver news, views and reviews from Asia from the perspectives of practitioners and followers.
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Samsung introduces Galaxy A smartphones in Singapore

Samsung Galaxy A 2016Samsung has launched its Galaxy A (2016) smartphones – the Galaxy A3 (2016) 4G, Galaxy A5 (2016) 4G+ and Galaxy A7 (2016) 4G+ – in Singapore. These additions come in three screen size options: 4.7-inch for the Galaxy A3 (2016) 4G, 5.2-inch for the Galaxy A5 (2016) 4G+ and 5.5-inch for the Galaxy A7 (2016) 4G+.

The ultra slim unibody sports a 2.7mm narrow bezel for an immersive viewing experience.

The smartphones pack a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera with brighter f1.9 aperture lenses. Innovative smart selfie features such as wide selfie, palm selfie and beauty face embedded in the Galaxy A (2016) allow users to capture high-resolution and vivid selfies with ease. The Galaxy A5 (2016) 4G+ and Galaxy A7 (2016) 4G+ rear cameras are also enhanced with optical image stabiliser for blur-free images.

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Semiconductor market drops 1.9% in 2015

GartnerWorldwide semiconductor revenue was US$333.7 billion in 2015, a 1.9 percent decrease from 2014 revenue of US$340.3 billion, according to Gartner.

The top 25 semiconductor vendors’ combined revenue increased 0.2 percent, which was more than the overall industry’s growth. They also accounted for 73.2 percent of total market revenue, up from 71.7 percent in 2014.

“Weakened demand for key electronic equipment, the continuing impact of the strong dollar in some regions and elevated inventory are to blame for the decline in the market in 2015,” said Sergis Mushell, Research Director of Gartner.

Continue reading Semiconductor market drops 1.9% in 2015

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NVIDIA adds AI and supercomputing prowess to driverless cars

DRIVE PX_illustrationThe new NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 is set to give driverless cars a major boost.

Touted at the world’s most powerful engine for in-vehicle artificial intelligence, it allows the automotive industry to use artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle the complexities inherent in autonomous driving. NVIDIA DRIVE PX2 utilises deep learning on NVIDIA’s advanced GPUs for 360-degree situational awareness around the car, to determine precisely where the car is and to compute a safe, comfortable trajectory.

“Drivers deal with an infinitely complex world. Modern artificial intelligence and GPU breakthroughs enable us to finally tackle the daunting challenges of self-driving cars,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, Co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “NVIDIA’s GPU is central to advances in deep learning and supercomputing. We are leveraging these to create the brain of future autonomous vehicles that will be continuously alert, and eventually achieve superhuman levels of situational awareness. Autonomous cars will bring increased safety, new convenient mobility services and even beautiful urban designs – providing a powerful force for a better future.”

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China to surpass the US in 3D printer market

IDCChina is set to overtake the US to become the biggest 3D printer market this year.

3D printer shipments in the China market passed 34,000 units in 2014, and is expected to reach 77,000 units in 2015, a growth rate over 120 percent, according to IDC.

This growth rate is largely driven by sales of desktop 3D printers priced under US$5,000. As the Chinese government continue to promote 3D printer awareness and usage within schools and educational institutions, the desktop 3D printer market is expected to maintain an annual growth trend in the coming years.

Continue reading China to surpass the US in 3D printer market
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NVIDIA unveils VR-ready programme

NV-GF-VR-Ready-logo-wht-RGBNVIDIA is paving the way to virtual reality (VR) gaming experiences with the launch of its new VR-ready programme at CES.

Under the programme, PC and notebook makers and add-in card providers will deliver GeForce GTX VR Ready systems and graphics cards that deliver an immersive VR gaming experience. The programme minimises confusion regarding which equipment is necessary to play the range of VR games and applications increasingly coming to market.

Delivering a great VR experience demands seven times the graphics processing power of traditional 3D games and applications – driving framerates above 90 frames per second (fps) for two simultaneous images (one for each eye).

Continue reading NVIDIA unveils VR-ready programme
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NVIDIA brings VR to SEA

The HTC Vive takes users to another dimension adding freedom of movement to VR.
The HTC Vive takes users to another dimension adding freedom of movement to VR.

As the year heads to a close, the anticipation for virtual reality (VR) is gathering momentum. And NVIDIA has helped to raise the tempo by bringing VR to Southeast Asia in a closed door event for analysts, the media and enthusiasts.

Held on December 11 at Crown Plaza Changi Airport in Singapore, the event gave participants the opportunity to try out two of the hottest VR products — Oculus Rift and HTC Vive — powered by NVIDIA technologies.

Oculus Rift lets users immerse in three three-dimensional games (details are under embargo from the content owners), taking gaming to another level.

Continue reading NVIDIA brings VR to SEA
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ZTE’s 3D-MIMO closer to commercial deployment

ZTEZTE’s proprietary Pre5G technology is a step closer to commercial deployment after the successful testing of the 3D-MIMO (three-dimensional multiple input multiple output) solution on China Mobile’s commercial network.

The technology helped increase average data throughput by two to four times, with data rates at the cell edge going up as much as five to seven times, according to results from a test conducted on China Mobile’s commercial network in a metropolitan area of Guangzhou.

The pre-commercial test demonstrated the capability of ZTE’s 3D-MIMO solution to improve network throughput and coverage in an area with a high concentration of tall buildings.

Continue reading ZTE’s 3D-MIMO closer to commercial deployment
Mobile by entelechyasia

Tablet market to drop 8% in 2015

IDCThe year’s looking bad for tablets as worldwide demand is expected to slide 8.1-percent to just 211.3 million units, according to IDC.

The new forecast follows three consecutive quarters of declining worldwide tablet shipments in 2015. Despite the challenges facing the overall market, IDC expects detachable tablets will continue to represent a growing portion of total shipments.

“We’re witnessing a real market transition as end users shift their demand towards detachables and more broadly towards a productivity-based value proposition. The proliferation of detachable offerings from hardware vendors continues to help drive this switch. We’re starting to see the impact of competition within this space as the major platform vendors – Apple, Google and Microsoft – now have physical product offerings. With attractive price points, including the introduction of sub-US$100 detachables, and platform innovation being driven by competition, IDC is confident that the detachables segment will nearly double in size in the next year, recording more than 75 percent growth compared to 2015,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard , Research Director, Tablets, IDC.

Continue reading Tablet market to drop 8% in 2015
Mobile by entelechyasia

Smartphones account for 1/3 of mobile phone sale in India in Q3

IDCSmartphone sale is rising in India with 28.3 million shipped in Q3, according to IDC. That’s a 21.4 percent increase from 23.3 million units for the same period last year.

In Q3, 4G enabled devices have witnessed almost a three-fold increase in unit shipment over the previous quarter.

“The growth in the smartphone market was helped by rising demand for affordable 4G smartphones,” said Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC.

Continue reading Smartphones account for 1/3 of mobile phone sale in India in Q3
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NVIDIA releases SDKs for VR platforms

VRNVIDIA has released the 1.0 version of two powerful VR software development kits (SDKs) — NVIDIA GameWorks VR and NVIDIA DesignWorks VR — to help developers deliver VR games and applications.

Immersive VR requires seven times the graphics processing power compared to traditional 3D apps and games.

 

When used in conjunction with the company’s industry-leading GeForce and Quadro GPUs, these SDKs provide developers the tools to create VR experiences, increase performance, reduce latency, improve hardware compatibility, and accelerate 360-degree video broadcasts.

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First green data centre thermal management solution to debut in Hong Kong

NTTNTT Communications’ new data centre cooling technology will debut at Hong Kong Financial Data Center Tower 2 (FDC2) in December. The first green thermal management solution in Hong Kong will feature a new front-flow cooling system (AHU) designed to optimise both energy usage and cost of the data centre, increasing energy efficiency by more than 20 percent compared with traditional cooling systems.

The innovative front-flow cooling system, a custom air handling and Fay Array CRAH launched in partnership with Emerson Network Power, is designed to keep power consumption to a minimum while ensuring the data center stays online and is reliable at all time. This benefits enterprise users that leverage lower energy costs to build a competitive business edge.

“With power consumption accounting for a major operating expense of data centers today, we have recognised that enhancing energy efficiency would be a top priority when we incorporate a high density design within the soon-to-be launched FDC2. We are confident that our new AHU will change the way data centers are designed, and help our clients drive business performance by optimising costs in the long term,” said Taylor Man, Executive Vice President, Cloud Business Division, NTT Com Asia.

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Accelerated systems account for more than 20% of TOP500 supercomputers

 

NVIDIAAccelerated systems, or GPU-powered systems, for the first time accounted for more than 100 on the list of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers. That’s a total of 143 petaflops, over one-third of the list’s total FLOPS.

NVIDIA Tesla GPU-based supercomputers comprise 70 of these systems – including 23 of the 24 new systems on the list – reflecting compound annual growth of nearly 50 percent over the past five years.

There are three primary reasons accelerators are becoming increasingly adopted for high performance computing.

  1. Moore’s Law continues to slow, forcing the industry to find new ways to deliver computational power more efficiently.
  2. Hundreds of applications – including the vast majority of those most commonly used – are now GPU accelerated.
  3. Even modest investments in accelerators can now result in significant increases in throughput, maximising efficiency for supercomputing sites and hyperscale datacentres.
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ZTE Blade S7 designed for selfies

Blade S7-Lemon GreenLooks like ZTE believes that Thais love to take selfies. The newly-launched ZTE Blade S7, which is designed for selfie lovers, will first be made available in Thailand before hitting the rest of the region.

The smartphone features a five-inch full HD LTPS screen with a 445 PPI Super Retina display for 178-degree full viewing angles. Housed in an aluminum alloy frame with thin bezels, Blade S7 offers a 72.1 percent screen-to-body ratio and is protected with 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 3 on both the front and back.

Just 7.2mm thick and 67mm wide, it comes with a powerful 13-megapixel front-facing camera with a front flash and phase detection autofocus, as well as functions for panorama shots and 14 different beautification options. At the back is another 13-megapixel rear camera that supports professional and auto shooting modes, selective focus, and laser auto focus for fast and accurate shooting in low-light conditions.

 

 

Continue reading ZTE Blade S7 designed for selfies
Enterprise by entelechyasia

Omni-channel communications gaining traction in APAC

frost and sullivanWhile voice interaction remains the primary communication channel in contact centres, the concept of an omni-channel is gaining popularity in Asia-Pacific, according to Frost & Sullivan.

With smartphone penetration and social media usage on the rise, an increasing number of organisations are working closely with system integrators and independent software vendors to implement the omni-channel platform. Their objective is to overcome the existing silo nature of communication channels and provide a consistent and seamless customer experience across voice, email, SMS, Web-chat, social media and real-time video interactions. In response, contact centers are transforming into ‘customer engagement centers’ with multi-channel strategies that are tightly integrated with mobile applications and self-service capabilities.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the market earned revenues of US$699.5 million in 2014 and is estimated to reach US$952.9 million in 2021 with a compound annual growth rate of 4.5 percent. The study covers automatic call distributors, outbound systems, computer telephony integration, interactive voice response, workforce management, call monitoring, speech technology and multimedia systems. Workforce optimisation and analytics are expected to lead revenue growth across these segments, driven by the continuous focus on contact centre operation performance management.

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NVIDIA Jetson TX1 powers machine learning

Jetson_TX1 moduleAs the first embedded computer designed to process deep neural networks, the new NVIDIA Jetson TX1 is set to enable a new wave of smart devices. Drones will evolve beyond flying by remote control to navigating through a forest for search and rescue. Security surveillance systems will be able to identify suspicious activities, not just scan crowds. Robots will be able to perform tasks customised to individuals’ habits.

That’s what the credit-card sized module can do. It can harness the power of machine learning to enable a new generation of smart, autonomous machines that can learn.

Deep neural networks are computer software that can learn to recognise objects or interpret information. This new approach to program computers is called machine learning and can be used to perform complex tasks such as recognising images, processing conversational speech, or analysing a room full of furniture and finding a path to navigate across it. Machine learning is a groundbreaking technology that will give autonomous devices a giant leap in capability.

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7m Apple Watches sold in six months

Apple WatchesApple’s magic formula for success has continued with the Apple Watch. The highly-sought after smart watch dominated the market with nearly seven million units sold since launch, according to Canalys.

And this figure in just two quarters exceeds all other vendors’ combined shipments over the previous five quarters. That’s simply amazing!

In Q3, Apple was the only smart watch vendor to ship more than 300,000 units. The quarter also saw the release of the Pebble Time Steel, which helped the company ship more than 200,000 total smart watches, while Samsung’s Gear shipment declined ahead of the Q4 release of the Gear S2. Vendors will continue to battle for position behind Apple in Q4 as a raft of new devices from a diverse set of companies hits the market. For example, both Fossil and Tag Heuer will be launching their first smart watches before the end of the year.

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NVIDIA introduces Battlebox PC in ANZ

BattleboxAt PAX Australia held over the weekend in Melbourne, NVIDIA introduced the combat-ready Battlebox PC, which is designed especially for hardcore gamers.

A Battlebox PC is a beast of a gaming machine with a powerful combination of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPU horsepower, two-Way NVIDIA SLI and the best components. It is also VR Ready and supports 4K gaming and DX12 for better visual effects and rendering techniques.

The Battlebox PC will is available from Centrecom, MSY, Mwave, PC Case Gear, PLE, Origin PC, Scorptec, and UMART in Australia, and Computer Lounge, PB Technologies and Playtech in New Zealand.

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Mobile by entelechyasia

APAC consumes half of world’s mobile accessories

abi researchEvery other piece of mobile accessory in the world is sold in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. To be precise, APAC accounts for 52.9 percent of all mobile accessories shipment, according to ABI Research.

Admittedly, the region does have a huge population but the sales figures are still staggering as global revenues for mobile accessories are expected to hit US$81.5 billion this year.

Driving the demand are cost competitive smartphones. China holds huge opportunities for accessories due to its large existing and potential consumer base, rapid growth of smartphone and tablet adoption, a growing online retail market and increasing disposable incomes.

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Tablet sale slides 12.6% in Q3

IDCTablet sale continued its decline for the fourth straight quarter, according to IDC. Q3 shipment of 48.7 million units represented a 12.6 drop year on year, further highlighting the challenges the tablet market is facing.

At the close of 2014, IDC estimated the installed base of tablets to be 581.9 million globally, which was up 36 percent from 2013 but slowing quickly. With mature markets such as North America, Western Europe, and Asia/Pacific well past 100 million active tablets per region, the opportunities for growth are getting fewer.

“We continue to get feedback that tablet users are holding onto devices upwards of four years. We believe the traditional slate tablet has a place in the personal computing world. However, as the smartphone installed base continues to grow and the devices get bigger and more capable, the need for smaller form factor slate tablets becomes less clear. With shipment volumes slowing over four consecutive quarters, the market appears to be in transition,” said Ryan Reith, Program Director of IDC.

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Alibaba joins Microsoft and AWS as leaders in China cloud market

ForresterThe public cloud market in China will more than double in the next five years, from US$1.8 billion this year to US$3.8 billion in 2020, according to Forrester.

Two-thirds of Chinese software decision-makers surveyed by Forrester are making increased use of public cloud platforms a top priority over the next 12 months.

Enterprise public cloud platform vendors in China are improving in terms of their service diversity, simple abstraction for operational efficiency, and operational autonomy for on-demand elasticity. Forrester has evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of 11 cloud vendors Alibaba, AWS, ChinaC, DaoCloud, JD.com, Microsoft, MoPaaS, QingCloud, Tencent, UCloud, and UnitedStack.

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NetApp Data Fabric enables seamless data management in hybrid cloud

NetAppNetApp has announced new Data Fabric solutions and services that deliver the data management capabilities organisations need to accelerate success in the hybrid cloud era.

With the new offerings, organisations can seamlessly manage data across whatever IT resource they choose, speeding innovation and enabling better business decisions.

“Management of digital data is essential for organisations to innovate faster and capture new revenue opportunities in a fast changing technology landscape,” said Lee Caswell, Vice President, Product, Solutions and Services Marketing, NetApp.

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NVIDIA GRID 2.0 available in Australia

NVIDIAFollowing its announcement at VMworld in August, NVIDIA GRID 2.0 is now available in Australia.

The performance, efficiency and flexibility improvements in the latest release of NVIDIA GRID mean enterprise businesses can now deliver even the most graphics-intensive applications to any connected device virtually.

With NVIDIA GRID 2.0, employees can work from almost anywhere without delays in downloading files, increasing their productivity. IT departments can equip workers with instant access to powerful applications, improving resource allocation. And data can be stored more securely in a central server, rather than on individual systems.

 

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9 IT CEOs make Harvard Business Review Top 100 list

HBRHarvard Business Review has included nine CEOs of IT companies among its Top 100 Best Performing CEOs in the world.

Slotting in among the top 50 are Cisco’s John Chambers (#2), Seagate Technology’s Stephen Luczo (#5), Canon’s Fujio Mitarai (#10), NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Huang (#29), and  Hon Hai Precision Industry’s Terry Gou (#33).

The new study in the November issue of Harvard Business Review rated CEOs based on an 80-20 weighting between the company’s financial performance and its performance on environmental, social and governance criteria.

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Mobile phones improve emergency response in developing countries

Developing TelecomsWhile many cannot imagine life without mobile phones, the technology can be a life-saver in disasters. Case in point are recent crises in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Nepal, and the Philippines where mobile network coverage enabled those directly impacted to collaborate in order to help themselves and others more quickly and effectively than external aid agencies.

A new report Connected Citizens — Managing Crisis by Developing Telecoms noted that working with “Connected Citizens” enables aid agencies to work more efficiently by better targeting the areas of greatest need and more accurately identifying requirements.

The overall effect is to speed up response, improve aid delivery and reduce both the short and long term impact of disasters. Maintaining mobile network coverage enables connected citizens to become active partners in recovery and reconstruction, rather than passive recipients of aid.

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Microsoft Surface a new laptop

Surface BookNotebook, tablet, 13.5-inch display, 12 hours of battery life, and a NVIDIA GeForce GPU to boot — that’s what the new Microsoft Surface Book is made of. And it certainly got the world excited as news poured out from the press briefing in New York last night.

Dubbed the “ultimate” laptop by Microsoft, the device will sell for US$1,499 for the entry level model and US$2,699 for the top-end model, which comes with 512GB and a Core i7 processor.

Past iterations of the Surface have been pitched as a tablet first but this new model is presented as a laptop first, with a screen that detaches from the keyboard to become a tablet.

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Cloud IT infrastructure market to grow 24% this year

IDCTotal spending on cloud IT infrastructure (server, storage, and Ethernet switch, excluding double counting between server and storage) will grow by 24.1 percent to reach US$32.6 billion in 2015, according to IDC.

This amount will account for a third of the overall end user spending on enterprise IT infrastructure, up from 27.9 percent in 2014. In comparison, spending on IT infrastructure deployed in traditional, non-cloud, environments will decline by 1.6 percent in 2015, although at US$66.8 billion will remain the largest segment of the market.

Spending on private cloud IT infrastructure in 2015 will grow by 15.8 percent year over year to US$12.1 billion, while spending on public cloud IT infrastructure will increase by 29.6 percent to US$20.5 billion.

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Smartphone’s fingerprint sensors boost biometrics market

abi researchMore Chinese smartphone vendors are investing in equipping their devices with fingerprint sensors with such phones expected to hit one billion shipment by 2020, marking a 17 percent CAGR, according to ABI Research.

Biometrics on smartphone devices have moved past the simple authentication option and are headed towards establishing a more robust mobile payment solution.

However, other biometric modalities such as face, voice and eye-based recognition are currently moving out of the fledgling phase and are to be integrated as highly-secure – albeit more expensive – biometric capabilities in smartphone devices with a five-year CAGR revenue growth of 144 percent.

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NVIDIA supercharges Microsoft Azure

Azure

Virtualisation just got a little turbo charge with the introduction of NVIDIA GPU-enabled professional graphics applications and accelerated computing capabilities to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

Microsoft is the first to leverage NVIDIA GRID 2.0 virtualised graphics for its enterprise customers.

Businesses will have a range of graphics prowess — depending on their needs. They can deploy NVIDIA Quadro-grade professional graphics applications and accelerated computing on-premises, in the cloud through Azure, or via a hybrid of the two using both Windows and Linux virtual machines.

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NVIDIA establishes APAC’s first Deep Learning Technology Centre in Singapore

Marc Hamilton announces the establishment of the NVIDIA Technology Centre Asia Pacific at GTC South Asia.
Marc Hamilton announces the establishment of the NVIDIA Technology Centre Asia Pacific at GTC South Asia.

NVIDIA has established the NVIDIA Technology Centre Asia Pacific, the first of its kind in the region to focus on deep learning research and development (R&D).

Located at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the centre will leverage the power of NVIDIA’s graphics processing unit (GPU) platforms to develop innovative solutions for both the private and public sectors.

NVIDIA will invest more than S$20 million (US$14.2M) in the centre over a three-year period. This will include the deployment of a broad range of NVIDIA technologies — from the NVIDIA DRIVE PX platform for automated driver assistance systems and self-piloted vehicles, to the NVIDIA Tesla platform, which powers deep learning on the world’s top 5 public clouds as well as some of the world’s fastest supercomputers.

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Camera drones thriving in China

The Parrot Bebop is a fine example of a camera drone that consumers are snapping up.
The Parrot Bebop is a fine example of a camera drone that consumers are snapping up.

Camera drones are getting the attention, or rather causing concern among governments and the general public. While the public is usually perturbed by the invasion of privacy, governments has security and safety concerns.

That’s why it’s surprising that China’s camera drone market is thriving and used in areas such as film and television, geological exploration, and emergency response.

According to IDC, with a growing demand for more sophisticated products, Chinese consumers view camera drones as a trendy and in vogue product.

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Pixar licenses NVIDIA technologies to accelerate feature film production

INSIDE OUT – Anger, Fear, Joy, Sadness and Disgust look out upon Riley's Islands of Personality. ©2015 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
INSIDE OUT – Anger, Fear, Joy, Sadness and Disgust look out upon Riley’s Islands of Personality. ©2015 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Pixar Animation Studios is licensing a suite of NVIDIA technologies to accelerate production of its computer-animated feature films and short film content.

The multi-year strategic licensing agreement gives Pixar access to NVIDIA’s quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) rendering methods. These methods can make rendering more efficient, especially when powered by GPUs and other massively parallel computing architectures.

“Pixar has long used NVIDIA GPU technology to push the limits of what is possible in animation and the film-making process. NVIDIA’s particular QMC implementation has the potential to enhance rendering functionality and significantly reduce our rendering times,” said Steve May, Vice President and CTO of Pixar.

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GSMA disappointed by lack of progress in mobile broadband spectrum allocation in APAC

GSMAAhead of World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15), GSMA has expressed its disappointment at the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity’s Conference Preparatory Group (APG) decision to identify only 51MHz of additional spectrum for mobile broadband.

“This represents an increase of less than five per cent over the total amount of spectrum currently identified for the region. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that governments need much more – double the amount of mobile spectrum available today – to meet the growing consumer demand for data,” said John Giusti, Deputy Chief Regulatory Officer of GSMA.

“With 4G rising and 5G on the horizon, and without more spectrum identified, this means that Asia Pacific cannot benefit from economies of scale and affordable connectivity and puts the future of its digital economy at risk,” he added.

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Tablet vendor landscape evolving

IDCThe worldwide tablet market shed seven percent in Q2 to 44.7 million units, according to IDC. Quarter on quarter, the drop was 3.9 percent.

The market was not helped with the lack of hardware innovation and new products.

“Beyond the decline, we are seeing a profound shift in the vendor landscape as the top two vendors, Apple and Samsung, lose share in the overall market. In the first quarter of the year, Apple and Samsung accounted for 45 percent of the market and this quarter, with the growth of vendors like LG, Huawei, and E FUN, their combined share dropped to 41 percent,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director for Tablets of IDC. .

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Samsung launches Galaxy Tab S2 and Galaxy A8 4G+

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and A8 4GSamsung has launched the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and Galaxy A8 4G+ in Singapore.

Claimed to be the thinnest and lightest tablet of its size, the Galaxy Tab S2  features a SUPER AMOLED display that is optimised for reading and viewing any type of digital content. It will be available from  August 7 in black and in 32GB with microSD supporting up to 128GB. The gold version will be available later next month.

The Galaxy Tab S2 will retail at:

  • Galaxy Tab S2 (9.7-inch) Wi-Fi: S$698
  • Galaxy Tab S2 (9.7-inch) 4G+: S$798
  • Galaxy Tab S2 (8.0-inch) Wi-Fi: S$598
  • Galaxy Tab S2 (8.0-inch) 4G+: S$698
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Apple Watch makes its mark in Q2

Apple Watch rangeIt’s confirmed. Price does not matter when it comes to Apple products, or at least to Apple fans.

In its launch quarter, Apple Watch took the lion’s share of the wearable market with 4.2 million units shipped, according to Canalys. It breezed past Fitbit, Xiaomi and all the smart watch vendors, despite its significantly higher pricing.

However, early sales were hindered by two factors — Apple missing the end of year holiday season and supply constraints.

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India x86 server market edges up in Q1

IDCHP continued to lead the India x86 server market in Q1 2015 with 38 percent market share in terms of units, followed by Dell with 19 percent, according to IDC. Lenovo increased its share marginally due to large multi-million dollars deal in central government vertical.

White box players have also witnessed year on year growth as some of the organisations specially cloud providers are preferring them for reducing cost and greater control over their infrastructure.

Overalll, the x86 server market in India grew by 7.5 percent in terms of units and double-digit in revenue in Q1.

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Q2 PC shipment drops 9.5%

GartnerLenovo remained the top PC vendor amidst a 9.5 percent global PC shipment decline in Q2, according to Gartner. On the whole, Lenovo suffered along with the rest of the industry with a year-on-year shipment decline for the first time since Q2 2013.

HP also experienced a shipment decline after five consecutive quarters of PC shipment growth. It was impacted by tight inventory controls in the consumer market before the Windows 10 launch.

Worldwide PC shipment totalled 68.4 million units in Q2 with 2015 shipment expected to drop 4.4 percent.

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Logitech becomes Logi

Logitech has shortened its brand to Logi as part of its transformation to produce more than just PC peripherals. The new name will be on selected products in existing categories with “a few surprises in new categories”.“We’ve […]

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NVIDIA software update doubles performance for deep learning training

NVIDIANVIDIA has updated its GPU-accelerated deep learning software that will double deep learning training performance.

With the new software, data scientists and researchers can supercharge their deep learning projects and product development work by creating more accurate neural networks through faster model training and more sophisticated model design.

The NVIDIA DIGITS Deep Learning CPU Training System version 2 (DIGITS 2) and NVIDIA CUDA Deep Neural Network library version 3 (cuDNN 3) provide significant performance enhancements and new capabilities.

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Tablet market experiences steepest drop since inception

Source: ABI Research

​Tablet shipment has experienced the sharpest drop — 35 percent quarter-on-quarter decrease — since 2009. The consumer device also lost 16 percent year-on-year, according to ABI Research.

Apple and Samsung have been key market players and continue to dominate a significant majority of the tablet market.

“2015 is the pivotal year for smaller, competing vendors to step-up, build their business, and gain market share in advanced and emerging markets. The tablet market lacks a truly competitive playing field needing a strong third even fourth vendor to drive the market out of stagnation. Acer, ASUS and Lenovo all show promise for claiming those spots but need to focus on building their businesses especially in markets where purchase decisions are still largely to be made,” said Jeff Orr, Senior Practice Director of ABI Research.

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Goodspeed 4G Mobile Hotspot MF900 accommodates 10 SIM cards

Goodspeed 4GZTE and Uros have introduced the Goodspeed 4G mobile hotspot MF900 — which is manufactured under a technology licence from Uros — providing travellers with affordable international data roaming.

The device is the world’s first commercially available 4G hotspot that accommodates up to 10 SIM cards at once. It provides private connectivity for up to 14 Wi-Fi connections and one USB connection simultaneously.

The Goodspeed MF900 supports all mainstream global 4G frequencies (LTE FDD & LTE TDD), allowing end-users to connect to 4G networks whenever, wherever. Powering the device is a Qualcomm Gobi MDM9225 modem chipset, which offers downlink data rates of up to 150Mbps and uplink rates of up to 50Mbps.

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Singtel leverages Appier’s programmatic TV platform to help advertisers reach right audience

appierAs the digital space becomes more cluttered and complex, advertisers are finding it increasingly difficult to determine the best way to reach their target customers.

Singtel Advertising has taken a step towards helping advertisers address this conundrum by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It has inked an agreement with Appier to introduce the first programmatic TV solution in Singapore, enabling advertisers to more effectively reach Singapore’s substantial but fragmented TV-watching population.

With Appier’s programmatic TV platform, advertisers can now plan TV campaigns based on specific target audience profiles and purchase Singtel TV’s inventory with just a few clicks. Appier’s channel recommendation system will also incorporate insights from Singtel Advertising’s existing suite of analytics capabilities, enabling brands in Singapore to leverage automation to identify the most relevant channels.

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Hybrid ultramobile is fastest growing segment of mobile PC market

GartnerHybrid devices are leading the growth in the mobile PC market and should reach 21.5 million units this year, an increase of 70 percent from 2014, according to Gartner. Eight million of these will be ultramobile tablets (two-in-one tablets) and 13.5 million hybrid ultramobiles (two-in-one detachable and convertible ultramobiles).

“This will make hybrid ultramobiles the fastest-growing segment of the mobile PC market with 77 percent year-on-year growth,” said Tracy Tsai, Research Director of Gartner.

“The combination of portability, productivity and flexibility of touch and a keyboard in one device is attracting some notebook and tablet users to replace their devices with hybrid form factors. PC vendors are expanding into this segment with a value proposition to compete with Apple and Android-based tablet vendors. Sales of hybrid devices have not stopped growing since 2012, totaling 12.6 million units in 2014 and expected to reach 58 million units in 2019,” she added.

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2G in Singapore to end in 2017

Singapore’s three telcos will stop providing 2G services from April 2017. The spectrum will then be freed for advanced 4G services as the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore moves to make more efficient use of the limited resources. According […]