December 2012 Industry News

Focus on Consumer Communications and Networks…

Flexible Smartphones Coming in 2013?

The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung could ship smartphones with flexible OLED displays in the first half of 2013. The technology is being developed by Samsung Display, a subsidiary established earlier this year when Samsung merged its LCD and OLED operations. More...

Eyewear Company Launches "Smart Goggles"

Sports-eyewear manufacturer Oakley has launched its first consumer electronics device, the Oakley Airwave. The $600 snow goggles contain GPS, Bluetooth and onboard sensors along with visual displays that let users read text messages and access other information while they ski. More...

Apple's Siri Coming to Two GM Vehicles

General Motors announced that Apple's Siri personal assistant will be available on two Chevrolet auto models in 2013. Drivers will still need to own an iPhone for full functionality. More...

AMD to Demo ULP APU Prototypes at CES

Advanced Micro Devices says it will demonstrate prototype products using its new Temash ultra low-power accelerated processing units at January's Consumer Electronics Show. The Temash APU is intended for use in tablets and notebooks, the first of which will be on sale at some point next year. More...

NTT DoCoMo Launching 3G/LTE Femtocell

Japan's NTT DoCoMo announced the world's first dual 3G/LTE femtocells. The devices, which are expected to ship in December, will only be available to the company's customers in Japan. More...

Nokia Siemens is Developing Methanol Fuel Cells

Nokia Siemens Networks and Ballard Power Systems are developing a methanol-powered fuel cell that could keep base stations running during power outages. NTT DoCoMo is currently testing the technology. More...

Sprint and ARM Collaborating on Smart Appliances

ARM and Sprint have announced a multi-tiered collaboration to develop smart appliances for cars, energy companies and hospitals. The two companies will offer a development kit containing a Sprint modem and ARM processors which will allow developers to write their own code. More...

Imagination Technologies Goes Rogue

The multimedia company Imagination Technology has upgraded its six-cluster PowerVP "Rogue" GPU UP core, which it says can deliver more than 1 TFLOP of raw-performance compute power for mobile devices. More...

Samsung Launches Android-Powered 4G Camera

Samsung Electronics this month announced its new Android-powered Galaxy camera which can connect to 4G or Wi-Fi networks. In addition to letting users share photos and video to social-networking sites, the camera also packs web browsing, photo editing and game-playing capabilities. More...

Rise of the "Phablets"

Bigger than a smartphone but smaller than a tablet, so-called "phablets" are apparently hot with consumers. Samsung announced it sold 2 million of its 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II devices in the first 24 days of its release, and more of the mid-size devices are reportedly on the way. More...

M2M Toys Expected to be Big

Connected toys like Wi-Fi robots are expected to be big sellers this holiday season. Future applications could include action figures and 3-D books. More...

Home Monitoring, Medical Diagnostics and Other Devices Previewed

Dozens of devices that will show up at January's Consumer Electronics Show were previewed in November at CES Unveiled. Among the devices on display: a disposable mobile phone for use by disaster victims; wireless home monitoring devices and apps; and a Web-based video medical diagnostic system. More...

Wrist-Based Health Tracker Works with the Cloud

Calling Dr. Dick Tracy... Basis Science has announced a wristwatch-slash-health monitor called the Basis Health Tracker. The multi-sensor device tracks the wearer's heart rate, sleep patterns and sweat levels and stores data in the cloud. Oh yeah, it also tells time. More...