Items tagged with (NASDAQ: QCOM)
In more ways than just one, Star Trek was able to predict the future, though at the time of the show's airing, the ideas may have seemed outlandish. A universal translator? Anyone with a smartphone or PC can take advantage of that these days. A Tablet-style computer? Well, we don't need to elaborate there. We've even seen examples of the Holodeck come to fruition. Toy Replica Of The Star Trek Tricorder - credit: Flickr user keithius And now, thanks to the Qualcomm-funded X Prize competition, we're able to add Tricorders to that list; at least, the kind of Tricorder that focuses on medical applications. The team of Final Frontier Medical Devices managed to take the top prize of $2.6...
Read more...
Apple Reportedly Throttling iPhone 7 Models With Qualcomm Modems To Match Versions With Intel Modems
This week, a report ousted Apple's decision to throttle the Qualcomm modem found in most of its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models to match the performance of the Intel modem found in other versions. Now, according to sources close to the matter, it's absolutely the case but is there a real issue? The issue involves Apple's need to dual-source the iPhone 7's modem block with either a Qualcomm X12 LTE modem or an Intel XMM 7360 chip. As a company that sells millions upon millions of smartphones, Apple needs to plan every launch and production roll-out very strategically and supply chain consistency is critical, hence the need for multiple sources of key components. Further, even...
Read more...
It's barely been an entire year since Qualcomm introduced its augmented reality SDK Vuforia, and already it's found itself in the hands of another company. Interestingly, it wasn't a company already involved in the AR space (or VR, for that matter) that decided to shell out $65 million for it, but rather PTC, creators of many different design and engineering software solutions, such as Creo and Mathcad. This is undoubtedly an interesting acquisition by the Massachusetts-based PTC, but given its huge focus on design solutions, it's not hard to imagine how the company is going to take advantage of Vuforia. It could tie it into an already existing product, or simply keep it independent and grow...
Read more...
The Chinese government announced on Friday that its antitrust investigation of Qualcomm Inc. will soon be settled. This news comes courtesy of an online statement from the country’s anti-monopoly regulator, The National Development and Reform Commission, which said that the investigation would be settled lawfully.The NDRC launched a probe of the US mobile chipmaker 13 months ago when the regulator said that Qualcomm was suspected of abusing and overcharging its market in wireless communication standards. In August, the NDRC said that Qualcomm expressed its willingness to correct the pricing issues. Then, in December, the regulator claimed that it possessed evidence of “substantial” price fixing.Image...
Read more...
On Monday, the New City Mayor’s office announced plans to turn old payphones into free municipal WiFi spots. The plan, called LinkNYC, is expected to start offering fast, public WiFi to resident’s by the end of next year. LinkNYC is a public-private partnership between the City and CityBridge, a New York City-based consortium comprised of Qualcomm, Titan, Transit Wireless, and others. The system is called Links, which are hubs that will provide up to gigabit speeds for users and offer services such as free 24/7 internet access, free phone calls within the US, and access to 911 and 311. Users will also have access to a touchscreen tablet interface that will provide access to city services...
Read more...
Here's a cool prospect: Imagine making a call while on-the-go, and rather than have the transmission go through a tower, it instead goes through someone else's phone. This idea isn't new, but Qualcomm has the capability to make it a standard, and with LTE Direct, it hopes to accomplish that. LTE Direct has the capability to work with phones up to 500 meters away, much further than Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which in a populated city isn't really a tall order. The ability to place a call without major help from a phone tower is only the beginning of what this technology can do. Beacons could be placed all around the city that would aide in this improved signal, but have the added ability to broadcast...
Read more...
NVIDIA has announced that it has filed complaints against Samsung and Qualcomm stating that both companies are infringing on NVIDIA GPU patents. The complaints were filed at the International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court in Deleware. NVIDIA states that the patents being infringed cover technology that includes programmable shading, unified shaders, and multithreaded parallel processing. “Our patented GPU inventions provide significant value to mobile devices,” said NVIDIA ceo Jen-Hsun Huang. “Samsung and Qualcomm have chosen to use these in their products without a license from us. We are asking the courts to determine infringement of NVIDIA’s GPU patents...
Read more...
Wireless communications is clearly an area of growth, but the thought of being able to transmit absolutely everything sans wires remains something of a pipe dream. Wilocity is a company that's been powering away in an effort to bring some of this to fruition, but it'll soon be doing so with a far more sizable budget. Qualcomm, a giant in the silicon and comms industry, has just acquired the aforementioned company, which just so happens to be a leader in the WiGig industry. Qualcomm's after the company's 60GHz transmission technology, as it desires to bring multi-gigabit wireless to mobile and networking devices. In other words, Qualcomm chips with integrated 802.11ad (WiGig) should now be on...
Read more...
Hear that? That's the smartwatch war gearing up, and with Samsung's Galaxy Gear + the up-start Pebble already vying for wrist space, is there room for another contender? That's a question that'll have to be answered by Qualcomm, which has just announced that its Toq smartwatch will be available to consumers starting on Cyber Monday. That's December 2, and it'll be priced at $349.99. Outside of the Pebble, that's about the going rate for one of these guys, which still strikes us as a fairly steep point of entry. Of course, the low-power, always-on Mirasol display costs a pretty penny, and it also runs a full build of Android underneath. Plus, it supports Bluetooth headphones, as well as Qualcomm's...
Read more...
Qualcomm’s Raj Talluri hasn’t been shy about talking up his company’s Snapdragon 800 chip, claiming back in February that it would whip NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 processor, and he’s back at it. This time, he’s dogging Intel. “You’ll see a whole bunch of tablets based on Snapdragon 800 in the market this year,” he told Bloomberg. “There’s a lot of talk about Intel and tablets. Clearly we see them still being far behind in mobile.” Them’s fightin’ words, as they say. Qualcomm's Raj Talluri He added that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors have a balance of battery life preservation and strong processing, communications,...
Read more...
It appears that Microsoft is about to refresh its Surface RT hardware; according to Bloomberg, Microsoft has been testing versions of the Surface RT with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips inside instead of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoCs it’s been using thus far. This jibes with an earlier report that Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors would power Windows RT 8.1 tablets. The report says that in fact Microsoft will be rolling out new Surface RT tablets with Qualcomm SoCs inside while still offering some versions with the current Tegra 3. Ostensibly, the change will primarily serve to enable mobile broadband; 4G LTE in mobile chips is an area in which Qualcomm shines. Surface RT tablet Although the Surface...
Read more...
Mobile device security is without a doubt a glaring area of weakness for both enterprises and the average Joe, and various security measures are being developed to address it. The latest effort on that front involves a partnership between mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and security firm Kaspersky Labs. According to the Inquirer, Kaspersky security products including Kaspersky Mobile Security and Kaspersky Tablet Security can be pre-installed on Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Android devices per “special terms”. The security measures are aimed at the lower levels of the operating system. "We are trying to build relationships with some vendors in the mobile world,” said Kaspersky Labs...
Read more...
