Vendor News

Has Samsung Fixed the Galaxy Fold?

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Samsung manages to complete a two-month redesign of the Galaxy Fold, Bloomberg reports, possibly allowing the S. Korean giant to start relaunch the much hyped foldable smartphone just in time for the holiday season.

Samsung Galaxy FoldInitially set for an April 2019 release, test versions of the Fold sent to multiple publications were hit by an embarrassing series of technical faults. One such issue is the result of users peeling off what looks like a regular plastic film, but is in actual fact a crucial display component. The latest version of the Fold seeks to bypass the issue by stretching the film to wrap around the entire display and flowing into the outer bezels, making it impossible to peel off by hand.

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Jony Ive Leaves Apple

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Jony Ive, the longtime Apple product designer behind the iconic aesthetic of what we think of as an "iDevice," announces his shock departure from the company after 30 years to start his own design firm.

The announcement comes through an interview with the Financial Times. Ive says that while he is transitioning to a new creative venture, a design firm dubbed LoveFrom, he will still be very much involved with Apple business, both before and after LoveFrom launches fully in 2020. In fact, Apple will be the very first client of the design company.

Apple Ive

"While I will not be an [Apple] employee, I will still be very involved-- I hope for many, many years to come,” Ive tells the FT. “This just seems like a natural and gentle time to make this change.”

In turn, Apple CEO Tim Cook says “Apple will continue to benefit from Jony’s talents by working directly with him on exclusive projects, and through the ongoing work of the brilliant and passionate design team he has built. After so many years working closely together, I’m happy that our relationship continues to evolve and I look forward to working with Jony long into the future.”

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Google Gives Up on Tablets

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It's official-- the 2018 Pixel Slate is the last tablet from Google, as the search giant confirms it is shifting all hardware team efforts on building laptops, even if it promises to continue supporting the Pixel Slate.

Google Pixel SlateThe announcement comes via Twitter from Google Devices & Services SVP Rick Osterloh, who adds the Android and Chrome OS teams are still "100% committed" to working with partners on tablets for all segments of the market, namely consumer, enterprise and education. A number of media outlets also received an official statement stating the exact sentiment, specifically "for Google's first-party hardware efforts, we'll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate."

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Samsung Gets AMD Graphics for Smartphones

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Samsung and AMD announce a multi-year partnership in "ultra low power high performance mobile graphics" based on AMD Radeon technology, with a particular focus on putting said technologies to work in smartphone applications.

Samsung radeon amd“As we prepare for disruptive changes in technology and discover new opportunities, our partnership with AMD will allow us to bring groundbreaking graphics products and solutions to market for tomorrow’s mobile applications," Samsung says. "We look forward to working with AMD to accelerate innovations in mobile graphics technologies that will help take future mobile computing to the next level.”

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Reuters: Google Suspends Huawei Android Support

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Google suspends "some" business with Huawei, Reuters reports-- specifically dealings requiring the transfer of hardware, software and technical services aside from what is publicly available via open source licensing.

Huawei AndroidSuch a move is surely a big hit for the 2nd largest smartphone maker in the world (at least according to IDC), especially considering the Trump administration is set on blacklisting Huawei around the world. The Google decision means Huawei "immediately" loses access to Android updates beyond what is available on open source, and upcoming handsets will lack proprietary apps such as the Google Play Store, Gmail and YouTube.

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