Vendor News

Joan Comes to the Home Office

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The coronavirus pandemic has led to a massive increase of home workers-- and many need a way to let family members know when they can (and cannot) interrupt.

Joan Hme

And that means Joan Home, a consumer version of the Visionect meeting room display solution.

A small and lightweight ePaper display able to display current availability and the calendar/schedule for the day, Joan connects to existing calendars wirelessly, with support for all major ones, and updates user status in real-time without need to install yet another app.

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Services Drive Apple Fiscal Q2

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Apple announces the financial results for fiscal Q2 2020 (ending 28 March 2020)-- revenues for the quarter total $58.3 billion, a 1% Y-o-Y increase, with international sales accounting for 62% of the quarterly total.

Apple store

“Despite Covid-19’s unprecedented global impact, we’re proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in Services and a quarterly record for Wearables,” CEO Tim Cook says. “In this difficult environment, our users are depending on Apple products in renewed ways to stay connected, informed, creative, and productive. We feel motivated and inspired to not only keep meeting these needs in innovative ways, but to continue giving back to support the global response, from the tens of millions of face masks and custom-built face shields we’ve sent to medical professionals around the world, to the millions we’ve donated to organizations like Global Citizen and America’s Food Fund.”

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OnePlus Downsizes European Operations

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OnePlus smartphones appear to be not doing too well in European markets, as Engadget reports the company has announced "significant redundancies" across many regional offices, including the UK, France and Germany.

OnePlus 7According to "sources close to the matter," OnePlus has downsized regional offices by as much as 80%, leaving skeletal teams of "around three people" in some countries. The company has already done something similar in other European offices earlier last year, with the downsizing (and eventual complete laying off) of teams in Spain and Italy, followed by "large turnover" of UK staff.

In turn OnePlus confirms it is streamlining operations in Europe through an official forum post by European Head of strategy Tuomas Lampen. The post states the company is making "organisational changes" in Germany France and the UK, leading to the firing of 20 employees in the three markets. However the company also plans to relocate staff in other European offices, and is also looking to hire more employees in the Nordic region and Benelux.

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Coronavirus Leads to Samsung, LG Factory Closures

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Concerns involving the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) have affected two of the biggest CE vendors in the world-- Reuters reports both Samsung and LG are closing factories in S. Korea following employees testing positive for the virus.

 

smartphones

The first closure involves a Samsung mobile device factory complex in the city of Gumi. The company confirmed one case of an infected employee at the factory, leading to the shutdown of the entire facility. In addition, all colleagues of the infected employee were put in self-quarantine, and are being tested for possible infection.

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EU Investigates Qualcomm Over Antitrust Claims

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A Qualcomm Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing reveals the chipmaker is yet again under investigation by the EU for possible anti-competitive tactics in the radio frequency chip market.

Qualcomm logo

First revealed by Reuters, the filing shows the EU is investigating whether Qualcomm abused its market muscle in 5G baseband processors to force companies to adopt its radio frequency front end chips instead of 3rd party solutions from the likes of Broadcom or Skyworks. The investigation started on 3 December 2019, and is the latest in a string of regulatory issues leading to billions of dollars in fines for Qualcomm. Last year the company lost a case with the US Federal Trade in Commission (FTC), one currently locked in appeal.

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