Apple Inc’s latest iPhone will probably be available as early as June, include a more advanced camera and may feature a touch-sensitive casing, Goldman Sachs Group Inc analyst Robert Chen (陳柏宇) said in an interview, without identifying who gave him the information.
“Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone,” said Taipei-based Chen, a member of Asia’s top-ranked technology hardware research team.
The handset will feature a new plastic casing similar to that used for Apple’s touch-panel Magic Mouse released last year, he said.
Magic Mouse, a computer mouse released in October, has a touch-sensitive solid plastic shell that replaces mechanical buttons. The technology may be replicated in the new iPhone to offer touch-sensitive features on the rear of the handset, Chen said.
Upgrading to a 5-megapixel camera will bring the handset into line with that offered by Google Inc’s Nexus One, which was released last week, Chen said.
The next iPhone will go into production as early as April and be available to consumers in June or July, Chen said.
The handset may include an updated version of the iPhone Operating System as part an overhaul of Apple’s applications store, he said.
“We’re not going to comment on rumors and speculation,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said.
Meanwhile, purchasers of the Nexus One Android phone could be on the hook for as much as US$550 if they return the phone after a two-week grace period, according to information from Google Inc and T-Mobile USA.
The phone, made by HTC Corp (宏達電), would require a US$350 “equipment recovery fee” from customers who return Nexus One after the buyers remorse period but before the end of a 120-day period following the purchase for a subsidized rate of US$179, Google said.
On top of this, such customers will owe an early termination fee to T-Mobile USA, which charges US$200 for early service termination on a pro-rated basis. This means that the fee drops gradually over the course of the two-year contract.
Customers of phones from other manufacturers typically just have to pay a fee to the wireless network operator if they break a service contract.
Customers who don’t opt for a two-year service plan with T-Mobile could choose to pay US$529 for the Nexus One, which is less than for people who give back the subsidized phone after 14 days.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day